I make no secret about it. I like my cakes to have a good height. And by that I mean a good inch or so higher than the usual cake tiers that you find in cake shops. I think it makes it look more grand and less stingy... to put it lightly.

So I always have 3 or 4 layers in each tier. Just like in this photo (excuse the non-straightness of the cake slice... it was cut with a butter knife) but you can distinctly see the 4 layers of cake with 3 layers of white chocolate ganache and raspberries between each layers. Very happy.

Another shot of the League of Legends cake. Thank you to one of my godbro's friends for taking this. Looks amazing!

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. :)

Rustic is the new expensive and posh. 

But to actually try to make something look rustic and "as is" is actually a lot harder than you think! 

The frosting was so yummy (so the feedback came back!). White chocolate, coconut and raspberry. Lots of people came back for second servings! ;) Yay!

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!!!

So good that I just had to share. I think this is my 4th annual High Tea that I host for my friends. Another successful year but oh so tiring! I wish I had more pictures but everyone was just so eager to dig in that it was a little chaotic!

A very decent spread this year: Cheese & Chive scones, sandwich board, cheese platter, momofuku inspired pork buns, salmon and cucumber canapes, prosciotto and rockmelon and bocconcini and cherry tomato sticks.

And for sweet: banoffee pie, earl grey chocolate tart, green tea chiffon cake, scones with jam and cream, macarons, brownie cookies and peanut butter caramel tartlets.

And a special belated Lemon Meringue tart for Cherry. 

Perhaps it's time I think about adding tea time options to the catering menu for others to have something just as special?