My First Wedding Cake

So there I was about a year ago, the gung-ho excited home baker and amateur cake decorator happily volunteering to make my brother's wedding cake.  Perhaps I underestimated how much baking I would have to do in a very short span of time.  I could have also forgotten how hot it is to bake in 32C weather.  I blame it on being caught up on the excitement of my older brother getting hitched and the possibility of making my first wedding cake.


That aside, it was really enjoyable planning the cake.  My SIL (sister in-law) had some fabulous ideas for the theme (some of which I used for my daughter's 2nd birthday) of the wedding so that made my job very easy.  She also had some ideas for the type of cake she wanted and supplied me with lots of pictures to sketch some sample cake decorations for her.  The main colour for the wedding was Pink and she liked a cake scattered with daisy that she saw.

These are some sample of string garlands that I piped for her to choose from. It was done on an old ice cream container! : )

We settled on a 3 tier cake and I felt a 12" cake for the 1st tier would be a good size to feed about 150 people.  She wanted the daisies pink and the cake a white on white design so we tinted the cake pink so when you cut through the white fondant we'd see pink inside.  I suggested a butter cake to ensure it wouldn't sink under the fondant and I made it a strawberry cake to go with the pink colour.  We decided against any fruit between the layers because of the weather and went with a vanilla buttercream between the layers.  I didn't go crazy with the pink as I would worried it would be too much colouring but maybe I should have?  The colour was a light pink almost peachy colour due to the yellowness of the butter and egg yolk element.

The sketch for the cake with ideas for each tier.

While I was holidaying in Australia, I started the sketches and practiced a bit with royal icing as it had been months and months since I have used a piping bag and if anyone's piped with royal icing will know that you need to have strong hands to get the royal icing out smoothly.  My SIL chose a delicate and classic looking string garland for the 1st tier, a fondant ribbon with royal icing polka dots and picots on the top tier.  We kept it white on white to give the cake texture and the focal point were the gumpaste daisies.

I was going for fushia with the daisies using Wilton's gel paste Rose colour with a little bit of Burgundy but for some reason the daisies looked a little more red than fushia.  Sigh.  It became a case of if the flowers were seen under a white light, it was fushia but under yellow light it looked more red.  After they were put onto the cake they looked right at home though.

The ribbon in the 2nd tier had to be redone because it was too thin the first time around. It looked better the second time but I have to learn how to put it perfectly straight.  There were some parts of the ribbon that were wavy even though we had 2 pairs of eyes and hands placing it around the cake!   My sister was a big help with the decoration and became a pro at making the pearl borders as she was quicker and better at making them herself than with me helping.  After a few tries, she managed to get those borders nice, fat and round whereas mine had some slightly misshaped ones and they tended to break from the 'string'.  The borders do a lot to complete the cake and they are great for hiding untidy bottoms.  Hee hee.

Here's my sister the pro at making pearl borders.

To complete the home made cake was a cute figurine of the couple painstaking and lovingly created by my SIL's sister made from clay.  The level of detail was amazing!  She got the bride and groom's features spot on right down to the bride's cute cartoon eyes.

See those cute cartoony eyes?  Spot on!

Before I started on the cake though I spent 5 hours baking heart-shaped sugar cookies for the wedding favours.  This was the same day after I had gotten off a plane but my enthusiasm helped me forget my fatigue.  That was Day T-4.  On Day T-3 my SIL and I spent 8 hours covering the cookies with fondant, dusting it petal dust and stamping their names on it then packaging the cookies.  The fatigue started to set in...

Day T-2 saw me spend 9 hours baking 5 cakes.  It was sooooo hot.  It was over 30C outside and the oven was almost constantly going in the kitchen.  It was at this point that I said that I would be quite happy not baking for a few months after that!

Then on Day T-1 it was all about decorating.  I started late, sometime in mid-afternoon as I wanted to join my sis and mother for a mani pedi. : )  I am glad I did that, it seemed to re-energise me.  Even then I spent another 9 hours decorating into the wee hours.  My sister and brother were kind enough to stay up with me.

Adding the finishing touches to the border.

The royal icing piped garlands - I love how they turned out.

