Maggie's Elephants

To my readers, if you have been following me for awhile now (thank you!), I made a toy box cake for Mia awhile back. Mia Gabrielle, whose nickname is Maggie, turned 1 and with delight, I was asked to make her first birthday cake.

The theme of the party was elephants and balloons. I had free reign of what I wanted to do with the cake as long as it had elephants, balloons and simple. I decided to do tiers of the same size stacked randomly. I did have a little trouble with the fondant this time since I used a different brand of fondant which had some dried clumps! Ugh! But overall, the cake looked the way I hope it would.

Photo of the beautiful family with the celebrant

Enjoy your toddler years Maggie! See you soon!

Ria's Leotards

This cake is for Ria who is a great rhythmic gymnast. She is actually getting this as an advance birthday present since she is going to compete in Prague. Her mom gave me a photo of one of the leotards she uses in competitions to replicate in cake. In reality her dress is filled with gems and rhinestones but for cake and budget, I had to hand painting the details and painting the yellow parts with gold dust for shine.

Side view of the cake

I truly enjoyed making this cake. It gave the chance to paint and pipe, 2 things I don't get to do much these days. I hope to do more cakes that involve a variety of techniques vs just figure modelling.

Mahjong

My grand aunt came to visit us just this week and the day before she arrived was her birthday. We decided to throw her a small birthday party at a local restaurant and of course have cake.

There are only 2 things that my grand aunt loves: shopping and mahjong. I went for the mahjong since it's simple for the time I had to work on it and I know she'd love it over shopping. I am not a mahjong player though so I had to do a little bit of research. I was so glad I went for this. She was truly happy and so were the guests. This time the chocolate cake was filled with raspberry preserves and Chambord ganache.

Rusty Poo

Rusty!!! FOOD!!!

Rusty is the family dog and he's loved by everyone. He originally belonged to my youngest sister then passed on for awhile from me to my cousin and is now finally with my other sister, Didi. Rusty now is their baby and he'll be moving to Philadelphia with them in a few months (sniff!). Last year for Didi's birthday, I made her a tennis bag cake (see May 2009 post, "lets play tennis"). This year, I could not think of anything Didi would like in her cake then I thought of their baby-- Rusty!

I dressed Rusty in a tux inspired by one he wore for my wedding. He was still a baby then and looked quite handsome in his little tux. With a day to work on this cake, I was on it. Luckily, Rusty was around while I was making the cake so I had him as a model. This is my first 3D dog cake so I'm not sure if I got him right. I for sure made him a little fatter than he actually is after I put on all the clothing.

Rusty with his look a like (I hope!) cake

Happy Birthday Sis!! We're going to miss you all when you all when you move to Philly. Who's going to have dimsum with us every Sunday when you leave? :(

Go Clayton Go!

Clayton turned 4 and had a fun celebration at Safari Run. As the name suggests, the place gives you a feel of the Safari with animal prints and stuffed animals. To go with the theme, my loyal customer who is Clay's mom got him a Diego cake and cupcakes with safari animal toppers.

These aren't good photos of the cake but I thought I'd share still. The cake is iced in buttercream with 2D fondant accents and airbrushed background. Cupcakes are 2D as well. I made 6 different animals for variety. Here's 3 of the 6.

Go Clayton Go! Happy Birthday!!!

Wiggles To the Big Red Car!

"Toot Toot Chuga Chuga Big Red Car...We're driving near and we're driving far..." Having last song syndrome since I made this cake. Plus, my daughter asks me to sing it in the car too!

Jonas turns 2 and he's a big Wiggles fan. His mom decided to throw him the most fun Wiggles party and even asks the guests to come in their favorite Wiggles color. For his cake, they decided on the Wiggles' big red car though this one is actually quite small.

Greg, Murray, Jeff (sleeping) and Anthony

The car sits on a 10 inch cake with the Wiggles house as a backdrop. Everything is edible including the house. This car is my 2nd car cake. Being small, the way I carved this cake was completely different from my first car cake. The one thing they have in common is they're both red :) I wonder if the next car I'll make will be red too! I do think for next time, I'm going to need tips from the guru of car cakes - Debbie Goard of Debbie Does Cakes. She makes the most amazing dogs, cars, food, and all other things you can possibly imagine.

Happy Birthday Jonas! Thank you for having us at your Wiggles party!

Optimus Prime

I grew up with 2 sisters and have a girl for a child so I was never around little boy toys. The only time I got to play with toys for boys growing up was when I would go to my cousin Kris' house. If I recall correctly, the Transformers were one of the toys he played with (Kris, correct me if I'm wrong).

When my friend Cel wanted me to make an Optimus Prime cake, I was like...okay...who is Optimus Prime again? I had to walk down memory lane. After a bit surfing and googling, I found this good photo of Optimus Prime's face and decided to go for this with the cake.

Cel wanted a small cake good for about 10 people iced in butercrem. It was going to be a surprise for her hubby who is celebrating his 39th. I didn't want it to look like a child's cake so I kept the cake simple and clean with fondant decorations.

Happy 39th Alvin! Hope you enjoyed your cake!