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.

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

TMNT Donatello

COWABUNGA DUDE!!!! Yeah, that pretty much stuck in my head together with Teenage.Mutant.Ninja.Turtle tune the whole time I was working on this cake. These sewer-turtles have been around for ages and glad to know that they are still popular today. Sure beats a lot of those tv twits who guise themselves as some kind of hero with moral relevance when everything that spews from their mouth are filth! Yes, pains me to hear rubbish on the telly with children idolising them the same time. I can go on and on about this and frankly, it's tiresome so, FUN FACT! These Ninja turtles were named after great Renaissance artists- Leonardo (Leo), Michelangelo (Mikey), Donatello (Donnie) and Rafael (Raph). They are all trained in Ninjutsu (a Japanese warfare martial art). See? So much to learn from these dudes! And don't forget those weapons they use -the katana, nunchaku, bo (as seen here, used by Donnie) and the sai. Little Hamzah's favourite character is Donatello, and he's the one featured on his Orange Cranberry Cake (2.2kg). I was cracking my head in trying to figure out how to model Donnie in a battle stance and I couldn't do it without wires and a dense cake. The two things I avoid at all cost...especially in cakes for children. Then a lightbulb moment. Sewers! These boys live in storm sewers and often surface via manholes across New York City. With that, Donatello came up via a manhole to Hamzah's party with his bo (you can never be too safe in KL!) and a present- what else? A box of pizza. 

Calienté!

Sweet Natalie turned 10 in May with this 2-tier Chocolate Cake and a hot salsa party with her friends. Lucky girl! I had initially wanted a busier cake depicting all-things South American but after doing Natalie in her salsa garb, I decided not to. I didn't want the focus to shift from the Natalie figurine to 20 tiny chillies, sombreros and tacos. She had to be the centre of attraction and she was -in the party and on the cake. Mission accomplished! Pssttt....the initial cake design was supposed to be of Furby!! Errr.. mummy, I think at 10, Furby should be classified information and not for show'n'tell....kekekekekeke.  The cake finished weighing 4kgs and fed about 40 people I think.

TOMS

Has it been 3 months since I last posted?? Gosh, time flies when you're playing (trying-to-be) perfect mum. With the endless school-runs which started early this year, I am dead to the world by 9pm every day and after this weekend of cake orders, I realised how much I miss working on them. I wish I had more time in my hands to receive more commissions but I just don't have them.... Unless I have a bakeware-equipped truck with all my tools in it, I can actually do a couple of sugar figurines while waiting at school gates! Hmmm...cake for thought.
Anyway, this cake - let's back-date it to April 12th. It was a 2.7kg Chocolate Cake designed for a young lady who's been loving my cakes and design since she was 11 in 2010. And by her my mum's account of her every year, I can see her growing up to be a successful sportswoman, scholar as well as a responsible young woman. The last observation revealed in her choice of shoes. For many years, she'd wear her Converse everywhere and her mum said that her collection could rival any grown-woman's shoe collection. But of late, she found these shoes- TOMS. If you check them out, you'll see why I say she'll be a responsible adult. I've never heard of them before until then and totally support this cause...if they can be found sold here (and also because I simply love the fabrics!). So, mum suggested I attempt to do a pair of her favourite "vegetarian" TOMS in pink. I was pretty nervous at the thought of modelling a pair of shoes but it turned out better than expected. The birthday girl loved it, of course.. ;-)

Easter Birthday

Birthday girl was celebrating her 10th birthday on Sunday at church and she requested to have a cake shaped in a cross. I don't have a pan shaped that way but it wouldn't be difficult to cut the cake to shape. However, I did highlight to her mum that if she planned to feed 30-40 people with that cake, it needs to be quite big and waste a LOT of cake. I think, like me, you will agree that food wastage is simply not tolerated. With that in mind, we agreed to having a cross on the cake instead. Because they were working towards Easter activities, I thought we should have a Spring theme surrounding the cross...flowers, particularly. So, that was the plan. I did a rough sketch in my head and as I did that, the cross with spring flowers on and around it, suddenly looked very morbid. Morbidly grave... The whole cake would look like a Christian grave with spring flowers growing on it. Now, if it was an Easter cake or for any religious celebration, it would have been fine but for a 10 year old's birthday- the celebration of life, I think not. I went through some youth church group representations and found this beautiful design. Easter is a celebration of life and I could have done the easiest thing like move the flowers around, add some rabbits and eggs (totally irrelevant in the church's point of view) and what not, but I wanted the cake to represent her youth. How the young represented the church. I chose colours that represented Good Friday then Easter. A cross with designs on it  that were symbolic to the belief. I believe the young lady was disappointed with the flowers missing but they had a tight schedule for the day and couldn't spare me half an hour to add some yellow flowers for her. I hope it worked out for her anyway. But I really like this design. Do you?

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...

