Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Mia's Toy Box

A couple months ago, a very good friend of mine informed me that she wants me to do her daughter's baptismal cake. Of course I said yes. Immediately I thought of a toy box cake. With her approval I started to think. Toys, shoes, rug... my mind just kept on going.

I did my research to see who has made toy box cakes before. I came across one cake which I found to my liking. The lady who made it quickly became my friend and shared with me she did hers with styrofoam. Then comes the challenge for me to make it in cake. Plus I wanted it suspended just like a real toy box.






I headed off to Michael's, my favorite hobby shop in the world. Not surprisingly, I found what I needed: wooden balls, a piece of wood and non-toxic glue. I also had a pit stop at Home Depot to buy what I needed for the stem of the lamp. My daughter wasn't too thrilled to be in Home Depot though (she wanted to go to Babies R Us -- and she's only 22 months) but as soon I said this is like the store in one of her favorite shows Handy Manny, she was happy.




My daughter and shopping aside, here is the cake. I've not done this much figures on one cake in my cake life. As I was doing this, I just kept thinking of the kids saying "I want that!" Or "I want the bunny!". That kept me wanting to do just a little bit more. And I was so happy to hear that as I was about to cut the cake and to see the smiles on the kids faces as I handed them their own figure. I also thought of Buddy and Duff Goldman who on their commercials, say that they do cakes to make people smile. I hope there is no copyright for this because I'd like to say that too.


My favorite pieces: mini Robeez shoes and my rocking elephant


My little figures and the rug that took me 2 hours to make!



The lamp is a working lamp. Thanks to dear hubby for doing the wiring for me!

Welcome to the Christian world little Mia!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Graduation Cake

A good family friend who is also like a little brother to me and my sisters graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I wanted to make him a cake but could not make anything too complicated because I had the ship cake to do as well. The 2 events were 2 hours apart too!

Everything is edible including the pencil. This is the first 3D fondant book cake I've actually made. The hat and pencil as well. The title of the book is hand piped. I have not piped much lately which I love to do so I decided to do so with this cake.





Congratulations Justin! Wishing you all the luck and success!

HMS Warrior Ship 1860

I have never heard of the HMS Warrior Ship till now. I've been on a ship once before, a cruise ship that is. I remember it being big and grand but being me, what I paid attention to most was the food. You can say that I am completely ignorant of the parts of the ship. So when I was commissioned to make a cake for a lovely couple who just got married at the HMS Warrior and the groom is a sailor, I was glued to my laptop for days figuring out the ship. I didn't even know where the stern of the ship was. Now I know!


The official site of the HMS Warrior is www.http://www.hmswarrior.org/. I was probably the most frequent viewer of this site, viewing different parts of the ship several times a day. However, the site did not provide a photo of the entire upper deck despite them having a virtual tour on the site. I just kept my fingers crossed that things were in the right place. I kept thinking of Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes who always got to go to the site to see the actual piece before he worked on the cake.


Ultra mini bride and groom. I almost forgot this important element. I only had 10 minutes to make them and I somehow made it. But they don't look great but I tried my best!




The Figurehead


The Upperdeck


Another view of the upperdeck



Hard work paid off seeing the reaction of everyone who saw the cake. I recall walking in with the cake and the hostess jaw just dropped open. Servers and even the manager of the restaurant came over to see the cake and took photos. But best of all are the smiles I got from the happy couple. My body was exhausted but my heart was jumping with joy.


Congratulations Michelle and Nick! Wishing you all the best!