Pooh tea party cake

Yen contacted me and asked if i could do a Pooh tea party cake for her daughter’s upcoming birthday. Her daughter since young always held tea party’s with her toys and as such, Yen wanted to do a Pooh tea party cake for her birthday.. the twist was that Nemo had to be at the Pooh tea party too!!

So after thinking long and hard about how to do the cake and include Nemo, i decided to do the base colour fondant in blue to represent water, and have a patch of grass at the top of the cake where the tea party would be held. I added some little fishes and algae to the side of the cake as well to make it look as if you were looking into an aquarium

I loved the colours used on this cake which i thought really made it stand out. Don’t you think so?

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Yummy plain chocolate cake with ganache frosting

My aunt requested for me to do a chocolate cake for her with ganache frosting for her staff’s birthday celebration. She requested for something simple for the cake with the words “Happy Birthday Soo Yen” on it.

So this was what i came up with… i added some simple sprinkles and flowers to keep it simple but pretty.  

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Another request for pooh cake

Yup, this was another request for a Pooh cake from Stacy. As her daughter loved Heffalump, she asked if i could do a Pooh cake with Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and of course Heffalump as the central figurine for the cake. In addition, as she was worried that there might not be enough cake, she also ordered a box of bee cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting to complement the cake.

I’ve done a few Heffalumps but realised that i still haven’t managed to get Heffalump down pat the past few times i did the figurine of Lumpy, so this time i looked at a bigger picture of Heffalump and tried to figure out what details were missing from the Lumpy figurines i’ve done previously. As such, this time, i added the little sewing lines on Lumpy that weren’t there before which i thought really helped to make my Lumpy figurine look more like Lumpy

I liked the colours on this cake and again, i had an opportunity to use my butterfly cutters for the border of the cake and on top of the number “5″ on the cake. What do you think? Don’t you think the cake looked so sweet And i bet with the little bee cupcakes arranged around the cake, i think this would look totally cute Don’t you?

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Peppa pig, Tigger and Barney cake

Lisa contacted me sometime back asking if i could do a customised cake for her. However, she was torn between what cake toppers she wanted for the cake since her daughter actually had several favourites.

After some discussion with me as to whether i would be able to combine the different cartoon characters that her daughter liked on the cake, which i said would not be a problem, she informed me that the cake toppers she wanted included Peppa the pig, George the pig, Tigger and of course, Barney! She wanted a sky theme for the cake with all of them having a picnic and balloons and flowers and butterflies all around the cake.

With the design already decided, i went ahead to do the cake toppers and this was the final result! I though the colours complimented each other quite well and i loved my new butterfly cutters which enabled me to do these fantastic butterflies along the border of the cake!

Hopefully Nikki, the birthday girl loved the decorations on the cake as much as i did. Happy Birthday Nikki!!

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Cake with an Evo 9 topper….

I know it’s been ages since my last post but i’ve been super busy this past week. :p So please do forgive me for my long absence.

Anyway, i got a call from an old friend of mine last week asking if i could do a special cake for her. The cake was for a special dual birthday celebration for her Uncle and Auntie. After some discussion with my friend, i found out that her Aunt and Uncle like to take road trips in their Mitsubishi Evo 9 and the places they usually visit is Malaysia and Bangkok. The only request per my friend was that the cake had to have the Evo 9.

I decided to keep things simple and make it so that the Evo 9 looks like it’s travelling on a little road to indicate the road trips that the Aunt and Uncle like to take. So that decided, i started on the Evo 9 car topper. From doing this little topper I now have a new found respect for people that do car cakes. No matter how many times i re-did this topper, the final product came out looking nothing like an Evo 9 except for it’s colour.. haha… My conclusion… I am hopeless at car toppers! haha…

At any rate, this is the close up of the Evo 9.. quite a lame attempt right ;p .. i would say it’s not one of my best work.. but overall i thought it turned out ok. Oh.. and guess how much this cake weighed?!… A whopping 3.3kg! Crazy huh! This was one heavy cake! :)

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A flower garden cake for an avid gardener..

