"Never A Dull Moment"

Its so nice to make anniversary cakes especially wedding anniversaries! I was commissioned by Eliena Gaman, to make for her parents their 40th Anniversary cake. Eliena is my cousin-in-law, Rosie bestie. Rosie was the want who recommended me to her. 

Eliena had organised for her parents a surprise party on 15th December 2012 and wanted to celebrate the occasion with a cake. The theme of the party was Rod Stewart as her parents are ardent fans of Rod Stewart. Initially, she wanted a very detailed cake but since her order was somewhat last minute and I had two other cakes also due for that weekend, I agreed to make the cake but a simpler version.

Since I couldn't make sugar modelling that weekend (not enough time!!!), I decided to have her parent's marriage journey documented on a film strip and this journey will also coincide with Rod Stewart's singing career. Eliena had sent me her parents photos and also a few of the earlier Rod Stewart's album covers. I had these photos organised in chronological order and had them printed into edible film strips. The cake had a theme colour of ruby red. I didn't know that the 40th year anniversary is actually reflected as the ruby red colour. The cake requested was lemon and I had lemon buttercream filling for the cake.

Surprisingly, the cake was quite simple to make, only the weather was so humid that I had problem covering the cake with fondant. Eliena was very happy to see the cake and told me that the guests loved the taste of the cake.

The front view of the cake

Eliena's parents - still looking very much in love even after 40 years!!

The film strip with their earlier photos and Rod Stewart's album covers

The back view of the cake

A close-up of the film strip

I hope I will get to celebrate my 40th wedding anniversary in style like this too!!

"Harry Wolverine"

This cake was requested by my cousin, Ezel for her hubby, Harry's surprise birthday party. The theme of the cake is Wolverine and I was given a free rein on the design of the cake. Since time was running short and I had 3 cakes to complete that weekend, I took some of the wolverine cake ideas in the web. I decided to go with wolverine's hands with blades instead of wolverine's mask as I feel that the cake would be more dramatic with the hands coming out of it.

Harry's cake was surprisingly quite easy to make except for making the blades coming out of the hands stand. That was the most tricky part of the cake. To top it all, it was raining the whole time and the weather was so humid that the sugar took ages to dry and harden. I think my other half will freak out when he sees the electricity bill this month!!! I had to keep the a/c running the whole time in the kitchen while am completing all these 3 cakes.

I'm glad to say that eventually, the blades did dry up and they were standing proudly up to the end of the birthday surprise. I am so thankful for that. As for Ezel and Harry, they were very happy campers and told me that not only did the cake look nice its was yummy too!!

The frontal view of the cake

Yay for me as the blades were still standing and coming out of Wolverine's hand quite nicely

The other side view of the cake

 Thanks so much for the order Ezel and Happy Belated Birthday, Harry!!!

"Hazry's Hantaran Cake"

I named this cake "Red & Gold" because these are the two colours that my Auntie Yan insisted I must have on the hantaran cake for her eldest son, Hazry. Earlier in the year, I had made for Hazry cupcakes decorated with poppies for his engagement ceremony - check out my blog entry in April 2012. For his "akad nikah" ceremony, I was given the task to copy the fabric flowers used in the hantaran for the flowers on the cake.

Actually, I thought that it was a daunting task as the flowers must be gold in colour. With sugar flowers, in order to achieve the gold shade, you need to either hand paint or airbrush the flowers. At this point, I was quite worried as I've never done gold flowers before. My mom always tell me that I worry for nothing and that at the end of the day, I will surely achieve what I set out to do. So, determined, I started making the flowers as early as 4 days before the cake is due.

The first day, I just shaped the flowers and let it dry overnight. The second day, I started hand painting the gold and ruby red flowers. I then added edible shimmer dust to make it look even more shiny, just like the fabric flower samples I was given. I left the flowers to dry overnight. The third day, I assembled the flowers before I arranged them on the cake. At this point, I had already covered the vanilla cake with chilli red fondant (as requested by my aunt) and also had the sides decorated with 2D flowers and leaves. I then airbrushed the cake in red sheen so that it will look very "wedding like". Overall, I actually like this hantaran cake. I thought it was one of my best efforts thus far.

The overall hantaran cake in all its red and gold glory

The gold and ruby red flowers all arranged on the cake

Another angle of the cake. This time the sides can be seen clearly

I hope you liked the cake I made, Auntie Yan. Congratulations again to you and Uncle Hazer on the marriage of your eldest boy, Hazry... Love you both...

xoxoxo

Elin

"JLo concert vs Cake"

There was a last minute cake order due on 3rd December 2012, that I accepted from Raja Jesrina Tan Sri Raja Arshad. She and her siblings wanted to surprise their dad with a cake at his birthday party.

