Hats off for a kitchen tea

Boy did I jump on this one with spatulas ready to fire! It was an understatement to say I was more than a little excited by the proposed cowgirl theme. We looked at various incarnations of the cowgirl hat on a cake and the customer who ordered this eventually went for a bold statement - the whole hat being a cake itself, atop a cowprint base, to feed up to 80 people. In shaping the hat, I realised the contours of the hat needed to be well-defined and in the correct places to look realistic, so I paid special attention to that. The customer requested the upturned sides. The little flowers I thought added a soft feminine touch. After all, don't we always imagine cows in the meadows surrounded by daisies? Maybe that's just me...

Olive to have another martini

This 30th birthday was a classy martini affair. The cake was designed to closely tie in with the theme, a mosaic collection of squares and lil mirror tiles in black, white and silver. An extremely detailed concept on the birthday girl's part and a fun challenge for me to extend her ideas into cake!

Mauve and lavender

Inspired by a cake I saw on an episode of Ace of Cakes, I chose this lovely soft colour scheme for a sweet birthday gal who always has a smile on her face. I tried to keep everything understated and simple but when allowed free rein, my problem is knowing when to stop. I couldn't resist adding the lil bows, butterfly and tiny flower. I think little details are the icing on the cake if they don't overpower it!

A shoe-in for the job

The ultimate cake for me - er, for my shopping/shoe/SATC-loving twin, here to visit me in Oz for the first time. In a no-contest, she HAD to have a Manolo, the closest either of us have ever been to one! Needless to say, the research for this was pure fun.

Honey I blew up the doll

There's a range of Kimmidoll accessories out right now which are just too cute to behold. They are all miniature sized collectible figurines. Usually when I cake something, I'm making it small. This time, I blew it up about 20 times its usual size. It was quite funny to see my Mum's reaction when she saw this cake when you're usually used to seeing them tiny, but not so funny when we chopped it up head first. :(

Kick it to me!

They asked for a life-size rugby ball... this turned out to be a little larger after it got the fondant treatment! A challenge first in covering the entire ball, even underneath, in fondant - a true 3D experience. Another challenge in making it stand. If footballers played with a ball this heavy, they'd never make it to either goal!

Have her dress and eat it too

Another princess cake, this time modelled on Cinderella. Which little girl didn't want to have her flashing pink-and-blue dress in the very last dancing scene! What a lucky girl, Cinderella didn't have to make a choice that could've taken her hours, but fondant is not that magical - yet. :)

One slice to share nice

I was given a 'slice' of cake for my birthday one year (by my cousin the pro cake decorator!) and I loved it... the look, the design, and the enormous size of my one slice of cake!! I decided to re-create it for a special gal who turned 25 last year. However with the number of friends she has, one slice is not enough! So the bottom layer is for her to share :)

Oh my mod!

I loved cakeing this! The Vespa was the must-have; we created a mod theme around it. I loved the simplicity and the statement it made. I've seen so many cool mod designs in fashion, stationery, furniture, etc, but never had to cake one so I relished the chance! It is the spot on the target (mod for 'icing on the cake'?) that the birthday boy got a nice surprise when he saw it!

Roses are red, cupcakes match too

An elegant affair for a 30th anniversary. This is the largest cake I've created to date. Every layer is double the height and supported by columns. As you might guess, this sort of cake needs to be assembled at the venue! Matching cupcakes made up the placecards.

Safety pins and baby bottles

Cupcakes for a baby shower, with miniature bottles and safety pins to boot. Who could resist...!

Earned its pretty stripes

Here we have a couple who had so much fun with their wedding invitations, they extended the idea to their cake too! I took great delight in helping them transform the invititations into a cake. (The invitation is actually purple where it looks brown).

You will notice - no flowers on the cake! Happens less often than more. That means the details on the cake needed to make enough of a statement on their own. We decided to let the stripes be the main feature and tone down the rest of the cake, only adding the ribbon to top it off. As the stripes were to take centre stage (and we also needed to feed more people than a 9", 11", 13" cake would cover), we made the middle layer twice as high as the rest, which made it super heavy (!) but also allowed more surface area to play up the very pretty lolly-coloured stripes.

Exquisitely fresh and floral

A wedding cake for an extremely lovely couple. Prior to the wedding I find it inspiring to meet the couple in person and sit down to discuss the ideas and dreams they have for their big day. Small details that might be seemingly unrelated to the making of a cake all add to my process, in this case even their lovely home and warm hospitality.

I love the fresh floral look of this cake. Royal icing piping on the sides added to the texture and provided a little contrast with the ivory coloured fondant. The piping design was based on the embossing on their wedding invitations (though it is hard to see clearly from this photo).

Flowers were provided by Stef of Chic Floral Design http://www.chicfloraldesign.com.au/. I would highly recommend her services to anyone looking for a wedding florist. Not only do you get the beautiful flowers you envision, you also get exceptional service and the benefit of her creative floral concepts for your big day. Always great to work with you Stef!

