Ty-saurus Rex

I seem to be getting an opportunity to have another go at cakes I've made earlier in the year. This time round is another dinosaur cake and cupcakes with dino toppers. I made the exact same order in February for a 3-year-old dinosaur enthusiast, this time it's for a T-Rex-loving one-year-old.

Mummy R sent me her invitations and party favours for a feel of the theme and colour. She also sent some cake ideas but when I finally showed her my first dino cake, she was more or less sold. She liked the 2D design and wanted a speech bubble that said "Rawrr"!

I made some variations on the dinosaur. I decided to replicate what she had on the invitation - a forest green T-Rex showcasing some serious serrated chompers. But before I embarked on the cake, Mummy K asked me to make a quick draft of how the cake would look like. To be honest, I always get a bit embarrassed about having to draw anything. I really can't draw to save my life... I can't explain why I can then create the stuff I do with fondant. It's one of the mysteries in my life.

Still, I made an attempt to draw T-Rex going "Rawrr", with the caveat that the cake will be a LOT better than the draft ;p

My piece de resistance

I think we all had a good laugh upon seeing the draft. Well, it didn't deter Mummy R from going ahead with the order (brave Mama).

Here's Tyler's invite...

Tyler's T-Rex Party

And here's the cake...

Rawrr!

I used the same embellishments as the last time, which is the chocolate wafer sticks for the wooded forest look, but I made it a little different by interspersing it with fondant leaves and green grass frosting.

Happy Birthday Tyler

Mummy R also asked me a question a lot of mummies enquire about - can my one-year-old eat the chocolate cake? Well I'm not the authority on kids' nutrition, but I do think a bit of cake on your bub's 1st birthday is kosher unless your little one has dairy allergies or gluten intolerance. Just give the cake minus the ganache. Personally, I think if your child has not had any sweets before, then chocolate is a good option as an introduction as compared to candy.

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 :)

Building Castles in a Cake

In the beginning of the year, I made a boy castle cake and met with some construction challenges. So when another request for a castle came along, I was ready to roll my sleeves up and try again!

Mummy E got in touch with a very straight forward brief - a castle cake with turrets, and cobblestone-textured walls for the castle exterior. Her boy is a big fan of dragon-slaying knights and they have an awesome collection of toys that could be used for a birthday cake, now all that's needed is a castle.

There are many places to draw inspiration from. Mummy E sent me some examples of what she envisioned for the cake. I also looked to my boys' toy corner and actually found this Melissa & Doug castle that had just the right turret design.

Melissa & Doug Castle

I was going to make a square base and stack it up 3 times, with turret towers. I usually turn to ice cream cones when it comes to building castles but Mummy E didn't want the conical type castle so she suggested using paper towel rolls to construct the height of the turret - excellent idea!

The one important tool in this cake project is the embossing mat for the cobblestone texture. I wanted to buy it online as I was out of town while planning this cake with Mummy E. In the end, it was available at Kitchen Capers in Singapore, they have a good one because it comes in a large sheet. For those of you interested here's the link. Mummy E very kindly bought it and left it with me.

I made the turrets 2 days in advance so it would dry out nicely. It was a bit tricky to make fondant adhere to cardboard but with some careful moulding it was doable.

A lot of grey fondant was used, there was little need for any other colour. But having said that, I applied a technique I learnt at a fondant figurine class - shading!

Here's the castle before I applied shading...

Castle Grey

Closer look at the embossed texture

And here's the castle after shading...

Shady Castle

Elijah's Castle

Now with Elijah's knights and dragon characters, it all comes to live!

Happy Birthday Elijah!

Tayo and the Traffic Lights

I had the pleasure of making yet another Tayo cake but this one had a very special request. The little boy who is celebrating his 5th birthday has a thing for traffic lights. I totally get that because my two rascals are equally enthusiastic about traffic lights. My younger one may have just turned 2 but he is able to say "Red means STOP! Green means GO Mama Go Go GO!" So when Mummy L requested for traffic lights including the overhead kind, I totally understand :)

Mummy L was also very proactive in working on the design with me. She wanted a zebra crossing as well. I didn't know before but in the Tayo cartoon, little chicks would cross the road so she requested for those to be part of the cake. Just to be clear, she even helped me to envision the design with a powerpoint draft!

Mummy L's draft

The main challenge for me was the overhead traffic light. Gum paste may do the trick but the weight would make it unstable since the structure would be cantilevered... where is the Hubby when you need him. Then I looked around my supplies and came across simple black straws - Eureka! The straw could be bent and that was where I added on the traffic light detail with art paper.  The other two traffic lights were made out of gum paste and supported by lollipop sticks.