Mickey Mouse

Here's a cake theme I don't fancy doing. Mickey Mouse. Like Barney, this mouse rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it's the voice or I don't know, his outfit?? But again, the main reason I don't do cakes like these is that these characters have very distinctive hard-to-replicate features. If you Google for Mickey Mouse cakes, you'll see what I mean. Lots of sugar figurines of this very famous mouse are disfigured. I am sure there are very talented sculptors out there who can do a brilliant job on this guy but that's not me. I've rejected a fair share of cakes for this theme but I do have very kind clients who compromise because they love the cake itself. How it looks is secondary. So, I decorate such cakes this way (1.7kg Chocolate Cake) or in its clubhouse format where I add Mickey cut-outs or the client buys a toy Mickey and plonk it on the cake. That would be ideal. By trademark laws, we're not even allowed to reproduce syndicated characters. We can be sued!

Zonked-Out Teen

Another young teenager celebrating a birthday! This young lady's the same age as my Young Master. She accepted a scholarship to do her high school education in a boarding school and according to her mum, she's been hard at work. So much to do and so little time. I stalked mum's Facebook account for photos of her checking-in to boarding school early this year and found a few useful pictures. I baked Dark Chocolate Brownies in a loaf pan and modelled it to look exactly like her dorm bed. Matched her plain white sheets, blue blanket, orange pail of dirty laundry and her purple backpack. It was a typical scene of  in her dorm (well, I assumed that but I'm sure it isn't as messy. But what's the fun if we mums aren't a bit dramatic??!) So, I visualised piled-up laundry to be done, lots of homework to finish, books to study from, skipping meals and snacking on junk, music blaring through earphones. I really enjoyed working on this cake.

The Dark Chocolate Brownies all dressed up, weighed 1.7kg.

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.

Adventure Time 2

I.don.t.see.the.point.nor.humour.in.this.cartoon. I caught a trailer of this cartoon just a few days ago and do you know what's under that white bonnet-thingy Jake...or is it Finn?? Well, the boy wears? It's very long hair! How does that even make sense? I don't think I'll ever understand cartoons such as these...ever. But it was an easy cake to do, not much to think about when all the kid want is Finn and Jake. This Orange Cranberry Cake finished weighing 3.2kgs.

Pink Barbie

Zahira's a huge fan of buttercream and would always prefer to have buttercream icing on her cakes when possible. Her first cake in 2010 was in fondant because of the circus theme. So, her brother's 1st birthday cake was covered in buttercream instead. In 2011, she chose a Princess Ballerina, so I did buttercream ruffles for the tutu. In 2012, she's still girly at 5 and wanted a pink Barbie cake. Applying the same buttercream ruffles concept, I gradually layered tight ruffles from white to rose-pink. This Cranberry Orange Cake finished weighing 2kg. Mum bought and sent over the Barbie.
I'm going to take this opportunity to highlight the importance of using a good knife for my cakes. These 3 cakes had the same problem as one of my customers had 2 years back. The cakes crumbled. In the past 2 years, they've never had such problems with the cakes they got from me. Cakes cut beautifully, no complains. This time, the cakes crumbled. What changed? The venue of the party. The last 2 parties were at home hence the hosts used proper sharp (and preferably serrated) knives to cut those cakes. This time, party was held at a kids' playland and cake cutting was done using their knife by them. We don't know what knife they used or how they cut the 3 different cakes but they all crumbled. The earlier customer I mentioned with this problem had her party in McDonalds and they use....wait for it.....a pastry cutter! That's not even a knife!
So, why do my cakes require good knives? THEY.ARE.FRESHLY.BAKED. Freshly-baked cakes are always softer. And my cakes are not the kind most cake decorators bake for novelty cakes which are Madeira cakes. Madeira cake is a basic cake base which is firm, holds it's shape very well, can be stacked-stable hence very easy to cut. We are also suppose to let our cakes "age" at least 24 hours before we cover and decorate it. This tends to dry out the cake, so many will add fillings such as buttercream or jam in between the cakes for moisture. Flavoured-sugar syrups are also brushed on the cakes before they are covered in fondant. Watch an episode of Cake Boss or Fabulous Cakes, and you will understand I'm saying here. The cakes can be held with two hands like a plank or flipped around like a frisbee and doesn't break. I can't do that with any of my cakes. They are baked in the morning, cooled for a couple of hours and I decorate it by afternoon. Cake's collected the next morning for the party in the afternoon. You see, the cake doesn't even get a chance to age. This is also why, I can only do 1 cake a day!
You can see what good slices I get from my cakes from my baking blog Doing a Julie/Julia, they are all beautifully-cut using simply a cheap steak knife but sharp! It's serrated and cut using a gently sawing motion. Are we good?? *thumbs up*

Hot Wheels 2

The party was for 3 children, so mum and I decided that it'll be more economical (and make more sense) to have 3 small cakes, 3 different flavours. Mum knew I was up to my eyeballs during the Christmas period and suggested that I bake one large cake and incorporate the 3 children's theme on it! Imagine Tayo the Blue Bus, Hotwheels and Barbie on one cake....errr, yes *roll eyes*. See, I wouldn't do that to children. There are always ways to get around making our lives simpler...elegant solutions. Small cakes! Doesn't need much sugar work on them, yet will serve the theme, stand-out and the child will smother his/her mum with endless kisses and thank yous. Hehehehehe....yes, I aim to achieve that for all the mums who order their cakes from me, provided she knows exactly what her child wants and not guess or assume. So, here's the second cake for the party - a 1.3kg Lemon Poppyseed Cake with a very simple HotWheels-themed design.

