Giggle and Hoot Themed Cupcakes for Caydence's 1st Birthday

Wow, it has been a really long time since the last post. Sadly, it's probably been that long since I have had the time to make any novelty cakes at all... But there is no occasion more special than to celebrate my beautiful baby niece's first birthday to break open the old cake decorating tool box.

 Giggle and Hoot is her favourite TV show and she goes crazy every time she sees Hoot. So, it was the obvious choice for her birthday's theme. 

The main cake

Close up of Hoot 

 Trays of themed cupcakes

The final spread

Thank you to my mother who stayed up with me until 2 am putting these together. 

Thank you to Iced Affair, my favourite cake decorating store in Sydney with easily the best range of different  coloured fondants. My mother asked, "Why don't you just make your own? " After having just finished my 7th night shift in a row and with less than a day to complete this project, my only response was to laugh. 

Iced Affair

53 Church St

Camperdown 

NSW 2050

(02) 95193679

www.icedaffair.com.au

Animal Picnic for Nadya's First Birthday

These are really old but I haven't had the time to put these photos up. My baby niece turned 1 in January. My sister-in-law made the cake and I make the toppers. So, I decided to make miniature replicas of her 3 favourite stuffed animals/doll having a picnic - Sophie the giraffe, Harriet the Hippo, and Charlie the doll. Both Harriet and Charlie were actually knitted by my mom! All the figurines were made out of fondant and other details painted on.

The finished product

The replicas and the originals

The making of Harriet and Charlie

I have to say that I wasn't too happy with Charlie. She got a little chubby. It was hard to get her to stay sitting up without compromising her girth. I used a garlic press to make her hair - easy and already available in most households!

Harriet the Hippo

Sophie the giraffe

Sophie was made out of a single piece of fondant. I have to say she's my favourite. Spots, hooves, and other details were painted on using AmeriColor Gourmet Writer Food Decorating Pens(one of my favourite and most used purchases).

Available at Iced Affair in Camperdown (http://www.icedaffair.com.au/)

Close up

Nadya and I

Cheerios outfit for Nikki's 25th

Quick post about a cake I made for my friend Nikki's 25th birthday today. She loves Glee so I made a replica of the Cheerios' cheerleading top. It was a bit of a rush job so the joints aren't as neat as I would like them to be and normally, I would have carefully measured out things and been much more accurate but I was very limited by time (and bad planning).

The interesting thing about this cake is that it is a gluten free cake made out of maize flour. I learnt today that the cornflour that is sold in our supermarkets in Sydney is completely different from the cornflour you will see in American recipes. The cornflour that we have here is in fact made out of wheat (and thus, so very not gluten free) and is really corn starch. The cake turned out alright but methinks I'm going to keep experimenting with gluten free cake recipes until I find one I really like. In the meantime, I can't wait to make cornbread with my leftover maize flour!

If you're looking for maize flour, I got it from Dr Earth Go-Vita on King Street, Newtown. It has a great range of gluten free (and other health food) items (http://tinyurl.com/3dfqlhn).

The three wise pink apes for my dad's 60th birthday

My dad turned 60 today and I wanted to make a cake that was really special and really represent my Dad. For some reason, my dad LOVES pink apes. He loves anything to do with them. Pink ape key chains, pink ape t-shirts etc. For my graduation he even gave me a pink ape soft today in a graduation gown which he had got specially made. I had previously made 2 pink ape cakes for my dad so I really had to up the ante this time to outdo myself. So, I was inspired by the three wise monkeys and personalised it.

Ta da!

(Click on the photos to view larger photos)

The finished cake

Now to break it down...

The apes were made with fondant and is all edible except for the toothpicks I used to stabilise the limbs and props. Funnily enough, the camera took up most of my time. I had to make 6 lenses before I was able to fit "NIKON" on the lens cap (see above).

Now, let me explain ...

