"Gift Box"

 A very simple cake I did for my friend, Yan, who wanted a fondant cake for her family's consumption. Yan has been one of my loyal customers right from our Jakarta days. These days, her kids are already big and she doesn't have any more birthday parties. She does however, still orders my vanilla cake from time to time. She is one person who wants fondant on the cake even though there's no special occasion for the cake.

 

Truth is, Yan loves to eat the fondant part of the cake!! The only one I know so far! Most people I know throw away the fondant part and just eat the actual cake part. In a way, am glad that Yan doesn't waste all the sugar used. That's the most expensive part of the cake actually.

 

The cake I made for her this time is a mini gift box in fuchsia. I had the sides of the decorated like Moroccan tiles and the top had a grey suggar ribbon with white roses. 

 

"Shimmery Ivory Cupcakes"

I was commissioned by Raja Jesrina Tan Sri Raja Arshad or fondly called Jess to make another order of cupcakes. This time its for her Wedding Party, which was held on 19th April 2014 at the Shang-ri La. The concept of the wedding party is elegant, luxurious & ethereal. The colour she wanted was a combination of white and light ivory. The flowers were fantasy flowers and filled with sugar pearl dragees in the centre. I had the flowers and cupcake base airbrushed a pearl sheen so in order to create the shimmery effect. The lace cupcake wrappers were also custom made in light ivory and ordered from overseas. The cupcake itself is lemon poppy flavoured with vanilla frosting.

 

The ivory base of the cupcakes were airbrushed a pearl shimmer as Jess wanted the shimmer and lustre effect

The cupcakes with the fantasy flowers in ivory and pearl dragees

The wedding cupcake up close. Looks ethereal and classy and just the way Jess wants them to be!

I had these flowers airbrushed too

  

I had the cupcake lace wrappers custom made in ivory to match the theme of the wedding party

  

Congratulations again Jess on your marriage!! Thanks for the 2 big orders for this year. I guess with these two big orders, I am sort of done on big orders for the time being. I will see how the future pans out for me and then decide if I should really continue. For now, I will only make special request cakes and on a smaller scale as my hands are still not a 100% healed!

 

 

 

"White Roses"

These cupcakes order was commissioned by Raja Jesrina, who recently tied the knot on 16th April 2014. She had a specific idea on what she wanted for her akad nikah (Muslim marriage solemnisation ceremony) gift box. Her ideas were of course great but I realised that it was quite a lot of hardwork and I needed to start early so that I don't get too stressed at the last minute. 
 

To date, this order is one of my biggest projects this year. Although there were only 150 pcs  of cupcake gift boxes to make, each box of cupcake is very tedious work. I started off this project by sourcing all the materials needed from different suppliers. There were many materials needed for each box - the clear PVC box, the lace cupcake wrapper, pearl beads in 2 sizes, ribbon, name tags and so on. Researching and compiling the prices are very important as Jess has set her budget and I must try to adhere to her budget.

Lace cupcake wrappers

The first thing I did was to order these lace cupcake wrappers as I wanted the cupcakes to look classy and elegant. Since the custom order takes about 3 weeks, I had these ordered in early March as I didn't want to take any chances on the wrappers not arriving on time.

The clear PVC gift boxes

I had the clear PVC boxes ready with the lace wrappers and pearl beads prior to inserting the cupcakes into the boxes. Each of the box needed to have the same amount of pearl beads. So, I had the beads weighed before putting them into the boxes. I actually stuck the lace wrapper to the box first before putting in the beads.

The name tags for the gift box

Jess had given me the pdf file format for her monogram and she wanted the tags to be printed on pearl white cards with the fonts in silver hot stamping. I managed to get my trusted company printer to get these cards printed for me at a very good price. However, Jess was not too happy with the size and wanted them smaller. So, I had them modified to the smaller size and punched a hole at the side instead of in the middle.

 

The organza ribbons were cut in advance prior to making the cupcakes. Oh, and I also had to handpaint each of the roses with silver accents as Jess doesn't want them to be too white.

Hand painting the roses

The roses were airbrushed in pearl white and I also hand painted them with silver edible paint. This process took me 4 days to complete as I only had the nights to start my work! If you've read my earlier entries, you would also know that I recently (February) had a carpal tunnel release surgery on my right hand, thus my painting pace was a bit slower then before. I also had these precious gumpaste roses handmade in the Philippines and they were flown into KL by my husband's colleagues, who happened to have a meeting in KL around the same time. Thank goodness for me on the timing! At any other time, I would probably make my own roses, but my hands are just not at their optimum best at the moment. 

