Days off from baking

I will be away starting from 29th April - 3rd May 2009. I will only start taking orders on the Monday, 4th May 2009. Hope everyone will have a great Labour Day weekend ahead! =)

Hajar's Rose Bouquet Choc Cheese Wave Wedding Cake

I spent two days assembling Hajar's cake. It consists of two petite (1kg) Choc Cheese Waves stacked together. The first day of assembly turned out disastrous. I thought I was done. Only to come back home and find that the chocolate buttercream frosting was melting!!! At 12.30am, I decided to rip my 7-hour worth of labour. I must admit it wasn't a pleasant feeling. I was exhausted, frustrated, disappointed, sad...every unpleasant feeling you can think of was present. I slept on it and continued the next day (today) from scratch. Honestly, earlier this morning, I was so demotivated that I felt like hiding under my duvet and do nothing (perhaps waiting for Hajar to find me!). Then I thought "you have a situation (problem). Acknowledge it, accept it, and deal with it!". That was what got me started.


So I redid everything from mixing fondant to buttercream to royal icing and laying everything out properly and most importantly, as calmly as possible, in another 7 hours. I kept saying "don't panic, don't panic", and manage to stay very calm (calmer than normal!) whilst assembling the cake at my own pace. At 6pm today, I stuck the last stalk of roses onto the cake, took a step back, and managed a sigh...looking at the cake made me breathless. The feeling that I know I did everything correctly made me so satisfied, and I'm proud of what my humble scrawny hands have created. Hajar's bouquet of roses wedding cake. Enjoy the photos! =)

[my favourite! It could have easily pass off as a hand bouquet!]

[a grand Cappuccino Velvet Cheesecake and a two tiered petite Choc Cheese Wave Wedding cake]

Now I'm officially off on holiday to Perhentian Island for a diving course =)

My rose journey...

*relaxes and puts her feet up* I'm done with roses today...I just finished moulding about 15 pink roses for 4 hours straight. I can now feel the strain behind my neck. I have about a total of 29 full bloom roses and 4 baby roses to cover the top of a wedding cake due this coming Saturday. If I'm up for it, I'll get some calyx done for those flowers of mine and a few leaves. If not, I think I'll just buy them from the shop! Who would have thought that decorating can really wear a person out! I'm really looking forward to our diving trip next week! That will a be a good break for me from work...I need it! All of us need it =)

I still have some baking to do. A grand Cappuccino Velvet Cheesecake and a dozen of my cheese cuppies I promised Tania. All by Thursday. I seriously DO NOT feel like doing anything else but sit and do nothing. I'm also dreading the thought of rolling fondant over the wedding cake on Friday...It always makes me nervous! But the best part is, minimal (perhaps next to zero) pipework. So the worse part (moulding roses) is over. I'm left with the easy arranging and assembling of the cakes and roses =)

[I did 14 last week, and 15 this morning]

Mr. & Mrs. Green's green Wedding Cake

I spent 7 hours decorating Ayu & Kyle's wedding hantaran cake today. I'm feeling quite tired I must admit but satisfied =) Mrs. Green wanted a green cake so we agreed on moss green to suit the green and white colour scheme. I must admit I felt quite nervous when rolling the fondant onto the cake. Colouring a whole 1kg worth of sugar mass was definitely a workout!

I decided to pipe some free hand embroidery at the sides of the cake and top the cake with some yellow/green Orchids and cream filler flowers. All's well, ends well. So here are the photos...Enjoy!! =)

[this is how they all start...Chocolate buttercream frosted Wave]

[freehand embroidery at the sides]

[the finished green cake]

Check out a video of Kyle secretly massacering his green cake:

Ayu's green cake

I thought this week would be a cake-free week where I can just chill and not have cakey dreams...NOT! A friend of ours, Ayu, last minutely wanted a wedding hantaran cake for this Sunday 12th April. I was going to bake her a cake anyway (obviously without the wedding decorations) and take it with us on our roadtrip to Penang Saturday morning for Ayu and her husband-to-be, Kyle,'s wedding. Luckily enough for Ayu and myself, the baker still has time to come up with a wedding cake. I feel really honoured that Ayu has asked me to bake her cake for her special day =)

Moving on, I'm taking a breather from today's cake-tasks. Ayu wanted the grand (2kg) Choc Cheese Wave decorated with a green and white/cream colour scheme. I know dark grass-green is the official colour, but, please correct me if I'm wrong, I can imagine it to look beautiful on a dress...but maybe not so much on a cake! I was a bit unsure, and gave Ayu some shades of green options - Moss green it is! I know to some, moss green might sound a bit yucky...but I can honestly see it becoming a very beautiful cake!!! =)

I shall continue with Ayu's cake later, with photos...I should get started to making some mean yucky fondant...

p/s as I was typing the title of this blog...It suddenly clicked!!!! Ayu's green cake = Ayu & Mr. Green (Kyle)!!! betul tak Ayu?!!!! =D

Caramel Apple Cheesecake

This cake was baked for a friend of mine, Jay, for her younger sister's, Rin's, 18th birthday. We didn't quite know what she'd (Rin) would like as a cake so Jay decided to give this cheesecake a try since Rin's a huge fan of Caramel.

The Caramel Apple Cheesecake consists of a plain cheesecake sitting on a lemon sponge base and top with fresh apple pie filling. It's then drizzled/top with a generous amount of caramel sauce and more fresh apples!! Let's hope the birthday girl likes the cake! =)

[the finished cheesecake..honestly, I felt like pinching a tiny bit of the cake!!!]

[Happy Birthday Moinks!...the script was not as clear as I wanted it to be on a very rough appley surface!)

[The blue bird nestling nicely among all the apples, flowers and leaves]

[the birthday girl is a fan of birds]

A Cheesecake, A Brownie , and A Bird (or duck?)

I've been baking since morning. Finally, all cake-related stuff are done and the clock shows it's 3.40pm. First, i baked the Caramel Apple Cheesecake for Jay which I mentioned in my previous blog. Then as soon as that came out of the oven, I got on with baking for a last minute order, a Caramel Ruffle Brownie for later today's collection. Both cakes are cooling happily in the kitchen.

[Freshly out of the oven Caramel Apple Cheesecake]

[Is it a duck or is it a bird? I hope it is a BIRD]

[Cakes I baked from morning til 3.40pm - left: Caramel Ruffle Brownie, right: Caramel Apple Cheesecake]