"Hi, I am back!"

I haven't been blogging for a while now. Actually 4 months to be exact. I have been busy and plus I haven't been making any cakes lately.

I have been wanting to blog about this cake I made for our good friends, who visited us from Jakarta last April. Coincidentally, Pak Halim's birthday had just passed and I thought it would be nice to surprise him with a birthday cake.  I knew right from the beginning what cake I wanted to make for him. I decided a tuxedo cake as I have always known Pak Halim to be one of the most distinguished gentlemen that I've ever met. The cake was simple but elegant and suits him perfectly.

 

The tuxedo cake

The cake was lemon flavored



The black of the tuxedo was airbrushed to achieve the perfect shiny black colour




A nice red flower to complete the tuxedo

This is one of my favourite cakes and boy was the birthday man surprised! I am happy that my simple gesture meant a lot to Pak Halim and his family. We had so much fun with them and we played the tourist around Bangkok city with them.

 

Another cake I made was for a friend's daughter on the occasion of her 9th birthday. Ediana's daughter, Aressa wanted a Teen Beach Movie theme cake. How I wish I was in KL, where my edible print supplier is so easli accessible but alas am in Bangkok and we had to make do with normal printing for the sugar frame.

 

The whole view of the cake

Side view of cake with the sand decorated all around the cake



Aressa wanted a surf board on the cake

The sugar frame with inedible printing

The cake was a vanilla bean cake. I had fun making this cake as it was a fun theme. I hope Aressa loved her cake and her guests enjoyed the cake too!

 

Those were the only two cakes I did from the months of April to August. Am quite sad actually that my business hasn't taken off here. For one thing, I have not done enough marketing and another the people here (at least the one I meet) are just not willing to pay for the cakes like my clients in KL are willing to. Its difficult trying to explain that the cost of making these one of a kind cakes. The time I spend on each of  the cake itself and the design will never be the same as another cake.

 

How I miss my busy cake making days in Malaysia, whereby there's always an interesting cake to meet each week. But hopefully my drought season will end soon. I will be conducting classes for the Adult Education Program in ISB as part of my PTA contribution to my children's school. At least then I will still be practicing my cake making.

 

 



 

 

"An Elly Baby Shower"

My Thai friend, fondly known as Pear to all of us and me organised a baby shower for our mutual friend, Tengku Eliza, who was expecting her second child. Since we were not sure what the baby's sex is (at that time),  I decided on the theme colour of green and yellow. We had arranged everything from the party favours, games to be played, gifts for games, food, cake, cookies and decoration. I also painstakingly hand made the pom-pom rosettes from tissue papers to be hung as part of the theme.

 

I had a Dear Baby card made for Eliza as memory keepsakes. These cards were given to the guests and they had fill up the cards with "good" advice for the future baby. All in all, the baby shower went well and we had fun with the games. I guess all my hardwork paid off.

I also contributed a cake, cupcakes and butter cookies for the party. The cake was chocolate with vanilla filling and a coating of belgian chocolate ganache. The cupcakes were vanilla bean flavoured with vanilla frosting. The cookies were made in the shape of elephants in the same theme colours. There were also vanilla bean flavoured.

 

The cake with an elephant topper

Another view of the cake

The cake together with the cupcakes

Up close view of the cuppies
 

The ellie cookies in green and yellow. How cute!

Cookies all wrapped up and ready to be given to guests

Even though Eliza had hoped for a baby boy, her second child turned out to be a baby girl. They named her Nur Elea. She was born on the 24th of February 2015.

 

A few photos of the rosettes for the deco, gifts for the game, party favours for the guests and the Dear Baby cards for Eliza's keepsakes.

 

Both Pear and me, satisfied with all our hard work!

The rosettes hanging beautifully on the party day

 Congratulations again, Eliza on your baby and may she bring you more happiness and joy!

 

xoxoxo

Elinna

 

"Anouk's Flower Garden"

I haven't been blogging for a while now. I find that the more I stay at home, the less likely I am to get myself connected to my laptop. Its easier to access the internet through my iphone or ipad. In other words, I am getting LAZY! I have however, made a few cakes in the last few months but most of the cakes or cupcakes I've made are for charity or as gifts to friends. Business has been slow and I haven't also made the effort to market my cakes to new friends or acquaintances. Truth is, I hate my kitchen here. Its not really equipped to support my cake making business. Its small and doesn't have the right table and area for me to do my cakes. Oh and another thing, my kitchen is so freaking hot. The heat in this building during the day is unbearable. I miss my big, airy and equipped kitchen in Malaysia. The kitchen here demotivates me and always makes me think twice about taking any orders. On the good side, I hope to move out of this apartment in the city and move to a suburb nearby my children's school. I hope to get a house and am currently busy looking at options. A year living in chaotic downtown Bangkok is enough. I much prefer the quiet and small closed community that I used to have back home. The area we'll be moving to is somewhat like that and is located about 30-40 mins (without traffic) away from downtown Bangkok.

