Red Power Ranger

19.08.2013

These guys never cease in their popularity don't they? Well, this was a "school cake". School cakes are popular here. Children (or is it the parents???) just love to celebrate their birthday at school. I've only managed to probably do 3 between my two children...I say managed because they'd give me the are-you-kidding-me-look whenever I suggest that. They somehow have this aversion to being in the spotlight. I guess it must be kinda weird to be standing at the front of the class facing your cake, having the rest of the 40 children singing Happy Birthday to you and you're trying to grin and bear it. Okay..I'm with my children on this. Nonetheless, I do think it's a great idea despite what mine feels. Great opportunity for very young children especially, to mingle with their peers on a relaxed occasion and folks to check-in with the school teachers, on a non-threatening occasion....hahahahahahahahaha. Anyway, back to the cake. I always recommend a single dimension design for school cakes. Very simple reason. The child will always ask for his/her favourite character on their cake. If I had done a 3D figurine of this red Power Ranger for example, I guarantee that there'll be a tussle between the children. Every child will want that sugar figurine. The poor birthday boy may end up not having it for himself despite the occasion of HIS birthday and HIS cake! So, do remember that when you're planning for a school cake. This was a 2kg chocolate cake.

Turning double digit

19.07.2013
This young lady...yes, she gets called that now since she's turned double-digit, always has her ideas on what she wants for her annual cake. Last year was a Rainbow Cake which I don't think I posted about it. But here's how that cake looked like...

Piped buttercream rosettes around the cake. She loooooves buttercream.

The inside was a 6-colour vanilla layer cake. And no...I don't do multiple-coloured cakes for sale. Drives me crazy. For 2013, she designed her own 2-tier cake. Although it looks huge here, the cake was actually made up of a small 7-inch base and a 4-inch tier. Just to feed 4 and some extras for the following day's breakfast. Her brief was simple - a model of her, cake covered in fondant and some candies. Oh yes, she also specified a Vanilla Confetti Chocolate Chip Cake. Yes...yes..yes...sugar overload. This year's brief though was testing..."surprise me". Well, I baked a surprise-inside cake for her. Have the picture in my phone and will upload it over in Doing A Julie-Julia eventually ;-) since it's more a baking thing rather than a decorating thing.

Pink Barbie

18.07.2013
This cake was for the little sister of the previously-posted birthday boy. As much as mum tried to steer her away for going for the very cliché Barbie cake, the birthday girl insisted. There's no saying no to this adamant princess. Good thing was mum said she didn't care for any specific princess for the cake to be modelled after as long as it's a Barbie cake. Well, I thought this design would be fitting for a girl of 4. They chose a marble cake again...they loved the non-canteen-like flavour and texture of this cake. I'd like to call this my posh marble cake. It's moist and marbled with a coffee-ish- chocolate and orangy-butter. Yummmm...For this design, I did away with covering the cake in fondant. I whipped up some buttercream and piped layers of frills for her ball gown skirt. I love the effect! And so did the birthday girl. The cake finished weighing about 2kg.

Boys and Guns

I have to backtrack by over a year to update this blog! Since my last post in here, much has happened. I shall not bore you with the story again. But in case you hadn't read about it, yet.....do pop over to my other blog for a quick glance over. All is well now, but still no respite from being the now 14-year old son, and 11-year old daughter's full-time-stay-home-mum. Ah, well...year-end exams are round the corner and I've been on their back with a stick. So, it'll be a quiet October on the novelty cake front but there'll be some actions in Doing a Julie-Julia (when I get around updating THAT blog ;-p)

03.07.2013

So....this was done when I got back from Perth last year. It was an emergency request from Little Miss' classmate's mum and I hadn't stocked up my fondant supplies, yet. Took me some time to get back into the groove then because Perth was a family holiday this time round. You know how travelling with kids are never truly holidays at all? Well, still the case even when they're no longer "small". But I gladly baked this cake for the young man. He was thrown a small NERF party with his mates after school (if, I remember correctly). Can never separate boys from their guns since the days of yore. So mum requested a small 7-inch cake for the symbolic cake-cutting. I didn't have a large supply of fondant then, so I did a simple single dimension version of his favourite NERF pistol. It was simple, yet right on target for the boy. He and his mates loved that 1.2kg marble cake. Not a crumb left.

The Cuddlies

Okay...how these aliens are "cuddly", I really don't see it. Cute, yeah...a little. The Cuddlies?? But never mind what I think. What matters is that toddlers love them, apparently and they're shown on Disney's BabyTV- a channel dedicated to babies and toddlers. I read up a little about them and I must say, the programme sounds quite educational. Each character here represents an important part of a toddler - hunger (that'll be the orange one with the sandwich?), sleep (obviously the yellow one?), fear (the blue one with the bulging eyes looks scared enough?) and contentment (the silly purple alien?). Little Zoe turned 2 and she's smitten with these little fellas. She could even name them all when mum and dad brought her along to pick up the cake. Impressive! I also decided to model a little Zoe for the cake (trust me, this is a poor representation of her. Zoe looks waaayyyy much prettier and is simply adorable). I saw an episode of them celebrating a birthday and the birthday ummm...alien had a grass-daisy tiara on it. So, I added that on her head. Young Zoe also has a interesting palate. She's one who enjoys Coconut Cake (this one finished weighing 1.8kg). Yeah, I can practically hear some of you groaning. Not a favourite among adults, what more a 2-year old right? Gotta love this girl! Well, I have 2 recipes for this cake and much prefer the one with the booze but hey, though she's well-trained to handle exotic cakes, think it's too early to introduce her to Malibu ;-p

20 Times Champion

Two Manchester United fans (coincidently are best friends, too) were celebrating their 29th and a newly-engaged fiancée thought it'll be a great idea to surprise the birthday boys with themed cake. ManU-themed, of course and a tribute to the retired Sir Alex Ferguson (AF) - after 26 years managing the Red Devils. I thought it was a fitting theme for not only were the boys die-hard supporters of ManU, the team also finished with a high winning their 20th league title- the last league led by AF. I'm no football-know-it-all but I read the news. It's hard not to know anything about the Reds. Fiancée wanted some humour attached to it, so I suggested one with AF holding a red hairdryer (like a pistol) at the 2 fans, solemnly kneeling in front of him. If you don't know what the hairdryer means in soccer, well...it's basically having your coach chewing you out right at your face really loudly. AF is known to do that A LOT. I don't know how the term "hairdryer treatment" came about but I suppose these lashings are done mostly in the locker rooms? Really loudly? Making the hair at the back of your neck stand when you're embarrassingly shouted at? All relates to a hairdryer! But, fiancée thought that was a bit much, so we settled for something simple like the boys smooching up AF. So, I worked on the birthday boys' body language for the humour. Poor Mr Ferguson. I doubt he's ever allowed anyone to be this chummy with him! Not even his players I think.

I also added half a soccer ball on the cake. Used the new Nike design for Manchester United. The Marble Cake finished at 2.3kg.

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.