Buds, Blooms and Beyond

I'm going to blog about cakes I made over Valentine's Day... I'm still behind on my updates as you can see. Anyway, as I was saying...

You may have read my earlier entry about the master class I took with Joyliciouscake for making sugar flowers. Well, I was very fortunate to be able to apply what I learnt as Valentine's Day came round and I was asked by some devoted husbands to create something special for their wives.

Now, we know Valentine's Day is the one day in a year that florists of any grade make all their money. So this baker was going to give them a run for their money, at least with the two lovely gentlemen, who wanted flowers that their wives can eat instead of watch wither.

Hubby No.1 is based in San Francisco, and he asked if I could create a Valentine's Day cake for his wife here in Singapore. At first his idea was for me to make a cake in the shape of a branded handbag, but I told him that it's one thing to make edible flowers, it's another to make edible bags. Some things are best in actual form...and leather bags are one of those things - agree ladies?

So here's the expression of love I made on his behalf - a Tiffany blue heart shaped cake topped with more than a dozen red roses. Each rose was lovingly handmade, petal by petal.

"Our love can traverse any distance"

I delivered the cake first thing on V-day, to catch her before she went to work. I knocked on her door bright and early at 7:30am, after being told she leaves the house about 7:45am only to find that I had woken the household! She had overslept! So she was saved by the (door)bell, and received a total surprise on V-day morning. I only wished her hubby could see the sheer delight on her face. 

Hubby No.2 requested for a cake with flowers as it was his wife's birthday. She enjoys a good carrot cake and I was only too happy to make one with sweet cream cheese filling. Not enough people request for this, it's such a wonderful wholesome cake. 

Again I made roses in varying state of bloom, from rose buds, to small blooms to full petal roses. I also   put my lessons in floral arrangement to good use. It's one thing to be able to handcraft flowers, but being able to put it together in an aesthetic way makes all the difference. I have my amazing instructor Joyce to thank, apart from a master sugar artist, she's also an expert in floral arrangement.

Happy Birthday Darling

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

When you need to say I love you,

Bake a cake. 

                        -- debbie

Furry Furby

I know, I know...I've taken too long to update my blog. I've made quite a few cakes in the last week, entertained many requests for customised cakes and sadly had to turn down quite a few interesting orders. Yes, I'm in the Indonesian capital again, so while I won't be baking, I should definitely catch up on my updates.

One of the cakes, which I made for an acquaintance who had come to enjoy my red velvet fudge cake, is the Furby! I was really happy with how it turned out. Mummy J told me of how her girl loves the owl-eyed furball toy and wanted a birthday cake of her fave Furby.

She sent me a drawing with some modifications to a teal-coloured Furby to give an idea of how the cake should look like. So what Hasbro can't customised, I did just that in cake and cream :)

Furby of her dreams

I baked 9" round red velvet layers with chocolate ganache filling and had it cut out slightly around the sides to get the egg shape look for the Furby. It was simple enough to do. The features like ears, eyes, beak and feet were all made from fondant. Now the challenging part is to recreate the fur. As you can see, this Furby is mainly teal with spots of lime green. It also has these concentric pattern that I was studying on how to pull off.

The best frosting to achieve this is buttercream or the like. As you all know, I'm not a fan of buttercream, largely because of our weather. So a fluffy meringue cream will do the job. I whipped up a batch and had it coloured in teal, light turquoise and lime green. The cake was first treated to a generous ganache covering, then heaped on with teal coloured frosting. After that, the lime green frosting was spotted on and finished with a circular swirl of lighter teal. Here's the result...

Yummy Furby

Happy Birthday Ashley

This technique is the same as what I have done with Elmo and Cookie Monster cakes. I simply love making furry characters, and eating it too. Yums!

A Date with Charming Flowers

It's that time of the year when my baking buddy Dawn comes back from Shanghai and we get up to all sort of baking goodness. This trip back, she arranged for us to learn sugar flowers! I have a deep affection for flowers and the inner florist in me had been eagerly looking forward to this course.

We spent almost 3 rewarding days with our sugar art 神 (god), Joyce from Joyliciouscakes. Lesson time with Joyce is sheer pleasure as she imparts her techniques on crafting sugar paste into the most realistic flowers you have ever seen. Joyce is a generous teacher, wonderful host and a truly supportive friend in baking. 

Here's the rundown of flowers we learnt in the 2.5 days we spent in her home studio...