This is how the gift box looks like up close

The cupcakes had two flavours, vanilla bean and orange spice. The baking process and getting the cupcakes assembled was quite easy, it was putting them all together that took a long time! I was so exhausted by the time I was done but at the same time I was very satisfied with what I have produced.

The cupcake in the box without the final touches



The cupcake gift box with the silver organza ribbon and name tag

Aerial view with the name tag



The cupcakes ready to be collected

 

All in all, I am so glad that I managed to complete the above order with only asisstance from my maid (who happened to have a very bad tooth ache at that time!). Congratulations again to Jess and I hope she was happy with the cupcake gift boxes.

 

 

Thank you again for the order, Jess!!

 

"English Roses"

This cake order came as a surprise to me as out of the blue, my friend from Jakarta, Azah sent me a BBM text to request an engagement cake for her sister. Azah rarely sent texts to anybody, so it was quite shocking to get a message from her.

 

She wanted an English themed cake and actually sent me a photo of how the cake should look like. Her sister wanted me to copy the cake exactly like the photo. Truthfully, am not too keen in copying another person's work. I actually look at other cake photos to get some ideas on how my cake should be. Since this was a request made by my customer, I had no choice but to follow the sample cake photo. Which I did, but only up to certain details. The rest I added my own touch to it and I was actually quite happy with how the cake turned out.

 

The cake had so many roses on it that I was worried how the cake would turned out. Its not a very big cake, mind you. Its about 7" in diameter and 3" in height but the cake had 2 big sized roses, 6 medium sixed roses, 5 small sized roses, 10 hydrageas and 10 blossoms! That's quite a sum for such a small cake. On top of the flowers, Azah wanted the sides all around the cake to be decorated with lace patterns made with a mix of fondant and royal icing.



The whole view of the engagement cake

The sides of the cake made to look like lace

 

A close-up at the flower arrangement on the cake



Another view of my cake

I am so glad to hear that your sister loves the cake, Azah! Congratulations to her on her recent engagement and it was great meeting up with you that day. It has been a long time since we've caught up!!



It was a sweet and short catch-up!!

 

 

 

"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.

"20th October"

Johanna Arshad threw a surprise birthday party for her mother in-law ("MIL") on 20th October 2013. To celebrate the occassion she wanted her MIL to have a lace cake just like her surprise birthday cake last year. She wanted a lemon cake. The theme of the cake is baby pink and light cream. This cake was relatively easy to make but quite time consuming as I'm a very detailed person. I can't help it but I can't stand imperfections! My husband says I have the OCD disease ("Obssesive Compulsive Disorder")... Hahaha... Which is true in some ways and an be very frustrating for me!

 

Back to the cake, when I started making this cake, I was already very tired!! I had been sleeping late every night as I was finishing 50 pcs of sugar decorated cookies for Johanna also. The cookies are also part of the birthday celebration. The cookies are door gifts for their guests. Johanna wanted  chocolate flavoured cookies in the shape of a cake with candles. the theme colours of the cookies are pink, blue & green. The cookies had to be individually packed also and tied with ribbons and a thank you tag. So, for me that was quite a task as I was working every day and only managed to start the cookies in the evenings. Very, very tiring and exhausting especially when I'm a perfectionist. I also had the cookies airbrushed to create a lustre effect.  But it was worth it as the cookies really turned out nice. I was very happy with the final product.

 

Before the beautification with the ribbons!

 

All ready with ribbons and thank you tags

 

 

 

The cookies also had a lace effect and I combined royal icing and gumpaste for the cookies sugar work. Actually making the cookies were not difficult but it just requires lots of patience as the process takes time from the momemnt you make, bake, decorate and pack the cookies!

 

After I had the cookies done, I started on my cake, which consist of 3 components; i.e. 1) the sugar frame for the edible image, 2) the sugar flowers; and of course 3) the lace cake itself. The weather was really bad that weekend. Very humid and my sugar frame took a long time to dry and harden. Luckily, I started early on the frame.

 



The overall view of the Pink Lace cake



The lace with the pink flowers

The edible image of the the grandparents with their grandkids

The lace work I did with royal icing and fondant

 

In the end though, all turned out well and I was very satisfied with my work!

 

"My last order for April 2013"

Yes, its only the 16th of April 2013 today and I'm closed for orders this month. Reason being, my other half and me will be embarking on a spiritual journey to Makkah and Madinah this week. We will be performing our umrah and our trip will take us about 8 days. Before leaving though, I've managed to squeeze in 2 orders last week.

