"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.

 

 



 

 

"Going into 2014 - Final Curtain for 2013"

Happy New Year 2014 to all my blog readers!!

It has been a very busy start to year 2014 and yes, am still MAIDLESS!! My maid is currently on a 3 months leave and she has gone back to Indonesia. So, despite my promise to her that I would not overtire myself by making cakes on my own, I actually managed to complete 5 orders since she left in early November 2013. So, am feeling quite proud of my achievement that I actually managed to fit a full time office job, housework, my family and my cakes in the last 2 months or so. I still have another month to go before my life is back to being completely normal!!

 

The end of 2013 also marked my last year in the 3 series. I turned 39 on 27th December and I had a good time catching up with my cousin, Amy on my birthday. Plus my hubby also treated me to a wonderful Japanese dinner and my besties came to my house to surprise me with a mini birthday celebration on New Year's Day. All in all, I had a great ending to my 30's and even though I don't look forward to the big 40, I hope to remain young always at heart.

 

The beginning of 2014 also marks new beginnings for my kids. My eldest is now in secondary and my youngest is now in upper primary. I am getting OLD!! I do feel my age everytime I'm done with housework. The ache and pains are more pronounced now than it was 5 years ago!!! Hahaha...

Back to my cakes, I had two last orders at the end of December. The first one, which I haved named, "By the Beach", is ordered by my college mate, Patricia or as we fondly call her Pat, for her son, Rohan's 2nd birthday celebration. She ordered a Rob the Robot theme cake, refer to my blog entry Last Order for December 2012, last year for Rohan's 1st birthday. For 2013, the theme of the cake was a beach holiday theme with the cake having a sand castle and surrounded by all beach/sea themed items. I actually made the sand castle out of cake and had the whole palm tree beach effect on the cake. I also added elements such as fishes all around the cake to show the underwater effect. I had handpainted each of the underwater element with edible colouring. That was the best part in making the cake! I forgot how much I used to love painting.

Overall view of the cake complete with the beach sand and a palm tree too!!



The sand castle and beach stuff

The fishes and turtle

The blue fish

The cake is a dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganche frosting. Happy Belated 2nd Birthday, Rohan!! Thanks again for the order and support, Patricia!!

My second cake order was from my cousin, Liza or fondly called Liz  for her daughter, Iman's 11th birthday. I call this cake, "Hoo Hoo Says The Owl". Its an owl cake but not a real owl! I copied the owl from the photo of Iman's stuffed owl toy sent to me by her mom!

This cake was quite fun to make and I loved the overall effect of the cake. Liz left everything to me and I added my own elements into the owl cake. I even textured the body of the owl to have the hair or fur effect on the cake. I started the cake by baking a basic 9" square cake, which I then shaped into the owl based on the photo sent to me.

The cake is again chocolate with dark chocolate ganache, a popular flavour with the kids.

Iman's stuffed toy owl made into a sugar treat!

Aerial view of the cake with the starry night background

Its just plain adorable

The side view with the owl perching on a tree branch with leaves and flowers!!

Thanks again for the order Liz!! Happy Belated Birthday, Iman!! We're both Capricorns!! Hurray to us as our birthdays are at the end of the year when everyone is going to turn older by celebrating their next birthday already but we've just only celebrated our birthdays!!

Happy New Year 2014 again and may this year be kinder to us Tigers and not to mention bring more prosperity to Pink Ellies Novelty Cakes too!! May I also be more creative in the coming year and produce more beautiful cakes!!!

Thanks for reading my blog in 2013 and I hope you will continue doing so in the years to come :)

xoxo
Elinna Bahrin
Pink Ellies Novelty Cakes