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 not so nice and so outdated!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.

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!

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!