The completed cake.

It was a really good experience but I think it will be the last time I put my hand up to make a wedding cake for someone.  So much pressure!  I was so worried the cake would fall over on the way to the venue too!

 

Cupcakes Inspired by Marie Antoinette

In the last 2 months I have had 2 close friends who have left Seoul to start new lives.  One moved to another country in Asia and the other all the way to Europe.  I find that the older you get, the harder it is to make new long and lasting friendships.  So it was sad to see them go.  I am confident though that I will see them again even though it won't be quite the same as when we were living in the same city.

We threw a farewell party for Wani and as it was potluck I decided to bring dessert.  What a surprise! ; )  W has been very helpful in sampling new flavours and giving feedback.  I mean when you love baking, you've got to have an audience who is willing to be guinea pigs.  Also I find that whether it is cooking you enjoy or baking, you want to share with others.  So I've been lucky to have W who has been very obliging even when the result is a bit under par.

For her farewell, I decided to make Orange Almond cupcakes (recipe from Australian Women's Weekly) with Tangy Orange Buttercream.  The colours were inspired by the sweet yet extravagant styling from Marie Antoinette the movie with Kirsten Dunst.

I dropped 2 of the boxes when I got out of the car as I had to grab my daughter who tripped.  I was so upset but luckily the frosting was still quite hard as it had been in the fridge so only a few of the cupcakes were damaged.  A couple of flowers were missing part of their petal and a couple of the words were a little smudged.  The most important thing was they were enjoyed.

Star Trek Logo Cake - This one is for the Trek fans everywhere

I didn't have to scratch my head very hard when I was planning my husband's birthday cake.  I think the picture says it all.  I was a bit tricky as I didn't want him to know that I was making the cake for HIM, so I told him that some customer is asking for a Star Trek cake and I told him that because it's soooo geeky that I wasn't sure whether I wanted to take the order! ; )

He was quite helpful when I showed him some Star Trek related cakes online and suggested the logo cake.  He then got a bit technical about which logo was for which movie or series.  At one point he even suggested I write to the customer and ask her which series her husband is a fan of.  I told him in no uncertain terms that I wasn't going to open that can of worms and I was going to choose the original logo and the birthday boy is just going to have to be happy with it.

  

I honestly thought that he had clued up and knew the cake was secretly for him.  I iced the cake and left the writing for when he was in bed.  I tried to stick to the slanted writing as per the title font and I piped the star out of buttercream then froze it for 15mins then transferred it onto the cake.  The cake was a lemon chiffon cake with lemon cream layers and covered with vanilla buttercream.

The Ducati Cake

 

The people who order from me tend to find me after finding my blog through Google, so when K wrote to me to request a cake for her boyfriend as a surprise a couple of weeks back, I was ready to rock and roll.  At first she was had ideas to either do cupcakes or cakes and with either a Ferrari or Ducati bike element.  I was very happy to make a car out of fondant to add as a topper to the cupcakes or a cake, but was very very very hesitant about the bike as it involved a lot of detail.  Detail = time, and I didnt normally have that much time since I didn't have that many days to work on it.

K was quite excited about the idea of the Ducati because her boyfriend loves them and she was very persuasive.  She sent me many photos and at one point even asked for just the bike to be drawn on top with icing.  They were all good ideas but I was just conscious about time as I needed to make the bike and give it at least a day or two to dry.  In the end, I ran with the idea to make a small 3D bike to place on top of the cake in a road scene.

A road made of chocolate cookie crumbs.  If only there were real roads like these!  Wonka's Chocolate factory maybe?

The bike took ages... I think I started at 11pm and finished it at 2am.  My eyes were quite dry and vision was going wonky at this point so I decided to leave the glossing of the bike till the next morning.  The cake itself was a Vanilla cake with whipped chocolate ganache in between the layers.  I used Vanilla buttercream for the icing.  I particularly like the colour of this grass as it reminds me of the colour of the countryside in the UK.  I also made the post out of fondant.

