Of Chuggingtons and PS2..

I received this request from Eli but I didn't know that she was trying to make me up my game.  Her request; 3 Chuggingtons characters, one Dora doll and one PS2 controller.  They were planned for her son and hubby's birthday as a cake topper, about 2 inches in size.  Her son is mad about Chuggingtons, her hubby - naturally adores his Sony games and the Dora is for her niece.  Eli's planning and organisation I must salute!  She researched and printed the picture.  I never have such an easy assignment! 

Due to recent wet seasons, I warned her about the sugar paste not able to dry perfectly.  I had a hard time trying to get the sugar paste to behave.  The humidity was killing all my efforts.  I had to begin all over again many times as the sugar paste tends to soften and becomes sticky.  Oh!  Rain rain just go away larrrr!   The greatest challenge of this project ironically was not the difficulty level of the characters but the inclement weather!

Me vs. Rain.    Me - indefinite loser. 

Sigh.  Rather than work against it, I had to work on my sugar paste as soon as the face of good weather presented itself.    That opened up a few hours.  Maybe 2 or 3 hours a day since the sky was practically weeping the entire day and even if it cleared, the air was masked with great dampness.  Rain and humid - arch enemy of sugar paste.  oh!  I know *whine..*  *whine...*  you heard that too many times from me! 

Finally, after many hours and many days of working on them, here they are.  They are not perfectly dried yet, you can see still some shine on them.   Of the 5 characters, the PS2 proved to be the most difficult one.  I had to make sure the buttons and the controller are placed correctly.  It was so tiny.  My clumsy fingers finally shaped them - after 4 attempts and with due approval from my 6 yo son (also an ardent Sony gamer) I decided that should do it!

But glad to report, Eli is happy with them.  They will go with her 'balik kampung' where the burpday celebration was held.

I heard the birthday boys gobbled the sugar paste.  

Uh.  Good thing I hope.

Happy Birthday Missy Xiao Hui!!

You can never find a more soft spoken, generous and kind lady as my friend, Lea.   I take this opportunity to congratulate her on the safe delivery of her second boy recently!   She will have her hands full with two boys now, they will tax her good patience many times over but I know Lea, when the tough gets going, the going gets tough!  All the best dear Lea for she has take up the calling to be a SHAM (stay at home mom) to care and provide the best care to her two boys.  I envy her so.

Now let's talk about cake which this blog is all about.   The cake featured here is for Lea's sister whose birthday was celebrated in August.  Lea ordered this cake and have it carted 5 hours to her hometown in Johor.  That's speak volumes, the love and care Lea has for her family.

At first, Lea planned something naughty.  Like a boob cake with lace and frills.  Then she decided that it would not be suitable afterall.  Finally, she settled on sweet and nice.  As usual, she gave me a free rein to do whatever I want.  Am really grateful for the trust she's shown to me.   I am able to let my creative juice flow.

It was not hard, I made plenty of sugar paste flowers with my flower cutters using sweet pastel colours.  I propped them on toothpicks.   The cake is yellow butter cake with lemon curd cream. 

Here is the result.  Hope you enjoy it!