Another Year, Another Penguin

One year ago, Motherkao got in touch with me for a penguin cake for her little one. So quickly, it's been a year. And when she called me again to bake a cake for Rebekah, I was delighted. It's amazing for me to meet doting mothers through this baking venture of mine, and it's especially heartening when they come back to you after a year... it's almost like being a part of their journey.

So this year, it's another penguin cake for Rebekah. And like last year, I had the help of Dawn - even she laughed that it's penguin time again ; ) We created an adorable penguin figurine, complete with a chain of pearls, three pretty rosettes and a green bow (green being Rebekah's favourite colour). I perched the penguin atop of rainbow cake that is covered in pale icy blue then added small details like turquoise flowers and a bauble border.

Here's the cake...

Happy Birthday Rebekah

In the same week, I also had another returning customer. Mother D first got in touch for full month cakes for her little girl. I made luscious chocolate peanut butter cupcakes for the occasion complete with paper toppers. Now little Isabel is a year old and I got the request for a red velvet cake with a giraffe design! I love making giraffes, they are too cute. 

Here's the cake...

Happy Birthday Isabel

Notice the design is very minimal - a style I've grown to really like and it requires just as much time to get the details very neat and clean. In the end, you get a very elegant-looking cake that could make for a timeless classic.

Bananas About Penguin

Two friendly mothers who are (Singapore Mom) bloggers gave me the opportunity to bake for their children. I always look forward to baking for kids partly because I have 2 of my own and I know how a cake can light up their world!

My friend Eve (thebottomsupblog.com) recommended Motherkao (motherkao.com) to me to create a penguin cake for her little girl who turns 2. She gave me ample notice (thank you) and we discussed about how the cake should be – not too sweet, healthy for young children and must have a penguin! So we went with a banana cake with cream cheese frosting. 

We tried to stay away from fondant, so definitely no 3D cakes with upright penguin ala "Cake Boss" style. Instead, it was to be a easy to serve cake for school hence a sensible square cake with a 2D penguin design.

I really thought I could keep it simple, but those images of cute penguins made it easy to get carried away. PLUS, I had the willing hands of my good friend Dawn from Shanghai who is in town this month so she came by to help me with the cake. Dawn is amazing with cake designs and runs her own home business in Shanghai (lucky me and lucky you who ordered).

So we got to work and decided that it was necessary to use fondant, not too much but enough to create a penguin that we can place on the square cake. 

Making of a penguin

I baked a large square cake that is 12" by 12" and covered it in rich mascarpone cream cheese frosting. The banana cake is such a wholesome cake for kids as it is naturally sweetened by ripe bananas so it needs only about two-thirds of the sugar that is required by the recipe. Bananas is also high in potassium and dietary fibre. The cream cheese covering is also great as it's got calcium for strong bones and requires a whole lot less sugar that buttercream! 

Dawn also contributed something special to the cake by showing me how to do chocolate transfers! So we made some snowflakes using white chocolate that could be used as accents for the cake (even though it was an unbearable 32 degrees today).

Each is unique and painstakingly piped

Here's a peek at the penguin...

Penguin pretty in pink

The completed cake

Dawn and I got a bit obsessed with embellishing the cake and had to stop ourselves as we were running out of time to meet the delivery! But the result just made us smile. I was particularly pleased as it was definitely more than what I had set out to do for the cake.

Happy Birthday Rebekah!

I was told the kids enjoyed the cake and the birthday girl loved her penguin. This is exactly why I love to bake, happiness ; )

Oh and one last thing. So where is my hubby's contribution to this cake you might ask? As the fondant covered penguin was quite heavy, we were afraid it might sink into the base cake creating a dent, so B came up with an ingenious idea. Usually, dowel sticks are used as support for cake upon cake but for this, we inserted oreo cookies in an upright position to hold the penguin up, and it worked! Motherkao, if you're wondering why there are oreo cookies in this banana cake, well now you know ;p

Courtesy of B the cake builder

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