Birthday cake for Jing Le
I got a mail from Mabel just the other day asking if i could do a cake for her son’s birthday. Mabel had seen the cake I’d done for Wenqi and was impressed with the figurines. As such she wanted me to do a cake for her.
Her only request was that the cake included a hippo. Why a hippo you might ask… well.. the story Mabel told me is so sweet and romantic!
Apparently Mabel is a fan of hippo’s and loves any hippo or hippo related stuff and collects them. So while she and her husband were dating, he had given her a little hippo soft toy. Later, after they got married and had their son Jing Le, this little hippo soft toy was then passed on to Jing Le and became one of Jing Le’s favourite toy. Isn’t the story so sweet!!!
So for them, the hippo has a deep meaning for them and was a must to be included in the cake design. As such, after discussing some various cake ideas with Mabel, Mabel finally decided on having a little boy topper in bed reading (since her son loves books) with the little hippo toy topper next to the boy. This design was perfect as Mabel told me that she always tucks the little hippo next to Jing Le when he goes to sleep.
During the process of making the topper, i was thinking long and hard about how to make the bed. Initially i was thinking of making the whole bed out of fondant but this would make the topper very heavy. So after much consideration and after cracking my brain, i finally hit upon a brilliant idea and decided to make the bed out of chocolate wafers instead. The chocolate wafers worked perfectly and i was ecstatic with the way the bed turned out!

My favourite for this cake was the little hippo i made. Don’t you think he looks like the soft toy!!
This little fella was only about the size of one segment of my pinkie and i was very happy that i managed to fit in so much detail on the hippo notwithstanding how tiny he was
Oh and did you notice the little dimples i added onto the little figurine to make it resemble Jing Le :) The hairstyle here is a little different as Mabel requested that i spike up the hair on the figurine
I thought this cake turned out great and I just hope that Mabel and her son loved the cake as much as i did, and they had as much fun eating it as i had making it
Happy Birthday Jing Le!
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December 2nd, 2008 at 3:01 am
Hi sweetie, I think you made a very lovely cake. The picture really doesn’t do justice to just how much detail you put into the cake…and of course, I thought the hippo was very, very cute. Keep up the good work and I’m really proud of you. No one can do what you do and your toppers are really the best that I have seen (and I’m not being biased..
)Love you. Muah!
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:43 am
wow what an artist you are. this cake really resembles the little baby and toy. how cute !!
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Thanks so much snooky doodle..
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Hi sweetie.. thanks so much for your encouragement and support. I couldn’t do it without you.
Love you too!
December 4th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Wow, nice! Mabel was my supervisor during my internship this year and I’m glad that she had such a beautiful cake for her son’s 1st birthday.
Cheers!
December 4th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Hi Wenqi… thanks so much for your compliment!! Mabel wouldn’t have gotten the cake from me if she hadn’t seen your birthday cake first! So many thanks from me to you as well!!
December 6th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Hi Serene..finally have time to write my comments…..as per my email, thanks for your efforts to make the hipo similar to the real toy as well as Jing Le’s dimples on the boy topper….
btw,you may want to inform your customers in advance that candles n cake knife are not provided…as i am sure some of them will assume it will be provided…
oh ya ..the entire topper is happily ‘freezing cold’ in my freezer..hehe….:P
Wenqi – Thanks for recommending Serene to me…she was vey accommodating on my requests and service was thumbs-up!
December 12th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Hi Mabel.. haha.. you’re most welcome!
And i’m happy to hear that the topper is happily freezing in your freezer.. i hope you will continue to enjoy it
As for the candles and knife, i’ll make sure i let my customers know.. thanks for pointing it out
April 13th, 2009 at 9:51 am
I like the color and the design!..
Looks so delicious!
Can I have some?
Can !?
Please..
April 16th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Hi Aisha, thanks so much for your compliment