Winter Gymbo

A very nice lady called me after my vacation from the Philippines. She apparently has left me a few messages while I was vacationing. She wanted a cake for his son turning 2. The party was going to be at Gymboree so she opted to do Gymbo the Clown who is the mascot of Gymboree. She provided me with the photo of Winter Gymbo and requested I replicate as close as I can in cake. Here's how it turned out. What do you think?

Santa Needs Help!

This Christmas, I was in charge of desserts for our family gathering. I decided to do a tres leches cake which is a family favorite, hazelnut "kitkat" bars (another family fave) and a christmas cake in fondant. I did want to do a snow globe fondant cake from the beginning but the design I had in mind was too much work for the time I had left so I decided to go with this.

Santa hanging on...

The design is partly inspired by an actual snow globe I wanted to purchase. But since it's an unnecessary expense, I decided to just customize and make a cake inspired by it. The "globe" is a vase which I purchased in a local craft store. All decorations are made out of gumpaste. I had a lot of fun making this cake. I wish I had made Santa's bum a little bigger though! He was pretty lean.

Inside the globe

Another shot of the whole cake

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! And may you all have a happy and prosperous New Year.

Ben's Alphabet Cupcakes

Last September, I made cupcakes for a baby Rebekah's naming ceremony. This time it's for her brother- Ben who is turning 3. The night before I got an email from Ben's mom, I was actually thinking if Ben's birthday has passed or not. It's just one of those things I remembered from one of the conversation with Ben's dad, Andy.

Ben loves the alphabet and he loves his name too! Particularly the letter B. So the theme for his birthday cupcakes were the alphabet and the B. His mom Julie requested that I form the cupcakes into the shape of a letter B as seen above. Unfortunately, the cupcakes moved during transport after pick up and they had to be brought back to all be re-iced and cleaned up. Lesson learned: never form them into something with space in between for transport. And cupcake boxes with holders are the way to go!

This shot by me. Pardon the bad lighting.

Julie arranging the cupcakes to form a letter B

All photos except the second one above are taken by Andy at the party. Each and every cupcake had a different design representing each letter of the alphabet. They were quite time consuming but I was quite happy with the end result. My little girl loved them too!

Happy Birthday Ben! Thanks again Julie and Andy! Till next time :)

Enzo's Baptismal Gown

This is a replica of what baby Enzo wore for his Baptism. His mom requested a blue and brown background either in stripes or dots but went for the stripes. I decided to add a touch of white after seeing how nice a set of baby bedding with the same color scheme.

Not much to say about this cake :P Welcome to the Christian world Enzo!

Mia's Toy Box Cake Part 2

Just wanted to share with you all Mia's toy box cake with the lights on.

Happy viewing!

Cara's Cake in 3 Layers

Last June I made a cake for my neice's 1st month celebration (see previous post). My cousin saved the shoe and hand carried them home to Manila so we could use it for the baptism. I didn't want to do the same one layer cake I did last time but they wanted to same look so here's what I came up with. I wanted to make it extra special, my being the godmother to Cara, by adding on a jeweled pacifier and rattle as well. It was simple, sweet and oh so pink!

Jeweled Name

The Rattle

Jeweled Pacifier

Hermes & Guiseppe

I just got back from a good month break from Manila... home. It was very nice to see old friends and family, and to get some pampering too! While there I did a couple of cakes for family and here's one of them. Photo on top taken before we left for the party...bad lighting!

This cake was for my sister-in-law who was turned 50. She's always wanted a Birkin bag and loves shoes by Guiseppe Zannoti. Since we can't afford the bag nor can her kids, we decided to go with this for her cake. And the shoe was just an add on as well as the twilly, which is also a product of Hermes. To those who don't know (like me prior to doing this), a twilly is a small scarf with many uses. It may be tied around the neck, wrist, hair and even on the bag itself as an accessory. And oh, did you guys know that a Birkin bag is designed to be worn open? Yes, open. Now, I wonder why it comes with a lock? Heh!

The cake. Photo taken at the venue by my nephew Louie. Thanks Lou!

The Lock

Front Straps

Twilly

The Philippines is a hot and humid country being situated close to the equator. Having lived here in the US for almost 10 years, I almost forgot how humid it gets in Manila especially when it rains. Lucky me, just as I finished this cake, it rains! There goes my gumpaste bag straps! Hence the straps being interlocked vs upright which is how it's supposed to be. Both snapped and being few hours away from the party, my hubby and I fixed it by supporting with wires and patching it up a bit. The fondant was slightly affected too... see the ridges? As for the shoe, I made them a few days earlier which gave it time to dry some but it still started to get soft since the underside wasn't completely dry.

Designed based on an actual Guiseppe Zannoti shoe. All edible except the gems which are cubic zirconia.

My nephew Toby getting a head start on the cake.

My sis-in-law slicing the cake.

Thinking back it was a good experience to do a cake under different conditions. Next time, I think I know what to take back home... a dehumidifier!

Happy 50th Birthday Achi Jojo! We miss you all!