Another one where I wasn't going to take it on. 

I think I was having lunch with one of my colleagues who mentioned that she got a quote from a local lady for a Paw Patrol cake (see photo below) for her son's 6th birthday. I know Paw Patrol... my nephews went through the same phase and wanted a Paw Patrol cake for their birthday too (so sad that I'd already moved to Singapore by then). I remember being absolutely flabbergasted at what she was quoted... almost SGD 360 for a one tier, 8 inch cake. The price was broken up into shaping, piping, premium flavour and an additional $20 for FONDANT LETTERS. WHO ACTUALLY DOES THAT?!?!?!

So as an offhand comment, I said something along the lines of:

I'd do it for half the price.

I didn't think she was serious. But she was.

(insert hyperventilating moment).

Okay, I'll admit, I thought it was going to be harder than it actually was. And I actually managed to put this one together in half the time that I'd set aside. #winning

And that's the story of how I made a buttercream cake in SG.

Minion for "Happy Birthday". Can I now say that I have speaking fluency in another language? 

Repeat customers. Love them. Thank you.

This little boy is my absolute favourite. He is just so cute and so humble and so excited to see his cakes every year. And offers to hold the cake (probably half the size of him!) all by his tiny little 4 year old self. He and his dad brought another friend this year and they were both just so adorable.

Oscar requested this - Kevin the Minion. And I'm so happy with it. He's bright and happy and is almost the same size as the kids!

Fid Oflit Oscar! I hope you have a happy birthday and an amazing party! If I was a guest at your party, I'd be super jealous of the cake you have too!

Another boy's birthday cake and having a bit of trouble with red this week!

Red fondant, red colour. Red Red Red just did not want to co-operate. I think it's the way the colour is mixed up.

And the creation? A triple layered vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream to create a two tone cake. It was delicious. 

Boom - Bang - Pow!

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!

Robots... they can be friendly or not so much. 

To make a robot friend you... use lots of colours, give it a goofy smile, have tool like arms and legs and give it friendly eyes. Mr Robot can almost be part of a cartoon or TV show!

Another caramel mud cake (my customers like to order the same flavours in waves!) with milk chocolate ganache and a vanilla bean cupcake to finish. Yum yum yum and lots of fun.

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!

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!

It's always exciting to remake a cake. From a purely 'numbers and time' point of view, it is very economical because you already know mentally what needs more time, where you can save time and how you can achieve everything in less time.

So I was very fortunate to be asked to make a cake that I did last year for another little boy's first birthday. It is just so colourful and simple and so innocent and everything a first birthday should be about: blue skies, a few giant cumulus clouds and little cars.

It also gave me more experience in portioning. Because a taller tier cake means you don't need the cake to be as large is diameter as the additional height makes up for it. This is still something relatively new to me (yet it is so logical). I guess coming from a hostess' point of view, I always want to ensure that there is slightly more than enough rather than "just enough". This translates to cake sizes. And I also want to be fair from a pricing perspective. So these days, when I have customers asking for a quote, I always ask how many serves required. If they ask for 30, then I try to cater for 35. If they are for 35, then I try to cater for 40. Of course, sometimes it is not so simple with the tiered and larger cakes.

It's always very interesting to do your own research on this. It depends on the person cutting the cake, the sharpness of the knife. The general consensus is that a coffee (finger) slice is 1" x 1" x 4" and a dessert (party) slice is 1" x 2" x 4". Great to keep in mind for your next occasion.

And if you're a bit like me and aspire to be something along the lines of Hostess with the Mostess (Yes, I think she actually exists), then Pintrest is a great place and guide to how many portions of different types of foods and drinks you should have. I've learnt over the years that... Less really is more. Unless you want to try making all these things because otherwise you won't have the chance to or time to or just want to show off your amazing kitchen skills. Then it's a good idea to ask your guests to bring tupperware ;)

It was the week of lots of cake orders at work (by that, I mean myself and the other resident baker at work were both delivery cakes for colleagues!).

I made this super cute fantasy land princess cake for one of my colleague's daughters over the weekend. The figurines are plastic - their choice so that they could have a keepsake of the occasion. I love the mushrooms! It was no where near as much work as the LoL cake but still required some decent TLC.

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!!!

Blue skies and clouds... first thought is Spring!

Like I said before, I am a fan on tall tiers... it makes the cake look so much better. One caramel and one chocolate. 

Last cake for the quarter and in fact, I am not sure why I decided to take this on so close to the end of September. I just love burning the candles at both ends!

Luckily, nothing went wrong this time around ;)

Have a great birthday tomorrow Jasper!

Don't you just love those regular customers of yours? But at the same time, when making such a special cake, it kind of reminds you that another year has gone by.

Little Nelson is 6!!! I still remember the days when I was still studying and working casually and he was only a few months when he and Mon use to come into the store and visit... and even the time he spewed on my work shirt... time flies and I'm thankful to be a part of his life - even in cake form! :)

I had to get the special Wilton ball cake tins express shipped to me on Wednesday. Luckily, Australia Post was reliable this time! (Not so much in the past...).

And its pure chocolate inside. Chocolate Mud Cake with Whipped Ganache. Its sooooo good and chocolately!!!

Did you know that a real soccer ball has 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons? Think I was actually not too far from that figure and some excellent online blogger has already worked out the exact measurements for the shapes for me! (Thanks google and confessions of a cake addict!). The sides of each shape at 3.2 cm... and more "give or take" the lower on the ball you go...

I was actually most stressed about the cake ball not rolling around. It's not exactly flat... even with a little of the bottom shaved off. I'm hoping that all the fondant and ganache will keep everything in shape and intact before it is devoured! Enough for a few photos and for the kids to admire! ;)



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.

 

When it comes to toys, Lego has been around and around the block (no pun intended!). It's probably one of those items you'll always find in the toys section of a department store and always jumped on by kids. I was asked to make a 11th birthday cake this weekend and it was between Lego and Minecraft. I wouldn't be surprised if you're thinking... what's Minecraft? Probably the best summary is that its a kids game... on an iPhone / iPad / smartphone!

Anyways, Christopher decided to go with a timeless piece of square red lego. And look at how it's turned out: 

Yummy moist chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and red marshmallow fondant.

Now if we only had enough blocks to build something with..