1. The ape that hears no evil
My dad is pretty hard of hearing so often his response when you speak to him is "WHAT?"

2. The monkey that speaks no evil
My dad collects degrees and one of his degrees is a Masters of Linguistincs which isn't in this photo but is in the final product

3. The monkey that sees no evil
My dad is an avid photographer

I was pretty proud of the finished product... I'm becoming more and more comfortable creating with fondant. But the most important thing to me was that my dad absolutely loved it. Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Nadya

2010 has been quite a busy year, and we're not quite halfway through it yet.

1. New job.
Working as a medical intern doesn't really leave that much time to make and especially decorate any cakes, which has undoubtedly left me with a big hole. Hopefully, I'll be able to make up for lost time when I go on annual leave in just a few weeks!

2. New niece.
My brother and his wife had a beautiful baby girl, Nadya in January. She was the inspiration for my most recent fondant adventure - a miniature Nadya. I'm still very much fiddling around with fondant and learning as I go. I've stayed away from trying to make human figurines after my first attempt back in 2008 was a dismal disaster. I tried to look for old photos to put up just so you can see how bad they were but I couldn't find any. Oh well, saves me the embarrassment! :)

So this is Nadya at her 1 month full moon celebration ...

And this is how miniature Nadya came to be...

And voila...!

I was pretty surprised with the outcome. Granted, she's actually only 4 months old now and I may or may not have taken some creative license with her age to make it easier on myself... I don't think she looks too bad. ;)

P.S. I was in the San Fransisco/San Jose area recently and found heaven in Barbara of Pauline's Cake Decorating Supplies. There is so much more choice in the states and things are so much cheaper too! Barbara is a hoot and won't let you get away without imparting some of her wisdom. It is almost worth flying all the way back to San Fran again even if it means getting stuck at the cash register for 20 minutes when all I want to do is to pay for my shopping!

Barbara of Pauline's Cake Decorating Supplies

1093 Malone Road,

San Jose CA 95125

(408)978-9740

Final Year Farewell Cupcakes

This is another long overdue post.

I finally graduated from med school last year and as a final hoorah, we had a hospital farewell party for the final year students down at the local pub with loads of entertainment - trivia, games, dances and singing. It was a fun night to be had and a good chance to mingle with the doctors. To say thank you to my fellow students for the fun times and the invaluable admin girls at the Clinical Teaching Unit, I painstakingly worked on 34 personalised face cupcakes with one of the most wonderful-est friends, Monica who stayed up with me and helped me till 4.30am.

Meet the St George Class of 2009

Now, for the how tos...

Step 1: Bake lots of cupcakes with lots of backups

Step 2: Slice off the top of the cupcakes so that it's flat and apply a thin layer of buttercream just so there's something for the fondant to adhere to

Step 3: Roll out fondant thinly and cut into a circle and place on top of the cupcake (I used a plastic IKEA cup for this) remembering to use either a lot of cornflour or COPHA so that the fondant doesn't stick to the table/cup etc. Then using a food colouring pen, or a brush draw on facial features/make little noses out of fondant

Step 4: Add fondant hair

Oh, and I used Wilton Ready-to-use Rolled Fondant in Natural Colors, which made my life a whole lot easier.

Baby shower cupcakes for Aryan

I threw my sister-in law a baby shower back in early December and now she is literally about to pop. She is 39+4 weeks today and I can't wait to meet my new niece. Below are some close up shots of the cupcakes I made for the picnic we had at Coogee Beach with friends and family.

Just my usual vanilla cupcakes with pink buttercream. Toppers are made out of modeling paste and shaped using a mould i bought at Iced Affair in Camperdown. Smoosh modeling paste into the mould, then put it in the freezer for a few minutes and then pop it out. Nice and easy! Then paint with food colouring. I bought these food colouring pens which were a bit expensive but totally worth the investment. And then I painted over it with some shimmer dust just to make it look a bit more polished.