Cake Challenge Accepted

Before November comes to an end, I had better update my much-neglected blog. Last year this time, I had well over 40 entries, this year's been a bit slow with too many distractions. Having said that, the baking hasn't stop and I've had the lovely opportunity to work on some amazing cakes. The last two months in particular posed some cake challenges that I was more than happy to accept.

The Lego Cake
This is a special request from my boy who turned 5. He made the leap from Duplo to big boy Lego some months back under the enthusiastic tutelage of his father. Once he got the hang of it, his appetite for Lego building became insatiable. He was eagerly fixing up sets that were for well beyond his years. Papa B has competition now and the house has become Legoland.

So Mama was summoned to make a Lego cake for his birthday and he wanted this specific one he saw online. I was nervous that if I didn't construct it right, I'll have a house of Lego junkies on my case.

Happy Birthday Jake

Still Can't Let It Go
Apparently the fascination with Elsa, Anna, Olaf and all things Frozen has yet to thaw. I still get a good number of request for Frozen cakes. This one in particular really pushed me to extend my construction skill. The castle is the piece de resistance on this two-tier cake. Made from foam core, cardboard and sugar gum paste, I managed to save the day when the Frozen cake toppers were all out of stock!

Happy Birthday Tricia

The 80th Birthday Cake
I was asked to design a cake for a sweet dame turning 80. Usually for older ladies, I would play it safe and go with flowers or simple piping designs. This time, I was given a picture of the celebrant in her most favourite spot - in a recliner in front of the telly. Life is good at 80.

Happy 80th Birthday

Christmas is round the corner and 2014 will soon be a wrap. I started out the year so strong with so many plans, but with only a month to go, I'm sad to say I've yet to achieve what I set out to do. Ah well, I can plan and hope again in 2015. Stay tuned won't you.

Be Still, My Unicorn

It was going to be a quiet week for me partly because the World Cup has ruin my sleep - I'm not usually a football fan but hey, this is a once-in-four-years event with some athletic eye candy, so why not! But then a friend contacted me for a Unicorn cake for her elder girl and I decided to forgo sleep altogether ha! They are based overseas but were headed back to Singapore for a wedding in Bintan, and she needed a birthday cake as a surprise for her girl who was turning 8.

I love horses, and the mystical unicorn adds another dimension to the equine beauty. At first I was going to make a dumb down version of the beast but when Mummy J showed me the birthday girl's favourite unicorn figurine, I got inspired to make one like it (well, close enough at least).

Keira's Unicorn and Pegasus

As you can see these figurines are almost life-like and I've always been nervous about making anything too much like still life. However, I was up for the challenge and did some research online and found this amazing tutorial on Cake Central on how to sculpt a unicorn. After a few attempts, I was happy with how my unicorn was turning out. I'm so grateful for the generous cake crafters out there who constantly put up ideas and how-tos.

Here's my unicorn in progress...this is made with a mixture of fondant and gum paste, left over night to set and dry before details and shading were added on.

Sculpting at work

Done without shading

Complete with shading

The cake had a few challenges to overcome before it could meet with the celebrant - mainly: Transportation. It would have to go by car to a ferry terminal, take a 45-minute ferry ride, then a transfer to the resort and stored till evening when celebrations will happen. It was a highly humid day. I was seriously concerned. Just a week ago, one of my cakes didn't make it in transit and it was just a car ride that unfortunately had to brake suddenly at one point. The tiered cake shifted, the fondant cracked. I think I was more devastated than the recipient. So yes I was a bit naggy with Mummy J but she was totally cool about it.

Here's the completed cake when it got picked up in the morning...

Keira's Surprise

I'm glad to say everything went well. Mummy J reported back that the cake survived the journey and the birthday girl loved it! While I could see in her picture that there was some wear from the day, I'm glad everyone enjoyed it. For me, that's what it's all about :)

Happy Birthday Keira

Rubber Ducky You're the One

So I took a mighty long time to write my first cake post of 2014. It's not that I haven't been baking, it's just I haven't had the time to write. My household had been plagued by a number of health issues since the new year and it sure has a way of derailing plans...I just hope this is not a sign of things to come for 2014.

