My current manager has a saying, "sweet young things". Then pointedly says to me that I am neither sweet nor young. How would you interpret it?

Anyway, and with this cake, you're all up-to-date with my cake and baking stories! Finally! It's only taken two years...

And for some reason, and by luck because to be honest, I don't spend that many weekends in Singapore, I had two cake requests in the same weekend. It's not even often in Sydney I had two cakes for the one weekend so it's really luck of the Irish (is it??) that I had two requests for the same weekend.

Good that they're both buttercream based. Bad that they're both for Sunday. But I prepped early and didn't plan anything else (the irony is that the day job keeps calling this weekend) so I'm literally just working the weekend away. Till next time! :-)

I pretty much had a mental battle with myself over this one for weeks. Whether I was even going to take on the challenge cause:

Singapore. Heat. Humid. Melting ganache. No tools. Expensive ingredients. No kitchen space. No oven. Where do I even get the speciality ingredients? What brand fondant do they sell here? 

In the end, I scrapped together this 2 tier cake for my colleague's son's 2nd birthday. It was stressful... like mega.

First off, two tall tier cakes takes a long time to bake. And well, my fridge isn't all the big either so I just didn't have any room anywhere. Then I had to let the AC run pretty much all the days that I was putting the cake together. That's just a waste of money and electricity (as humid and hot as it gets here, I absolutely loathe AC...)

Then I had like the tiniest rolling pin (think something you'd use to make dumpling skins, not huge ass pieces of fondant to cover 8 inch cakes!) that I had to make do with to cover the cake. Oh and I had no lazy susan so I pretty much had to turn the cake manually whilst at the same time not dent the cake in anyway. I had no wooden or plastic dowels to hold up the second tier but I learnt this amazing trick of using thick drinking straws instead. Luckily those are easy to obtain.

I also had to express order cloud shaped cutters and ebay isn't really a thing here so they don't have the cheap options online. I still got them online but it was like same as store prices except that stores don't have stuff like this readily available. So stressful.

In the end, managed something that I think looks ok. Will I do another fondant cake here? Umm...

I've had another extremely busy weekend (and week building up to it)! With a wedding in the Blue Mountains followed directly by a Kitchen Tea back in the Sydney CBD, it was always going to be a logistical challenge.

I did have an amazing (and rather cold) time away outside of Sydney on Friday evening and Saturday before hastily fitting in a morning bushwalk on Sunday morning before the drive back to Sydney. I was exhausted. The wedding was beautiful and very much what the bride wanted.

So was the Kitchen Tea - the cake, which I had completed by Friday morning, turned out well too! We were supposed to have a cake topper as well but my dear friend forgot it. No matter, flowers to the rescue and as she had already prepped everything, it was really easy! The cake was delicious just in case you were wondering! Very happy with how it all turned out.

It was a great afternoon (despite the dreary wet weather storming outside) at Doltone House opposite Hyde Park. Lots of laughs, competitiveness and general fun. Really enjoyed myself and was quite impressed by the service.

A cute little cake just before the official start of the Chinese Year of the Monkey! 

Another one where I had a stress attach over the humidity and heat throughout the week. I'd even remedied the ganache in preparation for this weather but it was still so soft! So it was 10 minutes in the fridge, 5 minutes, repeat until it was all piped. I had to give the fondant an extra 12 hours of rest to try and dry it out a bit more but it didn't seem to make a huge difference there either!

I think of it as the Mexican version of Halloween or All Hallow's Eve. Or some people think of the cartoon or some similar children's show. No matter, it is the day that Mexican's celebrate those who have passed away.

Amazingly, it is not at all "scary" but more about colours, flowers and things to celebrate their loved ones.

A very important customer of mine recently asked for a cake for his daughter's 18th birthday in the theme of the day of the dead. It was an interesting challenge and I couldn't be happier with the way the cake (with one whole tier being VEGAN) turned out!

I've never done a black tier before so I was really happy that it wasn't anything majorly different to a white or ivory tier (well duh, it is just coloured fondant right?). And the skull.. it's pretty much freestyle. 

Have you ever heard of the saying that red cars drive faster? It's become a bit of a little joke between my circle of friends ;) For the record, no, there is no scientific proof of red being faster at all!

I had a request from a parent (from the sounds of it, a very organised mum!) many weeks in advance for her son's 2nd birthday. It sounds like a very well planned and fun birthday party. And today's weather in Sydney is absolutely perfect - slight breeze, some sun and cool temperatures. Make me want to join in the fun!

Said parent had planned the whole cake from top to bottom which makes me job a lot easier (sometimes harder depending on what they are asking for!) but it certainly is a lovely change to customer's having not so many ideas of what they want on their cake.

I think this is simple yet so creative at the same time - especially the detail on the top tier. The 'mini cooper' logo and the writing on black and red to resemble a car number plate (the European ones in NSW). Very clever!

