For My Biggest Fan

My daughter turned 2 the 18th of September and months before, I told myself that I will make Izzie the best Minnie Mouse cake I can possibly make. She is my biggest fan (aside from my hubby). When I work on cakes, even when it's not done, she always says "Nice cake!" It melts my heart!

Unfinished Minnie Mouse Cake

My hubby was my handy man for this cake. He helped me a lot with structural support. We went to our favorite store Home Depot and picked out different sizes of PVC pipes and connectors (I don't know if this is the right word for this). This is my first cake supported with such a structure and the biggest 3D cake I've ever made -- over 2 feet high. Luckily, my hubby was just as excited to work on this cake as I am!

The idea I had for this cake was for Minnie Mouse to hold a cake which Izzie will blow. As seen on the photos, she has one hand palms up. Unfortunately, since all of the weight gravitated towards the front, adding the cake will bear more weight and possibly make Minnie's torso split even with the suppport. There already is a small crack on the side of the dress and in the back which happened while finishing the arm and during transport. I had to settle on a cupcake and have the small cake on the side.

Minnie's head is made out of styrofoam. A very good friend of mine who just happened to be in town from the Philippines helped me carve the nose and part of the head. I then formed the cheeks and further contoured the nose and covered it partly with fondant and part with modeling chocolate. It was my first time to use modeling chocolate and I wish I had done more research on how to use it. I ended up with a bumpy Minnie face! :( It is said that modeling chocolate does not leave a seam when patched together. For the most part, I did not have one but on some parts, you could see where they were pieced together. I know better next time. IF there is a next time!

The body is made out of cake and rice krispies. I used 3 layers of firm cake filled with buttercream frosting then covered with fondant. Arms and feet were covered part with modeling chocolate and part fondant.

My Family :)

The cake that was supposed to sit on Minnie's hand

Donald Duck's Hat and Mickey Mouse Head

Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck's Bow

Goofy's Hat

I don't know if I can ever make this cake again and it is far from perfect but I am very happy that my daughter loved it. That's all that matters. She would kiss Minnie's nose before she went to bed and would wake up every morning, walk up to the cake and say "Minnie Mouse!". She did say once "WOW! Minnie Mouse! Big nose!" Haha! But right after, she said "Nice cake!" :)

I love you so much my Izzie bee and happy birthday!

Just for Fun

A few months ago, there was a posting on youtube for a cake contest for cake decorators. I thought about it and I was like what the heck, lets do it for fun!

I did join a contest years ago when I just moved to the United States back in 2001 in Texas. Again, I did it for fun. One of the judges then was Kerry Vincent, who is now the judge for Food Network Challenge. I did not win then since I did not read the rules well. I used fake pearls which is a big no-no for cake contests. But the judges were nice enough not to disqualify me. They still took the time to judge my cake but they could not place me :( Kerry Vincent asked me to enter it again and just remove the pearls at the Oklahoma Sugar Art Show for which I signed up for. Unfortunately, 9/11 happened and my protective family prohibited me from attending for security reasons. Photo of the cake below. It looked good then. Now it really looks ... not so nice and so outdated! Ha!

The youtube cake contest theme was candy. You could use the actual candy, or replicate a candy in cake. I wanted to do something different and started browsing the net for ideas. I came across some Snoopy Russian dolls and loved it! That was then I thought of doing Russian dolls with the M&M characters on it.

I call my piece "The Search for the Missing Tomato". All pieces contain cake (just the bottom half) while the smallest one contains a hand molded tomtato M&M. That's where the missing tomato was hiding! This is technically like a cupcake holder. You could pop out the cake and still keep the shell. I still have these sitting on my dad's display case but I forgot to remove the cake that they got stuck onto the shell because of the heat.

I did not place the first time I joined a contest but this time, I am happy to say that I did.

Maia's Bear in the Garden Cake

This cake is for a little girl who actually saw Mia's toy box cake. At the party, I recall a little girl asking for the teddy bear figure that I made. Later on, I found out that little girl was Maia. Her mom said that since that day she got the bear figure at the party, all she wanted was for her birthday cake to have a bear. We did several sketches and landed on this one. I don't draw well but she liked my sketch which had her name in a cloud.

Flower pot candle holder

Maia's house

Flowers...

Full view of cake

This is me covering the cake board with fondant

Soon after the party, I got a call from Maia's mom. They loved the cake and Maia didn't want the top layer touched so they took it home. I was happy that Maia was happy! :)

Happy Birthday Maia! So glad you liked your cake!

Welcome Rebekah!

After seeing photos of the cupcakes I made on the previous post, Julie decided to give me a call and possibly order for her daughter Rebekah's naming ceremony which is equivalent to baptism in Jewish culture (we learn something new everyday!). It was really nice of Julie to gamble on my sweet treats without even trying them.

The theme of the event: polka dots, fuschia pink, lime green and flowers. We did decide to put some butterflies too to soften the whole look. Cupcake flavors include chocolate, red velvet, butter and strawberry chiffon.

Strawberry Chiffon Cupcakes with Strawberry Scented Buttercream

Ben with his Elmo cupcake

Ben and friends enjoying his special cupcake

I failed to take photos of these but Rebekah's dad, Andy, was so nice to email me photos the photos he took (and I didn't even ask!). I had the pleasure of meeting him recently too for another cake order a few days ago. Thank you very much Andy!

Birthday Cupcakes

I've been so behind on updating my blog and I hope to catch up this week. Here's one to start...

I made these cupcakes for a group of people celebrating their birthdays. It was a mix of male and female celebrants so I had to think PARTY: cupcakes, cake, balloons, party hats and some burgers and fries!

Hat...

Care for a slice?

Or a whole cake?

Cucpakes...

Burgers and fries anyone?

Can't have a party without balloons!

Thank you to my friend Kay Anne who took all the beautiful photos.