Baby Dino

Can't believe little Hamzah is 2 already! People's children always seem to grow up faster than your own don't they? Good for me though because I truly enjoy baking cakes to mark milestones. Especially birthdays when I get to see the child's changing interest every year. Little Hamzah loves dinosaurs and I wanted to create something that was more suited to his age. While a busy jurassic scene would be awesome, it may be a bit much for a 2-year old to comprehend or appreciate. So, I decided to feature just one adorable baby dinosaur. Just one look at it and he'll know it's a dinosaur. Nothing beasty nor any showing of fangs, just a surprised little dino caught running off to play hide! This 9" Moist Lemon Cake finished weighing at 2.2kg.

90th Mahjong Birthday

It was mum-in-law's 90th birthday last weekend and we all headed home to Penang for a grand bash. While the "official" birthday cake was well taken care of, we decided to bake her favourite Oriental Sugee Cake to surprise her at home. At 90, mum's still bright with a memory that'll put many half her age to shame. We think it's her weekly mahjong session that keeps her mind alert!

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....