Another licensed cake for a little boy who is obsessed with Thomas. I get so many of these requests that I've actually stocked up on little Thomas figurines so I don't have to stress out and look for one every time a Thomas cake is requested. And I thank my friend in retail for helping me out!

Repeat customers make me so happy. I'd actually made baby Seth's Christening cake a couple of years ago and I can't believe he has just turned 2. His mum chose a simple yet pretty two tiered cake and it was a huge celebration at one of the many parks around Sydney. It would have been a fabulous day!

Sometimes when you're at your limits, you perform at your best. This has been one of the longest short weeks to date. At the office till 1:30 AM certainly doesn't help and it really really takes it out of you. I'm pretty sure the next day passed in a long daze.

Octonauts. Can't say it's the most popular kid's program around and as such, these figurines are a little difficult to find. Sometimes though, a bit of luck and good timing is all it takes. Thank you random Thursday night shopping and wondering into Woolies for mascapone and cream. It united me with Captain Barnacles!

I loved putting this cake together. Making the shells, starfish, bubbles, seaweed and coral was very time consuming but I just knew this was going to be an epic cake. The colours and all the elements just complement each other. And the symmetry... LOVE!

It's hopefully going to be a beautiful 4 day weekend. And I am sure two little boys will be super excited to start off their birthday celebrations with almost 100 of their closest friends! Happy Birthday Elliot and Jethro!

If you have a teenage or young adult male living in your household or even within your circle of connections, then more than likely you would have heard of the game League of Legends that seems to take over the internet world and zap smart kiddies into playing online for endless hours forgetting pretty much all else - sometimes including the basic necessities such as eating and sleeping.

So I was a little surprised that Leonard (who is my godbrother per say) actually approached me to make his cake in advance. Well, all he said was "I want a massive cake". Yup, thanks for the details! At first, I was going to go a basketball cake... maybe with a jersey and a 3D basketball sitting on the top. Then I thought, well, I did the soccer ball cake a couple of months back, let's take it up a notch.

I spent a few hours on the web browsing. There wasn't much available. Oh-oh... I was on my own. There are hundreds of LoL characters (called "champions") in the game. As you can imagine, I would have picked the easier ones. :P I like to save time! And already this was taking lots and lots of my time!

I knew he was having a big party. Teens these days seem to have a lot of friends.

So as usual, I tried to be prepared and used the Sunday before the cake to do all the figurines. Estimated time: 6 hours.

I came to realise awhile back that I like to make cakes for the outcome. Sure, all the steps along the way matter (duh) and sometimes those steps are therapeutic (especially after a busy day doing the 9-5) but my favourite part is sticking the figurines on and watching the cake come to life. More detail, more wow.

I didn't have so much fun today rolling the fondant. I'm not a huge fan of fondant and the smell of the sugar today made me a little queasy... :S I couldn't wait to wash my hands and be rid of the smell. Too bad the most fun bit takes the least amount of time! I thought it was quite clever to use dessicated coconut for a grassy effect (that means I don't have to whip up green buttercream! Score!!) and make basic icing in green to spread along the cake so everything would stick. Made the perfect amount of figures, trees, flowers and mushrooms. Very happy and very proud. :)

When I was first approached to do a dinosaur cake, I was pretty anxious. How on EARTH was I going to be able to do something like this? No idea. Nooooo Idea. I can do round cakes and square cakes but... 3D cakes?! Anyways, it pays to break things up and allow plenty of time. And to take risks albeit calculated risks. Ones where the payoff  is > failure.

And I would love to thank Montreal Confections for her awesome and amazing tutorial. Made it so easy event hough I don't have an airbrush!

Weekend before cake due: make all the scales, cut out letters and allow plenty of time to dry. At least 5 days. The more time you make it advance, the less stressed you will be and more time you'll have to fix any mistakes. Always make extras as these as fragile pieces.

Day before: bake cakes and allow to cool completely.

Morning of: assemble cake. It does not take as long as you think! Layer cakes, ice, repeat until you get a dome. Mine was 5 layers of cake. As this is a 3D cake and the more natural and rustic looking, the better, you don't need to allow the icing to set. 

Go ahead and roll out 2 front legs, 2 hind legs, a head and a tail. Rough estimates will do just fine and the fondant will cover the rest. Roll out your fondant, and push into cake carefully. Place scales on and add decorations and buttercream grass. Simple, see? That is my newest motto... I got it from my other job ;)

Surprisingly, this did not take anywhere near as long as I expected. And all the marks on the cake make it look even more ... dinosaur-y! With the battle scars, markings, etc. Awesome! You don't have to be perfect to make a beautiful cake. And I thought it was so cool that I could find chocolate rock. Makes the cake look so cool!

I hope there will be a bunch of happy children tomorrow and one very excited little boy! Happy Birthday Oscar!!!

These are for a special friend of mine who turned 30 over the weekend. I didn't really know what to do with these Vanilla bean & Passionfruit cupcakes until the very last minute! I just knew I wanted colours, pretty things and flowers.

