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.

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.

The King Lives!

The request was a birthday cake for SP's dad's 70th birthday celebration. After chatting, we found out SP's dad is an Elvis fan, and so, we thought "Why not an Elvis cake?". So here it is. Elvis in his latter days, a little less lithe and trim perhaps, but Elvis nonetheless. The base cake is 4 layers of moist chocolate genoise moistened with chocolate syrup and frosted with raspberry accented ganache made with home-made raspberry sauce with a hint of white chocolate. Chocolatey and slightly tangy. Yum!

Butterflies and Daisies II

Here's another take on the butterflies and daisies theme. I can understand why this theme is an oft-repeated one and is popular with little girls (and their mommies) - there's just something so charming about those delicate winged creatures on white daisies.

This is the biggest cake I have attempted thus far. The bottom tier is 3 layers of 9-inch chocolate cake, whilst the top is another 3 layers of 6 inch chocolate cake. The cake is syrupped with a milk chocolate ganache, which makes the cake moist and fresh even after a few days. Then there's the fondant to cover and decorate the cake with. Assembled, the cake weighs more than a good sized infant. I hope little D had a good party, and the adults and kids enjoyed the cake alike.

Blossoms on quilt

This is my daughter's birthday cake. She wanted lots of flowers on her favourite dark chocolate cake, but as I did not want her to gobble up massive amounts of sugar paste, we both agreed on a cake with many small blossoms. This is the first time I tried imprinting the fondant with a dressmaker's wheel for a quilt-like pattern on the cake. It may not be done with Martha Stewart precision but I am nonetheless happy with the results.

And here's a shot of the heady dark chocolate cake that really packs a punch, underneath all that seemingly meek, soft and demure white appearance. How apt, I thought. Happy birthday my dear girl. Love you lots.

Valrhona Indulgence Cake

Here is a picture of the Valrhona Chocolate Cake. It is finished with a deeply chocolatey and bittersweet lacquer that is incredibly shiny and lushious. As the cake is meant for a little girl who has not turned one, the cake has a scatter of blossoms to lighten the dark chocolate base. We will try to show you the inside of the cake at another posting.