I started out 2015 with a cake for one of Hannah's bestie in class. Anouk is of mix parentage, her dad is French-Swiss and her mom is Chinese Singaporean. They are also new to Bangkok and just moved from New York. Tzen, Anouk's mom left the design of the cake to her daughter. Anouk celebrated her 10th birthday on 2nd of February 2015. She had since November last year booked me to make a birthday cake for her. She was so amazed with Hannah's birthday cookies that she wanted no one else but me to make the cake for her. Its quite amazing that she sketched a cake design complete with the colours for me to intepret into a 3D sugar creation. I am amazed at Anouk's creativity. I had a good 2D rendering to base my design on. The cake was chocolate with vanilla filling and Belgian milk chocolate ganache. This was a fun cake to make and I enjoyed every moment of making it.

 

This was the sketch made by Anouk for her cake

This was the cake I made based on her sketch

She wanted her dog, Combi to be part of the cake and also a cute birdie

The sides of the cake was decorated with flower petals and flower plants



Overall view of the cake

I don't know what 2015 will bring for me and Pink Ellies Novelty Cakes but for sure, I now am more selective of my customers and I do appreciate that I do have the option of accepting or not taking orders. I will not stop making cakes but I need to find a better footing and a better kitchen first!

 

Wish me the best, peeps!

 

xoxoxo

Elinna 

Christmas Goodies

I made a few Christmas treats for my friends' orders and also for my children's classmates and teachers at ISB.

 

1) Mini Christmas tree cupcakes with a shiny gold star on the top. These cupcakes were ordered by Rose, whose daughter attends the Shrewsbury International School Bangkok was a having a Christmas party in school to mark the end of the school term. She wanted these Christmas trees as what represents the joy of Christmas more than these cute little trees with its colourful ornaments. I made the ornaments on the mini tress in gold and silver sugar beads with one thousand and one colourful pieces. The cupcakes are French vanilla flavoured with vanilla buttercream.

 

 

 

2) There was also another order of Christmas themed cupcakes in December. This time its by Meg, whose son also attends the same school as Rose's daughter but in different year levels. Meg's son, Rayyan also had a Christmas party in school. The cupcake design was inspired by snowflakes and snow. I made these really nice snowflake cut outs in two sizes and airbrushed them in pearl white to achieve the shimmery effect. I then airbrushed the icing on the cupcakes in icy blue to create a bluish tint to the icing base. I also enhanced the cupcake by adding silver and pearl sugar beads and a dusting of silver edible dust. The cupcakes are chocolate flavoured with vanilla buttercream.

 

 

 

3) For my finale Christmas goodies, I made French vanilla butter cookies for my children's teachers and friends in celebration of Christmas and the last day of Term 1. I decided to make the Christmas tree, star and snowflake themed cookies as they were the easiest to make! I was running short of time as it was a very busy week for me as I was running back and forth to school for events. I am glad I still managed to complete 32 cookies in time for my children to bring to school. I had individually packed them and completed each pack with a Christmas theme ribbon.

 

 

With these treats, I was done for year 2014. It was a difficult year for me. For one thing, I have slowed down a lot on my baking and cake making. I also had my carpel tunnel surgery in February 2014, my husband had a major neck operation in July due to his upper spine slip disc and after that in August, we all had to pack up and move to Bangkok. Uprooting my kids and enrolling them in a new school went quite smoothly but I had trouble occupying my days in a new country especially with the language barrier. However, I am still very thankful with all that have been bestowed upon me and my family. My new home now feels like home but no matter what my heart will still be in Malaysia. I do miss my house in KL and wish that I could bring my house here to Bangkok.

 

I hope that in 2015, the carpel tunnel on my right hand will improve and am able to create more beautiful cakes. I do have some difficulties with getting my baking supplies here in Bangkok as I am very used to dealing with my suppliers in KL. I guess I still am adjusting here plus I don't have a client base yet, Hopefully, Pink Ellies Novelty Cakes will continue to flourish in year 2015. Wish me luck, peeps...

