Animal Birthday Cake

When I first learnt cake decorating, I imaged I would create a birthday cake for my own child one day. Recently my daughter turned 2 and I was so excited to make this cake for her!

Ellie is very interested in animals. She can name a few different animals and imitate their sounds. Since I’ve introduced pandas to her on YouTube videos, pandas become her favorite animal. One day I will take her overseas to see the real pandas (there are no pandas in the local zoo).

This is a 4 layer chocolate cake covered with fondant. I also use fondant to make all the decorations. Ellie was amazed by the cake although she didn’t quite understand the concept of birthday yet. 🙂  The smile on her face was my best reward!

 

Minnie Mouse Cake

A friend from work asked me to make a birthday cake for her 2 year old daughter. I was worried I didn’t have time to make the cake while I had to spend time with my own daughter. After I looked at the picture of the cake she found on the internet I happily accept the order. It is a simple but eye-catching design. Especially I love the contrast of the colour!

I bought the black fondant from the shop because I know it is very hard to achieve the deep dark colour. I tried to save money so I decided to colour the white fondant in red myself (white fondant is cheaper than the coloured fondant). I underestimated the difficulty of achieving the rich red colour. I have almost used half bottle of red food colouring plus plenty of pink food colouring. I am happy I have got the colour right at the end, however timewise it wasn’t a smart move – lesson learnt!

In the end I was excited about the cake – simplily cute! By the way it was a chocolate cake with butter cream icing inside. My colleague told me the cake was exactly what she imagined!

Rainbow birthday cake

I have been looking forward to making the first birthday cake for my daughter for a year! We are here not just to celebrate Ellie’s birthday but also to celebrate we as a family have survived for a year – the toughest year ever! Watching her growing and blossoming, my heart is filled with unspeakable joy. I hope she is healthy and happy throughout the year, her life is as colorful as the rainbow! 🙂

I made a 6 inch vanilla chiffon cake, covered with buttercream and sprinkles. It was done in a rush, the decoration could have been done better (tried to get the cake ready and light the candle before she went to bed). Anyway there was no complaint from her, haha. I believe she had a good time on her birthday, that is all that matters. 🙂

Frozen birthday cake

Since the movie Frozen was released, Elsa became the most popular princess character in the world. I wasn’t surprised when I was asked to make a pink Frozen birthday cake.

I haven’t done cake decorating for almost two years, so I was worried I would forget how to do it. It turned out ok and I didn’t forget everything. However it is my first time to make a human figurine and I am not happy about it. This Elsa looks a bit odd – out of proportion! 😦 I didn’t have time to make it again  because I only had time after my daughter went to bed at night). Luckily the 4 year old birthday girl wasn’t picky. She loved the cake! 🙂

I am glad this cake gave me a chance to start my hobby again. Hopefully I can do more as my daughter is older. I am looking forward to making her 1st birthday cake! 🙂 🙂

Pink booties baby shower cake

I have never had a chance to make a girly cake before. When I was asked to make a girl themed baby shower cake I was excited. I decided to make it girly yet elegant, simple yet sophisticated. Nothing will be more girly than using bows and lace on the cake, so here it is! I had lots of trouble of making the edible lace. It took me a few days to finish as it required a long drying time.

Hope the mother-to-be like this pretty cake! 🙂

Airplane cupcakes

Yesterday was my colleague’s last day at work. Cass is going to the flight school to pursue her dream as a pilot. Good on her! It needs a lot of encouragement to change your career path and follow your own dream. I really appreciate what she is doing so I made some airplane themed cupcakes for her farewell.

These were chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream. Cupcake toppers were made of fondant. They disappeared so fast that I didn’t even get a chance to have one! I took it as a compliment 🙂

Birds baby shower cake

My last baby shower cake left a big impression on the ladies at work. A few people have asked me to make cakes for them. Here is my 2nd baby shower cake. A lady at work ordered it for her best friend’s baby shower. This time it is for twins whose genders are unknown yet – exciting!

This cake was inspired by Scrumptious. I incorporated the traditional pink and blue and some neutral color – yellow and red. I loved the flowers and butterflies. They were easy to make and look pretty!

I hope the mother-to-be like the cake!

Birds baby shower cake

Butterflies and flowers

 

Baby shower cake

It was my first time to go to a baby shower and my first time to make a baby shower cake, how exciting! The cake was for my lovely colleague, she is having a baby boy so the theme color was blue.

It was a four-layer lemon & poppy seeds cake, covered with buttercream and fondant. I was inspired by the baby shower invitation, so I made the baby cloth lines on the side of the cake. The bear was made of fondant. Perhaps I am bias it was the cutest thing I have ever made. 🙂

It was a wonderful baby shower, lots of presents, fun and love. The-mother-to-be really loved my cake (maybe the baby too 😛 ). All the best to her and the baby!!!

Baby shower cake

Baby cloth lines

Game of Thrones cake

This weekend was a friend’s wedding. I made him a groom’s cake as a gift. Nick and his wife Helen both are fans of the TV series – Game of Thrones, so am I. The idea was from the bride and I thought it would be fun to make, so here it came out like this. This cake took me about 15 hours to complete. It was the most difficult cake I have made so far, also it was my first two tiers cake!

Honestly there were lot of things could be better. The fondant work wasn’t great. I think it was because I rolled the fondant out too thin, it cracked and tore off. I had to change the design a little bit to cover the holes. Overall it had wow factor and I was happy with the result. The groom was truly amazed! 🙂

If you have watched the TV series, I hope you like it too. If you haven’t watched it, then go to get it (I can’t recommend more)!

Game of Throne cake

Sword cake topper

Weird wood and house shield

Dog theme cupcakes

My colleague Rachel has recently owned a Leonberger dog. This is a giant dog breed. Her dog is just a puppy at the moment but it is a huge and cute puppy – brown coat, big ears and dark face. 🙂 Rachel was going to a Leonberger party so she asked me to make her some cupcakes. She suggested me making dog paws and dog bones, but I decided to bring it to the next level – make some Leonberger dog faces! I have made 24 chocolate cupcakes covered with chocolate ganache and fondant. Rachel loved the cupcakes especially the dog faces!

This is my go-to chocolate cake recipe, very easy and delicious.

Chocolate Cake (makes 1 big cake or 20 cupcakes)

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
•  2/3 cup cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 tsps baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsps vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2/3 cup hot coffee

1. Preheat oven to 175°C.
2. Sift dry ingredients together and place in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add eggs, oil, milk and vanilla and beat for a couple of minutes until combined.
4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add hot coffee and mix together.
5. Pour into the prepared pan or cupcake liners bake until the inserted skewer comes out clean. Batter will be very liquid.
6. Cool for about 5 minutes in the pan. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Dog theme cupcakes

Bones on the cakes

Leonberger cupcake