The road sign says "Route Thirty-Six"

By the next morning, the bike was firm but you could still make a dent in it if you held it too hard.  I went over the red parts with some piping gel from Wilton to give it that nice sheen and let it dry.  I had in mind to make the road out of chocolate biscuits/Oreos and my daughter was very happy to help me pound the biscuits to crumbs. I was really afraid the bike would fall over during transport so I just stuck the toothpicks which held the bike in place into the cake first and packed the bike in a separate box, bubble wrapped thrice over to be safe.  I think I would have cried if anything happened to that bike.

I used one of my kid's toy's packaging to cut the shape for the glass screen for the bike.

 I think the boyfriend was happy with the surprise cake, and hopefully the bike is now sitting on his shelf.

A Cupcake a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

This post has been long overdue! I went on holiday a week or so ago but the run up to the holiday was pretty hectic with replacement classes (again) for my cake decorating course, getting last minute things sorted and trying not to pack half the house with me. I just don't get this packing light business. I try... and somehow I always fail. At least I never run out of clothes to wear! : )

A good friend came to me a couple of months back to make some cupcakes for the opening of a women's clinic and natural birthing centre in Gangnam. This friend of mine also got me the "What's New Cupcake?" book by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson which has so many fabulous ideas. Let's just say that she helps fuel my passion for new designs, so I was more than happy to oblige.

We decided on a flower theme to coincide with the name of the clinic and some vibrant colours to brighten things up. To personalise it a bit more I made some cupcake toppers with the clinic's logo on it. Next we had to choose the flavours. Another friend got me the cookbook from my favourite London bakery, The Hummingbird Bakery so we went through that and as she likes hazelnute spread, she choose half the cupcakes to be Hazelnut and Chocolate cupcakes (with Nutella filling). For the 2nd batch of cupcakes, we went with something light and fruity, Lemon Cupcakes with fresh lemon curd filling.

Here they are waiting to be eaten

My friend told me that doctor and the guests didn't expect the cupcakes, it was a yummy surprise.

The Giant Cupcake

I am so knackered today and I spent 3.5 hours in class decorating a small 3-tiered fondant covered cake. Need sleep... But probably won't sleep till at least midnight. Stubborn, stubborn brain.

After my witching hour rant yesterday, I am pleased to show you the pics I took of the contest cake, or should I say GIANT CUPCAKE! Mwua ha ha ha!!!

Oh dear... see what lack of sleep does to me?

Anyway, I am quite pleased with the result. The flowers ain't perfect but I love, love, love the colours! They are sort of autumn colours but somehow reminiscent of Spring. I got a lot of inspiration from a huge Tulip Show I went to with my sister last year in Melbourne. I was looking through photos there and picked the sort of colours I like best. It reminded me of the beautiful weather, warm yet not the sort of heat that makes you icky and sweaty, a lovely fragrance in the air and being with family. I tried to incorporate that into my cake.

Although I didn't know how to make tulips I used the colours on different flowers like the Apple Blossom, Rose, Wild Rose and Violet. I was happy with the results but cautiously so. It is a competition after all and my humble entry will likely be drowning amongst all the wonderful stuff the other entries have created out of buttercream. My teacher said it was "Nice" ie. it's passable but not the best I have seen. Whatever it is, I'll take it!

I thought I'd do a collage of the photos and not make you scroll down and down... I wanted to upload the cake in so many different angles. Hee hee.

Surprise Birthday Cakes

Just before I left on holiday I got a request for 2 cakes from V who had arrived in Seoul just 2 weeks before.  It was her husbands birthday and she wasn't sure what the office culture here was like and whether there was going to be cake... well she was going to make sure there was going to be cake! : )  

I know what it is like to be arrive in a new office so I thought it was a wonderful way to surprise him to celebrate his birthday.  She also wanted another one for a smaller celebration at home the following day which was his actual birthday which fell on a Saturday. 

I've always loved the way the Hummingbird Bakery in London decorated their cakes so I attempted theirs simple swipes here to give the buttercream texture.  I think next time I won't be so gentle, and use a heavier hand to get deeper grooves and some nice light and shadow going.  It will make for better pictures too.

See what I mean about the pictures not turning out so well?  My camera had problems adjusting to the whiteness of the cake so the shadows weren't captured very well.  I am sure there are ways to get around it but I'm not sure how to adjust the settings on my camera. Seems like photography lessons are on the books for next year.