This was a simple cake I made with the main focus on family love theme. I was at first quite worried that I wouldn't be able to finish this cake on time as I had promised my bestie, Sheila, that I would accompany her to JLo's concert in KL that night. I actually had a mental block as I was starting the cake at 8 am in the morning and I just couldn't get any ideas on how to design the cake. So, I wasted a good 2 hours trying out different ideas! In the end, I had to sleep at 3 am that day to finish this cake as I couldn't finish the cake before I left for the concert. I had to continue with the cake after I returned from the concert!!!

Jlo's concert was awesome though, despite the rain and I really needed the break from making cakes! Thank you, Sheila for the concert tix and also the wonderful time we had standing in the rain, while waiting for JLo to start her show!! It was fantastic as we had front row standing and I got a chance to see JLo up-close. Only one word could describe her, GORGEOUS!! Two photos I have from her concert...

JLo upclose...

Another nice one from Sheila's BB. She's taller than me, so she managed to capture better photos!!! LOL

Now, this was how my cake turned out. Simple but actually not quite that easy to make as the waether was so bad that day. It just rained, and rained the whole day!!!

The cake was done in shades of blue and silver and mostly decorated with family photos

The other main component of the cake was a vector badge that says, "World's Greatest Papa"

The family photo up-close

After the 3 cakes I made in this particular weekend, I decided to take a break for one week. Now, I have to prepare myself for another cake marathon! I have 3 cakes to complete by this Saturday!!! I hope God will give me all the strength I need so that I am able to accomplish my task!!

Wish me luck, peeps!!

"Lego Birthday Cake"

I received an order for an unusual cake theme. The birthday boy wanted a lego themed cake. The first thought that came to mind was the cake will surely be colourful and bright. What an interesting cake to make! So, I accepted the order from my friend, Hazleen Aziz, or fondly called Oleen by her friends. Her son, Naeem celebrated his 8th birthday last month on 27th November 2012.

I was given a photo on the cake that Naeem had in mind and I gave my cake a twist of my own design. I had two lego figurines on the cake and lego blocks as the main part of the cake. The colours I chose for this cake was red, blue, green, yellow, black and of course, white. The cake was suprisingly quite easy to make and I was very happy with how it turned out.

The full view of the "Lego" cake. Naeem shared this cake with two of his cousins, Aisha & Qaqa

The lego people up-close. I so enjoyed making them!!

The lego blocks in the vibrant colours of red, yellow, blue, green and black!

 Thanks again for the order Oleen and Happy Belated Birthday, Naeem Haziq!

"Hantaran Cake for Ezran"

Last Saturday, on December 01st, my cousin Ezran got engaged to his long time girlfriend... Ooops, sorry I totally forgot her name!! But anyways, my mom wanted to give my aunt a hantaran cake for the engagement. So, I was asked to make the cake way back in October. After consulting with my Auntie Aki, she told me that I had to have 3 important elements on the cake - 1) 5 types of flowers, any type but must consist of hydrangeas and calla lilies, and the other 3 is up to me (I almost cried when I heard this), 2) the flowers had to be in pastel rainbow colours and 3) the cake base has to be cream in colour. She actually had a 4th request, which my mom totally forgot to mention to me, was the cake had to be a Victorian sponge cake (vanilla cake with strawberry jam in the middle). Instead I made for her a french vanilla cake with vanilla frosting since no one told me what flavour I had to make!!

It took me 4 days to finish this cake as I had to work during the day and only managed to start making the sugar flowers at night. On top of that, the raining went on and on, everyday, so my sugar flowers didn't get to dry and harden properly. The humidity also didn't help my situation but somehow or rather, I manged to finish all 5 types of flowers. Quality wise, not so good but with the constraints I faced, I thought it came out pretty alright. I started making the hydrangeas and roses on the 1st day. The carnations on the 2nd day, peony and calla lillies on 3rd day and assembling all these components on the 4th day.

This was how my cake turned out :)

The overall view of my cake. I call this cake "Rainbow of Flowers", very apt considering the colours

The focal point of my cake is my pink peony... I loved how this flower turned out

Side view of my cake with the orange roses and yellow carnations

My Auntie Aki was very happy when she saw this cake and I hope Ezran's fiance loved the cake. Congratulations again to my cousin, Ezran....

