"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.