The Ibanez JTKB

The Cake -Moist Orange

The Real Deal - Ibanez JTKB

This is by far, my favourite cake. The birthday girl is a bassist in her band and when her dad asked if I could do a guitar cake for her, I couldn't say no. In fact, I was very keen to do it simply because it was MY kind challenge - I'm a classic rock chic (;-) and to create something so musically cool is right up my alley. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, so I checked out some of the birthday girl's gig photos. The common denominator in those photos was a red bass guitar. I wanted to present her the latest bass guitar model that looked closest to what she has. So, off I went and Googled the only 3 brands I knew- Gibson, Fender & Ibanez and found the perfect one in Ibanez..

The only dissapointment I had was with the strings. Here, I hand-piped royal icing for them. Not exactly in 'plucky' condition with that....

Anyone who reads music notes will find the tune to this..

36-D

2 simple reasons for this 1.6kg cake: It was a dear friend's over-40th birthday (shhhh...;-) and what would an over-40 housewife want these days other than a darn good laugh on her birthday?? And, she's the most 'well-endowed' in the group...duhhh. With that, I attempted to make the infamous boob cake. I didn't want the 'girls' to look crude and distasteful since we were celebrating her birthday in a fancy restaurant... Hence, the bikini in blue - being her favourite colour. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun playing plastic surgeon with this cake!

Can you blame me for the pun?? And I just love having the beads on the bikini.

Everything is edible except for the candle and the cake board. What a mouthful!!!

Tiara Cookies

14.05.2010

Tiaras in pink for a beautiful little girl's birthday. With these tiaras, I get to decorate them with all things sugar and nice..no waistlines to worry about!

25.04.2010

These yummy sugar cookies with vanilla seeds were baked and decorated for a 29th birthday party as a thank-you favor. I decided to use 4 girly colours and stuck to 'blings' as simple tiara gems. Attaching those tiny sugar cachous individually were by no means simple. The first few were fun to do but the subsequent cookies had my eyes working harder than they've ever needed to! All were individually-packed till the wee hours past midnight...

Masquerading Cupcakes

6 Birthdays in a night! And a masquerade theme to go with the night out. So, these mini birthday cupcakes were appropriately masked. Modeling these tiny masks were no easy feat but I enjoyed coming up with them. Especially the plumes! I didn't think I'd find pleasure in seeing it fan out as I snip the fondant...

Everything is edible

The Southern Belle

The Red Velvet gained popularity a couple of years ago and had since become 'everyone's favourite' flavour especially for cupcakes. However, I have yet to see it popularised as a whole cake here, as it is originally in the US. You know, with cream cheese frosting layered between the cake. But then again, the term 'original' is loosely used here. The Red Velvet is actually Devil's Food Cake and the reddish hue was simply a reaction between 2 ingredients - buttermilk and cocoa. Over the years, the urbane Red Velvet has evolved with many version of recipes. To the point where some recipes basically called for a chocolate cake recipe + plenty of red food colouring!

Now, I have not tasted a true Southern Red Velvet but I do know that the core ingredients for this cake must be buttermilk (not simply vinegar + milk) and good cocoa. I've been fooling around with recipes after recipes attempting to find the distinct flavour of Red Velvet...that isn't completely chocolatey (I don't see the point of chocolate cake in red except for esthetic purposes..). Sadly, I still have not found anything unique about this cake.

The Red Velvet recipe I've been tinkering with, is so far based on a lighter cake to accomodate the rich cream cheese frosting. I use buttermilk (which supermarkets hardly stock up and awfully expensive!), Dutch cocoa, tiny amount of red colouring, lighter ratio of wheat flour (less gluten) and vegetable oil. The result is a light and slightly sour cake base. The killer of course, is the pure cream cheese frosting to go with the cake. I don't see how any other frosting can add as much depth as the cream cheese can with this otherwise 'ordinary' cake!

I may be missing something and I do hope to find that lightbulb moment with the Red Velvet one day ;-).