"Lilac Lace"

The lovely lilac lace cake

I begin my post today with a cake photo. I absolutely just love this cake. This cake is one of my favourite of all the cakes I've made so far. The colour itself is so pastel and sweet. This cake was ordered by Raja Jesrina Tan Sri Raja Arshad for her sister, Dina's birthday.

She wanted a simple cake with pastel colours of lilac, pink and cream. Jess left the design of the cake to me and I decided to make the cake look like a pice of delicate lace with a lilac background and cream lacework. The cake is a combination of sugar paste and royal icing. The royal icing string work is quite intricate and I spent quite a while perfecting the lines on the cake.

Jess loved the overall effect on the cake and this was what she wrote to me,"Everyone loved the cake! They said it looked so pretty and tasted delish :) Thanks for such a wonderful job, you may be getting requests for more cake orders from others soon!"

I am so happy when I can do this for all my clients as I've fulfilled my tag line of making cakes that are not only good to look at but also taste as good as it looks!! Thanks again, Jess and I look forward to making more cakes for you and your family.

"Cream Puffs"

I have managed to actually make the cream puffs that I learned from Chef David Lee's class not so long ago. It was quite easy to make actually and I don't know why it took me so long to try out the recipe. I started making the choux (pronounced as shoe) pastry first and the process was relatively very simple. You just needed to add water to the butter with a tinge of salt and a teaspoon of sugar. Put these ingredients together in a pot and stir until its comes to a boil and switch off the heat. 

In a separate bowl, you need to mix and sift protein flour with superfine flour and then put them into the pot that contains the butter mix. Switch on the heat and slowly cook the pastry until the dough forms like a round shape and is not sticking to the sides of the pot. Switch off the heat and cool the dough down. When its cool, add 2 eggs to the mix (one at a time) and mix the dough until it forms a nice soft texture. The pastry is now ready to be piped. Simple isn't it? 

While the pastry is baking, I prepared the creme patisserie or pastry cream, a french custard filling and left it to chill before piping it into the cream puffs. Instead of cutting the choux pastry in half, I poked a hole at the bottom (as taught by Chef David Lee) and piped the creme patisserie into the choux pastry.

My choux pastry fresh from the oven

A clearer view

The creme patisserie made from scratch. Fantastic recipe by Chef David Lee

The finished product

I dusted the cream puffs with icing sugar to make them look even more tempting... Hehehe...

My hubby and kids finished them in minutes!! To think of the hours I took to make these... Oh well, at least its a bestseller and I made these lovely pastry again recently, when I had guests for tea. This time I made eclairs with dark chocolate ganache too. Sad to say, I didn't get a chance to take the photos. Was too busy. My guests loved the cream puffs and eclairs. I'm glad that I learned to make the choux pastry the right way.

Till my next baking adventure....

"Princess Cake"

Melissa celebrated her 4th birthday on 31st October 2012. To celebrate the occasion, her mom, Marhaini wanted a princess cake for her little princess. She wanted me to make for her a cake that has the upper body of a real doll but the full skirt is made of cake. I decided to not use a doll but instead wanted to make the body from sugarpaste or fondant. It was a simple but a very sweet cake. My daughter, Hannah was green with envy when she saw me making this cake. She questioned why didn't I make for her a birthday cake like this one. She forgot that she herself chose the theme for her birthday cuppies!!! LOL... She also remembered her 4th birthday cake, which was a princess cake but had a doll body!! It was quite funny but I didn't think Hannah thought it was amusing!!  I had to pacify her and told her that I will make for her a princess cake next time!

Back to my cake, Marhaini wanted a chocolate cake and the theme colour she chose was purple and pink. It took a while for the doll to harden as its the raining season and rain and fondant are not the best of friends!! All this humidity caused the fondant on my cake to be quite soft and a simple cake became not so simple after all because of the weather. I decided to make the princess' hair blond and the tiara red. This cake is actually my fictional princess!!!

So, this was how my princess looked like. I dusted the dress with lustre dust to get the shimmer look. The eyes was a bit smudged! My hands were not so steady that day and the colour just keeps on smudging the eyes... My princess now has the smokey look...Hehehe...

 

A brighter shot of the the cake

The face up-close

According to Marhaini, Melissa was so thrilled with the cake. This was her testimonial from FB: "Not only did the cake look good , it tasted absolutely divine. Thanks Pink Ellies Novelty Cakes!! My eldest daughter is already planning what cake she wants on her 16th birthday! "

Thanks so much for the order, Marhaini. I hope to hear from you soon!!

