Merry Christmas Everyone!

These babies are flying off the shelf!   These chocolate cupcakes are a delight to anyone's party.  Hurry get 'em before they finish flying. 

Comes in order of 20s and 30s small cupcakes.  Perfect and dainty for just one mouthful.  

Email / call to order!

Happy Full Moon Baby Xin Yv!!!

My dear friend Cho, whom first encouraged / TRICKED me into making cupcake in large scale (oh, didn't I tell you that months nearing her wedding, I thought I was supposed to make cupcakes for her wedding ceremony but it turned out she wanted them for her wedding dinner... all 300 of them, to be served at the dinner for the distinguish wedding guests... **I sweated for months just thinking about it**). 

Well, now Cho is a proud mom to Xin Yv (pronounce as Xin Ee as in Yvonne) who just turned 7 weeks!   I was given the honour to make the cupcakes to celebrate her new baby's arrival.  This time round, I was already comfortable making them on large and even larger scale!  BRING IT ON BABY!!

She was very nice to allow me ample time to complete the project.  Uh...3 weeks! 

The star of the cupcake is of course, the topper.  Since it was going to be baby theme, we researched and decided on 3 designs.   A pacifier, a sleeping baby and a bib.   I slaved over these topper till the very last second.  The on and off wet weather didn't help me.  Sighs.  Remember what I told you before: rain and sugarpaste = archenemy.  Nemesis till the end of ages.  Full on blood and gore.   I hope you get a clearer picture now.

But in spite of the hard labour and many hours into the late nights, I thoroughly enjoyed making all these with my hands.  Bare hands.  No other foreign hands may touch my little babies!  I realise now that .. is this what you call passion?!    haaaaa.... je comprends maintenant! 

Preparation...

Preparation....

Then you bake the cupcake! 

Then you hold each cupcake in your hand ..

... and chop off the head.  HAHHAHA!  brutal, no?

Don't you worry, the 'heads' are safely tucked in my kids' stomachs.  Nothing goes to waste in my house!!

Now the cake topper.  A Bib.

A pacifier.  See that pram embossing.  I got nifty tools from UK! 

 A sleeping babe.  With a snuggly blanket with a bear embossing.  Also, another nifty tool from the UK!

I only made one of this.  Special for the first time mom.  Welcome to motherhood, dear!!

The mom specially designed this.  Her kulis did the rest!  Good, hardworking kulis are hard to find. 

Good hardworking kulis deserve good lunch and dinner.  Enuff said.

The complete package.

All packed and sealed..

ready to fly!

Actually.  I am a little sad to see my babies go.  

Fly babies fly....go delight someone's life..as I know you are apt to do...

Happy Birthday Andrea!

My next cake project was very interesting to make!  Akw introduced me to his friend, Lisa to create an Elmo cake for her little Andrea's two year old birthday.   Yea, I have been through that stage where my little ones have their fair share of Elmo craze.  We had not one, not two but 3 Elmo dolls and not forgetting slew of Elmo paraphenalias like Elmo pyjamas, Elmo toothbrushes, Elmo bedsheets, Elmo cups, etc.   Till this day I am still at lost trying to figure out what to call this 'red phenomenon"?.  Whenever my kids ask me, I am toss between ...dog?  a bear?  an alien?  a mutated human?  a creature?  a friendly creature? 

So I did what normal human being would do, I googled.   And I trust Google.  Google never fails.

This is what Uncle Google says "Elmo is a Muppet on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is a furry red monster with large white eyes and an orange nose. He currently hosts the last full 15 minute segment on Sesame Street, Elmo's World, which is aimed at toddlers. ..."

...which makes Elmo - A MONSTER!! 

and since when a monster makes a good role model for kids? 

hmmmph...time to break out that yummy buttery shortbread of Mark and Spencer's to ponder this point.

Anyway.

We discussed about this Elmo cake and Lisa asked how we should do this and I excitedly "hey, how about Elmo popping out of the cake like 'SURPRISE!!!???' ?? 

Which turns out to be quite a daring thing to say.

Little did I know this turns out to be singularly the most challenging thing I ever did in my short life of baking.    It took me two attempts to shape the Elmo head.  As usual, I turned to my faithful friend of all the earth, Mr. Google for inspiration and little did I know that Elmo's head, in fact, was not round but slightly elongated.  I even dug out the Elmo toy at home to have a good look at it.   My first attempt at Elmo was a really, really round head and he look..weird.   I had to crush him and start all over again.  