The birthday boy was very observant, he told his mummy that I got the overhead traffic light sequence wrong! It should be green on the inside then amber and red. Good spot Isaac! You really know your lights ; )

A scene from Tayo the Little Bus

I had the most fun making that zebra crossing. There is something about black fondant, I really love working with it. Any details that is set upon the black pops out and the contrast looks fantastic. When I positioned those 3 little chicks on the zebra crossing, I was so pleased with how it all turned out.

Pedestrian chicks

 Happy Birthday Isaac!

Constructing Cake

There's been quite a few enquiries in the last week or so and it's so wonderful to see mummies with creative ideas on cakes for their little ones. I'm so sorry that I couldn't take on any orders in June as we were spending time in Jakarta over the school holidays.

However, forward-thinking Mummy W had contacted me months in advance to create a cake for her boy's 3rd birthday. So when I got back, it was the first cake on my list! She had sent me many examples and ideas for a 'construction' theme party, it was really cool, check it out here.

We discussed over a few details and the birthday cake was to look like the scene of a construction site. Mummy W had sourced for a great-looking toy excavator that would dig the dirt (oreo cookie crumbles).

Build up to the cake

Her little boy loves strawberries so I incorporated that too, and it ended up looking like a dug-up pit of strawberries. Mummy W also wanted some kind of 'signage' like you'd see at construction sites and I made one with art paper that says "Xavier's 3". Here's the constructed cake...

Happy Birthday Xavier

The triple layer chocolate cake has oreo cream cheese filling and frosted entirely in oreo cream cheese, which looks somewhat like sand and earth. Mummy W also wanted another party candy favourite - coloured M&Ms, so we had it placed all around the base of the cake.

A creative effort that was entirely Mummy's good input! I was merely the tool.

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?

Join the Quest

Betty Boop mummy was certain she wanted me to bake her son's birthday cake, so she gave me many weeks of notice for a Camp Lazlo cake. Camp what? I asked. It was another lesson in Cartoon Network characters. Camp Lazlo is a quirky boy scout-like anthropomorphic bunch that play out adventures at a summer camp. Wow, where do I even start? After much consideration, I decided it was a cake project out of my depth. So sadly, I referred her to more capable hands.

Then the birthday boy had a change of mind for the cake and due to the timing, the project was still mine to undertake!

The new cake request: a Deltora Quest cake! Both his mummy and I were stumped. What is Deltora Quest? Well, it's a fantasy cartoon series that follows the characters across the land of Deltora to recover the magical 'Belt of Deltora' and defeat evil forces (think Lord of the Rings  or belt in this case). We discussed over Youtube links of Deltora Quest and figured a boy castle featuring the magical belt was in order. I was all ready for adventure.

Immediately, my previous experience with the princess castle came in handy. I used wafer cones and sugar cones to create the castle. This time everything was grey scale. I wrapped the wafer cones in fondant and used my brickwork pattern to press out the castle wall. The monochrome outside worked well since the main cake is a round rainbow stack sitting on a chocolate base.

The other important element is the 'belt' of Deltora. I used hard candies to create the gems - it's amazing what candies and some colouring can do (emeralds and opals anyone?). FYI. Deltora is spelt using the first letter of each of the gems in the belt: Diamond, Emerald, Lapis Lazuli, Topaz, Opal, Ruby, Amethyst.

Belt of Deltora

I also attempted a figurine of Lief, the main character in the story.

Lief in fondant

As I was building up the castle, I ran into some foundation problem so I called upon my 'structural engineer' (aka the hubby) and he provided the pillar support. To hold the two wafer cones together, a long satay stick was driven into the middle and into the cake.

Building castles in the cake

After toiling many many hours, here's my first boy castle cake...

Happy Birthday Darren

To be honest, I'm not completely happy with it. I know the problematic areas and wish I had done  some things differently - like a bigger base cake and better torting for a flatter surface (I need a cake leveller!) But in all of this, I thank you Mummy E for always being so supportive. 

Go Go Power Rangers

It does look like I've carved a niche for myself making birthday cakes for kids age 1 to 7... I have doting mummies to thank ; ) But I reckon it could also be that that's the age parents go through the trouble of organising parties and cakes. Looking at my own kids now, I can't imagine making Thomas the Train cakes pass their fifth birthdays (and Jake turns 4 this year). Then I suppose they just move on to more 'serious' stuff.

A blogger mum (www.sanses.com) who found me requested for a superhero cake for her son who's turning 5! There are just so many superheroes to choose from but only one cake! In the end, Power Rangers made the day. This long-running children's action hero series has its roots in a similar Japanese production 'Super Sentai'. For some reason I always end up confusing it with Ultraman (doh!). 

Before I started work, I visited a few shops to look for cool-looking Power Ranger figurines that might work on a cake. But as the days drew near, I figured I should just bite the bullet and make these action figures myself!