"Red Warriors Fan"

My friend Razlen or fondly called Len, wanted to surprise her son, Ilham for his 10th birthday. She wanted me to make a cake that has the Kelantan football team or better known as the "Red Warriors" theme. Len being Len, ordered this cake so last minute that my edible printing supplier had already started on her Aidiladha break. So, I wasn't able to print out the logo image of the football team to put on the cake. I had to modify my design and I only had 2 days to do it!!

I usually don't accept orders that is less than 1 week, but I guess Len is an exception. We've been friends for a few years and I've know Ilham since before he started primary school. So, I couldn't say no to her. I then decided that the easiest way to make the cake nice is to put a boy figure on the cake in red football attire (Kelantan team jersey is red!) and print out the logo and put it like a sign board on the cake. 

The front view of the cake showing the Kelantan football team logo behind the soccer boy

Ilham as depicted by me on the cake with his red jersey and soccer ball candle

The cake was butter vanilla with vanilla frosting. According to Len, Ilham was so happy with the surprise cake for his birthday. Happy 10th Birthday, Ilham... Hope you had a great celebration that day!!!

"Aidiladha Treats"

I had two last minute orders for the Aidiladha celebration last month. I made a strawberry yoghurt cake for Annie and 25 chocolate cupcakes for Len. The strawberry yoghurt cake is basically made of fresh strawberries (loads of them actually!) and strawberry yoghurt. Its a very dense and moist cake. I halved the cake and put loads of icing and thinly sliced strawberries in between the layers. I top the cake with more icing and whole strawberries. So, this is how my cake looked like :)

The other order was my bestselling chocolate cupcakes. Len wanted something simple for Aidiladha and I made flower design on the cupcakes in the colours of light purple, orange, green and white.

 

Thanks for the orders Annie and Len :) Hope you gals had a wonderful Aidiladha celebration!

As for me, I had a small lunch gathering for Aidiladha at my home and made a tiramisu for dessert to go with my chicken briyani lunch. Tiramisu  is very easy to assemble but taste great. I just love anything that has coffee in them!! Unfortunately, I don't have the photo of my tiramisu!! Was too busy and forgot to take the photo.

Until next time...

xoxoxo

Pink Ellies

"Hannah's Birthday Cuppies"

My daughter Hannah, who just celebrated her 8th birthday, wanted to bring some cupcakes to school to celebrate with her friends. She has been pestering me for months already and she wanted the theme to be all girly stuff. Among the stuff that she requested I put on the cupcakes were handbag, shoes, dress, tiara and a wand. So, its a mix of a princess theme and a modern girl theme. I chose her theme colour to be pink and black but since purple is Hannah's fave colour, she insisted that the dress should be in purple!! Oh no, I thought, colour clash!!!! But since its her birthday, I just went with her request!

The cupcake wrappers and candy goody box stickers were bought online. I don't quite like the sizing for the wrappers as its quite high and doesn't fit my cupcake casings that well. Note to self, never buy from this vendor again!!! I tried to still make it look nice for Hannah. So, instead of making the deco from buttercream icing only, I made them from gumpaste. The cupcakes were french vanilla flavoured and the buttercream was just plain old vanilla icing. 

The vanilla cupcakes in pink icing with the decorated sugar pieces and of course, the purple dress!!

The mini handbag, tiara, wand and heels as requested by my little boss, Hannah...

At the last minute, I decided to give Hannah's classmates candies to go with the cupcakes. I packed the chocolates in a small plastic box and tied a ribbon in pink or black to go with the theme.

The goody box for Hannah's friends at school

Hannah told me that she had a great time celebrating her birthday in school. She also told me that I'm the best mom in the world!! Well, I guess every child thinks of their mom that way, but nevertheless, I was so touched and happy that I made her so happy!! Happy Birthday again my baby girl, Hannah. Love you always, baby....

"Uno"

Fara's son, Adam turned one early this month. She asked me if I could make for her a cake that is shaped the number 1. The theme colour is light blue. At first, I was not too keen on accepting the order as I have just recently moved to a new house and my kitchen was only partially completed. But then, I decided to go ahead as I have already rejected 3 cake orders since I started the move. Since the cake was a simple one, I thought why not, right???

Wrong again!!! It was a nightmare to bake and decorate a cake in a half completed kitchen, that lacks most of all, water supply. The only source of water was from my other kitchen. I had so much problem walking back and forth from my wet kitchen to my dry kitchen as my other kitchen was already 95% completed but the space is too small for me to work in. Surprisingly though, even under the stress I was in, I still managed to get the cake completed in time for collection on Saturday, the 13th of October.

