Look Whoo Turned One

My little niece Clare, who is also my defacto No.3, celebrated her first birthday recently! I'm constantly amazed at how quickly time flies when you're minding children. You go from swaddling them to chasing after the pitter patter of their little feet in a span of 12 months. And being contented with cute gurgles to encouraging them to say their first words in just 6 months. Well with Clare, her first word turned out to be "bird", with big eyes gazing to the sky too!

She also happens to love a little youtube video of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star featuring an adorable owl. So naturally, when it came to picking a theme for her first birthday, birds were a natural choice and the owl was the main character.

My sister, the actual creative and artistic one in the family (it's just that she doesn't bake), made great efforts in creating the party favours and a dessert table for the celebration. She had little owl motifs on the invitation, party wares, goodie bags and even the ballons. Of course, I provided the cake for the occasion.

Check out the invitation!

Call me bias but she is the cutest little girl ever! And all the inspiration I need for the cake.

Happy 1st Birthday Clare

Here's what the rest of the party looked like...

'Thank You' tags hanging from balloons

Party wares with a hoot

Specially printed labels for all the goodies

All for one very special little girl

Owls are known as symbols of wisdom, here's wishing my little No.3 a year old, a year wiser!

Going One Direction

I had a chance to revisit teen hood when a mummy asked me to make a "1D" cake. At first I thought, so it's not 3D (3-dimensional) or 2D, but what's 1D? (hoping it's not a mathematical concept cake) It's the boys from the Simon Cowell X-Factor franchise, One Direction! (doh moment)

Back in my days, NKOTB ruled. I had the biggest crush on Joey McIntyre (I was young and foolish). I see that the teen music phenomenon hasn't really changed much two decades on. These five English-Irish boys can carry a tune but their main marketing purpose is of course, to endear to pubescent teenage girls. Hence my opportunity to make a 1D cake ; )

So my 10-year-old recipient is a fan of the band. Her mummy was very sweet to think of how best to come up with a 1D cake that would make her daughter's day. While I couldn't make figurines of these singing lads, I thought perhaps we could go with the signature "1D" logo on a cake plus fondant placards with a doodle of the boys to place around the sides.

Here's how it turned out...

Harry Styles

Liam Payne

Louis Tomlinson

Niall Horan

Zayn Malik

I actually spotted this idea while researching online and saw someone doing these faces on cookies! How clever and they look cute too. I made them completely out of fondant and outlined it with Americolor pen.

I asked Mummy V which is Isabelle's favourite 1D guy... she said "I think it's Harry"... went to confirm it and she's right ; ) So Harry gets the middle spot.

Happy Birthday Isabelle

This is the first time I'm covering a cake in black fondant. I really love how intense it looks and I can only imagine how nicely the rainbow inside would stand out. I should replicate this with NKOTB just for laughs. 

And for those of you pop-loving teens back in the 80s, here's 17 boyband facts that will make you feel old. Aah, the good ole days.