My next problem is this.  Have you not notice that this red guy is disproportionate all over?  He has a very large head, bulging eyes, humongous nose, too wide a grin, lanky limbs, skinny body and knobbly joints?  Not exactly a picture of health if you ask me.  Due to the largeness of the eyes and nose, I had no choice but to attach them to his large head using toothpicks.   And 3 more toothpicks into his head to prop it up on his small body.   Poor Elmo, I don't think he need to suffer more than this....

And now, the best part....his massive heavy head rolled off the next day.

I had to start all over again.

But experience is a good teacher.

Here's the head.  Firmly attached to the body.  Defying gravity.   I did it :)!

Look, I can stare up to you!

My head stands proud!

I got hands too!

Such sweet name.  Daisies are for sweet girl with a sweet name!

In the middle of popping up!

SURPRISE!!!???

All done in strips of pink ribbon sugarpaste. 

After tons of sweatsss....PHEW! with a smile!

Happy to report that Akw reported that the cake is nice.  

Double PHEW!!

Happy Birthday Ee Szen!

My siao colleague, Jes wanted a Ben 10 cake for her boy.

I am like ....waaait a minute.....

I have never been exposed Ben 10, let alone know what is what of the hit show that mesmerises tons of kids out there.  I never exposed my kids to this show and its characters.  I am uncomfortable about this show being about a kid who could change into many aliens and save the world.  Eventhough Samuel knows about Ben 10 from his school friends, from numerous Ben 10 endorsed merchandise, we never really allow him any opportunity to get familiar with it at all.  He is just as impressionable as any other kid out there.   For the same reasons we never allowed him to watch Spiderman, we know that he won't miss life from not knowing Ben 10 and its ten weird cohorts.  In the end, he's just curious about it. 

Which brings us back to this challenge.  What on earth is Ben 10?

Jes gave me a 10 minute crash course on it.  It seems Ben 10 series is about a boy with a special watch called the omnitrix that enables him to change into 10 different aliens, one at a time with objective to save the world.  So far so good.

Jes requested a cake fashioned from the omnitrix and an alien character called Heatblast.  She provided images from the good ol' web!

When I saw Heatblast my eyes popped out!  What is that!?   

It's a fiery alien character!!

Anyhow with reference from several web images... here's the outcome.  I am not too sure if it resembles the real thing... but I gave my best shot! 

Here's the omnitrix and fiery creature - Heatblast!

I covered the 6inch moist chocolate cake with gumpaste and placed the omnitrix on top.  The Heatblast stands at the side, ready for action!!

Heatblast is an alien, thus alien face!

At his surprise birthday party at the kindy, Ee Szen exclaimed 'HEATBLAST' when he saw the cake!

I feel better.  At least Heablast was recognizable!

Oh well!  That was quite something!

Happy Birthday Timothy & Oscar

Mic always have thoughtful heart towards her little charges in her sunday school.  She always thought to order a cake for them for their big day. 

This time Oscar and Timothy's turn to have their big day.   I made two heads using my new awesome silicone moulds!   Aren't they cute! 

Then I fashioned the words using new alphabets cutters!  Curvy letters!

As usual we could never go wrong with chocolate cake.

Orange marshmellows to add some colours! 

Finished cake!

Happy to report, the kids love it!

Tee-hee!

Happy Birthday Suki!

A surprise birthday for Yin's friend - Suki, Yin already found the design she wants from the web.  It really make my job simpler.    That's half the job done!   Customers can be really picky or fickle minded about the colour, design or the flavour or even the texture... so Yin has done half of the battle for me!   YAY!

It's one order of moist chocolate cupcake (16 nos per order) and I think its chocolate season now.  Everyone is so fond of chocolate.  On a related note, I was just catching up on my must-watch-movies.. I have an archive of movies eating up gigabytes on my lappie that I am force to give myself 2 month to clear.   I am now at year 2000 (I admit I am really slow...) and the movie I am currently watching  is Chocolat.   Coincidence, yes?   Hence my barrage of chocolate cake orders.

I wonder if it's gonna be all vanilla once I started on Vanilla Sky?   But that is a 2001 movie.  A long time more....I am currently still stuck at year 2000.  Hahha!

