Happy Birthday Esmond!

This batch of cupcakes was for Esmond who turns 6 who celebrated his birthday at his kindergarten.   Cat, his mom specified no cream on the cupcakes as his kindergarten is very strict about cleanliness.  Icing on the cake basically means mess which means all that cleaning chores which means schedule disruption which means the poor children is left behind the school syllabus! 

Unthinkable!   HOW dare you make my kid fall behind his studies?  Do you know what that means to his future?   HIS FUTURE?

Opps.

So.  No icing on the cake.   Poor kids.  Everyone craves icing on the cake.  You know that!   It is the best part of eating a cake.  That saying which goes...bla bla icing on the cake which means the best part of all??!!   Now, how do one enjoy a cake deprived of the best part?!  Huh?

Ok.  Back to topic.

Now.  Icing-bare cupcake means boring cupcakes.   And, I know for sure kids do not like boring cupcakes.  

Now I am under duress.  

Then I've got an idea.

Then I am out of duress. 

I dressed up the cupcake.    I used boys' theme embossers and imprinted patterns on the sugarpaste.   The cupcakes were naked no more. 

PHEW!

Then I made one special cupcake with Ultraman on it - Esmond's fav hero!   Now, this is hard work.  the oval shape head is the hardest part to shape.  First few tries, the head is too fat, then it was too thin, then it was too puffy, then it was too gaunt.   Practise make perfect... true.  TA-DAA!!

Then, I made a little toadstool cupcake for Esmond's little sister Marissa.  Being a mom with a set of kids, wise ol'Cat knows better than to deprive the other kid of a cupcake!  This is a special request.   I'd say - a blardy good call! 

Esmond is happy to report that he likes the cupcakes, his friends like the cupcake, his sister likes the cupcake and his teacher likes the cupcake.  Hopefully, the kids walloped every single bits including crumbs.  I won't want to create a mess nor do any harm to their bright future.  Would I?

Sailing! Sailing! Happy Birthday Joshua!

Mic ordered this orange buttercake for her sunday school charge, Joshua.   Other than Joshua is a boy, Mic did not offer further clue.  Boy!  I had fun!

I decided to go a' sailing this time.  I came to conclusion that boats are more a boy's thing.  I came to that conclusion on my own.   Smart, no?  

Hahhhahha!

Anyway, let's move on to another under-appreciated topic : flat tops.

As, Mic does not like icing on her cake.  She said it's messy for her sunday school kids.   And I thank God for the lovely golden crust that this buttercake had yielded.  I would give this an A+ for its golden top.  Look at flatness and eveness of the top.  It was not domed or cracked or dimpled.  It allowed me plenty of latitude to put flat designs on it.   Should it dome or crack or dimple right there in the middle of this cake, like any other innovative bakers out there, I would have to cover and disguise the faults with fruits or creams etc.   See, now I do not have to do that.  In all its glory, an original golden even & flat top.   *Let's pause for effect*

....PAUSE...

Now you have something new to appreciate when you attempt to bake next time.  Food for thought, huh?!

Happy to report that Mic love it and so did the kids.  Except for Joshua, Mic was told that he does not eat cake. 

hmm.

Happy Birthday Keshwar!

It's World Cup season! 

It's appropriate to have a football theme cake at this time!  LOLS!

A friend ordered a Brazil cake for her nine year old boy, Keshwar.  When his birthday rolled around, sad to say that Brazil was already disqualified from the World Cup.  Nonetheless, his mom says go ahead with Brazil.. he loves Brazil! 

So a Brazil cake it was to be!

The difficult part is the wording in the banner which is part of the flag. 

There was no space to spell out the entire words Ordem E Progresso  as it was sooo tiny!  I cheated and thankfully the mom didn't mind! 

We started with a delightful and flavorful Orange Buttercake! 

We covered it with a tangy Orange Buttercream!  YUMS!

The flag goes on top.

Covered it with starpoints icing!

I love starpoint icing!

The name in colourful gumpaste!

Assembly time... each alphabets has an added stand so that it could go right into the buttercream so it looked propped  up!

A '9' for nine years old!

uh....missing some alphabets....

The finished Brazil cake!

Happy to report that the mom and the whole jimbang loves it!

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!