Tayo Buses Make Cool Cakes

A former colleague who's been following my cakes saw the first Tayo cake I made and commented on how his boy loves Tayo the Little Bus too! My brood at home are fans as well, and I almost don't know any little lad who doesn't like the cheery Korean vehicular animation. It's such a hit!

So naturally when Baby A's 2nd birthday rolled around, I got the call for a Tayo cake. Daddy D was pretty cool about leaving the design to me, we both sort of figured that when you're 2, as long as you see the toy you like on a cake, it's the best birthday cake ever! With that, I recommended to get the toys to decorate the cake with.

With the previous Tayo cake, I found out you could buy Tayo toys from the website qoo10.sg. So I went on it to find the toy topper for the cake I had in mind - a set of four Tayo and friends buses
Then I crafted the 'bus terminal' with cake - a rectangular block with a red roof and four colourful garage doors from which the buses emerge!

The cake is a triple layer eggless chocolate cake; Mummy H informed me that Baby A was allergic to eggs. Luckily, I had a wonderful eggless chocolate cake recipe so the birthday boy wouldn't need to miss out on his own cake ; )

Buses and Cake

I was told the kids loved the cake, I suspect the toy buses had something to do with it. Imagine a bunch of 2-3 year olds trying to get their hands on it. The adults had a hard time keeping them away before the candles were blown out. Then it was sweet treats and fun toys for all!

Tayo and friends

Happy Birthday Akira

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.

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 

Twenty Years of We Do

My brother and sister-in-law renewed their commitment to each other again after 20 years of marriage. In an age of so much brokenness - socially, politically, economically - keeping a marriage going for two decades is surely commendable.

So how did the happy couple celebrate the occasion? They booked a holiday bungalow, invited family and friends, catered a lovely feast, asked Fr Paul Staes and Fr John-Paul Tan for the renewal of vows, and got this sister to be in charge of cake and deco.

My brother wanted flower arrangements with a candle centrepiece for the dinner tables. He was quoted $80 - $100 per centrepiece from the florist, I balked at the price and convinced him to let me try out my hand at floral arrangement. At this point, I'll let you in on a childhood ambition of mine... I wanted to be a florist. I never acted on my interest (and I had many), but here's my chance, I had to create 8 centrepieces with a large candle block and red rose blooms.

Here's what I conjured for the celebration...

Wedding flowers

I love Ikea for the inexpensive candles that can be bought. I also have to thank Eileen from the Marine Terrace market for her lovely blooms and useful tips on arrangements. I bought 100 large red roses from her and those complementing hypericum berries and aster solidago.

And no I didn't forget that this is a cake blog, so here's the anniversary cake to go with the flowers. A deeply luscious red velvet with creamy cheese frosting topped with rose swirls.

Happy 20th Anniversary David & Rose

This is my cake of the month. I love the deep crimson and I make mine Miette style. I like assembling it this way as it shows the dramatic contrast between cake and frosting. I only realised this is similar to the famous Tomboy cake by San Francisco Miette bakery when my cousin who is in the baking business said 'Hey you make yours like Miette!' Here's Miette's version.

Tayo and Friends

The Korean wave is not confined to pop bands and soap opera, we've now got children's programmes and toys from Korea that's as big a hit as Mickey Mouse and Thomas the Train... well almost. You know the Korean characters are catching up when you start getting cake request for it.

A mummy who came across my cake at her son's preschool looked me up for a Tayo the Little Bus cake. I'm familiar with Tayo because my two sons are fans as well. Tayo is a Korean animation series about a little blue bus and his friends, which include other modes of transport like taxis, police cars, fire engine, trains and construction equipment. It's somewhat educational as the adventures of the little city bus impart lessons like how to cross the road safely and speeding is dangerous, etc.

Mummy S was quite resourceful in scouring online stores for the Tayo toy characters, which means I was spared having to fondant a bus or fire engine. She found a nice deal on G-market for the toys. It was tempting to put a few of the characters on the cake but I suggested to go with just one to make it stand out. The birthday boy finally decided on Frank the Fire Engine.

I made a rainbow cake - buttermilk cake recipe with cream cheese filling - covered in white fondant. Then I decorated the sides with rainbow garage doors like in the series. With the remaining coloured fondant, I cut out many stars and dotted it all around the cake. Check it out...

Frank the Fire Engine takes top spot

Happy Birthday Joshua

I was just thinking of how to cover the cake board. Looking at the many artisan bakers I admire, they  usually have their cake boards decorated. I read somewhere that it's unprofessional to leave it bare. I hardly ever cover my cake boards, I find it a total waste of fondant! It's bound for the bin once the cake is served :( Instead of covering the entire board, I decided to be a bit creative and rolled out ropes of fondant to encircle the cake, then added stars with the No.3 to the corners (Joshua is 3!)

Tell me what you think - do cake boards need to be covered? I'd love to hear from anyone ; )

Thank God for Little Girls

My little niece got baptised last weekend. God bless the little cutie. One of the things her mummy (my sister) got excited about was the party that we'd have after the baptism. Any excuse for beers, wine and finger foods on a Sunday! And of course reason for a cake.

My family is my biggest fan :) They love my rainbow cake and don't seem to tire of it at any occasion that calls for a cake. This time round, my sister wanted a two-tier cake with alternating layers of pastel pink and green. I'm so glad she has a daughter... Baby C is my excuse for making sweet-looking cakes and party deco that's unabashedly pink!

So what's the deco norm for baptism cakes? There's typical ones featuring the cross, simple ones that denote the date of baptism and it's usually clean and classic designs, but there's really no convention.

So here's what Baby C got...

Pastel ballons floating skywards

Happy Baptism Clare

It was also my sister's birthday so this called for a two-tier cake!

Happy Birthday Sis

As usual, I didn't take a pic of the cut cake but the balloons matched the layers inside. This cake is also the first time I tried a buttermilk recipe. It's a wonderfully moist cake that's springy and full of flavour. It's my favourite recipe now, so if you order a rainbow cake from now on, you'll get the buttermilk recipe cake ; )