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...

And finding Dora was almost as hard as looking for Where's Wally!

My favourite part of this cake? The sign just brings it all together! Then my second favourite bit is the forage around the base of the cake. So pretty. I actually love this whole cake and it's been a while where I've been able to a little artistically wild. 

Very happy with the result.

And what do I mean when I am referring to the title? Just that almost every toy store in Sydney no longer sells Dora?!?!?! And my package didn't arrive in time (so upsetting!). Thank goodness for the lovely girl from ToysRus who totes saved me 12 hours before the cake was due!

I had every intention of using my shiny new little canon camera with wifi capabilities. But by the time I'd run out to the shops to buy a candle and have a coffee, we were running late! So phone camera it was.

Our little Ethan (my grandmother's youngest great grandchild to date!) is one today!!! So his parent's and big brother Justin had a big party today at their house to celebrate. My goodness, a whole bunch of kids under the age of 10 is crazy! Especially when you've been charged with entertaining them for the afternoon! Thank goodness they had an awesome trampoline! But we did have games like 'pass the parcel' (completely not rigged...), 'what's the time Mr Wolf?', 'Egg and Spoon' Race and an Easter Egg hunt.

The food was amazing compliments to Ethan's grandfather who use to be the Head Dim Sum Chef at one of the main chinese restaurants in Chinatown.

And of course, I was charged with the cake! Yay!!! It makes me so happy to make it. No Thomas this year (although Justin did get a very special present). Just a little two tier, blue, green, stars, stripes and sporty cake. With a cuddly bear on the top. A fun but tiring afternoon. So glad to be part of it!

Flowers, frangipanes and chocolate for Cath's retirement. She is travelling with her husband to Europe indefinitely. Buying a motor-home and doing as they please. I only wish that one day, I will do what I say I want to do, not just dream about it. . .

And to finish the week (cake-wise), whipped up a frosted raspberry and vanilla cake for a birthday in the Hunter Valley. Wine, country roads, scenery, open fires and good company. My kind of weekend!

Haven't made a custom-cake in a few weeks so it is very exciting to get back into it! ;)

I had eagerly done my research on gummy bears and more specifically the little mascot. Apparently, there is a song and TV show decided to it??? Not sure if that's available in Australia but we have the Haribo Gummy Bears in the shops everywhere. Yummy. Got a bunch of them left over and if I was younger, I would totally make vodka bears out of them!

Made a 1.5 batch of vanilla cake today. Decided to be clever and used two baking tins to bake the bigger cake so that they baked and cooled much quicker. It worked! And it just so happened that I put all three cakes in the oven at the same time and they all took the same amount of time to bake - so was perfect. Happy with the result. Even happier with the thin perfect layers that I cut from them. There is just something about thin layers of cake.. more delicate, elegant and refined.

Not long into the cake prep, I realised that what i was most looking forward to was actually just to stick the gummy bears onto the cake (duh... the easiest part!). And as I hadn't really planned ahead, I had to make Mr Gummy Bear as the cakes were cooling. Luckily, it's cool and dry today so the fondant held its shape quite well. And thanks to toothpicks, Mr Gummy Bear is sturdy and intact. And he was quite easy to make too. Chucked in butter, icing sugar, passionfruit and homemade lemon curd for some tartness into the kitchenaid and out came some delicious buttercream... :) Easy peasy!

I amaze myself sometimes... all up, this cake didn't take long at all. I fluffed around a bit this morning and took my time baking the cake but it was only probably another 90 minutes or so to assemble the cake and make Mr Gummy Bear. Efficiency makes me happy.

Vanilla on the bottom and Red Velvet on the top and encased in White Chocolate Buttercream. Delish.

So my colleague at work today said that if you bake a  Red Velvet Cake for a guy, then he is "yours". Hmm... how to interpret that?

Made a ton of white chocolate sour cream ganache and had this mixed in with buttercream and whip-pity whip and like magic, it turns into this soft and fluffy and spreadable yummy concoction!

Always get a little anxious building cakes! And always never forget to use dowels. 

Close up of the natives and baby breaths... part of the wedding theme and farm wedding down in Berry, South Sydney. 

And the finished product. Simplistic. If I were to do more, I'd have another 1 or 2 boronia bunches and a few more baby breaths to make it "pop" (like how they say it on Cake Boss) a little more.

Balloon Cupcakes and the house from Up preferably taking one to a faraway place.