Santa crashes Christmas for Altrex

Have I mentioned how much I love working with corporate logos? I think what I like about is letting the owners of the company see their logo in a way they've never seen it before - and edible too!

Altrex wanted a Christmas theme, so I took the liberty of adding Christmas embellishments all over, including a lil Santa Claus caught in the sidelines.

Cake under construction

I'm flabbergasted that a whole month and a bit has passed since my last update (as one friend kindly pointed out to me, thank you for bringing that to my attention!). Where does a whole month go? To cakes obviously, but this shows me I must learn to stick my head out of the cake-cloud more often!

This cake was commissioned by one of my very regular customers, and from the start I could see how much fun it was going to be. It was for a little boy named Braith on his Naming Day. Not hard to guess he must have a keen interest in construction, as little boys do!

We wanted a little mud pile - but how to make it look like mud but not TOO much like mud - organised mud? That was my biggest challenge. It's still got to look appetising! Loved creating the little men - they are doing various things among them splashing each other with the mud (fun fun hehe).

More to come to make up for the long period of absence...

Masterchef Asia

Quite an appropriate time to ride on the Masterchef brand... but this was actually done about 6 months ago. I was extremely excited by this idea, taking one element of the theme - the chef's hat - to be centre stage. Especially when you know instantly what it symbolises - food but not just food, DELICIOUS gourmet cuisine. It was also such a fun shape to make a cake out of and there was a LOT of cake inside.
One thing I remember clearly about this cake was that it was unexpectedly heavy. The height and proportion of the hat and its position off-centre on the cake board made it a quite difficult to carry. If you supported it from underneath in the middle, the whole thing would topple over - a caker's worst nightmare!
Oh and to clarify, the Asian detail on the figurine was specially requested. Her exact words were "yellow-skinned, nerdy with square glasses", lol. I have to admit I felt more than a little politically incorrect but since I'm Asian too I figured it's OK hehe.

Flying Miss Thirty

I love making a cake as personalised as possible... straightaway you can tell from this that the birthday girl was turning 30 and she is a seasoned world traveller. Well I HOPE you can :) If you could see all the flags on the '3', you'd know exactly which countries she's been to. She was in our part of the world for only a week or so and happened to turn 30 here so I grabbed the chance to cake her birthday special.
The earth is loosely based on our earth's actual map but I have to admit is somewhat not to scale... when I'd finished it I realised I managed to fit ALL the countries on.. er.. a half globe lol. On the bright side, it was easier than I'd envisioned and even carving the dome-shape wasn't too hard... helps alot if you have a turntable - thank you Diane!

Giant rings or tiny cake?

And this is the wedding cake that followed the lingerie party. Clean elegant lines with elements of silver and a hint of colour softened with the natural curves of the oriental lilies. I think this is a good example of how a bold oversized ornament can share the cake with flowers. The key is the flowers being understated (ie same colour as the cake) and having just a few (in this case two big ones) rather than lots of little ones. Out of curiosity... can you see this cake as being really tiny, as it would be if the rings were life size? The cake would be about 3 inches tall. Maybe if you squint your eyes... hehe just a thought!

A way with lingerie

A lil cake to celebrate a lingerie party. You can just imagine how much fun I had with this. I've seen so many corset-style cakes but never had the chance to create one myself. The orderer also kindly let me have a free hand in the design - thank you! Remember my rule - anything mini is cute... well I now think anything mini with ruffles and polka dots is irresistible! As people are usually reluctant to cut the cake, for ease of pigging out, matching cupcakes were also on order. I picked out various features of the corset to be used as the decorations.

Tiffany & Cook

This is based on a popular cake design that I see a lot of cake shops have already done. I think it's such a great combination of the luxury Tiffany brand and domestic goddessness! I love it when brands are taken out of their context to make a statement. And this girl has definitely got the right idea... "I don't mind cooking for you but first things first... which gorgeous piece of Tiffany bling did you buy me today!"

Rule of engagements

Two friends of mine (incidentally with really similar names!) got engaged around the same time. What better gift (especially when you don't know what else to get them hehe) than something edible and pretty... and pre-emptive of their big day.

Matchy matchy

For two special ladies on their birthdays... I chose black and white for understatedness and elegance but I couldn't resist using a bit of colour. Big bows are always a winner with me. And those roses were made without a rolling pin, cutter or balling tool - I call it the lazy caker's rose, easily done in front of the tv!

Anniversary cake

Every 10th wedding anniversary deserves cake! As it was a special occasion only for 2, we wanted to scale it down but keep a grand towering 3-layer look. The size came to 4" on top, 5" in middle, 6" on bottom. And even with such small sizes, dowels are still necessary - take my word for it!

Teletubbies makes four

And then there were four... Teletubbies that is! I love their little dome-shaped cubby house they live in. Complete with flowers on windowsills!