Anyhow, here's the cake that kick started the year - Rubber Ducky!

Mummy E was in love with the yellow and blue theme when she was researching for party ideas, there were so many wonderful examples of dessert tables with that theme and it seemed perfect for her little boy who was turning one. Who doesn't love a rubber ducky in the bath :)

The cake was a simple two-tiered cake with a fondant rubber ducky topper. Some of the dessert items included Konnyaku jelly bath with a floating rubber ducky and duck-shaped cookies with assorted sprinkles that kids can DIY themselves.

Here's a look at the ensemble...

The Birthday Cake

Rubber ducky bath jelly

Where rubber duckies gather

The fondant ducky was made by the hubby upon my request. He has a knack for simple forms and proportion so I knew he'd do a great job...now if only I could get him to work for me ha! 

Well done B!

It's the first time I'm helping to put together a dessert table, and also the first time I'm making desserts with Konnyaku jelly. It's a delicious dessert that can be easily coloured so it's great when you have to create a colour theme. The best part is it's sort of a health food. Did you know that konnyaku is high in fibre and ideal for detoxification? Perfect diet food!

Fridge full of duckies

Making this order also made me realised how limited my production capacity is. The baker is willing but the space is small. My poor oven and fridge have been overworked. I think it may be time to really contemplate taking the next step. Watch this space for updates.

Birthdays @ Home

As we enter into the last month of the year, I always get a bit contemplative. What have I put into 2013 and what did I get out of it? Well, there sure was quite a bit of travelling, mainly shuttling between S'pore and Jakarta. But mostly, it's a year of adjustment for our whole family. I think we did well and I was still able to bake and even squeeze in some freelance work!

The recent birthday celebration at home pretty much sums up our 2013 - making home in 2 places. We got back just in time from JKT (like a day before) to hold a simple party at home with friends and family, I managed to bake two cakes for my favourite boys. 

Remember that rainbow cheesecake with the colourful concentric circles? Well, I made a monochrome one for the hubby. He loves the colour blue and I made him a cheesecake in 6 hues of blue. While I was making this B, who is pedantic about colours, gave me some insights into how shading works. So it seems if I made this monochrome cake with the outer rings from dark to light, it would have a tunnel with light at the end effect. In this case, he wanted a bulls-eye effect - so outer rings from light to dark. 

Blue Cheesecake

Happy Birthday B

And here's what my 4 year-old big boy got...

Cake on Fire!

Happy Birthday Jake

So our little guy has a new obsession - Hot Wheels! Where I used to have a gazillion Thomas the Train toys strewn all over the house, it's now little die cast cars. This cake allowed him to add 4 more Hot Wheels cars to his collection, needless to say it's the best birthday ever! Till next year, I say :)

An Education in VW Kombi

I can't believe it's October already! I haven't had much time to update the blog on the cakes I've been busy with. In the past weeks, I had the pleasure of repeating some fun designs like the Fire Engine and Honeybee cupcakes, as well as some cheery Sunflower cupcakes for my niece's 17th birthday, but the one cake I have to share with you is the VW Kombi cake!

I was contacted by some Kombi enthusiasts for a series of Kombi van cakes. While I do recognise the iconic camper van, I can't say I know the vehicle in great detail. I have also underestimated what it meant to make a cake for enthusiasts (of any subject). You just could not afford to be too casual about details. My first brief was for a rainbow-coloured Kombi with peace sign in place of the VW logo. As the van needed to look like it's painted, that's just what I did. I painted on the rainbow colours on the body of the van (with edible paints and gin). It was my first time painting on fondant but some tips online really helped out. 

I baked blocks of chocolate cake and carved out the shape of the Kombi, had it covered in fondant and laid the paintwork. Yes I did feel a bit like a mechanic for car body kit. Here's the Kombi taking a test drive...

