Dear Daniel

Dear Daniel,

When your Mum and I were young, we were each other's favourite playmates. Family gatherings saw us like peas & carrots and we especially loved playing 'house'. Someone was always making a meal, we pretended to 'work' and of course there was the occasional domestic squabble but our kinship and friendship weathered it all.

Then we grew up and went from playing to partying. Too many nights were spent queuing at clubs, drinking till the bar closed and then, still reluctant to head home, we would eat our first meal of the day at Adam Road hawker centre till the sun beckoned.

Well well, look at us now. Our main preoccupation, making sure you kids are fed, cleaned and entertained. We queue at supermarkets, stay up till you are done drinking (milk) and still reluctant to head to bed, we try to cram in some me-time online till we hear your next cry.

It's been a month now since we were blessed with your arrival and every day, you are a joy to all who are in your life. Every time I look at you, I think of how very far we have all come. We couldn't imagine it before, but Daniel... you and your cousins Jake, James and Clare are everything we ever wanted and more.

Love,
Aunty Debbie

ps: In case you're wondering... your Papa is a HUGE Liverpool supporter, which explains why your full month cupcakes have those little red football jerseys with your name and day / month of birth ('39') on it. They were lovingly handmade by your Mummy and I, even though we don't watch football. But you should know the family is divided into Liverpool and Man United supporters, I'm sure your Uncle Ravi and Uncle Andrew will be having a chat with you the minute you can kick a ball.

Happy 1st Month Danny boy

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!

Look Whoo Turned One

My little niece Clare, who is also my defacto No.3, celebrated her first birthday recently! I'm constantly amazed at how quickly time flies when you're minding children. You go from swaddling them to chasing after the pitter patter of their little feet in a span of 12 months. And being contented with cute gurgles to encouraging them to say their first words in just 6 months. Well with Clare, her first word turned out to be "bird", with big eyes gazing to the sky too!

She also happens to love a little youtube video of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star featuring an adorable owl. So naturally, when it came to picking a theme for her first birthday, birds were a natural choice and the owl was the main character.

My sister, the actual creative and artistic one in the family (it's just that she doesn't bake), made great efforts in creating the party favours and a dessert table for the celebration. She had little owl motifs on the invitation, party wares, goodie bags and even the ballons. Of course, I provided the cake for the occasion.

Check out the invitation!

Call me bias but she is the cutest little girl ever! And all the inspiration I need for the cake.

Happy 1st Birthday Clare

Here's what the rest of the party looked like...

'Thank You' tags hanging from balloons

Party wares with a hoot

Specially printed labels for all the goodies

All for one very special little girl

Owls are known as symbols of wisdom, here's wishing my little No.3 a year old, a year wiser!

Going One Direction

I had a chance to revisit teen hood when a mummy asked me to make a "1D" cake. At first I thought, so it's not 3D (3-dimensional) or 2D, but what's 1D? (hoping it's not a mathematical concept cake) It's the boys from the Simon Cowell X-Factor franchise, One Direction! (doh moment)

Back in my days, NKOTB ruled. I had the biggest crush on Joey McIntyre (I was young and foolish). I see that the teen music phenomenon hasn't really changed much two decades on. These five English-Irish boys can carry a tune but their main marketing purpose is of course, to endear to pubescent teenage girls. Hence my opportunity to make a 1D cake ; )

So my 10-year-old recipient is a fan of the band. Her mummy was very sweet to think of how best to come up with a 1D cake that would make her daughter's day. While I couldn't make figurines of these singing lads, I thought perhaps we could go with the signature "1D" logo on a cake plus fondant placards with a doodle of the boys to place around the sides.

Here's how it turned out...

Harry Styles

Liam Payne

Louis Tomlinson

Niall Horan

Zayn Malik

I actually spotted this idea while researching online and saw someone doing these faces on cookies! How clever and they look cute too. I made them completely out of fondant and outlined it with Americolor pen.

I asked Mummy V which is Isabelle's favourite 1D guy... she said "I think it's Harry"... went to confirm it and she's right ; ) So Harry gets the middle spot.

Happy Birthday Isabelle

This is the first time I'm covering a cake in black fondant. I really love how intense it looks and I can only imagine how nicely the rainbow inside would stand out. I should replicate this with NKOTB just for laughs. 

And for those of you pop-loving teens back in the 80s, here's 17 boyband facts that will make you feel old. Aah, the good ole days.

Busy Bee

I've been a busy bee.

Since coming back from a trip last week, I've baked a Pororo birthday cake for a handsome little fella (my nephew Tim turned 2) and also made a big batch of red velvet cupcakes for a returning customer. She actually wanted the 'Despicable Me' Minion design but didn't really have the budget for the customised fondant, nonetheless I surprised her and went ahead to make one silly Minion holding a birthday sign ; ) it sure made her day!

But what I really want to blog about is a special order of Honey Beehive cupcakes!  I got the request for the bee themed cupcakes for a BodyShop event. The BodyShop recently put out their Honeymania product line and the cupcakes went out to the media.

I made a lemon butter cupcake with a honey cream cheese beehive swirl. The cupcakes were topped with a honey bee, which I put together using lemon fruit gum and almond slivers for the wings.

Have you heard the buzz?

The details on the honey bee were added with the Americolor gourmet pen. It was so fun putting this together. When I was thinking about what to use as the bee's body, Marks & Spencer's fruit gums came to mind immediately. They are super yummy! But what really made me smile is how the lemon fruit gum is in the perfect shape for a honey bee ; )

I also made some paper toppers with the honey bee artwork. I love the yellow and black theme, it such a great combination. Nature really has great taste!

Honeymania

A friend who went on thebodyshopsg Instagram showed me the postings on the cupcakes. You gotta love social media. I was super thrilled. So glad the recipients enjoyed it.

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.

The Princess Project

My baking soul mate is in town! Dawn is back for the summer school holidays and although she's declared that she's on a baking break, it didn't stop her from galavanting with me to Phoon Huat, Bake It Yourself and Art Friend for supplies. And of course, we baked!

We took on an order together - the first official collaboration. It's a princess cake that includes the full works - ruffles, tiara, bows, flowers and it's got to be pink pink pink! We spent 2 full days together planning, baking and decorating while the kids watched copious amount of TV (we had our hands full!) and ate levelled out cake!                  

I baked my trusty moist chocolate for a two-tier cake with ganache filling. Dawn planned the cake design and showed me how to make fondant ruffles - a repetitively therapeutic thing to do on any given afternoon. We moulded fondant in many shades of pink for the ombre ruffles and had to resist introducing some other complementing colours because the recipient insisted on a pink cake. In the end we used some white for contrast, we just had to.

Here are some scenes from the making of...

The ball tool is essential for ruffles

Here's the ombre skirting

Stacking the pinks

Dawn putting in the finer details

Dawn had made the pretty tiara with gum paste and it sat wonderful atop the cake, making it fit for a princess birthday celebration. When we finally added in the final details, I couldn't imagine how anyone could bear cutting into this cake. It is definitely my most professional-looking cake to date.

The Princess

Happy Birthday Kara

Dawn bakes in Shanghai. If you'd like to follow her amazing cakes, check it out here - Cakes from D'Heart