Superheros

Made a batch of these Superhero-themed cupcakes for a 3-year old's birthday recently. Like Mickey Mouse and Barney, I can't replicate any of these guys well enough to have someone pay me for! I know...it's my pair of eyes...they're flaw-finders. The first time I did some kind of "hero" was Buzz Lightyear and he was awful! He really looked like Sylvester Stallone- disfigurement + botched plastic job. Kid didn't see it that way but I did and I'm sure you do. I kinda vowed I wouldn't even try anymore because it was so frustrating until last year....my nephew's 4th birthday. He wanted Spiderman and he got it. Spidey turned out ok because his face is plain oval with a web design. So, that's pretty do-able but my kids still thought he looked off. Samer's mum called for cupcakes with a superhero theme and of course, we both knew we were going to stick to logos. These Apple and Walnut Cupcakes were supposed to sit on a cupcake rack anyway, so we can't have any 3-D figurines sitting heavily on the cupcakes. The cupcakes were nice and fluffy despite the chunks of apples and walnuts in them. Apparently, the young ones went straight for Spiderman, Batman, Superman and Ironman. Don't think they recognised Captain America's shield, Green Lantern, Flash or the Fantastic Four...

Girly 12th Birthday

This young lady grew up before my eyes. Unbelievable that she was just this 8 month old who used to toddle with my son not long ago...least it didn't feel that long ago. She is now a beautiful 12-year old and from what her mum has requested to be highlighted on these cupcakes, I'd say she's like every teenage girl who loves her make-up, boy band and all things girly! These chocolate cupcakes came in two sizes to make up this presentation. I made girly hair combs, sunnies, teenage magazines, jewelery, make-up, nail polishes etc. Point was to make it colourful and not too serious....like teenagers.

Double Celebration

These mini cupcakes were baked and decorated pre-Father's Day weekend. Mum just had her second baby and like everyone of us (old and new mums), have post-pregnancy amnesia. Less intense would be to say we're a lot more forgetful and we blame it all to being pregnant...something about the baby sapping everything we have while swimming in our belly for that 9 months? Please let us continue using that excuse, we earned it. Anyway, the baby girl turned one month old two days prior and mum decides to send a box of mini cupcakes (Lemon Poppyseed) to her colleagues and have another set  for family (Lemon Poppyseed and Mocha). I assumed having to mention daddy in these cupcakes was an early Father's Day surprise? I hope so because daddy came to pick up the cakes and he was gushing with pride talking about his girls (mum included). He so deserves a special mention! 

Yabba Dabba Doo!!!

Never thought I'd hear of the Flintstones (and the Rubbles) again! Would have preferred to work this theme on a full cake compared to cupcakes though but did it anyway with these 12 Brownie Mint cupcakes. I really wanted to have the key characters in 3-D though it is much on cupcakes. Over-doing it maybe?? Anyway, we have here the usual suspects - Fred, Wilma and Pebbles Flinstone, Barney, Betty and Bam-Bam Rubble and Dino, Pebbles' pet dino. Carved on stone is the birthday wish with the two families gathered round a campfire for a little celebration.

1st Birthday

What do we do for 1-year old birthday cupcakes? All things a 1-year old would start to notice and play. These  Lemon Poppyseed, Devil's Food Chocolate and Butter Cupcakes were topped with the yellow rubber duckies, pink bunny rabbits, stacking blocks, Duplos, stacking rings, multi-coloured caterpillars ala Eric Carle, beautiful rainbows, ladybirds and colouring pages.

Up, Up & Away!

Every young man's dream - be a pilot (and have girlfriends at every airport-of-call ;-)), gadgets, footy, a race car and maybe an alter-ego like the Sith Lord??? This set of Favourite Things Chocolate Cupcakes were aptly designed for a lad turning 21. Big step to adulthood!

It's A Boy!

Can you see what little tokens I've painstakingly (yet, lovingly) made for this box of mini cupcakes? Yes, those are tiny pacifiers, bibs, booties, teddy bear faces, onesies, stacks of nappies and safety pins, milk bottles, formula containers, packets of wet wipes and a blankie, all sitting atop "buttons". It was awfully therapeutic working on them despite the size...must be the fact that this new baby isn't mine!! Hahahaha...yes, an evil joke but honestly? Two's more than enough for me. Below's the gift-packed mini cupcakes.

The new grandmother also wanted a couple of regular-sized cupcakes to be given away. For these Neopolitan (marble cake of strawberry, chocolate and butter) and Vanilla Butter Cupcakes, I stuck with the blue and white colour theme.

Halloween

Happy Halloween, folks...

- Jack Skellington

Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Favourite Things

Haven't done these Favourite Thing Cupcakes for some time now and it was fun personalising them. These were for the client's best friend whose favourite colour is gold. Well, it would have been much if everything was in gold (too wedding-y) but I'm glad with a few other colours to mellow it, the set of 16 Lemon Cupcakes turned out really pretty.

These 16 Lemon Cupcakes on the other hand was for her husband. All of his favourite things and I was especially pleased with these two- a watch and a Canon camera! Not bad, eh?

Pretty in Pink

These Lemon Poppyseed mini cupcakes were customised for the client's ob-gynae for the services rendered during the birth of her baby girl.

Office Birthdays

The staff at the local Cargill (manufacturer of animal feed and nutrition) celebrated their monthly birthdays (June-September) last Friday and I baked for them Chocolate & Orange Swirl and Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes. The theme was animals that they produce feed for. That's as much as I could do for a product like that! 4 bags of animal feed and these animal cut-outs (as simple as they look,) took me the whole day! I didn't even get to cook dinner that day...sigh.

