1st Racing Car

This very little cake - only 7" in diameter, was for little Sean who's turned 1 last weekend. He loves chocolate and race cars. With such a small surface to work on, there's little I can do but that's fine especially when we had a feature character on it. I modelled a race car after the famous Lightning McQueen in Cars and had a busy side design instead. I think it's spot-on. The Rich Chocolate Cake finished weighing a good 1.5kg.

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.

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....

Alice In Wonderland

This little girl was born a year ago with little mini cupcakes I made to announce her birth. How time flies and today, she's celebrating her first birthday. Aunty Deenie is back to make her 1st birthday cake. Mummy's beautiful idea to hold a "Alis in Wonderland" tea party got me beaming from ear to ear. You wouldn't believe how much you can do with this theme. A theme that can result in a beautiful cake. One thing I was sure NOT going to do was to design it based on Tim Burton's version. That version would suit a grown-up theme party perfectly and not for a one year old. So, I chose the version I grew up with...the 50s Disney version.

I decided on the Mad Hatter taking centrestage on this cake and not Alice because no.1- Alis is to be the star of the party (not Alice) and no.2- it's a 3pm birthday tea party. It was only appropriate to feature the table with tea-time goodies...look closely and you'll see that I've made some lemon macarons as well!

Next, we have Lewis Carroll's Alice in her trademark blue dress, white pinafore, white stockings, black Mary Janes and the black ribbon to keep her hair up. Not the 19 year old... She's about the enter the tiny door.

Here's the White Rabbit in his waistcoat with the pocket watch (should have made that bigger) and his black umbrella which he carries with his all over the place. Can you almost hear him saying "I'm late, I'm late, For an important date!"? I put him near the royal garden because some say that he's late in announcing the queen's arrival there. Oh! The Cheshire Cat.. can't forget him can we?

This is the Queen of Hearts and not the Red Queen. She's a more regal queen and the differences are obvious. No tumour in the head of this one, too scary looking for kids don't you think? She is in her garden after the roses have been painted red by her two gardening playing cards. p/s: The Queen's skirt's cake.

Last but not least, the two fat twin brothers - Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Alice will meet these two fellas very soon and be caught in one of their many rhyming games! This version of the twins are based on the 1871 illustrations in Through The Looking-Glass. But I made them smile instead of the grumps they were.

This moist Lemon Poppyseed Cake finished weighing 3kg. Isn't a very big cake, mind you. Just enough for about 50 people if they can find their way to cutting up the cake....

Digger & Ballerina

This little princess of an old friend requested for a "Digger & Ballerina" cake. Had her mum scratching her head on the relations of both but really, kids don't have explanations why they just love certain characters though they're unrelated. They just do! And I think this young lady is a very balanced girl to be indifferent towards stereotyping. I've never done an excavator before and had to choose one to model after. My daughter suggested the yellow excavator from Bob The Builder (it is Scoop, right? It's been too many years..). That was a brilliant idea and I'm pretty sure Rebecca will recognise this character since she's only 4. I was apprehensive as usual at modelling a known character. Flaws are highly noticeable. Nonetheless, held my breath throughout and I think it turned out beautifully. Next was the Ballerina. I wanted to do Wendy (also from Bob The Builder) dressed as a ballerina but decided not to do the blonde hair in the end. I wanted it localised a bit in case the birthday girl sees herself as the ballerina. This little 7" Butter Cake finished at 1.5kg. Yeah, the excavator added quite a bit of weight.

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!

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.

60th Birthday Dartboard

Hope my son will be as thoughtful as this one when we're 60! Apparently, this young man's dad used to play darts when he was still working. Now that he's retired, darts kind of got the pensioner's card as well. Nevertheless, I personally hope that he'll take it up again when he sees the cake...I think it's a great game to keep the mind sharp and eyes constantly exercised. This 1.7kg Rich Chocolate Cake-board was modelled after a Winmau (not that it matters since I think all of them look the same ;-P)

Making this dart was agony. Just when I thought I've organised the "parts" on that dart carefully and put it on the cake, it rains. My room aircond had to come on at 5pm that day just so the dart doesn't die on me.

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!