Baby Needs a Change

When I gave birth to my second child, my dear colleagues came by to visit and brought me the cutest cake ever - a diaper cake! Made of individual diapers that are tightly wound up and decorated with newborn essentials like lotions and bath soap, the cake is such a great idea and wonderful gift! And since I'm in the business of cakes, I gave it a go!

A neighbourly friend who lives in the block across from me is expecting her second child, a baby girl! She has an elder girl who is friends with my boys (they often say hello to each other from the window - I love our little kampong). Little M always gets to see the cakes I'm working on from her window. "Mummy, what is Aunty Debbie doing?" she will ask. My neighbour also has front row seats to my fondant-moulding projects late at night (especially when she has gestational insomnia). I kinda figured I'm probably the only lighted house at 1:00am when I'm working on a delivery for the next day. So I decided to surprise her with a cake she can use!

Here are my ingredients for a diaper cake...

Doll topper, stickers, ribbons and rubber bands

You can also include travel size lotion, soap and powder that baby can use. And of course you'll need diapers!

Roll up each piece of diaper and band it up

Bind it together with a ribbon

I bought this super cute fairy doll from Lamaze, one of my favourite brands. A soft toy makes a great  topper; much like the cherry on top of an ice cream sundae.

This is the top tier

Two tier diaper cake

To complete the 'cake', I got some themed scrapbook art paper and made the 'Baby Girl' tags with glittery stickers and paper cutouts!

Congratulations!

I got a message this morning that the little bub has arrived! Congrats D&T! Welcome to worthwhile sleepless nights all over again.

Hello Kitty #3

There you go... Hello Kitty is requested again. This time it's from a thoughtful bride-to-be who ordered this cake for her baby niece who turns one on the wedding day. I thought it was really sweet of her to take the time to plan a little birthday surprise for her niece in the midst of all that wedding preparation. She saw my Hello Kitty #2 and knew it was just the cake for the occasion. Her wedding theme is rainbow and the birthday girl's mummy (bride's sister) loves Hello Kitty.

Here's Hello Kitty with a wedding touch

Happy Birthday Cordelia

Congrats Felise & Brian and all the best!

Laser Tag 'Em

Believe it or not, I've never played Laser Tag or the more physical Paintball games before. It's been the rage for young boys (and girls too I'm sure) and even the not so nimble enjoy a good tag, as seen at many company team-building events. So when I was asked to make Laser Tag cupcakes, I was like, "Okaaay... what do we make?"

Did you know the creator of Laser Tag drew inspiration while watching Star Wars. It's no surprise that Laser Tag is one of the game choice for sic-fi fans. Well, the recipient of the Laser Tag cupcakes is for a friend's son who turns 8! The birthday boy and his buddies will be playing a round of Laser Tag to celebrate and his mummy thought matching birthday cupcakes would be cool!

She was right, Laser Tag cupcakes must be one of the coolest cupcakes I've made so far. So here's what I decided to make - target points, laser guns and those military-style vest you kit out to play the game.

Warren's Target

Fondant combat

I had fun making these fondant toppers, especially those little guns. Given a little twist, it could be a hairdryer even...haha! The birthday boy's name was also in focus as I spelt it out on the target points. 

Then my ultimate stroke of inspiration came when I was thinking about those laser beams. I wanted to recreate that for the cupcakes. At first I thought of using long thin candles that can double up as birthday candles but he is after all just 8, how many candles can you possibly stick into the cupcakes right? So here's what I did with Twizzler candy sticks instead.

Beam beam beam

I love these rainbow Twizzlers. My creative blogger mummy friend Eve introduced it via her blog when she prepared her hubby's rainbow-themed birthday. I'm using them here as my shooting coloured beams, they were just perfect for the job. Here's how...

All you need are a pack of Twizzlers, scissors and some toothpicks ...

Look at those colourful candy sticks

Simply cut to length required

Insert a toothpick for support

Beaming cupcakes

Happy Birthday Warren

Now for some real action, Laser Tag with me anyone?

Numtums No.3

Have you heard of The Numtums? It's CBeebies (BBC kids) super cute series on 10 little characters that help young children learn their numbers. This weekend, I got the chance to make Numtum No.3!

There are so many great resources out there now for teaching numeracy to kids. Sesame Street has always had a great number programme (remember the 123 song with the pinball), who could resist counting with Count Dracula! There's also NumberJacks, Baby Einstein 123 and a whole lot at YouTube. I should come up with a number programme with fondant for kids!

For birthday boy Luke who turned three, it's a cupcake affair with an assortment of "3" designs. There are many ways to use fondant on cupcakes but I think making fondant disc toppers are the way to go! They can be made in advance, they sit nicely on top of the frosting swirl and you can hold on to them if you're not eating it.

Before making the Numtum fondant toppers, I went to the official website for a look at the colour scheme and I totally love it! Check out the blues and yellows...

Fondant disc toppers

Here's the making of Numtum No.3...

Cute little creature

Hooray No.3!

Numtum set on a disc

I had the cupcakes packed in 3 dozen boxes...

Mummy tells me the kids at school loved it! Yay ; )

M-I-C-K-E-Y MOUSE

He's the world's most famous mouse! You may be 2 or 20-years-old and you may love Mickey in varying degrees over time but he retains an everlasting appeal synonymous with the happiest place on earth. So naturally, he's bound to be requested on birthday cakes.

For one four-year-old boy, it's a box of Mickey cupcakes that his dear mummy ordered with request for some ideas that were too cute not to attempt. She wanted a box of 20 cupcakes with various designs of the Disney character. Mickey mouse is all about the white gloves, white-buttoned red trousers and those unmistakable big ol' ears. And that's just what I did (in fondant).

Meeska Mouska Mickey Mouse

I was told the birthday boy's favourite colour is green so I had to find a way to sneak that in - have his name spelt out in green fondant fonts! 

Riven

I made these fondant disc a couple of days before delivery so they will dry out nicely as toppers. It also gave me the opportunity to place them in the box for a look at the final arrangement.

Empty spot for special design

Riven's mummy asked if candles can go onto the cupcakes, I know what she meant... after all, what's a birthday celebration without the candle-blowing right? While there is absolutely nothing wrong with candles on a cupcake, I did however proposed to make one bigger cupcake (or a small cake) so they can still have the usual cake for blowing out the candles. Since she loved the design of the large Mickey head and ears cupcake, I made a bigger one for the middle of the box.

It's actually made of 2 cupcakes

Large Mickey head in the middle

Happy Birthday Riven

Everyone knows Mickey Mouse but here's some trivia on the famous little rodent.

1. Mickey was first conceptualised as a dog, cat, cow and horse! 

2. Mickey's birthday is 15 November 1928 (that makes him what... 85!)

3. Apparently, intelligence officers used "Mickey Mouse" as a password amongst themselves during WWII. 

4. Mickey's ears were dubbed "one of the greatest cultural icons of the 20th and 21st centuries" by Time Magazine.

5. Mickey Mouse launched the career of Ryan Gosling! (God bless Mickey)