Hope you like them Suki!

Happy Birthday Nana!

To my first born, the owner of the first birthright - Susanna my energetic daughter who've had you burn calories faster than the doing the triathlon x 13 times. Now she is seven. Seven energy sapping, attention drawing and life sucking years. I would never change a thing about in those seven years. She is still demands all the energy, life force and attention every she goes. In fact, her grandma was saying that when she was at the school to pick her up, Nana, who was apparently popular at school, everyone at the canteen started waving and saying goodbyes to her as she walks up to her grandma. And she was like a proud little princess bidding polite farewells to her subjects, savouring the attention along the way.

To celebrate her birthday which falls on a school day, like her brother, she was given cupcakes for each of her classmate and teachers too. She was intensely happy with the idea that she dutifully helped decorate her own birthday cupcakes. To play safe, I went for chocolate flavor again. Afterall, I heard children are fond of chocolate stuff, yes? no? yes?

Much to her delight, the teacher organised a birthday song for her in the classroom. The cute thing was that her classmates queued up before her one by one to wish her Happy Birthday! while she handed over each student - a cupcake. Thanks to Mr. Siva who got it all organised so neatly. I am sure Susanna liked that very much!

Susanna helped put sugar sprinkles over the icing and topped with jelly candy.  She handpicked the PINK sugar sprinkles. 

Here, she was a meticulous worker.  As you can see, her focus unparallel.   Nothing could break her concentration. 

Samuel wanted to join in the fun.  His sister refused his cooperation : It's my birthday cupcake!  He sulked.

His patience paid off.  She relented.  Afterall, many hands make things light.  She delegates.

Things started to move along in good speed.  Both are happy.  Siblings cooperated well together.   Sighsss.

The neat handiwork of the little fingers.  I shall be so proud!

Safely in box ready for the big day! 

Happy Birthday my darling girl!   We love you berry much!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to every expecting moms and moms and grandmoms and to you too, great grandmoms.   

This day passed as normally as any other day at my household.  Mostly we felt that this day is blown out of proportions in many ways.  Some see this day as a reunion occasion where all siblings unite to bring the family matriach out to meals at crowded restaurants.  I say mom's day is every single day you are alive.  But to most moms, any occasion is good enough an occasion to see everyone in the family at the same dinner table.  In these busy times, how often!?  really people would take time off their schedule to gather round everyone to sit at the same table for as simple makan with their mom?    The makan is just a happy excuse, trust me, all your mom wants is to gaze on the faces of the kids she birthed from her loins. 

Oh where was I?

Speaking about makan, it won't hurt to have some lovely cupcakes to cap the occasion.   A special request for a hardworking, dedicate mom - moist chocolate cupcake with intense chocolate buttercream.  

Hope you enjoyed this, Bel!! 

Happy Birthday Samuel!

My boy Samuel turns 5! 

He has been asking for Transformer cake. 

I say, that's a good idea boy, why don't we shelve that idea at the mo' and let mommy's kungfu get up to like..1000 notches, then we'll speak again, shall we? 

He nodded.  Sometimes this boy can be real easy and obliging.   But don't get me started on the times when he is not.   I don't like it.  You won't like it either.  So, just let's stop here.

While we are planning his big birthday celebration, I felt under pressure to give him some cuppies to bring to his kindy so that his teachers and classmates could gather around during break time and do the obligatory birthday song and candle blowing and good wishes rendering.  Afterall, it was his actual day birthday. 

I made chocolate cupcakes.  I heard from somewhere kids love chocolate flavor anything.  Is it true?  

Well, I was never the normal kid, I would probably have asked for soya bean flavor cupcake if my mom were to offer to bake some...  I won't know would I?!

Chocolate moist cupcakes.   So there.  They all domed a little I had to chopped off their dainty heads. 

A few days before, I made colourful sugarpaste decorations and stuck them on.

I iced them with mango flavoured buttercream. 

Here, standing proud and erect, each one demanded to be picked!  here..here PICK ME!!..PICK ME!!!

or PICK ME!!!

Birthday Boy, just awoken doing the obligatory pose with his birthday cupcakes. 

Packed 'em in a box and ready to go to school!

Last I heard of 'em, they are doing well in various tummy.  YUM!