Magnolia

Ranunculus

Rose

Hydrangea

Chincherinchee (my fave of the lot)

Hypericum Berries

Red Wild Berries

My Charming Bouquet

We also learnt to make fillers like Wild Ginger Blossoms, Poison Hemlock, Hydrangea buds and Magnolia buds. They may be small (and a bit of a pain to make, literally!) but they make all the difference when completing an arrangement.

All these flowers were patiently made by hand, bud by bud, petal by petal. It's definitely my most laborious work of art by far! Thank you Joyce for the wonderful tutorials.

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.

Hello 2014

Before the month gets well on the way, I'd like to wish one and all a very Happy New Year! Hope your 2014 is off to a good start! My good start is about being surrounded by family and friends with good food and fun baking projects in the pipeline.

Writing this made me look back on the entry at the beginning of 2013 where I had a list...think I did well in the last year. Of course I could have done more, but hey, you got to take a moment to savour the cupcakes right?

So what's in store for 2014?

1) Revamp my blog (about time methinks)
2) Take up fine art classes (the hubby says I'm making art, not cake anymore)
3) Experiment on more variety of bakes (pies, tarts and bars anyone?)
4) Contemplate a business

Ok, so let's see what becomes of the next 12 months. Very daunting when you think of how quickly time flies. Talking of which, I'm about to hit my 100th blog post! I've got something special planned for the milestone, so please do watch this space.

Have a great new year ahead!

I Do

You know you've reached a milestone of sorts when you get to make a wedding cake for someone. That someone is a former colleague who truly believes in my baking and has no qualms that I never made a wedding cake ever! God bless her sweet soul.

This is a very special project for me for many reasons. I'm a hopeless romantic; a wedding cake symbolises the commitment to love in a very edible way. Marriage is a wonderful journey that I'm lucky to have embarked on with a kindred spirit - we are five years into ours - and I'm always happy to see friends making that lifelong promise to someone they love.

When the bride requested for me to bake her wedding cake, a million ideas raced through my mind. I was lucky to be given total creative autonomy. I told myself, keep it simple, focus on a few details and make those really stand out. So I proposed fresh flowers on a white fondant covered cake. She said yes!

Wedding cakes may seem simple enough, as compared to say a boy castle cake with towers and turrets, but in reality, it requires more finesse for that flawless finish. I prepped 2 dozen red and pink roses to go between the two-tiered cake. It's the first time I'm working with fresh flowers, it's totally stunning on a stark white fondant cake...makes me wonder why it's not more popular than sugarpaste flowers.  

Here's the first tier with flowers...

Red Velvet Cake + Roses

This is a red velvet cake covered in Wilton white fondant. The roses are nipped from the stalk and inserted with floral wires and assembled into a styrofoam disc about 5" smaller than the base cake. When that is done, the top tier is gently placed on top of the styrofoam disc. I topped the cake with 2 roses to represent the happy couple.

For Annie and George

While putting this cake together, I became slightly obsessed with ribbons! There are some wedding cakes that are embellished with nothing but ribbons and it's just too pretty! Some of the best examples I've seen of wedding cakes have nothing more than clever use of ribbons and a simple flower feature. I especially like this Singapore-based wedding cake boutique - Crummb - check out the website

All the best Annie & George!

Love is patient, love is kind. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Terrific Toppers

So there were a few more cakes that were put together quickly, thanks to the terrific toppers that were provided by mummies for their little one's special day.

Sophia the First
Lauren (who also got a My Little Pony cake) got to celebrate her birthday in school with Sophia the First! I love that new Disney princess series, even my two boys enjoy it when it comes on Disney Junior. Since they will never request for a Princess Sophia cake, I'm glad Mummy K asked me to help her with one. She managed to get the toppers, not an easy task since the series is so new. I just had to bake the cake and set the scene for the toppers.

Happy Birthday Lauren

Chugginton
Isaac (who also got Peppa Pig) received his new Chuggington toy atop a chocolate cake. I got this idea online - I especially loved how the shrubbery was created using the scallop cutters and layering the pieces together. I did that all along one side of the cake. Then made a little railway and just one prop, a street lamp. Choo-choo-chugga-chugga!

Happy Birthday Isaac

Lion King
This request for a Lion King cake got me researching for safari-inspired cakes! There were some beautiful examples of cakes online with the African landscape, including some painted ones of Serengeti sunsets...amazing. For this cake, I made a simple rectangle cake and a rock mount that we can perch Simba on. I used floral wires for the fondant leaves so they could stand upright to break up the flat green cake surface. These toppers are some of the best I've seen anywhere, the quality is excellent. Mummy A had them ordered online from US.

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn

Did you know The Lion King is 20 years old? The feature film debut in 1994...an oldie but a goodie!