A very dear friend of mine from Melbourne was visiting Sydney this weekend as it was his godsister's 30th Birthday. Got to catch up a little this afternoon with some authentic Viet food which was awesome too :)

There's something about turning 30... a special milestone in one's life and he actually had the wicked thought of making her a clown cake instead. She is petrified by clowns and thought it would be funny. Maybe... but perhaps for a 16th or 21st! Lucky we went for the sweet and elegant!

It has been a surprisingly busy baking week.

And so stoked with how this test cake (that was gifted to Miss Madison for her birthday) went. 

Smooth fondant. 

Nice edges. 

Tall cake. 

Ruffle flower.

And the inside is Red Velvet & White Chocolate Mud Cake with Raspberry Buttercream.

And with every wedding comes the need for small gifts to each of the Bride and Groom's guests. What better way to remember it than more delicious food. Love is sweet, so why not gift a treat?

Vanilla bean cookies with fondant. My favourite is the bride's dress!

Hope you're all thinking the quietness here was worth it. The anticipation /excitement / challenge was for me!

Since then, we said good bye to Summer and hello to a whole lot of rain and humidity. Not exactly a baker's friend. However, you bake what you gotta cake.

So this week, we had to be super duper prepared and efficient and precise. We got a bit of a head start with all our fondant pieces for our Thomas cake. Left them out to dry for at least a few days so that they were easy to pick up. Even in this weather though, it would have been better had the pieces had another 3 or so days. Some of it was still quite soft in the centre but workable.

About 4 days before the party, we had our cookie party treats finished. We made 60 and a few spares in total. Thomas, Edward and James. And bringing back pieces from our childhood, Thomas is #1, Edward #2, Henry #3, Gordon #4, James #5, Percy #6, Toby #7 and Emily, the only girl engine!

2 days before the party and this cake business is beginning to get real. 2.5 quantities of vanilla cake and 1.5 quantities of vanilla buttercream makes this strange looking dirty iced cake. Don't let it fool you. It is so heavy and pretty fragile at this stage. If you were in a hurry, then I'd say stick it in the fridge for an hour or two to set. But leaving it out overnight was our preferred method. The cake is iced and therefore sealed so all the moisture of the cake stays right there!

Night before the party, moment of truth...

Fondant the board, cut out your letters and assemble that cake! This is where we would have benefited from a kitchen that had air conditioning. I guess an open kitchen with ample air flow is the next best thing. However, we could definitely feel the humidity and it took a few goes to get the fondant right without too much pulling and tearing. (Note to all you other bakers out there, go with the good fondant, cheap fondant just doesn't work as well).

And ... 3 hours later... Ta da!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Justin! Love you loads munchkin xx

Thank you to Ann from howtocookthat. Her tips are amazing as are all her other posts and tidbits. 

And what a pretty dozen we made...

We pretty much covered all things Christmas-y this holiday with the one exception of Cupcakes! Arguably, we saved the best till last (or last minute!).

Fancy a Christmas Pudding but not a fan on the real deal? Pudding Cupcake!

Wanted a Winter Wonderland this year? Snowflake Cupcake!

Or perhaps you were after just a pretty looking box with some nice ribbon and bow... take your pick! We have them all covered...

Even with our own Santa and Santa's belt after a few too many Christmas treats ;)

We're almost there, just one last cake to decorate on the morrow and then it's time to celebrate.

Merry Christmas everyone and thank you so much for the support this year. As always, couldn't have done it without you. xxx

Mid-week (most of your might refer to it as 'hump' day). And what better way to give flower than to give edible blooms? Pretty pastel (and rather bold red hues) cupcakes. We've got a fair bit going on here with the butterflies and mini daisies to the hand-made flowers with edible pearls. Sure to brighten up the rest of someone's week!

Happy Hump Day!

We're into August and so glad - slightly warmer weather, days getting longer and more cake orders!

One special little boy is turning 5 today (his mum and I go way back!) and he picked a Ninja Turtle cake! Some things change but some cartoons will always be popular (or resurrected?!).

This cake is a triple layer of double choc mud with chocolate buttercream and then finished with another layer of dark chocolate ganache. Every child should be happy! And their mums and dads too! Crowd pleaser! We like making people happy. ;)

Such a beautiful day outside too so hope he enjoys it!

I still remember all those years ago when it was 21st after 21st every weekend. And the years may go by but people will always celebrate this rite of passage.

This weekend was no different and we made mini cupcakes (red velvet and dark chocolate peppermint) cupcakes and an awesome two-tier dark chocolate peppermint cake for a Christmas in July themed 21st.

It was a huge hit! Very pleased with our little fondant figurines: the christmas tree with the gold star, jolly santa claus, rudolph and of course a snowman! Lots of fun to make and am sure they attracted lots of attention on the night!

The matching mini tree cupcakes and snowflakes helped feed the crowds too :)

Please contact us for your next birthday, event or special occasion. We'd love to hear from you and help make it a special day!