 When it came to the cake, she had a clear idea of what she wanted.  They both liked cakes that weren't too sweet and they enjoyed fruit toppings on cakes.  V's husband also liked apples and I incorporated that into the cake which was the one for celebrating at home and it was a Chocolate Chiffon cake (Cake No. 2) layered with apple and Italian Meringue Buttercream.

Chocolate & Apple Cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream, topped with seasonal Korean grapes and chocolate curls.

The first cake which was for the office was an Orange Chiffon cake layered with peaches and cream. I chose a selection of seasonal fruits to top the cakes.  I had some problems with the chocolate curls as the chocolate bar was either too warm or too hard.  In the end after a messy start and with some help from my Mom (hee hee) I got some nice curls going and that went on top of cake number 2.

Orange Chiffon cake layered with peaches and cream, topped with Mandarins and a selection of seasonal Korean grapes.

Ok, I admit I was a little excited about delivering the cake to the office.  It was a bit like receiving flowers when you're at the office (hasn't happened in a looooong time, Maddog if you are reading that's a hint!) except this time I am not the receiver but the delivery girl.  Weird huh?  It was a surprise afterall and it went without a hitch.

The cakes were eaten and people were happy.  My work there was done.

My First Cupcake Stand at the SIWA Coffee Morning

4 days ago, I went to the Seoul International Women's Association Coffee Morning and set up a table to sell my cupcakes. I am a member of SIWA and was encouraged to sell some cupcakes there to get some publicity for my little cakes. I hadn't done this before but really relished the idea.

Here's Yoko helping me set up

Here we are all good to go

When I was in school, we had Canteen Day once a year where each class would bring things to sell in a sort of bazaar where parents and students buy coupons and use those to buy whatever goodies they wanted to during that day. I used to love bringing food or drinks and selling them. I think that started my appettite for sales which grew into a enjoyable career for me.

These were how the individual cupcakes were packed when someone bought one

I found these small chubby tumblers in Saero in Bangsan Market

I did a lot of work to prepare for it including scouting for packaging items for my mini cupcakes and getting durable (and nice looking) boxes that can hold 1 and 2 cupcakes. Yoko a friend who lives 3 doors down came to help me prepare the night before and also helped out at the event. She was fantastic! I think I made more sales when I wasn't even at the table!

The Lookbook was created to give people an idea of what I can do so it was filled with pictures of the cakes and cupcakes I have made in the past

This is me posing with my cupcakes. I was conscious that people were watching while I was taking numerous photos of the table (I was the only one doing it) and then of myself. How vain right? But I wanted to capture the moment

The cupcakes got a lot of attention and I think we had the prettiest table amongst the other 20 vendors who were there simply by the nature of what we were selling. I created 3 flavours and made a dozen of each. A new creation was the Chocolate Cherry Truffle cupcakes which was a Valrhona Chocolate cupcake with a Chocolate Cherry Brandy Ganache center and frosted with a Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate Buttercream. It was then topped with hand-shaved chocolate curls and a red rose petal dusted with sparkle. It was decadent, rich and so SO fragrant. The Red Velvet with Cream Cheese frosting was very popular and the Strawberry cupcakes weren't too shabby with a large floret buttercream frosting and a shiny pretty butterfly sitting on top.

Chocolate Cherry Truffle Cupcakes

I also had 6 boxes of 6 mini cupcakes which sold out. They were Chocolate with Chocolate Buttercream, Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting and Vanilla with Vanilla Fluffy Frosting. People thought they were "so cute" in their little egg carton boxes so they were gone in a flash. They make great gifts and favours as well. I can always customise the flavours to suit your occassion in case whoever is reading this may be interested in ordering. Hee hee.

These are the adorable mini cupcakes with the sample box on top

My OH, Maddog said I should have made more just the night before. But that was 11pm and I didn't have the time or energy. Like Donna Hay says, "Beautiful food tastes better." So I hope it was fantastic for everyone who took some home.

