Kitty Cookies

Once in a while I get tempted to make cookies. What's not to like about fancy, decorated cookies? They're so pretty and delicious to boot! I think Bridget of Bake at 350 is mostly to blame!! Pop over to her blog and you'll see what I mean!! Her cookies are all sooooo extremely gorgeous!!

 Anyway, every time, without fail, after I slave over my cookies, I promise myself never to make cookies ever again!! It's just that cookies are so much work! I have a teensy weensy oven, so I have to bake in many small batches. Making cookies mean an assembly line of rolling, cutting, refrigerating, baking and repeating over and over and  over again...

These Kitty cookies were no exception. I had to make 30 pieces of iced cookies and another 30 un-iced. I don't think I'll be taking orders for cookies again anytime soon! But I don't think this will be the last time I make cookies either! (I'll succumb to the temptation again, just you wait and see!!)

So anyway, Hello Kitty is fortunately quite a simple design. The cookies were baked then cooled, and decorated with fondant. I used red food color mixed with lemon extract to paint the ribbon. Next time I will make sure to use alcohol, as the color took a long time to dry. I was worried that the cookies were going soft  since I left them out to dry for so long. Yet I could  not pack them or put them in an air tight container until the red was dry!

In the end I packed them while they were still a little bit wet and there was some smudging. I had no choice, as that was better than soft, mushy cookies!!

So I packed them into individual bags, sealed them and hot glued ribbons onto the bags. They turned out pretty nice I must say...

Pooh and Piglet

Here are some 2D cupcakes of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. I got an order for Pooh cupcakes and was very happy to finally be able to use my Pooh cutters.

The cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache frosting. They're all topped with fondant.

They were quite simple and straight forward to make so there's not much I have to say about them! :)

Oh yes, in case you were wondering, one of the cupcakes was purposely left blank for a candle, as per customer's request.

Barney and Friends

Sorry for the headache-inducing, neon colours... I got carried away with Picasa!! :)

I've taken ages to get around to blogging about my cakes that I've pretty much forgotten who I made these for! :)

The big boss

Anyway, they're chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache frosting and the Barney and friends figures are all made from gumpaste. I used some Barney pictures which I Googled as a reference when creating the figures. That's all I can remember and I'm too lazy to refer to my notebook! heh...

So I'll leave you with the pictures! ;)

What's up doc??

So my little boy Solomon celebrated his birthday at home with the Bert and Ernie cake. Now he needed another one to bring to school. I let him choose what he wanted from my Debbie Brown 'Cartoon Characters' book. He was switching between Barney, Thomas the Tank engine and Bugs Bunny. Nearing his birthday, he finally settled on Bugs Bunny. (Mummy might have influenced him a bit, as it's much simpler to make!! hehehe)

The cake is quite easy to make as it's basically just a mound (no corners or edges!) covered in small rolls of orange fondant with a small Bugs on top. I don't even have to cover the cake with a fondant sheet!

I made a madeira cake, which is firm and thus the best for cakes that have to be carved. Bugs was not too hard to create and the carrots were a piece of cake (pun intended), though still a bit of work because of the sheer number of them!

As usual, I'm very happy with the designs from my Debbie Brown book. I'm always waiting for an opportunity to try out another one of her creations!

A little bit of everything

So I had this customer from out of town who wanted some cuppies for her husband's birthday. She could not decide what to ask for and wanted something for everyone in her family and so she came up with a list of 3D figures. I usually do a whole set with a single theme, but seeing as she was from out of town and was going to pick up the order while in transit from her hometown to Kuala Lumpur, I did not have the heart to turn down her request.

Anyway, here are the photos. I've done most of them before...

Bert & Ernie's Great Adventures

I grew up watching Sesame Street. I can still remember most of the characters and the songs they sang! Kid's nowadays don't really know what Sesame Street is, but they do know the presently popular spin-offs like Elmo, of course, and Bert & Ernie's great Adventures.

My youngest, Solomon, loves watching Bert & Ernie's Great Adventures every weekday after lunch at Grandpa's place. Bert and Ernie are no longer Muppets, but clay animation, like Shaun the Sheep.