If I were to live in a green dome-shaped cubby house, it'd have flowers on windowsills too. And maybe a skylight and Foxtel antenna.

This cake was taken all the way to Canberra by four friends of mine which I hope wasn't too difficult as everything was secured to the cake in some way. That's why I love fondant! The only one that had to travel separately was the purple Teletubby... I doubt he would have been able to balance on that dome in a bumpy car ride for 3 hours. He had his own first class seat in a tissue-lined cake box:


I realise this might be slightly disturbing to some kids but I had to share... the Teletubbies body parts before they were 'put together':


Almost got it together but two are still missing their heads, hehe:

It's even more disturbing when it's figurines of real people. But don't worry, I'd definitely not share those ;)

Triple dose of Dora

Here's a popular girl and her favourite monkey friend:


With matching cupcakes:


Popular because here she is again:

And again!

Lightning strikes twice

Next up, Lightning McQueen! I was extremely happy with how these worked out. The key was definitely in the carving...


Then in making a car look friendly:


If you thought they were one and the same cake, you've made my day! They are of course meant to look identical as they're the exact same cake but for two different orders, both in the same week no less. When it rains it pours Lightning!

Here is a before shot to prove it... one completed McQueen and the other before his embellishments:

Honey to the Pooh

Shame on me, it's been awhile since I've blogged! I've amassed quite a few children's cakes in recent months, so I might just do a kids blitz tonight.
First up is Winnie the Pooh and his mate Tigger enjoying some honey:


And here they are with matching cupcakes:


Too fun!

Technicalities

Ordered by a girlfriend for her boyfriend so no one was in trouble with this kinky lil number! He's a tech freak who is evidently also a hot-blooded male ;)
At the bottom of the screen are minimised windows of his favourite games. The keyboard is an actual representation of an Acer keyboard - I consulted a few different Acer laptops for the right sequencing.
I should mention the most tricky part - the standing cover (I'm sure there's a technical term for it) - it managed to stand with cake board inside, but had to be planted sturdily in a base, hence the layer of cake underneath. Very relieved cake decorator I was!

Flower power

Usually my cakes are based on a design or a theme. For this one, the message took centre stage. I used a simple decorative flower design with a little dotted detail on the side to embellish. The colour scheme flowed on from that. All flowers were individually hand-cut, some on the sides were 'standing', popping out from the cake.

Saw this and couldn't resist

I'll give anything a go. Even power tools I haven't heard of and even at short notice (I was glad I could fit this in with just 2-3 days to play with). When the customer mentioned jigsaw, the only jigsaw that came to mind was the type that kids play with that make up a nice picture. Lots of Google pix from different angles did the trick (what did people do before Google?! Btw Google over Bing any day). Just like cars, the main challenge with this was to get the shape right. Then little details added realisticness, even if I didn't know what all those little details represent in real life. I'm sure they start it or turn it up a notch or make it go bbzzzzzz or something. This one tho, is just good to eat!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai to those who celebrate! Here is a touch of Chinese for my blog... even the taste had a hint of Chinese - I tried making green tea cupcakes for the first time. Still trying and getting there...!

Poker faced

I love themed parties and this one went all out. The cake was merely a small part of the occasion and it's so great to have seen the complete picture with outfits, props and decorations later on! My first poker cake and my first hexagonal cake - not sure if there is a significance with the shape? I can't even work out how to play poker (I most definitely cannot pull a poker face when I need to the most) but at least I can cake it.
I provided complimentary poker-chip-cookies coz I thought they were too cute to pass up. They ended up as a bit of an energy boost for the party planner that day!

Love Birds

When I get the chance, I always suggest some element of continuity that ties different aspects of a wedding or function together. With this one, I was asked to incorporate what I could of the invitation into the cake. The lace embroidery around the base of each layer (a bit hard to see here) is derived from the lace print on the invite and the pair of lovebirds is an exact replica. I think it gives such a lovely personal touch - it's the little things that make an occasion unique and memorable.
The figurines were customised for the couple's features and the Ducati is a dream toy of the groom (you may remember a Ducati cake awhile back... same guy!). Little trailing tin cans give it the wedding touch. Of course it all starts with a bride who is willing to be a bit adventurous with the design - thanks Michele!

The invitations were created by Katrina Lee, the 'Love And Papery' part of Love And, and gorgeous flowers were arranged by Stef Smrk-Dansey of Chic Floral Designs. Great to work with a team of gals who produce brilliant work and are so easy to work with, they made my life so much funner and the ease with which everything came together also created a positive flow-on effect for the bride!

Valentine's Day goodies

Here are some Valentine's Day treats to share with your special someones... you'll land right in the first page of the good books with these you'll probably also get to share some too. Score!
Let me know asap if you'd like to place an order, V Day is just round the corner... how did it come round so fast, feels like New Year's was just yesterday!