**The Mini Cupcakes Nesting were featured on the CutestFood blog on 23 September 2010**

My First Appearence on the Cupcakes Take the Cake Blog

I was so uber excited to find out that my bridal shower and moustache cupcakes made it on the most popular cupcake blog around, Cupcakes Take The Cake!!!  When I first started to decorate cupcakes, I had always aspired to have a cupcake featured on that blog and I cannot believe it has happened so quickly. 

I ran around the room waving my arms in the air going, "EEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" 

My kids thought I was acting really weird.  

But who cares?!  It's the kind of encouragement I needed.  My husband is probably going to give a big sigh when he reads this as he will probably be thinking, "Great, as if she needs more encouragement.  We're in for even more late nights now".

Moustache Cupcakes: Cute and Cool at the Same Time!

When I got an email a few weeks ago with all the details for an order of cupcakes, I was excited (as I always am) but as I read on, I realised it was a request for moustache themed cupcakes. My first reaction was, "HUH? Ok read that again". Nope I did not read wrong especially when there are accompanying sample pictures. My next reaction was more cautious, "Okaaaay..."

John, the person requesting for them had a lovely story behind why he wanted the moustache cupcakes. His wife really loves cupcakes and they had been looking at cupcakes on the internet and they both really fell for a particular batch that they saw. So for his birthday, he planned a surprise moustache themed birthday party for her! He's such a sweetheart isn't he? I bet he got LOTS of brownie points with that.

Here they are: aren't they cute?!

After a series of rapid fire emails, we hashed out the details. John decided on Snickerdoodle flavoured cupcakes (think cinnamon flavour)and I suggested a Fluffy Vanilla Frosting as a bed for the fondant faces. These will provide a more stable base for the fondant faces which can weigh a little compared to Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

Then I created 3 faces for John to choose 2. When initially thinking about styles of moustaches, I immediately thought of Magnum P.I. or Tom Selleck as is his real name. I grew up watching that show and really had no idea why some women liked him and his moustache! (Still don't see the appeal) I am more of a Aragorn from LOTR kinda girl IF I was going to go for someone with a bit of facial hair. Hee hee.

I also thought of Mario from Super Mario Bros, then there was Mr Potato Head. He's a real sweetheart that one. But in the end created three based loosely on a cross between Mr Potato Head and Tom Selleck and Captain Hook from Peter Pan. He settled on the one with a moustache inspired by Captain Hook (blue) and tweaked it a bit, as well as one that I designed based on my memory of a certain maths teacher I had back in secondary school (pink)... right down to the side-parted hair! Mr. Lim that one was for you.

As I started cutting out the fondant faces with my trusty double sided plastic round and scalloped edge cutters (bought them from this seller on Amazon), I was hoping that I will be able to draw the blue face well. The kneading of the fondant into gumpaste and colouring plus cutting them into the right shapes took over 3 hours.

For the hair and moustache for the red face, I started off with chocolate ready-made icing by Bakels which really cut down the time I would have spent trying to make white fondant black! Still, it took me another few hours to form the moustache, cut the hair and assemble them onto the face. I left the drawing of the eyes and the moustache for Blue the next day as I wanted them to dry out properly too.

The moment I drew the eyes on Red, I was like, "Awwwww! So cute!" The eyes really made the whole face look real and Blue was just cool. The weather now is very hot and humid. I can't refrigerate the fondant faces and I was really concerned that if they were placed on top of the frosting, the humidity and the moisture from the buttercream would make the faces droop. This was a real concern of mine as the faces were firm but not rock hard. They were meant to be eaten after all.

Here they are all packed and ready to go

So after a late night email to John, I packed the fondant faces separately in a tupperware in between layers of baking paper so they don't stick. Partially to test it and also so John will know how to place them (ok so maybe I just wanted to see how they looked - hee hee) I put 6 of the faces on and beamed with pride. ^_*

I got an email from his wife the next day who was really happy with the party and said the cupcakes were the highlight of her moustache-birthday-party.

They also got on the CutestFood blog for 30 August! AND

The most popular cupcake blog Cupcakes Take the Cake on 7th September.

Here are some pictures that John sent me of the cupcakes when they arrived and were assembled. I am so impressed with those Moustache party packs!