Last Cake for May

This is the last cake for May, a Cars cake for a little boy. Phew! It has been a very busy month, with 1 wedding cake and 4 birthday cakes, 2 of which fall on the same weekend. So I am definitely RELIEVED May is almost over.

For this cake, I got my older girl to help me with the cactus. So the little spikes (made with Japanese sea weed) that you see here is the result of her slow and careful labour. She was very happy to be able to help, and I am proud of her effort. As for the Cars toys - they were bought as no way am I able to reproduce a Cars figurine with fondant. And frankly, I think the birthday boy would be happy to have a cake AND a toy to play with when he is done eating. One day I should show you a photo of a 3-D Mini Cooper car I once made. My first attempt. (Maybe when my skin grows a bit thicker.)

Cake is frosted with my new favorite Nutella Swiss Meringue Buttercream with little crunchy Valrhona pearls. I love the crunch in every mouthful, and how it still stays crunchy after sitting for more than a day in the fridge.

School holidays are here. Enjoy! (or Endure).

Butterflies and Pools

Here are some photos of 2 recent cakes. The first is a butterfly-themed cake. It is the first cake I have done for a girl which does not have a touch of pink in it. I like how the blue and green combination works. Cake is inspired by Sweetappetite.com.

Front View

Back View

And some details.

Next, I finally got to do another swimming pool cake - this time minus the heart stopping moments, which I had written about here.

Do you think the swimming pool cake will work with a pink instead of blue pool? Would you think about strawberry milkshakes or pink milk? Or would you think (like me) ... sharks?

Thanks for dropping by the blog.

Hearts and Hands' New Beneficiary - Royal Family Kids Camp

We are very excited to announce that Hearts and Hands has "adopted" a new beneficiary - the Royal Family Kids Camp (RFKC). With effect from May 2011, all proceeds from cake sales will go towards RFKC.

The RFKC is a non-profit organisation which runs yearly camps for abused and neglected children in various countries, including Singapore, Japan and from this year on, Hong Kong as well. It is entirely volunteer-led and raises its own funds to run the camps. The children are mostly from foster or children's homes, and are referred by social workers or, in the case of Singapore, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sport. The kids are given a right royal treat at the camps where they spend an entire week in a one-to-one volunteer to child ratio and are given lots of love and undivided attention, which goes a long way to building their confidence and self-esteem.

We hope that you will continue to support Hearts and Hands and in so doing, help to fund the camps that will enrich the lives of these children. Your contribution counts, and will make a difference to the children at RFKC. To read more about RFKC, visit http://rfkc-sg.org/. If you are interested in volunteering at one of the camps, do email YEO Meng Hin or Caroline DE WITT YEO at info@rfkc-sg.org.

We thank you in advance for your support.

A kilo and a half of strawberries ... and two sugar darlings

This is a cake for a pair of lovely strawberry-loving girl twins. J and R are 2 super lovable 4 year olds, from a family of 5 kids. They are sisters to another pair of boy twins and it is a joy to see their whole brood together, such a rare sight in Singapore.

I had fun making an impression of the twins out of sugar paste. Here they are.

And on top of the cake, sitting in a field of strawberries.

This was a very large cake, and a kilo and a half of strawberries went into it. That's plenty of fruit in there. Now who said cakes are unhealthy?

Oh yes, and also 1.2 litres of fresh cream. Think of it as an alternative source of calcium dense milk. Better still, cast aside all thought, and just dig in.

My First Wedding Cake

I feel like I have just delivered number 3.

I had the privilege of making a wedding cake over the weekend for a niece of a good friend of mine. The couple wanted a cake with red, black, gold and white themes. After looking through some options over the net, we settled on a 3 tier cake with a cascade of large flowers going from the top tier to the second tier. Here is the result.

As the reception was a cosy do, there would be too much cake if we had done 3 actual layers of cake. Hence, the bottom layer is actually a dummy.

All the flowers are painstakingly handcrafted over many days and countless hours, after my kids have gone to bed and I have the peace to do something without the constant refrain of "Mummy, what are you doing?", "Mummy, how do you spell (some random word)?", "Mummy, can we eat the cake? Whhhhyyy not???" For those who are into statistics, I must have spent something like 2 to 3 hours on each flower, not to mention all the failed duds along the way.

Overall, I am quite happy with the result, although there are one or two things I would like to improve on if given the chance to make another wedding cake (again, husband shakes head in resignation). Also, I thought the cake would have looked just as nice with just one flower instead of a cascade, as in this:

What do you think? Cascade or single flower?

As for the cake inside - chocolate of course. Yums.