Sunday, December 7, 2014

Train Cake

This is more of a transport theme cake with a 2D plane on top tier, a beetle car and tractor on the back....and a train running through the track around the cake.  The carriage boxes will be filled with M&Ms, chocolates and candies by the mummy later for the party.  

There is actually a number '2' on top of the top box but it has to stand in a candy filled carriage so I removed it for photography purpose.

All carriage boxes are made from gum paste.  Tracks are made with fondant and sprinkle with ground honeycomb rock sugar to give it a sand and pebble effect.

I love vibrant colors for little boys.  And I hope you feel the same too.  Thank you for reading!!!



The beetle and tractor at the back

2D plane with a 'Happy Birthday'
banner flying behind it

The train engine running thro the track


Empty carriage boxes to be filled with
candies later

Little Man Cake

My first Little Man cake complete with bowler hat, moustache and frame.  It is a dual celebration for a 1 year old and his daddy.









Castle Cake

It was a collaboration between Weenee and myself for the same customer who commissioned the 10th anniversary Hello Kitty cake and someone who loves everything Hello Kitty.

This Castle Wedding Cake was more than 5 feet tall!!!  Our biggest and tallest cake yet.  But wait....I am not sure whether it has the right to be called a cake as there is hardly any cake inside.  Hehe.  If it was to be cut and served to guests it meant we have to finish baking and decorating the cake within 3 days which then meant..... theoretically and physically it was impossible for 2 persons with 4 hands to finish.  Luckily customer wanted it for photography purpose only.....no cake involved so we took our time and worked in between other orders.

It was great fun without stress building and constructing our foam castle.  Along the way we learn new castle terms like battlement, arrow loop etc. from Tse Meng.  Through the cheers and laughter and a few blunders here and there we saw our castle materialized from the sketch book!  When Adrian came in to help with the lighting....cries of jubilation can be heard from outside our studio.  Words just cannot describe our pride when we saw the castle lighted up in darkness (we switched off the studio lights and draw the curtains just to feel the ambience up in the mountain ).   We were just short of stars in the sky only.  With the little pink flags up on top of all the turrets we can actually feel them flapping in the cool night air!! 

But THEN through all these building up of excitement one person felt an anti-climax.  Poor Weenee!  She has to leave for the UK.  She will not get to see the setup in the hotel.  She will also not get to throw her hand in the air and say "we have done it!" after that.

Anyway she really must have let this anti-climax thing eat into her long before we start constructing the cake coz she recorded the delivery 1 week before the actual date!!!  Anyway 2 hours before delivery on the recorded day I called up the event planner to check on the cake table and she was like "what cake?" "for who?"  

I panic.  Did I contact the wrong planner?  But she answered to the same name.  SO now what?  Wrong date?  Who is wrong?  The best is to confirm with the bride but er...will that be weird?  Anyway I gather all my guts to call her.  Hahaha...she laughed and confirm that it is one week later.  After that we contacted Weenee who has just arrived to London and told her the blunder ~ we all laughed till we cried!!!  But one thing for sure we were so thankful that there is no cake inside.  Phew!!!

Then a week later with some hiccups and terrible jams everywhere (it was the eve of a 60,000 ppl marathon) we inched our way to Equatorial Hotel.  The castle was re-assembled with all its glory and grandeur.  Meanwhile Weenee was texting us every few seconds for updates but to put her on edge we refused to reply.  How naughty can we get? Hahaha.

To sum it all up we did our dream cake and proud of it.  BUT not forgetting that credit too has to go to 3 other guys who helped to make it happened.  To them (besides our Japanese dinner) I would like to say another word of Thanks from the bottom of my heart to Tse Meng, Adrian and Penny for being there for Weenee and me!!!  We really appreciate everything - for the moral support, ideas, lighting, setting up, delivery, hardcore carrying etc etc.  Without you guys this would not be a success.  Together we have done it!!!

5 feet tall Castle Wedding Cake

The photography session
attracted a crowd in St Quay

Studio shot

Studio shot - background removed

HK Bridal couple

Close up of front view

Close up of front view

Testing our lighting in the studio

Setting up of the cake in Equatorial Hotel
with the help of musclemen Adrian & Tse Meng

Before stacking up the top tiers

Tse Meng 'gluing' the tiers


Micro adjusting by Adrian

Adrian doing his jubilation dance
after the lighting is switched on

"We have done it!"

Me - thumb up!

Lighted castle
unfortunately the backdrop has too many spot lights






Saturday, December 6, 2014

Red Peony Wedding Cake

For this cake I used sugar lace and silk peonies.  2-tier vanilla butter cake.   Simple, economical yet elegant.

Front

Back looks equally as good



Peony Wedding Cake & Pot of Rose Cake

Commissioned by a doctor from UK.  He wanted 2 cakes....a wedding cake and a birthday cake on the same day.  The wedding day falls on his mother's 60th birthday or should I say he chose the birthday to be his big day!!!  

I created a very simple wedding cake for him and as for his mum's he chose a Laura Loukaides' design with a few minor changes.  A caring and filial son who put in so much time and effort searching for a cake that befits the mother night after night..... something that shows his love and gratitude to her.  To me he is true gem himself.

A week after the wedding I was so touched to receive this email from him.  Now I too love the mother.  Brought up her son so well.





Peony Wedding Cake
4 tiers of real cake

Back of the cake

Simplified clay version of the couple

Cake set up

Laura Loukaides design cake for
the mother's 60th bday

Everything edible






Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Clog Cake

A cake commissioned by my sister-in-law for a dear dear friend celebrating her 60th.  

If you are wondering why a pair of clogs??  There is a warm story of friendship and bond behind it.  It seems that during the mini-skirted days in England my sister-in-law bought each of them a pair of these clogs.  The friend recently recalled her Union Jack designed clogs in one of their emails so sister-in-law decided to surprise her with a bday cake in the form of her long lost clogs!  

If I am not mistaken bday girl flew in from NZ, sister-in-law came in from US and other friends from all over to celebrate the big do. I heard she cried when she saw her 'clogs'!!!







Name & Birthday on the 'label'









Fantasy Forest Wedding Cake

"My fiance loves purple butterflies" ~ Mark's only request.  This means I have a free hand in creating this cake for the couple.  Yay!!!  From the first email I have a feeling that this couple loves fantasy kind of thing since they suggested a unicorn cake.  So my proposal was met with great excitement from the groom....a Fantasy Forest cake with ethereal looking butterflies and ferns on 2 tiers of white cake with a bottom tier as 'tree trunk' complete with 'chocolate barks', wild flowers and mushrooms.

The butterflies were printed on wafer paper, cut and then lined with glittering sliver veins. 

Ferns were drawn on CorelDraw first then exported to Silhouette software.  They were then cut out using my new toy Silhouette Cameo on wafer paper too!!!  Talking about green ferns I had to spray the paper first....causing green dust all over my apartment, body and clothes and inside my nostrils!  Hahaha...female Hulk.  

Anyway it was a big step for me...handling a new hardware and software at the same time besides a new medium. (I cannot contain my excitement I even made my first peonies and roses since no big flowers were involved in this cake...see my earlier posts).  Ahhhh...I am falling deeper and deeper in love with this wafer paper.

With the sugar paste mushrooms/toadstools and the translucent ferns, butterflies and wild flowers....the whole cake looked so ethereal.  It was simple yet beautiful.  

The wedding dinner was held in a restaurant by the sea.  Imagine the butterflies fluttering lightly and ferns move when the sea breeze flowed in!!!  Ahhhh...can you see that in your mind's eyes too??


All real cake








Wafer paper ferns, butterflies and wild flowers