SIMKA Reversible Tote

SIMKA is another versatile design like the very popular SARA. I've off-set the black background of this fabric with a solid red reversible option and its multi-coloured floral design makes it a viable day-in-day-out tote bag. It matches with everything you wear. Like I do with the SARA, this tote is great for school-runs. You can have everything in there, from reading materials to letters, a rolled-up grocery bag to a Snicker bar PLUS the bag organiser with a purse and the bits and pieces. At 13"(w) x 10"(h) x 3.5"(gusset), this fully-reversible tote isn't too big or too small for the daily grind.

RM68

Available: 0

CATE Reversible Tote

side A
side B

I loooove this fabric and with the red candy-striped reversible option, CATE screams "SUMMER IN BIRMINGHAM!". This tote will be a beautiful arm candy for a beach holiday. Visualise Birmingham beach in summer with rows of candy-striped deck chairs and bright brollies. I even had this fabric made into a bigger (actually, oversized..) bag and use it for weekends in PD! Very bright and cheerful, this tote measures 13"(w) x 10"(h) x 3.5"(gusset) and is hand-finished with an off-white satin piping around the edges.

RM68

Available: 0

JEAN Reversible Tote

I use the JEAN Pleated Bag and this fabric is also looking great in the Reversible Tote. The greyish background with sprigs of berries in black makes this bag a versatile accessory. At 13"(w) x 10"(h) x 3.5"(gusset), this tote is fully reversible and can hold more than your regular handbag contents. Great as a diaper bag if you want to get away from the dawdy ones because it comfortably fits spare diapers, bottles, wipes, spare clothes and even a book and toys.

RM68

Available: 0

Bed of Daisies

A lovely tween who loves to read and swim turns 11 today! Her mum thought it'll be nice to have mini cupcakes that line up to a number 11 and yours truly happily added the accessories to go with that theme. I chose to surround the birthday girl with white daisies, her book and her swimming accessories - to always be surrounded by the loves of her life and all things beautiful. Here's wishing her many happy returns for the day!

Totally absorbed in her book.

Her swim sack with a towel, swimsuit, fins, training board and paddles.

Pink = Girl

Another birth announcement and it's for a baby girl. I caved and used pink!!! Not my kind of colour but I have to admit that no other colour can best represent a beautiful baby girl than this powder pink. These mini cupcakes were covered in pink and white blankies and topped with tiny nappies, safety pins, bibs, teddy bears, onesies and a baby girl. Above is a set of 36 mini cupcakes and below...

a set of 18,...

a 12-pc set,...

...and boxes after boxes of these 4 that were made up of...

pretty little girls...

stacks of nappies...

pink onesies with a butterfly motif...

and white bibs with a little pink blossom.

They were all neatly boxed-up and I was so pleased to have found a roll of ribbon that matched these boxes perfectly. Now, I can go ask the MOTH for a shoulder and back rub.

Retro Blue

I took inspiration from the Turkish Evil Eye to create this set of Lemon Poppyseed birthday cupcakes for 2 blokes. The Turks have Evil Eyes everywhere from buses to shop fronts, trams to keychains and even its international airport, has a massive version of it. Turns out that this blue Evil Eye is believed to protect oneself from gypsies who mutter curses. Should a curse be directed at you, your Evil Eye will break. That means it has taken the blow for you!

So symbolically, we have 18 'Evil Eyes' here to protect the birthday boys! Turned out really cool and the plus side is... I love the retro side-effect.

Happy Easter!

It's Easter weekend and to me, Easter spells Spring-has-arrived (in Europe...). I wish Malaysia has the 4 seasons because I enjoy the changing of seasons for both, the weather and as a personal check and balance. Anyway, I baked these Snickers and Mars Bars cupcakes for the children and always a treat for them to find the cakes decorated (especially for Little Miss). They usually get undecorated ones because I deal with so much icing weekly, they'll be diabetic if they can have the cakes their way! These cupcakes (even without the icing and Easter chocolate eggs) are strictly for those with a sweet tooth because of the generous chunks of Snickers and Mars in them!

Easter Lily gets a visit from Miss Ladybug.

Mister Cottontail enjoys a good belly rub on the fresh Spring grass.