The no 1 cake in light blue and three other shades of blue and white

 

The cake was of course, my chocolate cake with chocolate ganache. According to Fara, the cake was a hit with the guests at the party. They liked the simple but elegant design, but most of all they loved the chocolate cake. I was so happy to hear that. I guess the difficulties I faced making the cake paid off in the end!!

The cake from side view. The four mini cakes had Adam's name alphabets on them.

Thank you, Fara for the order. I appreciate your support for Pink Ellies....

"Fly With Me"

I left out a post on this cake I did last month for my husband's work mate, Sazlin, who wanted a very simple small cake for her son's birthday. Since her budget is only for a small cake, I tried to make the cake look good even though it was only a 2-D cake. The theme of the birthday cake was aeroplanes and the colours are blue, black and green. The cake was chocolate and the cupcakes were a mix of chocolate and vanilla.

Very simple cake but Sazlin's son loved it!!

The cupcakes ordered with the cake. The colours I chose were the same ones as the theme colour of the main cake

Thanks again for the order, Sazlin and thank you dear hubby for endlessly promoting my cakes to your friends :)

"My Baby Girl Turns 8"

Last Sunday, 14th Oct 2012, my baby girl, Hannah Elysya Bahrin turned 8. Bahrin, my other half also celebrated his birthday on the same day. That means we had double joy last weekend! I can't believe how fast time flies. My little girl is already 8 but I can't help to always think of her as my baby girl. My hubby on the other hand, wants the time to stop as he has reached the last stage of the 3 at the beginning of his age. Next year, he will be in a different club as he reaches the big four 0!!

Hannah's presence in our lives was unplanned. I never expected to conceive her so soon. Haziq was only 2 1/2 when I found out that I was expecting Hannah. From the start, Hannah was a sweet natured baby. She stopped her night feeds at 30 days and slept thru the night ever since. She made my life easier as I had to juggle another active toddler when she just a baby. She has her daddy's smile and character. She is truly Bahrin's daughter, but mind you only in physical characteristics. As for her temperament, she has my family's side of the genes. Hannah loves emulating me and look forward to growing up to be like me!!! That is not so good!!! LOL...

Hannah is a girly girl and loves dressing up and I always tell her that she's 8 going on 16. She already has a flair for fashion and loves dancing and singing. I hope as she blossoms to be a young lady, she will continue to preserve her sweet nature, positive attitude towards life and be as lovable as she is now. She calls me her BFF&F (Best Friend Forever & Forever) and I do hope I will remain one of the greatest influence in her life and that she can count on me no matter the bad times or the good times. 

So, Hannah on your 8th birthday, Mama wishes all good things ahead... If you fall, stand up and continue the fight to success... I love you so much, baby girl....

Bahrin & Hannah - Daddy and his lil princess on their birthday

I didn't have time to bake, so Hannah decided on ice-cream cake and I bought Bahrin his own cake too!!

Family photo 

Will post the photos of Hannah's cuppies that I made for her to share and celebrate with her class mates soon!!

Hope you all had a nice weekend too! I sure did :)

"Rainbow Cake"

I've been putting off to make this cake for a while already!! Reason being its just too tedious even though the cake is actually a simple recipe cake. Finally, I couldn't say no. I've run out of excuses to give!! Hehehe... Sounds really bad, right? In the end, it was my hubby, who managed to persuade me to make the cake for his colleagues, who wanted to order two rainbow cakes from me for their office function.

I actually had so much fun seeing how the cake is turned from something so simple into six different layers of different coloured cake with rich buttercream filling in between the layers. The colours I mixed for the layers were really bright as I wanted the colour to contrast each other when the cake is cut. My rainbow cake came out to about 6.5" in height. It was quite a tall cake!!

Standing at about 6.5" tall... tadaaa... my rainbow cake!! Decorated with lemon flavoured chocolate shavings and rainbow coloured rice

The cake is vanilla flavoured and the buttercream is lemon flavoured. According to my hubby, the cake was a success and the first cake was finished within minutes after they first cut into it.

The cross-section of one of the cakes I made... See the layers inside... So vibrant. Love the colours!!!

Even though the layers were not that even, am glad that the cake was a success after all!!

I've yet to bake a rainbow cake for my kids. They have been pestering me to make one for them as they didn't get to taste any of these two cakes. So, hopefully, after we've moved to our new home and settled down, I can bake for them the rainbow cake.