I started out colouring the fondant and can't help but feel like I was making a rainbow cake. The primary colours made the figurines more cute than powerful.

Rangers ready to roll

Notice how their visors are all different. I had my laptop near me as I crafted these as there are so many versions of Power Rangers - like Samurai and the Megaforce? In the end, I went with the more commonly recognisable one (to me at least) - I think it's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It was hours of fun making them!

Guarding the cake with their powers

Once I was done with the cake, I can't help but still feel like embellishing it. As you can see I've added matching M&Ms and the lightning bolt symbol. I held myself back and just left a space for the No. 5 candle to go in the middle.

Happy Birthday Jayvon

The cake was delivered to a lovely little chalet party where Mummy S organised the celebration for her two boys complete with a water slide pool (how cool!). I also made an Elmo cake for Jayvon's little brother. Happy Birthday boys!

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!

Dinosaur Rocks!

(Ryuu's Birthday Cakes - Part II)

Besides the Hungry Caterpillar, the birthday boy also loves dinosaurs! I heard he got into them because his mummy liked exposing him to factually correct content (as oppose to mindless cartoon, I guess). I think that's the way to go. 

For the party at home, my friend wanted her son to have a round cake to cut plus some cupcakes for easy takeaways. She sent me some ideas and I quickly fell in love with a cute looking dino stringing a red balloon along.

Cute-saurus

I'm not sure what 'saurus' I made but I did check against the list and it looks like the fearsome Ceratosaurus - for those of you who are interested, it's a large predatory theropod from the late Jurassic period. This one just happens to look damn adorable! It also contains a rich dark chocolate cake with Oreo cream cheese filling!

I was thinking how best to decorate the sides of the cake when inspiration hit me while shopping for Chinese New Year goodies. I love those crispy wafer sticks with chocolate cream in them and I thought they also look like tree trunks or wooden twigs. So I bought a box, had the sticks cut to varying lengths and lined them all around the sides. It looks a bit like a wood forest.

Jurassic Cake

Then I spotted a bottle of chocolate rocks and it was a no-brainer. I had it scattered all around to cover the board. It was all the decoration you'd love to eat ; )

That was not the end of my dinosaur discovery. I felt a bit like a Palaeontologist as I scoured for dinosaur toppers that can go onto the cupcakes. This took me to the Party City shop at Raffles City where they carried a whole range of dinosaur party ware. They had the cutest dinosaur toy ring and it comes in a pack of 12. What a find!

To mount them, I used those yummy wafers again so I could get them to prop up nicely on top of the cupcake. It sat handsomely on the Oreo cream cheese swirl.

Topper-saurus

Look ma... there's a dinosaur on my cupcake!

Did you know that Johnny Cash had a song called the "Dinosaur Song"? I know I'm digressing but when I was googling for all of this, I came across the song and it's fascinating. Check it out - Johnny Cash Children's Album

Lightning McQueen

The little boy who introduced Thomas the Train to my Jake has a new toy interest - Lightning McQueen from Disney's Cars. Jake's cousin, Justin turns 4 and luckily for his mum, she did not have to endure another year of Thomas birthday party. So Aunty Debbie was tasked with baking a Lightning McQueen cake!

Before I started work, I contacted my baker friend Dawn who made a Lightning McQueen cake some months back. Now if you remember, Dawn is my fellow baker mum who helped me on the Penguin cake last year. Dawn's cake decoration skills is easily the very best that I've seen anywhere. Pure perfection. I had hoped some tips from her would help me along the way. She sent me a step-by-step via WhatsApp from Shanghai where she is based, thank you so much Dawn. Here's a peek at her amazing work... check out the contours!

A perfect Lightning McQueen by Dawn

So I went about building this cake. The baking part was easy - a moist chocolate cake with Oreo cream cheese filing. I had to stop myself from eating the bits that were carved out while making this cake! 

Yummy undercarriage

Rough outline of McQueen covered in fudge

I tried so hard to follow the tips and advice given for this cake. It was a challenge carving a car out of a block of cake, which was recommended. I found myself piecing together the car for the contours instead. So between meeting the requirements of a moist cake and the details required for the car to take shape, this was my best effort.

Lightning McQueen!

Adding in the details was the real fun part especially the round disc on the bonnet. I used it to imprint the birthday boy's name! 

Here's looking at you kid

Ok so it's not really an accurate shape of Lightning McQueen, mine is more like a family saloon than a sports car but the signature windscreen eyes and engine grille smile did the trick. And not forgetting the lightning stripes on the door!

Vroom!

A Lightning McQueen that he can eat

It made the birthday boy's day and that's all that really matters. Happy Birthday Justin!