Front View 

Back View

Unfortunately, this Kombi never made it beyond a test drive. I was told flat out that the recipient of the cake was rejecting it! It's a first for me and boy did it hurt :(

To begin with, I didn't get the shape of the Kombi right, the slope in the front was way too exaggerated. Then the sides looked somewhat saggy, which could be due to the double layer fondant I applied (I also realise my cake could have been a bit too moist, causing the internal structure to buckle). But finally, the reason it was not road worthy was that while the cake waited for the day of the party (1.5 days) in it's air-conditioned 'garage', it finally had a meltdown. I recommended it didn't go into refrigeration for fear of the colours weeping but looks like air-conditioning didn't do the trick.

Lesson learnt, fondant cakes wait for no man. Bake it, eat it.

I was quite wrecked from the experience (mostly from the rejection and feeling bad for the whole situation). While I'll take the rep for the many things that went wrong, it was still good cake and an honest effort. In the end, I had another chance to make it right. This time I was given many pictures of the Kombi to study, and boy did I look long and hard. The cake I had to replicate is this very adorable Kombi called 'Blue'.

'Blue'

And this time, I nailed it. 

Thanks for the opportunity. 

Kombi rocks!

True Blue Girl

When I got the order for a Winx Club cake, I didn't think twice about getting a topper doll of the leggy magical fairy with pretty wings. Good thing too my friend who ordered the cake for her daughter's 7th birthday thought the same. The only requirement was for the colour theme to be turquoise and blue - birthday girl's favourite colour (she's got good taste!).

At this point, I have to share my extreme weakness for the colour turquoise, specifically a shade of blue that is softly aqua, deep ocean teal, robin egg blue, and of course there's the hue from Tiffany & Co. That colour does something to me, I have such a deep affection, I'm drawn to it like moth to a light (just ask the hubby, he has lost count of the blue boxes given over the years). I couldn't wait to cover this cake and put in the details.

How pretty is that blue!

Then things got ambitious.

My baker friend Dawn is back from Shanghai for the CNY holidays and I told her about the Winx cake I was making. Instantly, she generously offered her time and kind help so I skipped the idea of a topper and decided to go with fondant figurine of the character Bloom.

She offered so many great tips for moulding figurines and the tools that are essential for the job. I don't have much experience making figurines, mine tend to be the cherubic cartoon type so I was eager to learn. She was going to send me a step-by-step on developing the face, torso, arms, legs and hair, then tragedy struck! Instead of drying out overnight, our humidity got to the fairy figurine and she was a melty mess :( Dawn is used to working in drier, cooler climate and didn't anticipate that this weather just won't do fondant any favours. Someone tugboat this country up north already!

What it could have been... sigh

Dawn was devastated, I felt really bad for all her wasted effort. So it was back to a topper doll. There weren't any actual Winx cake toppers so I went out and bought Bloom, the Winx doll. With that sorted (and no chance of melting), I focused on decorating the cake.

The flowers

The butterflies

Curls and swirls of girliness

When it was all done, I was totally in love. It is definitely one of my most favourite cakes. I had the Bloom doll hold on to a scalloped cutout for the birthday girl's name. 

All's well that ends well ; )

Happy Birthday Aeryn 

Handmade Cupcake Toppers

If you read my earlier post about paper crafts, you'd know how much I love making cupcake toppers. I had the opportunity to make Full Month cupcakes again and I convinced the mummy that paper toppers were the way to go!

So it was off to the paper shop for some shopping. I chose a variety of blue patterned paper and got very tempted to take up scrapbooking (ok, focus focus). But I have been investing in a variety of scrapbooking tools. Here are my favourite cutters...

3" Scallop Nesting Punch

2.25" Round Punch

1" Scalloped Circle Art Punch

With these, some nice papers and a colour printer, I could dress up any cupcake, and that's just what I did for Baby Ryo. The sweet boy received 50 cupcakes with paper toppers designed and handmade by me ; )

Sticks for holding up the topper

Glue down print design on the backer

And there it is!

Happy 1st Month Ryo

These were banana cranberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I piped a rosette and planted the paper topper. Don't they look amazing in a batch. I highly recommend anyone ordering cupcakes to consider these, I can work with you on the design too!

