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!

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.

10th Year Milestone?

I'm a historical saga buff and love the juicy bits that goes on behind the courts of King Henry or the drama during the War of the Roses. So, can you blame me for thinking of The Tower when I got the free reins (wohoo!!) to come up with a Chocolate Fudge Cake for a young squire turning 10 this week? Inspired by Debbie B (cake designer extrodinaire), I chose to do this as also a reminder to us mums that our boys are growing up and that we should start letting them out of our (tight) grip ..snif, snif... Do you know that by 10 during those days, boys would already know how to joust? And our 10 year olds can't even cross the road without us screaming "look left!! no! look right!!" Gosh...we mums.

This small chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling came up to 1.8kg! That's a lot of fudge there...