Since I have a special place in my heart for Sesame Street characters, I grabbed the opportunity to make a Bert & Ernie cake for Solomon's birthday. I love it when I get to decide what I am going to make! Hahaha...

So anyway, this cake was also a bit rushed because it was for the party which Solomon shared with Eva. I had to make this cake as well as the Fairy castle one for the same day.

It turned out pretty good, though I only wish I had time to cover the cake board with more black fondant and add in some stars so that their bed looks like it's galloping though the night sky!! That would've been awesome.

So the cake is a small rectangular chocolate cake and is covered in fondant. Bert and Ernie and the bed's headboard are made of gumpaste. For this design, I referred to a picture I had Googled earlier.


Bert and Ernie are adorable, and I especially love Ernie's rubber duckie!!

Fairy Castle

So for her birthday party at home, Eva wanted the Rainbow Fairy Castle cake which she say in my Debbie Brown book. It's a very elaborate design, a large castle with many towers and seven fairies plus a rainbow!

I didn't think I could pull it off, because Eva was celebrating her birthday with Solomon, which meant I had to make two cakes! So I told her I had to make it smaller  and with only one fairy and also without the rainbow! Luckily she was very understanding and not disappointed at all and was very happy to have a castle cake.

I worked on the cakes right up to the last minute before the party! I'm so glad Eva really loved her castle and the blue fairy she chose from the seven fairies!

The whole thing, especially the fairy was a pretty rushed job, but turned out quite alright. She's a little top heavy, but I love her curly hair.

Ladybug II

Eva wanted another ladybug cake for her school celebration. She had one last year, at school as well, and insisted she wanted it again. I didn't argue with her, cause ladybug cakes are the simplest to make! :) Dome shapes are so easy to cover with fondant!

So, I made another one for her and had a chance to improve a little on the design. Here are the pics then...

Everything is made from fondant. I didn't have to use any gumpaste here. The antennae are made from dry spaghetti sticks and balls of black fondant. Everything else is edible.

Usually when my designs require black and red fondant, I use the pre-tinted ones, because it is impossible to get a good shade of black or red by tinting white fondant! You'll get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome first and even then, you will only have black/greyish or dark pinkish fondant!! Then if you add more colour, it will turn all wet and gloppy!

So take my advice, you'll save a lot of time and grief by using pre-tinted fondant when it comes to red and black! :)

Strawberry Shortcake II

Oh, I seem to have missed out the Strawberry Shortcake cake! It's the second cake which I made for Elena, the first one being the tiara cake two posts before.

Anyway, this is the second Strawberry Shortcake cake I've done. The first one was for my niece Michelle, and it was the modern, grown-up version of Strawberry Shortcake. This one however, was the classic, sweet version of Strawberry Shortcake!

I think I like this one much more, cause I've improved on the gumpaste formula and also my technique a lot since then.

This Strawberry Shortcake cake was orange cake I think... with chocolate ganache, if I'm not mistaken. My blog is so back-logged and it's been too long from the time I made the cakes to the time that I write a post on it, that I can't remember the details! :)

Anyway, I like the lovely, sweet colours and I especially love the strawberries and the strawberry blossoms. I made the top layer of "drippy icing" a bit too big. By the time I realized it, it was already stuck fast, and I could no longer remove it to make adjustments. So the "drippy icing" extended down the side of the cake a little too much. Thus it unfortunately covered most of the colourful stripes.

Never the less, I think it turned out quite nice and Strawberry Shortcake is ever so cute, especially with her freckles and ringlets!

Groovy Papa

I had a last minute order the other day. A client called me two nights before her dad's 60th birthday bash and told me she needed some cupcakes for the special occasion. I told her that due to the lack of time, it would have to be a 2D design.

She told me that she wanted a 70's disco theme and her dad loved music and guitars. She specially requested for red Fender guitars. I had no idea what those were and had to Google it! :) Turns out they're those classic red and white electric guitars!

I was actually quite busy with another order that weekend, but the idea of a disco theme got me hooked!

The cupcakes are chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and the decorations are fondant, except for the guitars and dancing couple. Those are gumpaste. The dancing couple did not have enough time to harden, so I had to use a wee bit of spaghetti sticks to hold up the lady's arm.

I love the final look of the whole ensemble. My client was happy and she says everyone especially loved the guitars!