The first order was from Azlina, who wanted me to make for her son Ben 10 cupcakes to be taken on her son's kindy picnic. I didn't take any photos for this order as I was in a rush and totally forgot to do it!!! The cupcakes were chocolate with vanilla frosting and decorated with edible Ben 10 images.

The next order was from my neighbour (2 doors away), Kak Nora, who wanted to surprise her childhood friend, Christine with a birthday cake. She gave me a free reign on the cake design and only requested that I make for her a vanilla cake. She also mentioned that Christine loves the colour orange. When I was informed about this cake, in my mind I could already picture the cake that I wanted to make. I just wanted it to be simple and elegant with only one sugar flower on the cake and the sides decorated with 2D effect.

The overall view of the cake made with different shades of orange

The sugar flower in sunset orange - airbrushed and dusted with edible dust colouring

The decorated sides made to look a bit like lace

I quite enjoyed making this cake as this was a very simple order compared to my other cakes. Thanks for the order, Kak Nora and so sorry, I'm not able to take your order for the 20th of April this month. Next time ya...

"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

"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....

"20th Anniversary Cake"

The 1st week of September was a very, very hectic week for me. I felt like everything was happening at the same time. First, my other half had to leave for Mozambique for 6 whole days. That means, I had to be a single parent for 6 whole days. I know I sound whiny but its really tiring to juggle office work, kids matter, making cakes and running my day-to-day household matters!! Then, to make it worse, I had 3 cake orders that week. I usually only take 1 order per week as am working full time and its not easy to find the time to make intricate cakes but this week was all about family and friends.

The first order for the week came from my hubby's work mates. They wanted to order a cake for their office meeting and also to celebrate a few birthdays. Since Bahrin was in Africa, they contacted me personally and asked if I could bake them a rainbow cake. Truthfully, I told them that my hands are full that week and if they wanted a simple cake, I can bake for them but a rainbow cake is too tedious for me! So, they decided on an orange poppy cake instead (I was so busy I had no time to take photos of the cake!!!).

This is the only photo that I have of the cake. Courtesy of course, from my hubby, Bahrin, who made it back in time to bring the cake for the meeting. I was glad to hear that they all love the cake!!!

On to my second order that week!!! It was my friend, Yan's 20th wedding anniversary. She was hosting a Hari Raya open house and also a house warming on 08th September and wanted to also celebrate her 20th wedding anniversary with her friends. So, she told me she wanted me to make her a 2-tiered cake that looks like a wedding cake but not a wedding cake! Huh?! So, I asked her for specifics like the colour of the flowers, the base of the cake and what she wanted on the cake. 

Yan's favourite colour is orange and she wanted an orange and off-white theme for the cake. As for the cake flavour, she wanted chocolate with chocolate ganache.

The anniversary cake. I managed to make a cake that is 2-tiered but does not really resemble a wedding cake. Yan and her hubby loved it.

The cake up-close. All these sugar flowers were handmade and colour dusted by me. I refuse to buy ready-made flowers and take the easy way out. 

   

Happy 20th Anniversary, Yan & Jeff... May you two have many, many more wonderful and happy years together... Look out for my next post... It will be the third cake I made for this particular week!!!

"Yan's Cakes"

Its been a while since I've had any time to update my blog. I was actually busy with my cakes and also going on the tv series marathon of Pretty Little Liars (S2), Gossip Girl (S5), Smash and now am in the midst of watching the Good Wife (S3). What can I say, I am ADDICTED to these series marathon. Since I can't find the time to watch it on tv, I actually buy the CDs and watch them straight for a few days until I'm done. Well anyways, back to my cakes. My friend, Yan called me during my lunch break one day and told me that she wanted to order 2 small cakes from me.

As usual, she wants her favourite butter vanilla flavour and the cakes have to be decorated with flowers and butterflies. One of the cakes is for her daughter, Farzana's 16th birthday celebration in school. So, here's what I came up with for Farzana...

I chose the colour purple as I love how sweet the colour is when put together with the leaves backdrop. The flowers I chose were daisies in violet and pink. I had 3 butterflies decorated on the cake. A simple cake but fits Farzana's sweet personality.

As for the other cake, I chose red flowers for Yan. This other cake is just for her to enjoy with her family. Yan has such a vibrant personality, that I know red is the right colour for her. I made a simple poppy in red with black centre and had butterflies on the cake as requested by Yan.

Thanks again Yan for your continuous support. I look forward to making more cakes for you and your family in the future....