(*sorry cake above was cut by the birthday girl before i managed to grab this photo :p)

Today is a very special day for a special someone…. it’s my husband’s grandma’s (aka Mama’s) birthday! She is turning 88 this year and to look at her, you wouldn’t even think she’s a year over 60! Her vivacious character, booming voice and sharp mind make her someone to reckon with. :) Plus do you know she successfully plays the stock market!!! She’s the only grandma i know that actually plays the stock market and consistently makes money at it!! haha… She trades better than most people i know come to think of it Mama… how about some stock tips!!

Well.. as this was her 88th birthday, I wanted to surprise her with a special birthday cake. As I knew that one of her biggest passions is her garden, it was easy enough for me to decide on the theme of the cake. But i wanted to go a step further an include some subtle elements into the cake that makes it uniquely her cake. First off, it was to include the specific flowers or plants in her garden into the cake. Her favourites included ferns, ixora’s, and one of her favourite plants, the Anthurium. In addition she has a wooden bench that she usually sits on to admire and appreciate her own flower garden. Every now and then, her favourite pet, Tyra, would join her. Tyra’s a little Jack Russell that just never seemed to grow. I would describe her as one tiny, sly, evil and scheming and dog i tell you. You can literally see her thinking up her little schemes with just one look from her. I will see if i can get a picture posted up of what she looks like so you can see what i mean :p Shucks.. couldn’t find any.. put here’s a picture of the real Mama holding Tyra

Well, based on all the elements, i decided to make a 2 tier cake, with grandma sitting on the top of the cake on her bench with Tyra in her arms and her being surrounded by all her glorious flowers on the bottom tiers. After confirming the design, i began work on the flowers and my little miniature grandma figurine or “mini Mama”. As i know that Mama usually wears baju’s and has a bright red one with white flowers splashed all over it, i decided to make my mini Mama wearing that baju. I then added the little details such as her accessories like her little jade bangle, watch,  earrings and rings.  Once those were completed, i started on the bench, and added some wood prints on the bench to give it that woody look. This in itself took 2 days for me to complete. Thinking everything was all set, i left them out to dry.. lo and behold it started raining.. and raining and raining for 3 days consecutively!!!! Aww man…. i could see my little figurine starting to sink into itself with the high humidity.. wahhh!!!! Praying for the sun to come out or at least for it to stop raining, i kept my fingers crossed the next few days and finally it stopped raining and though there was no sun, the humidity did lighten up a little allowing my little “mini Mama” to dry. Whew!! Here’s a close up picture of my completed mini Mama.. so does it look anything like the photo above?

So now i only had left to bake the cakes, tort them, frost them and cover them in fondant, which though it sounds easy, takes me about 1 day to complete. The part i hate most, kneading the colour into a huge chunk of fondant… it’s a serious work out on the arms and wrists!! haha.. oh well.. at least i get to work off some of the calories that comes from eating the chunks left from levelling the cake :p

Well.. after all that work, this was the final product. Mama was very happy when she saw it and you can see her in the picture below pointing out all the little things that made the mini Mama recognisable as her Happy Birthday Mama!!! And may you have many more to come

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Assorted cupcakes for Yan Xin…

Yan Xin called me up the other day asking whether i could do some assorted design cupcakes for her sister’s birthday as she wanted something “too cute to eat” to present to her sister

After having a discussion over the phone, we finally decided that i would do a batch of chocolate cupcakes for her with 2 tigger, 2 piglet and a dog (as her sister was born in the year of the dog). The remaining other cupcakes would be little bees with flowers..

Once we decided on what toppers she wanted, i quickly got down to work to rush out the toppers for her so that the toppers would be ready in time to present her sister’s birthday… luckily the weather co-operated with us and the toppers were dried in time and ready to go onto the cupcakes 2 days later. After whipping up my favourite chocolate cupcake recipe, i quickly frosted the cupcakes with my favourite grass tip and added the little toppers on top.

