The Arabian Bride

Malam Berinai is one of the mandatory Malay wedding customs to be held prior to the marriage solemnisation ceremony. Usually held at the bride's home, both bride- and groom-to-be will be dressed in pre-wedding finery and a simple ceremony of (temporary) tattooing their hands with designs using henna. There are many stages of this ceremony I believe, but these days most just do with one ceremony. During this kenduri (feast), the bride usually decides to have a theme night (and a hen night as well, since most of the attendees will be the bride's closest pals and female family members. The popular themes I keep hearing of are the Arabian and Bollywood. I guess these two are fitting because both cultures do henna inking (also known as bindi for the Hindi). So, for this wedding, the bride decided on an Arabian theme and her girlfriend decided to wish her well with a cake. No Princess Jasmine palace or flying carpets, but a simple tassled satin pillow (Lemon Poppyseed Cake) as the base and the bride-to-be dressed in a beaded caftan.

Yes, I spent a looooong time putting on those tiny sugar beads using a surgical pincer. 

The back.

Cake finished weighing 1.6kg.

Bridal Shower

Baked and decorated these cupcakes to celebrate a bride. Doesn't she have thoughtful friends?? Love.

Purple & White Hantaran

Chose to keep this purple and white-themed hantaran cake simple because it's a small cake. Can't tell right? Well, this cake was only 5.5"x 5.5" with a 2.5" height. And no, I did not cover the cake with layers after layers of fondant, mind you. I simply chose to visually add height by using vertical stripes in various shades of purple (violet) and placed emphasis on the centrepiece. I also avoided complicated swirls and imprints because it will crowd the flowers. My reliable retailer of gumpaste flowers as usual, has some of the most beautifully crafted roses in violet and white. They are not cheap but like I said before, they're worth every sen if you look at them here. Realistic and looks a million bucks! This Lime-Syrup Sponge Cake weighed only 1.3kg without the flowers (those are charged separately as they are retailed). Chose to do this cake because it's a moist cake (and was further moisten with the lime syrup) and will stay moist in the next couple of days for the wedding.

Mini Cakes

By the time I remembered to photograph these mini fruit cakes, I've packaged them into their boxes. The wedding theme colour was white and silver, so these mini gift cakes were covered in white fondant and adorned simply with small white blossoms with miniature sugar pearls. The ribbons were provided for to coincide with the theme. I'd much prefer not to do these mini cakes in squares (2.5"x2.5") because it is awfully hard to cut them proportionately without a lot of wastage. I'm one not for any wastage of cake if possible. I've got a set of mini round tins for round mini cakes. Have yet to try them out, but will definitely do it soon to see if the cakes will turn out better.

White & Soft Pink Hantaran

This 3.5kg (9.5") non-alcoholic Rich Fruit Cake was the choice of this regular client as a hantaran gift for a wedding last weekend. The dulang (tray) was to be adorned with fresh flowers so I had to come up with a design to complement the tray. Theme colour was white but we decided to add a dash of light pink to soften the harshness of an all-white cake. It turned out very romantic and most suited for the akad nikah (marriage solemnisation ceremony).

Pale pink and white butterflies dropped in for a visit.

Smaller cakes of the same theme was requested as gift for each guest at the VIP table during the wedding reception. So I covered a 5" square (1.2kg) Rich Fruit Cake using the same base design with a smaller rose and more white and pink blossoms!

Hantaran

This peach-coloured Hantaran cake had me stumped for quite awhile. What colour would the flowers be? You see, I'm no good at making life-like gumpaste-flowers. So I pretty much have to rely on store-bought ones and their colour range is limited. I have a good supplier with fantastic quality of flowers. Very expensive but I wouldn't settle for anything less to follow through Great Bakes' cakes! I was at the store pacing the floors for half an hour before finally deciding on a light pink box of large roses and two boxes of medium and small white roses. I must say, they were good matches. The 8", 2kg non-alcoholic Traditional English Fruitcake looks classy.

English Bird Cage

Pretty, pretty, pretty cake! Only 1 word can sum up this cake - PRETTY! I hardly do pretty cakes and it's nice to do something like this especially for 2 very special (and pretty) people! It's a mother-daughter birthday and I was pressed for time. Not doing the cake was not an option for me and this bird cage was all I could think of when the phone call came! Mum loves flowers and daughter loves New York. So, I used pink and chocolate colours that's very NY for the cage. The yellow daisies and purple fillers are for mum. The 2 bluebirds - the 2 ladies are never to be caged-in ;-) and are always on the go! Happy Birthday Auntie Dibah and Aifa!!!

This 2.3kg design (Carrot Cake here with cream cheese separately) will also be great for an engagement or as a Hantaran cake.

Bride & ManU Fan

The Bride and her Manchester United-fan groom. A friend is attempting to bake her niece a 4-tier wedding cake this weekend and she needed some help in this department. Most happy to help "top-off" the cake!

Pastel Pink Hantaran

This was a very simple 1kg (7") Rich Chocolate cake used as a Hantaran. Theme colour was pink in pastel.

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.

A Little Humour ...

Thought this cake would be appropriate for the newly-weds' casual wedding reception at Courtyard last Saturday - groom who only drinks Coke and bride who loves her booze!! This 3.8kg Chocolate Fudge cake was the main table's centrepiece and both loved the depiction of themselves. Apparently the scene repeated itself that night after the party!! Lol!

Cake viewed from the top.

The anxious groom.

The drunk bride.

Ivory & Gold - Table Wedding Cakes

These 6", 7" and cupcakes were designed following an ivory and gold (and white) colour theme for a casual wedding reception. A cake was placed on each table of 10 and 12 guests, as a centrepiece and as a self-serving wedding cake. Each cake weighed around 1kg plus. Flavours were Lemon Poppyseed, Chocolate, Butter, Marble, Lemon Blueberry and Chocolate Cherries.

Hantaran Cupcakes

Gold Peonies against Red Brocade

Bunga Ros Merah against Songket Emas

These cupcakes were commissioned as part of the bride's return hantaran for the akad nikah (solemnisation ceremony of a Muslim marriage) last weekend. The colour scheme was red and gold to marry 2 cultures - the Chinese bride and her Malay bridegroom. With that in mind, the cupcakes were covered in (1) red to signify the Chinese wedding brocade and topped with gold-coloured peonies (flowers signifying abundance to the Chinese) and (2) gold with imprints of the songket (traditional Malay brocade for weddings) and topped with bright red bunga ros that are commonly seen during Malay weddings. Cake is Vanilla Butter.