Tayo & Friends

I am soooo post-dated that I cannot believe that myself. 3 months since I last updated this blog! It was the same with Doing A Julie/Julia, it wasn't that I hadn't been working on any cakes since, it was just the matter of short daylight hours. By the time dinner is on the table everyday, I'd be a living dead. Really dead on my feet. I've had to accommodate new school runs starting January and for that, I've also been accepting much less cake orders. Having bursts of 30 minutes to an hour in between school locations and home throughout the day doesn't leave me much time for cake decorating. Sugar modelling and cake decorating are very time-consuming tasks though they make me very happy. So, I've been a grouch of late having to give up lots of beautiful cakes to do. But thankfully, I still get to bake and continue to try out new recipes. You can read all about my stolen trysts with my Kenwood from my other blog.
But when I do get some hard-to-pass cake orders or very simple requests, I sacrifice my tea and book hours, and sleep just to do them. I do that because I have very good and loyal customers. This is one of them. I've been creating cakes for her for the past 3 years I think... always during the Christmas period, for both her children celebrating together. This time, she included her nephew in the party. Rafenzo didn't get a "real" birthday cake for his birthday in July because he lives in Hong Kong and novelty cake designers are hard to come by *lightbulb moment*. So, his folks settled for a cake from the bakery. When they returned in December, Rafenzo got a little 1.5kg Vanilla Bean Cake with Tayo the Blue Bus theme. I spent so much time on those buses but it was time well-spent. Cute aren't they?

Ariel, Little Mermaid

Ahh.....3-year old girls and their princesses. Don't they all go through that phase...yes, even my I-prefer-to-be-a-boy daughter went through it. But not at all hardcore like the girls you'd see walking in malls in their princess costumes, clip-clopping in ill-fitting pink, furry, diamante kitten-heels or sleeping in nighties featuring their favourite Disney princess. Not to mention the school bags, handbags, pencil cases, water bottles...that's a huge money-making industry there! Our Little Miss never wanted anything remotely close to being princessy. Those few pieces of pink tiara, pencil sets and what-nots were presents from well-meaning friends who thought we were depriving her of being a princess *sigh*  Her brushes with Disney princesses were in forms of movies and magazines. She enjoyed the stories but after awhile, she found them repetitive...the whole happily ever after ending after meeting a prince? Yeah, that part will have her rolling her eyes...even at 4. So, here we have Ariel depicted under the sea next to her underwater musical instruments. The bottom tier was covered in pink fondant because Aryssa loves the colour pink.This was a 2.2kg Chocolate Cake for a small party of 15.

RIO

Lovable Ayden-Jon turns 1. It seemed like only yesterday when he was just this tiny, red blob of a baby in the hospital and now he's this ankle-biter who's learnt to wave like the Queen! Children seem to grow up faster when they aren't yours don't they? Nonetheless, mum and dad threw him a big bash yesterday and requested for a RIO-themed cake. I went like "...must be your idea. Can't be your son's. He's only 1". Well, apparently, the boy will only sit still and play while RIO's on the telly! He's in awe of the whole song-and-dance in the movie and I can't be happier. Think this is much better entertainment than B....... ok, I shall stop now before I offend too many parents.
Anyway, I thought I'd bake 2 cakes since it was going to feed 50 people and tiered. We had Devil's Food Chocolate for the 9" bottom tier and Lemon Poppyseed Cake for the 7" top tier (cake finished weighing 3.8kg). The idea was for the "older" folks to have the Lemon Poppyseed Cake since it is THE cake for elders while the chocolate feeds the masses. Turned out most had both flavours and there weren't enough cake to go around in the end! Smart folks we have on this guest list.... ;-p

Twilight Saga

Let me admit this, till this day, I have not read or watch this cult vampire drama. I've heard all about it and why I say cult, is pretty obvious. The Twilight Saga has such a huge legion of fans around the world from 10-year old girls to 50-year old housewives! Fine. Edward and Jacob? Nice-looking. Great abs. Evil vs evil...I think? Romance of the century. Dramatic ending....I think? But one thing I appreciate was Stephanie Meyers' titles and the book cover-relevance. Love the simple yet strong titles, colour scheme and motifs used for each title. And with that, the cake and cupcakes turned out strikingly beautiful.

I baked a two-tier Devil's Food Chocolate to feed about 20 people and kept the design simple. The worry-factor for me was making the tulip. I'm horrid at making gum paste flowers but I think it turned out pretty close to the actual. I was just glad that the petals stayed up and didn't chip off. That cake finished weighing 2.6kg. The 40 cupcakes in Butter, Vanilla Chocolate Chip and Confetti were also kept simple. By keeping both that way, they worked together great side-by-side.

So...anyone has these books or movies to lend?

Pocoyo...again

There really isn't much to say for this 5th or 6th Pocoyo cake I've done, isn't there? Well, except that this little 2-tier Devil's Food Chocolate Cake finished weighing 1.7kg. Pocoyo Rules!!!