Glitzy Dinner Party Treats

These Rich Chocolate and Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes were commissioned for a private dinner party at the fabulous 3rd Floor in JWM downtown last weekend. Request was simply a star and the initial "R". Yes, the simpler the request, the more freaked out I can get. Me being me, I couldn't just do a star and an "R"... I had to think and reeeaally think. Up to the very day itself, I still couldn't decide what to do! Even went to watch Harry Potter to see if I could get some sparks of ideas. I wanted to do something glamourous to complement the host and still keep it classy and not OTT, also like the host. In the end, this design came to mind. I pretty pleased with them and think they'd have gone well at dinner.

Miniatures

I could only muster up these with less than 24 hours notice.... mini cupcakes of Lemon Blueberry and Butter Chocolate. Prettily boxed up for Hari Raya Haji.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Yes, yes...a Disney cake. The best I could summon out of my wand was the clubhouse when this 2-year old wanted a "Mickey Mouse cake". Yikes...luckily the mummy was awfully cool about my proposal of "something along those lines" and not a through and through Mickey Mouse cake. I suppose it worked! So I baked an 8", a half-round and a mini ball Rich Chocolate Cake to replicate the mouse's clubhouse. Whole cake weighed only about 1.6kg!

Office Birthday

Another group of officemates celebrating a birthday at work with these yummilicious Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes. I've always enjoyed "making faces" and will always do!

Wedding Hantaran

This 8" moist Lemon Poppyseed Cake weighed around 1.6kg. I did a very simple design using pearl sugar to complement the set of dulang hantaran that was entirely covered in fresh flowers.

Rose Pink Birthday

This is by far, the sweetest-looking cake I've decorated. I just love the colours - in pastel yet, vibrant. It was a 1.5kg Lemon Poppyseed Cake for a small dinner party celebrating 2 ladies' birthday. They wanted an after-dinner cake that goes well with coffee and tea. Lemon!! I made little daisies, mums and free-form blossoms in feminine colours and lined the sides with 4 different shades of rose pink stripes. Think this design will be lovely for a garden wedding!

88th Birthday Bash

These cupcakes and a little main cake was ordered to celebrate a patriach's 88th birthday last weekend. Order was simple: Butter cake with buttercream icing with "88" on each of them including the cake. It's a very chinese request hence the very chinese finish with these cakes. I like them purely for it's loudness. Buttercup yellow in buttercream was chosen as the base colour to subtley complement the red of the eights on the 50 cupcakes. The main cake was just a little under 1kg and thinly covered in buttercream as well. Made 9 longevity peaches, a pair of golden eight and the chinese character "sau" that means longevity. "Yam seng" to the "sau seng kung" and with all those eights, here's wishing his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren "fatt-fatt-fatt"!!

Racing into 7

This little man is the last in our children's playgroup to turn 7 and what's better than to make it a race! Birthday boy requested for chocolate cake (2.2kg here) with a racing theme. Instead of a big race car model, I thought it'll be more age-appropriate and "cute" to have a mini race track on the cake with funny race cars and drivers. As I made the little race cars, I told myself that I need to make something distinctive for the birthday boy and what did I make for him? A tortoise.... slow and steady, wins the race.. Happy Birthday Jae!!

M34

It was either this or a fighter plane. This 12-year old had me literary blown away when his mum called me with his choices. As you would have known by now, I'm no fan of creating any replicas of syndicated television characters (some Walt guy is mainly responsible for this phenomenon) and I always tell mothers to please let your child dig deep and tell you what he or she really loves. So, I really had it in my face this time when this young man did tell his mum what he would love to have for his cake. My first email reply to mummy was "OMG!!!!".

But you know what, I was actually looking forward to creating it. Even more so using his favourite brownies - a very tricky "cake" to mess around with. The brownies cannot be baked too fudgy nor too dry. Could have done a brownie cake but hey, Great Bakes call a brownie- a brownie and a tiramisu-a tiramisu. No bastardised versions when it comes to cakes and desserts.

I have no idea what rifle is this but looking at it, I'm guessing it's some World War II machine gun? M34 what?? I'm glad the MOTH was hanging around when I was working on creating the textures and he could tell me how some parts should look like. Basically, it could have been better but to an untrained eye and a non-gun-educated person, think it can pass off as a machine gun-lah!

Cosa Nostra

These cupcakes were ordered to commemorate a couple's union and as much as the Mafia theme sounds inappropriate, it actually is appropriate if you examine the mafioso's commandments (despite the methods used to handle "issues"...). I doubt if these youngsters know them since it was meant to just be a theme, but I think some of their guidelines on how to be a good, respectable and trusty member (or husband/wife, in this case) should be kept in mind:

* never look at your brothers' wives (brothers as in fellow gang members).
* do not go to pubs (yes, yes..)
* respect your wife (oh, definitely!)
* always be on time (are you here, yet?)
* don't get entangled with the police (just pay up...)

and my favourite commandment - when asked for any information, the answer must be the truth (hear, hear, except when I ask you if I look older than the day you met me...)
I also like "omerta". The MOTH was surprised I didn't know the meaning of this word when he suggested to include it on one of the cupcakes. He of course, gladly "enlightened" yours truly. Omerta is their code of silence..... :-I

Sexy Six

Another humour cake this month and for a celebrant turning half a century old. His wife wanted a cake (2kg chocolate) to tease and how appropriate to present her gym-going hubby a possible version of himself! Don't we all have "visionary" husbands like hers??? ;-)