Hari Raya Aidilfitri 2011

This year's Hari Raya cupcakes - the one and only set this year! Was away for a week prior and during the long Raya holidays so I missed out the festive bake-rush this year. Nonetheless, these were Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes.

Yellow Daisies

This post is so overdue.... I've kept the last two months easy and not taking in any cake orders just so I can sort out a couple of things in the homefront that are also long overdue. But I'm back now and August will be zooming past real quick (pun intended and you'll see why..) Back to these mini cupcakes. This is another of Little Miss' playmates when they were little and she's always been a "yellow" fan. Loves all things yellow then (had a yellow Power Ranger cake years ago) and still do. Mum wanted something simple in yellow for her school mates. So, I made a batch of yellow daisies and butterflies.

Baby Girl Announcement

Baby Rhea came to join her two brothers about a month ago and these 120 regular-sized cupcakes were made to announce her this weekend. I went back to using the pink and white colour combination as nothing announces a baby girl more than these colours. Instead of the usual onesies, I made little dresses this time because after having two boys, I'm pretty sure mummy is dying to dress her up! The cupcakes were a mixture of Devil's Food, good ol'Butter, Citrus Yellow and an introduction to the light Peanut Butter Cupcake.

Each silver box housed 4 cupcakes and they were neatly ribboned with a personalised announcement tag.

12th Golden Birthday

What an honour to be baking for this young lady again this year. Made a batch of 72 minis for the young lady last year for her 11th at school with lots of pretty daisies and a mini of herself buried in her book and her swim gear. She's an ardent reader and an accomplished swimmer. This year, she turns 12 on April 12. By American culture, it's her Golden Birthday. Golden Birthdays are basically the birthday when you turn the age of your birth date. Mum gave me an update on what she's been up to the past year and I had to come up with something! At her age, she would know of charm bracelets. So, I turned all things that she is and love into gold charms. So, we have Thomas Sabo-inspired Converse shoe charms, books, an old-fashioned calendar with the birth date and month, her age 12, swimming medal, rabbit (her animal zodiac), theatre masks, map of Australia (she was there recently for theatre) and the lucky charms -4-leaf clovers and a horse shoe. A couple of hearts for love and stars to realise her dreams. I think I'll get my daughter a charm bracelet for her 19th Golden Birthday! But before that, we've got my son's Golden Birthday to plan....turning 13 on Sept.13 in the year 2013. That should be a cool one....

Is It A Boy or A Girl??

Don't know if the baby will be a boy or a girl, yet but I think these mini Espresso cupcakes will celebrate either fine. Got a lovely textured mat some time ago and used it here because it looks very much like a baby blankie. They're so cute!

Weekend with the Girls

Wish I was there!! This young lady turned 11 with a weekend retreat into nature with her girlfriends last weekend. The Orange Poppyseed & Devil's Food Cupcakes are yummy combinations - one's refreshing and the other...well, it's chocolate! I thought I had designs for these cupcakes under my hat. I mean, I've done all these things ages ago but clearly, it was AGES ago! I was stuck after the tents, sleeping bags and 3 girls on the old tyre tubes. Believe it or not, I had to really think! And at 9.30pm, with the kids asleep and the MOTH walking into the kitchen every half hour asking if I'm done (rushing me to have my shower before hantu cubit..), I was desperate! So, I shooed and shushed the MOTH away, and went back in time (*twillight zone tune*).

We always had Maggi Mee at camps! Never forget to bring our lastik (*snigger*) and a kite if we had a vast clearing at the campsite. And have picnics by the waterfall or pond.

Tents are the usual accomodation but always a treat to sleep under the stars on a clear dark night.

The waterfall! We love waterfalls!

If the running stream's got strong currents, sitting on an old tyre tube is so much fun.

And bird-watching - this is the 20th century version. Our time, we don't watch birds. They're everywhere and there's no need for binoculars to spot even the rarest bird!

Rocking into the 8th!!!

Hah!! Another "blank canvas" for me to play with! Well, partly blank-lah. Two weeks ago, the early-planning Claire's mummy ordered 40 cupcakes for her school celebration and hinted that she loves Taylor Swift. Great! Apart from guitars and some cool pairs of boots, I was thinking of ordering a couple of edible prints with Taylor Swift on it. So, it would have been pretty much a fan kinda bunch of cupcakes UNTIL....mummy checked with the birthday girl about highlighting Taylor Swift. The young lady said "NO! The boys may laugh at me!". So, mummy said to just do a simple music theme with notes etc. Yaaaawwn.....
Seriously, I didn't start thinking what "music theme" was going to be until a day before I had to bake those chocolate cupcakes. The best ideas seem to always pop into my head at the very last minute, very dangerous... Nevertheless, I like Taylor Swift. She's all-American pretty and writes some pretty good songs for the kids. How? Silhouettes, of course! And there we have it, the shadowy female guitarist(s) and her adoring fans...

And, an extra order of Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes to go for the kind neighbour.

By the way...

Forgot these...the host of the earlier 1st birthday party is a doll for remembering 4 other people who's sharing the same birthday as her son. Since they were expected to attend the party, she wanted a cupcake for each of them to share the birthday joy. Isn't she sweet?? I made miniature birthday cakes to top these cupcakes with a tiny candle each.

Traditional 80th Birthday

Gosh, what a week! I had an order for 400 cupcakes featuring the traditional Chinese symbols of longevity - The "Shou" character and the Longevity Peach. These were for an 80th grand birthday celebration in Kuala Pilah. Note to self: Don't do mass order again.. I was bored out of my skull baking and topping them off (not to mention spending a couple of days cutting 200 of the chinese character and hand-making 200 peaches!). No joke when you're flying solo.
Lesson learnt... MOTH 1 GODDESS 0.