 

Easy mini cupcakes with fondant and royal icing squiggle. And a significantly more complicated top tier house cake with a fondant bunch of balloons.

 

And because we left this one to the last minute, we had some problems getting the fondant to stay up and rigid without the usual dry time. Turned out cute anyway. Clouds always make cakes look prettier too.

 



 



Kids love... Thomas, Dora the Explorer, Peppa Pig, the Simpsons and... CARS!!!

 

Or in this case, Mack the Truck from Cars. Bigger is sometimes better and Mack carries Cars in his semi-trailer so it's a winner! To show how much I know, I had been called it "Mavis" the truck until Elliot's mum kindly pointed out that it was "Mack". Oopsies.

 

We did a similar cake in October for a 5 year old and have done something similar here too for Elliot who is 3 tomorrow!

 

That's it from us (it's been a huge week in and out of work and baking) for this weekend. I think we've earned a well-deserved, quiet no-bake weekend! Although we do have the small task of perfecting a new recipe that is dairy and gluten-free... stay tuned.

 

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. 

Blue. Purple. Pink. Yellow. Orange. Red. Green. Rainbow.... what colour is yours?

Pretty things for a pretty girl~

Bunting, flowers, butterflies.

Pinks, orange and yellow.

Aww....

From this..

To this...

To this...!!!

We're stoked it turned out so well. A lot of time and effort went into this beautiful cake. And it was such a lovely day, perhaps a good sign for the new wedded couple. Enjoyed making this so much, love all the techniques. Think of us when planning your next wedding!!

This one is layers of peanut butter cake, vanilla cake and coconut white chocolate cake and covered in ivory and white fondant. So now.

We've been pretty busy at Wynwyn's lately (on top of our other job!). And we're taking it one order, one week at a time. And we still get time leftover to enjoy the sunshine and weekends.

It's Sydney Good Food Month and there's heaps out there. Gave the noodle markets a miss this year but we're definitely going to try out at least a couple of Sugar Hits! Yum yum!

So our latest project is for a birthday boy who likes to go to the gym. And we were commissioned to make the yummiest vanilla bean, macadamia and strawberry cake. So we set to work and came up with this creation below. With all those weights to lift, am sure they can have as much cake as they want!

Vanilla vanilla vanilla is the magic word of this wedding.

Shame about the weather yesterday - in what i would imagine to be an otherwise perfect day. . .

It's our next big order for the year!

What a way to return to baking after our one month hiatus travelling across the United States. Picked up some great techniques and ideas along the way.

This week was return to full time work week, get sick on the aeroplane and recover in a day and adjusting back to normalcy and life in general.

And a cake order of course!

A very special 2nd birthday to Justin - the most adorable and naughty munchkin in the next generation so far and like any other child, LOVES Thomas (so do I!)

Bottom layer of chocolate cake and top layer of vanilla covered in fudge and vanilla buttercream respectively. It's good icing. Really tasty and velvety.

Then came the fun part - fondant icing. All hand made and cut of course. Edward, Percy and Thomas on top! (Thomas is a toy as he speaks).

Hand cut hills and clouds and individually shaped rocks, piped faces and finished off with Happy Birthday Justin.

It should look fantastic lit up with candles and sparklers... bring on the party!

Makes 12

Ingredients:
1 C flour
1/2 C almond meal
1 1/2 t baking powder
125 g butter
2 eggs
1 C sugar
1 t vanilla
pinch of salt

Frosting:
125 g cream cheese, softened
60 g butter, softened
1/4 C maple syrup
1 1/2 C icing sugar

Method:
1. Beat butter and sugar until well combined. Gradually beat in eggs.
2. Sift in dry ingredients and incorporate until well combined.
3. Divide into 12 cases and bake for 13-18 minutes. Allow to cool.
4. In the meantime, combine all frosting ingredients together until a smooth consistency is acheived.
5. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and serve.

Yield 1 x 10-inch round

Ingredients:

3 C S.R. flour
1 C flour
2 C sugar
300 g butter, room temperature
1 1/4 C milk
6 eggs, room temperature
3 t vanilla

Method

1. Preheat oven to 140°C. Brush cake pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Line base and sides with non-stick baking paper.
2. Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Use an electric beater to beat on low speed for 30 seconds or until just combined. Increase the speed to high and beat for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture is thick and all the butter is incorporated. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 75-90 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside for 10 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack for 2 hours or until completely cool.