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?

Traditional Chinese Birthday

This cake was supposed to be done last year when the client's grandmother was 85 years old. Couldn't do it then because it was the term break and we were away. Another simple cake just for symbolism, we had a 1.2kg Marble Cake adorned with the Chinese character for Longevity (Shou) and 9 longevity peaches to represent long life.

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!