Madison's Giraffe

Remember how in older housing estates you always had a neighbourhood bakery you can count on for cakes for all occasions, or a sweet treat whenever... well, I've become that - the friendly neighbourhood baker.

My neighbour in the opposite block has the easy convenience of ordering and picking cakes up from me. She can literally gesture from her window, across the swimming pool, to me for another red velvet cake please. So when her daughter's 3rd birthday came round, she had yet another excuse for a cake from her neighbourhood baker.

Mummy D is hooked on my red velvet. She's also been meaning to try my rainbow cake but the red velvet always get in the way. So for her daughter's birthday, it's finally the rainbow cake! Her only design requirement - must have M's favourite animal, the giraffe!

While I love colourful children's cake with all sorts of fun trimmings and embellishment, I think there is nothing classier than a minimal design cake that focuses on one or two elements. So here's what I came up with...

Less is More

A rainbow that is neatly covered in soft pink fondant and simple trimming that ends with a fondant bow. I made a little fondant giraffe with blushing cheeks and topped the cake of with a name tag for the birthday girl. You really don't need anything more than a candle to this. Besides, you can let the colours inside do all the wow-ing!

Happy Birthday Maddie

Safari Cupcakes

Finally, I'm getting some adult action! No not that kind (brain out of the gutter please) but cupcakes for a nice young lady turning 30-something ; )

After having made those cute animal fondant for kids birthday, I get a request for animal print cupcakes. The birthday girl likes her leopard and zebra motifs. Now how do we incorporate that tastefully on cupcakes? 

1. Take the easy way out - just buy animal print cupcake liners

2. Use fondant and paint on the animal print as a topper

3. Use animal print art paper and make toppers

I did two of the above and got stuck on the fondant because I'll be using cream cheese in my frosting. So what sort of topper can I print on with edible paints that will hold up well on cream cheese? I strolled the aisles of the supermarket for inspiration and one thing stood out - Marshmallows!

I decided to buy those big tubular white marshmallows for camp fires and use them as toppings for the cupcake, on which I painted the safari patterns. Here's how I did it...

Get a pack of marshmallows. Snip the two ends of each piece and you'll get a flat disc of marshmallow but you'll find the scissored end sticky - just dust it with some powdered sugar or corn flour.

Snip to disc

Then paint on the spots with some edible paints - I'm using Americolor soft gel with some added water.

Pink leopard prints

Colourful safari cupcake toppers

A pack of leopards

Making the zebra prints was even easier. I used my Americolor gourmet pen here and just drew on the stripes.

Here's the animal print cupcake liner

A herd of zebras

I also made some paper toppers using animal print paper. This gave a nice variation to the cupcake design, but really, it was the best way to spell out Happy Birthday Missi!

Happy Birthday Melissa!

Hope you had a good one 

Dear Zoo

I love going to the zoo, and our zoological gardens is pretty impressive for a small island state. Now that I have kids, the zoo has become the perfect adventure for our whole family. I especially love experiencing the wonder of nature through their young eyes. There is a great book that reinforces our affection for the animals at the zoo - Rod Campbell's Dear Zoo.

This classic lift-the-flap book is a wonderful read to kids as young as 9 months old. It's about a child who writes to the zoo requesting for a pet, and takes you through a gamut of animals beautifully illustrated by Campbell. Next to the Hungry Caterpillar, this is our other favourite book. So I was delighted that a close pal requested for a Dear Zoo cake for her little boy.

Mummy T tells me that Baby Z loves the lion, elephant and giraffe. So for his first birthday cake, the zoo will present him these 3 animals. I made them out of fondant and realise I have a knack for sculpting animals!

Here's a step by step look at crafting Mr Lion...

Ready for the mane event

Fit the mane around the head

Snip snip snip 

Hello Lion

Baby Z is so nice that he gets the cake twice. I made two sets of animals and for a moment it looked like a Noah's Ark cake!

Two by Two

I made a rectangular chocolate cake with Oreo cream cheese filling. The animals sat nicely on top and I made the distinctive red crate for the side of the cake. Then I used colourful M&Ms to line the sides, makes the cake light up instantly! 

Happy Birthday Zach

For the second cake, I made a rainbow cake covered in pale yellow fondant. It has a smaller surface so the animals sat closely and actually made them look bigger too. For this cake, I used yummy fruit gummies to line the sides.

Happy Birthday again!

The birthday boy was totally taken by the elephant. After blowing out the candles, he would grab Mr Elephant and nibble on the ears. Well, it's his birthday, he can do whatever he wants to... well almost (bedtime is still 7.30pm).

Zach's Dear Zoo