"Colour Me Pink"

An order by my Auntie Lina's friend, Pn Alya for her daughter, Hani's 13th birthday celebration. The request was a simple square 12' x 12' chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream decorated with pink flowers, and 68 red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and topped with fondant lettering decoration. The letterings made words that are Hani's favourite things, i.e. Minecraft, One Direction, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, skating, guitar and so on.

 

Even though it sounded simple enough, making this order was a pretty tall one for me. For one thing, I had no assistant and the other thing was the order was due on a week day. I work full time on a week day. That leaves me only the evenings to make and complete this cake before collection. I actually slept at 3 am on Thursday night and the cake collection was set at 11 am on Friday. One thing I learn while making this order was never bite more than you can chew!!! I was so overwhelmed that I felt like drowning trying to meet the deadline. Fortunately for me, I managed to finish the cake and was quite happy with the results.

 

The problem with this order was the red velvet cupcakes. The first batch didn't turn out to my standards, so I decided to do a second batch. So, that took time especially when I'm a one woman show for the time being. I still want to attain a certain level of perfection for my cakes. I don't want to use the excuse of no help as the reason why my cake standards have gone down. With this cake, I hope I've managed to achieve the correct standards for my client.

Thank goodness the chocolate cake turned out well and was ready to be frosted. I also wanted the cupcakes to be unique as the design was just letterings. Therefore, I used different letterings and colours to make it look more fun and hip.

Although it was tiring, I actually enjoyed looking at the pink flowers on the cake as I assembled the cake. As for the cupcakes, Hannah gave me a hand and I was glad the time spent with her. So, it all balanced out in the end. I only have another order to go for the year and I will stop making cakes for a while until my maid comes back early February. Its rest time for me!

 

This is the aerial view of the cake

The pink flowers are so sweet

I used 3 different shades of pink to have more effect on the cake

The cupcakes - Minecraft, One Direction & YouTube

YouTube (cont), Instagram & Facebook

Thanks Auntie Lina for recommending me to your friend. I hoped she and her family enjoyed the cake.

"The Librarian"

I made this cake at the request of my cousin, Anis, who wanted to surprise her mom. Her mom is fondly known to us as Auntie Yan and she is one of my mom's closest sister. I love her just like my mom! So, despite the fact that I'm maidless and have tons of housework to do, I still made time to bake and make this cake for my aunt. It was an honour to have been given this responsibility.

 

My aunt wrote a boigraphy of my late my grandfather, Dato' Ahmad bin Mohd Yunus, for our family. She wanted to have a book launch commemorating this occassion. She had the biography printed and distributed to all her siblings and she wanted the whole family to be at the event. Anis thought that it was a great idea to have a surprise birthday cake for her as her birthday was the very next day.

 

My late grandfather's biography. Kudos to my Auntie Yan for a job well done!

The theme of the cake is simple, She wanted to have books as my Auntie Yan was a librarian and spent most of her working life surrounded by books. I thought the idea was brilliant and set out to design the cake. I had envisioned in my mind to have the boigraphy as one of the books. Unfortunately, Anis couldn't get me a good image of the book cover. So, instead I opted for their family photo and made the book look like an album.

 

The cake was a 2 tiered stacked cakes depicting two books and I made the bottom tier an orange cake and the top tier a chocolate cake. This cake was an interesting cake to make and I'm amazed that I managed to finish the cake on time and without help too! Well, except for the cleaning up part. Hannah did a good job helping me tidy up the kitchen.

 

The whole view of the cake

The top book/album with the Hazers' family photo

View of the book pages

Side view showing of the books

The biography cover in a frame depicting her achievement

My aunt was really surprised when they took the cake out!! Good job to Anis for this wonderful surprise for her mom! To my Auntie Yan, Happy 61st Birthday and I hope you will have many, many more years filled with love, happiness, prosperity and of course, good health!!

 

Love,

Elin

 

 

"Lilac"

This is my first cake entry after a month hiatus. Truthfully, I haven't been feeling well and have been having severe pain at my neck & shoulder area. Due to this, I was advised by my orthopedic specialist to undergo at least 12 weeks of physiotherapy. So, I have been going for these physio sessions for the last 1 1/2 months since October. I was also advised by my physiotherapist to take it easy and put a brake on making cakes for at least 4 weeks. Hence, the silence!!

 

Since I've been feeling a bit better, I decided to make a "hantaran" cake for my good friend, Elona (from my Jakarta days), whose brother got hitched last Saturday, 30th November 2013. Elona is such an easy client as she didn't make any demands for the cake. Her only two requests were to have a lace themed cake and the theme colour must be lilac and cream. The rest are all in my hands.

 

Oh ya, did I also mention that my maid has left for holidays for 3 months since November 9th. So, I have been maidless for the last month, therefore, no cake orders until my kids are on holidays. My maid is actually my assistant when I am making my cakes. So, with her gone, I'm a one woman show. That's also one of the reasons why I am not really taking orders for the months of November to January 2014.

 

However, Elona's case is different as I have promised her since last September that I would make her the cake and a promise is a promise! I would not renege on it. Suprisingly, the process was quite smooth sailing and I managed to complete my cake within the time limit and Elo's mom was very happy with the cake. I made a vanilla bean cake with a vanilla bean white chocolate ganche. I was actually quite happy with how the cake turned out.

 

Lilac lace cake with its embellishments

The top centre of the cake. I added a few pearls and crystal beads

The side of the cake

Aerial view of the cake

Thanks again for the order Elo and thank you for putting your trust on my creativity!! Congratulations to your brother and may they have a wonderful life together!!

I already have a few orders lined-up for December. Wish me luck peeps and I do hope I am able to cope and produce good cakes for my clients!!

Have a great weekend!!!

xoxo
Elinna Bahrin