Tah-da…. these were the final cupcakes that Yan Xin collected. I like my new plastic boxes which i managed to find… cos now without needing to open the box, you can have clearly see the cute little cupcakes nestled in their box. The only drawback is that i can only fit 9 cucpakes in there :p

Anyway, here’s a shout out to the birthday girl and i hope that Yan Xin’s surprise was a good one :) Happy Birthday!!! 

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A little cupcake cheer…

I love facebook!! Haha… i just have to say it again. Another one of my long lost ex-classmates, Jane, whom i found on facebook recently ordered a batch of cupcakes from me.. Yay!! Unfortunately Jane’s friend recently had recently been hospitalised with a heart condition and Jane had therefore wanted to bring her some brightly decorated cupcakes in place of flowers to cheer her up during her hospital stay. With that in mind, Jane asked if i could do some butterfly’s and flower cupcakes for her.

With bringing cheer as the foremost purpose in my mind.. i started to brainstorm for ideas as to how i could do up the butterfly’s so they would look nice and cheerful. I did have on hand a cookie cutter shaped in a butterfly.. but after minimal thought.. i decided not to use it as the butterfly cutter would not help to give me the cheerfulness that i wanted to convey in the cupcakes since the butterfly’s would only be in 1 solid colour if i used the cutter. After some thought.. i remember coming across someone on flickr who had done some alice in wonderland themed cupcakes, and i remember that she had done some very cute butterflies on it. As such, i decided to model these cupcakes after hers. I decided to do half of the order of cupcakes with butterflies and the other half with flowers, and this was the end result.

I had used my favourite and delicious chocolate cupcake recipe as a base for these cupcakes and had foregone using swirls for the cupcakes. Instead… i decided to use little discs of fondant as the base for which the butterflies and flowers were to be placed on.

Unfortunately, on the day Jane came to collect the cupcakes, I found out that her friend’s 2nd heart operation had some complications and her friend had slipped into a coma…. I do hope that she has since regained consciousness and is on the road to a great recovery. From me and my family, please know that our hopes and prayers are with you and that we really hope that you get well soon. I hope that anyone else that reads my blog will also add a little short prayer for her speedy recovery.

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Little doggie cupcakes for my Auntie’s birthday….

I was talking to my cousin on msn the other day when she told me that my auntie’s birthday was coming up. After seeing the cute cupcakes that i did such as the bears and bees cupcakes and the lamb and duck cupcakes, my cousin asked if i could do some cupcakes for my auntie.

After thinking long and hard about what my auntie liked, i decided that i’d do some cupcakes topped with cute little dogs for her. My auntie is crazy about dogs and i remember always playing with a little chihuahua she had, called meatball when i was young. Meatball was super cute and very dedicated to my aunt. I remember she always followed my aunt around the house all the time. Unfortunately, meatball passed away some time ago.. and knowing how much meatball was missed, 2 of my cousins decided to pool their money together and get my auntie a schnauzer puppy. But alas, things weren’t to be.. a couple of days after the puppy was brought home, it became sick and died within a few days. 

Well… i guess doggy cupcake toppers should be pretty safe and as long as they’re cute my aunt is sure to love them After discussing the idea with my cousin, we decided to go ahead with the doggy idea but my cousin thought that we had to have bees too since they are so cute! Well… off i went to try out different little doggies and of course surf the internet for ideas or pictures of doggies that i could follow. I finally came upon a really cute doggy model from someone on flickr and decided to base my doggies on her cute ones I made about 10 of these cute fellas and decided that of course with dogs you had to have some toppers with little doggy accoutrements such as doggy toys and of course doggy bowls. With this new idea in mind, i modeled some additional toppers of doggy bowls full of food and little doggy toys such as balls, a bone and hee hee.. a kong toy! Last but of course not least were the little bees and some flowers for accents.

Unfortunately i didn’t manage to take a photo of all the little cupcakes… but here are some of the cupcakes i did for her birthday. Don’t you think it’s adorable

My Auntie loved them and said no way was she going to be able to eat the little doggies… she said she’s probably going to store them in her freezer and take them out every now and then to look at them cos’ she just can’t bring herself to eat something that cute Knowing that she loved the cupcakes really made my day Hopefully i’ll continue to have a chance to do these cute little cupcakes and bring a little cheer to everyone that sees them.