 

xoxo

Elinna Bahrin

Bangkok, Thailand

Hannah's Owl

My daughter, Hannah celebrated her 10th birthday last October 14th. She shares the same birthday as her daddy, and that's why she will always be Daddy's Little Girl. Hannah has been pestering me to make her an owl theme birthday cake since the beginning of 2014 when she started going ga-ga over anything that are owls. I always look forward to making birthday cakes for my kids. I love their reaction when they see the finished product.

 

So, when we were in Kuala Lumpur last September for a visa renewal visit, Hannah and I found this cute owl paper clips at Typo. The owl paper clips were in light teal and white. Of course Hannah was so happy as teal is one of her favourite colours now. Since purple is another of her favourite colours, we both decided to make her birthday theme this year light purple, light teal and white.

 

I made butter cookies for her classmates and used the owl paper clip as my source of inspiration. I had the fondant owls painted white at its eyebrows and tummy. The cookies turned out great and Hannah's classmates were very happy with her birthday treat.

  

Hand painting the sugar owls in edible white paint

The purple and teal owls

The butter cookie with the owl and the owl paper clip
that I used as my inspiration

For Hannah's classmates

I managed to get the basket at the Chatuchak weekend
market at a bargain! I love them 

 

For Hannah's cake, I basically made a bigger version of the sugar owl and airbrushed the cake with a pearl shimmer. The cake was quite easy to execute and I managed to complete the cake and cookies all on the same day. I guess not working does have its perks! I can spend the whole day taking my time instead of always having to rush my time and fighting for time.

 

My baby girl with her cake

 

I can't believe that my baby girl is 10 already and this year she will be 11. How fast time flies! I wish I could just slow down the time and treasure every moment of her childhood as long as I could. She is almost a teenager now and acts like she's going on 16! Don't grow up too fast, baby girl! Treasure each and every childhood moment you can. Time passed will never be recaptured. I wish her only the best things in her life and hope she will grow into a beautiful young lady that I see her becoming each day. Love you to the moon and back, my baby girl....

 

 

Cakes I Made Since Moving to Bangkok

This is my first fondant cake made since I moved to Bangkok. I am still undecided on whether I should continue the Pink Ellies business here but I do miss my old hectic days of trying to meet a cake dateline. Am still getting used to the kitchen here but it definitely can't compare to the beautiful kitchen my husband gave me at my house in Malaysia. I do miss the space and size complete with the amenities of my kitchen back home. My kitchen here is not really equipped for cake modelling or decorating. Despite having to adjust to my new surroundings and situation, I still managed to make this cake for a friend in celebration of his 34th birthday. Not one of my best efforts but it will have to do for the occasion. The cake is chocolate with peanut buttercream filling coated with dark Belgian chocolate ganache.

 

The cake coated with chocolate ganache and ready to be covered

I chose a very light blue for the base colour

The present box is stencilled with a vine motif and I've added a lily design on the box

The cake all complete with platinum ribbon made of fondant

The next cake is my first cake order since I moved to Bangkok last August. This order was by Didi, who works for the Malaysian Embassy in Bangkok. Her daughter, Nadine turned 3 last October and Nadine wanted a princess cake in pink! Didi also wanted a buttercream cake. Since I wasn't able to attend Nadine's birthday party, I bought the Barbie princess doll as a birthday gift and made her skirt with rich chocolate cake decorated with swirls of sinful vanilla buttercream. I then airbrushed the icing in gradual pink to create an ombre effect. All in all, I was quite pleased with how the cake turned out. Didi and Nadine loved the cake!

 

Princess Barbie in pink

I made little rosette swirls as part of the princess' skirt and added little fondant flowers in white to enhance the 3D effect

The bottom of the skirt is made with gum paste to have the petticoat effect

The skirt is then airbrushed to create the different shades of pink or the "ombre' effect

The next cake was ordered by my neighbour, Niqman  as a surprise for his wife's birthday. He wanted a Chanel handbag in blue. He actually forwarded the handbag photo to me but somehow or rather I couldn't find the actual colour from the web. So, I decided to follow this colour, which was one of the designs on the web. The cake eventually became a gift from me and Bahrin as Niqman and Eliza have been one of our dearest friends since we moved to Bangkok. The cake was a rich chocolate cake with a tinge of coffee and the cake was covered in rich coffee laced chocolate ganache. We had a great time celebrating Eliza's birthday last month and I wish her many, many more blessed years to come.

 

Chanel handbag in electric blue

The back of the bag

A close-up view of the cake with the signature Chanel flower

I added some gold beads to the cake and dusted the base with a shimmery pearl dust

I also made another cake in October 2014 for my daughter, Hannah's 10th birthday. I have decided to write a separate post on the treats I did for Hannah and her classmates. Until then, thanks for reading my post!

 

xoxoxo

Elinna