Another year older

My son turned 3 last week... where did the time go!? I remember last year this time, I was making one of my very first novelty cakes – an Elmo cake for Jake's 2nd birthday! Then 8 months later, my younger son James got a two-tier fondant Thomas the Train cake. And all the cakes made between then and now for good friends and new friends have been such an amazing experience! I'm constantly thankful for being able to stay home with my boys while pursuing my passion for baking.

So what did Jake get this year... well, he didn't get just one cake, he got three!

Cake No.1 

Here comes the rainbow train...

I made a simple round cake and covered it in baby blue fondant. Inside is Jake's favourite rainbow cake; multi-coloured layers of vanilla butter cake with cream cheese frosting! I found an amazing train candle holder that I know Jake would love to have on his cake. It's a great toy too since you can chain link all the trains - it comes in 5 colours! Then M&Ms for the border and a happy face on his cake. It was simple enough but oh so fun to look at and play with after.

Happiness in a cake

Cake No.2

Thomas and friends

Trains and tunnels

There is no running away from a Thomas the Train cake. Jake's love for Thomas is still as fervent as ever so it would be unthinkable to not make a Thomas cake for his birthday. I opted for an easy way to do this cake. I found some cupcake toppers of Thomas, James and Percy (all his favourite trains) and so I decided to just set the scene with the cake. Now if you recall a recent post on gum paste where I made a standing rainbow, you'd know why I chose to make a brick wall. However, I have to say I'm quite disappointed with the Satin Ice brand of gum paste, it didn't dry out hard even after a whole night of air-conditioning! Sadly the brick wall was not as sturdy as I would have liked it but some toothpick foundations did the trick. I'm sticking with Wilton from now on.

I also love my brick wall embossing pattern, it turned out very nicely. Then I made three little tunnels from which the trains look like they are emerging. The tracks are made of chocolate Kit Kat pieces - many of which ended up in the mouth as I chugged along. The cake was simple enough, not my best effort but it made the boy's day nonetheless ; )


Cake No.3

I actually forgot to take a proper pic of this third cake. It was a rainbow cake of course. Here's one of the boy and his cake at school. 

Happy Birthday Jake

The Pinks and Blues of First Birthdays

I had my hands full of pink and blue fondant over the weekend. I made TWO double-tiered cake, over two days for two cutie pies turning one year old!

My nephew Baby T had a blue cake – his mama had planned a Blue colour theme party and I proposed a layered cake with varying shades of blue!

Happy Birthday Tim

And a good friend's daughter Baby M had a pink cake - her mama planned a Minnie Mouse party and I created a delicate pink cake with Minnie mouse accents.

Happy Birthday Mere

That got me thinking... how did we come to determine gender-specific colours? While I know of some parents who rather give their kids gender-neutral clothes and toys, and I'm personally indifferent about such signifiers, there is quite an interesting background to this pink and blue business for girls and boys.

According to a Smithsonian magazine article, "The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” 

And did you know that around the time of World War I, it was generally accepted that boys wore pink and girls wore blue. Time magazine in 1927 published a sex-appropriate colour chart for boys and girls and it was pink for the boys and blue for the girls! That wasn't so long ago.

Then somewhere along the way, there was a colour swap. Maybe it was the feminist movement in the 60s that rejected any gender-defining norms, or maybe some boy really liked his sister's blue dress? Ok ok, I know all this has nothing to do with baking but it's really interesting to read, if you want to know more, check out this article at Smithsonian.com

Ok, so back to the cakes...

For Baby T's blue cake, I made a Vanilla Butter cake in layers of blue hue with cream cheese frosting in between. Both cakes were covered in fondant and I love how clean it looks.

For decoration, I tried those springy wires and made fondant stars with his name on it. They make really great cake toppers and I love how it bounces around when you move the cake.

Tim's stars

My hubby's precision dotting

A Blue Rainbow Cake

For Baby M's pink cake, I made the perennial favourite Moist Chocolate cake and the mama suggested an oreo cream cheese frosting! What a great combination it turned out to be.

Looks like giant oreo cookies

There were 3 layers at the bottom tier and 3 smaller layers at the top tier. It was covered with fondant again and decorated with Minnie mouse cutouts and pretty pink bows.

Pretty Pink

Minnie Mouse in the house!

Happy 1st