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Hippy themed wedding cupcakes..

About a week ago, i got a call from someone asking whether it’s possible for me to design, customise and do up a cupcake tower for a hippy themed wedding. That definitely started my juices flowing.. i mean how cool is that to do… a hippie themed wedding… cool :) Of course the first thing that popped into my mine was flowers and tie-dyed stuff.. but just to make sure that i had a good idea of the theme, i immediately went to my trusty laptop and started surfing the net for inspiration. These were the end product.. nice and bright don’t you think

I just realised after my many hours of searching the internet, that there are lots of hippy stuff out there :) But here’s the thing that got me thinking… is  there a difference between retro and hippy?? After surfing the net for both.. i realised that there is a common theme between the 2 in terms of the bright colours but the difference lies in the fact that retro seems to have a more circular design whereas the hippy designs include peace signs, smiley faces, lots and lots of flowers and of course tie dye and the emphasis on free love.

After all that surfing i realised there aren’t that many designs out there in the world wide web of hippy designs for cupcakes… hippy cakes yes.. but not hippy designed cupcakes… so after much discussion with the bride, and her sister, we finally came to the conclusion that we’d keep it to 4 cupcake flavours and 4 designs, namely, the smiley face, the peace sign, flowers and of course a heart… Well… once the design was settled, i continued to research and think about how best to do up the cupcakes (mini’s were requested) and what colours to use since there wasn’t a fixed colour theme… but then, come to think of it.. can you have a fixed colour theme for a hippy wedding?? haha :p

After trying out a couple of designs and think up various colour combinations, i decided to stick to a couple of colours and of course to make sure that the colours were bright enough to blind.  Problem with that of course is how to get the colours bright enough without adding too much dye to the frosting and causing it to turn bitter!! After some experimentation and a frantic purchase of several different paste colours… i finally managed to get a nice bright pink, orange and of course purple!!! Cool… next up… to do up the designs in fondant….

I’ve read many bad reviews about how bad fondant actually tastes, especially a certain brand that seems to be the only available brand here in Singapore!!! Of course, with this in mind, i had opted from the get go that i would never ever buy and use this particular brand of ready made fondant. Add this to the fact that this was the only brand in Singapore, i was left with the only option of making my own. As can be seen from several of my previous posts on fondant, it was a never ending cycle of experimentation before i finally got a recipe that works in our blastedly hot and humid weather that changes into a blink to a humid and rainy one and of course tastes delicious to boot!! Trust me.. it was a delight when i finally got the recipe down pat! Well.. off i was to whip up a batch of this delicious fondant and start on my designs for the little hippy cuppies.

After much kneading and colouring of the fondant, plus many hours of trying out different colour combinations, i finally settled on the colours i wanted. Problem was.. i needed cutters to do up the flowers and hearts. So off i went to Phoon Huat to search for some cutters…. hehe… oh well.. excuse for me to buy cutters is always good All in the name of research and satisfying a customer’s wants right! So after an hour of shopping in Phoon Huat.. i finally went home with more than what i bargained for… :p I can never seem to just go to Phoon Huat and get only what i want.. all those cute little dragees and cupcake decorations always drag me to buy just a little bit more of this and that.. no wonder my hubby now chooses to sit out in the car to wait for me hoping that I would be out of that shop just that little bit faster :)

Well… armed with my new cutters, i quickly did up the requisite designs for the cupcakes and left them out to harden a little. I then did up the cupcakes and popped them into the oven to bake. More whisking took place and voila… icing was prepared… add the colours… more whisking and finally icing was ready to be piped over the cuppies. I decided to do a simple round swirl so that the designs from the fondant would be the main accent to the cupcakes, so after icing and placing the ready fondant designs… these were the final product… The only thing i think i would change a little is the smiley face.. haha.. smiles not big enough i think

Sadly though.. at the end of the day the bride had decided not to go ahead with the cupcakes… oh well… i did get a fun time out of designing the cupcakes and of course.. my new cutters!

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