I was commissioned to do a wedding cake with a carnival theme. My first impression it must have bright primary colors, like a funfare. The client e-mailed a few photos to have some ideas what were in their mind. Some of the photos shows more like a children party cake. I wanted to do something that colorful, yet it also looks like a wedding cake.
A few sketches been e-mailed to the client and there’s a few minor amendmends need to be done. There should be no floral motifs or curlie shapes on the cake.
Eventually, I finalized the sketches and basically was satisfied with the outcome.
During the decorating process, I have to made a few more minor adjustment. To make it more elegant I added edible gold dust and painted on sheen colors on a few areas to enhance the overall look of the cake.
The dress code for the guest were black and white.
This cake was for my nephew’s engagement, my elder brother’s son, the function was held in Taiping, the distance 258km, around 3 hours drive from Kota Damansara. My sister, her two daughters and I, go into one car and supposed to met my brother at Taiping at a specific designated area.
We reached earlier at the meeting place, I suspected my niece drove the car more than the speed limit, but as usual she would not admit it.
We decided to go to the Changkat Jering wet market. You just imagined, we were properly dressed for a function went to the wet market?? Fortunately we brought extra flat shoes. When we entered the wet market, I felt a few eyes were “fixed” onto us, or I just imagined it? (there’s a Malay word call “perasan”). Since my nieces seldom go to the wet market, they were very excited.
There’s an array of traditional malay kuih and it must be very tasty by just looking and the aromas of the kuih especially the “cakoi” in the kuali was invigorating. We reached one area that sells sort like stonewares and tinwares. My niece pointed at the mortar (lesung batu) which is small in size and very cute. She asked whether my sister wanted to buy it. My sister informed she had bought it but its a bigger size. The seller thought we were discussing about what the mortar used for. The way he treated us like we were “jakuns”, he said with an annoying intonation, “ Hang tau tak ini apa? Ini la blender traditional”. (Do you know what is this? This is a traditional blender), while holding the mortar.
We went to the dried fish area, the ikan bilis were very good quality, at the vegetable area the pucuk paku (special type of edible ferns) was “enam kupang” (RM 0.60 sen) per bundle, at Lembah Kelang the price will be twice than that. We also bought a few kilos of Ciku and Mempelam (Mango). Basically, we really enjoyed shopping at the wet market and the car boot was quite full with our unplanned shopping spree.
Back to the cake, this hantaran cake consisted of chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and covered with chocolate fondant. I have to check it several times in the car boot to ensure its still in good condition and the chocolate fondant does not melt.
When everybody (other relatives on my sister-in law’s side) had gathered, we proceeded to the girl’s side. I asked my niece to carry the cake. She’s complained it was heavy, I try to convince her to just hold it for a while and she was very relieved when it was placed at the hall area of the girl’s side.
After placing the cake at the hall area, at one glance it really look like a real Hermes Birkin bag!!!!. After the discussion between the girl’s side and my brother ended, my brother started to introduce us to the other party. My brother informed to the other party I’m the one who do the bag cake. They were impressed, especially one of the them ( I guessed it must be the uncle on the girl’s side). We ended up discussing on the cake, he said the cake bag have such a good details on it. He started to point at the back of the bag and the strings through the front with the lock and the crocodile textures on the cake.........A very observant man.
This order had been postponed for soo many times. The lady who ordered the cookies had twice confirmed the date, however had to be cancelled because her baby had to be hospitalized due to illness. Eventually, the baby was getting better and she managed to confirm the order. These cookies were token for guest during the potong jambul and aqiqah ceremony.
Cookies individually pack and ready to be delivered
The Cake Competition was held in September 2011. I don't know why I've forgotten to put into this blog. My submission piece was very "lame". At first, I informed the organizer there's a possibilities I won't be submitting my piece because my beloved mum had just past away, that was one week before the competition, by then I've completed only 25% of the competition piece.
However, I was informed by the organizer many participants had pulled-out due to unforeseen reasons. So, the organizer persuaded me to bring the piece to the competition venue.
Usually Valentine Cookies the design would be very simple and usually red in color. I can't do a lot of details due to the demand on that particular week. However, I received a special order from an embassy requesting a special design which is very time consuming and a lot of detail works. At first, I declined the order due to time constraint and informed I won't be able to deliver before 14 February. Thought it was over and done with, I received a call from the embassy again and they informed they don't mind if I delivered before 20 February and also they agreed on the price I quoted.
I was requested by a lady to do a "hantaran" in the shape of a tennis bag. Initially, I was quite skeptical, this was out of the ordinary. Later, I've been told the groom played tennis and she wanted to give something different. First and foremost, none of my family members play tennis, so I have no idea how does a tennis bag look like.
The client e-mailed a photo of the bag and specified the color she wanted. Since the photo in 2D, I've to figure out how it's look like in 3D. I browsed through the internet and indirectly I acquired other knowledge on tennis. The second problem was that I've to scale it down to a 14 inches board. I have to make sure the dimensions were right, if not the tennis bag will look stumpy and weird, sketches upon sketches, until I'm satisfied and confident with the measurements.
This wedding was held at Tabung Haji Kelana Jaya, apparently Tabung Haji is now aggressively promoting their 2 halls for functions , and other rooms for training purposes. I have been informed Tabung Haji had just started promoting it this year and in fact there's a new department been created to take care of this premises. They have several packages been offered. I also visited the other function room which is well equip with a stage. Actually , my sister-in-law work in Tabung Haji and she's one of the pioneer in this new department.
This cake was for my sister-in-law's colleague, also one of Tabung Haji's staff. I was not feeling well that morning because might be due to the food I've been taken last night, in fact I've been attending to three consecutive nights to my friend's Chinese New Year celebration. I've been visiting the toilet for several times after my stomach felt uncomfortable, my body started to sweat profusely, felt like I'm going to throw-out. But thank God, it does not happen, if not my body will produce an "undesirable" odor, not even my Coco Chanel no 5 can safe the day. As I walk out the toilet, my nostril started to notice a smell that calmed me down....the aroma of chicken kurma!!.
By then, my sister-in-law had already arranged the cake accordingly.
This Ultraman cake was for a five years old boy, a very talkative and hyperactive child, yet very adorable. His father said he insisted on Ultraman cake for his birthday. Due to time constraint, I made chocolate cake with an Ultraman toys tucked beside the cake. His father informed me his child like it and the cake was very delicious. One day I met this boy in his father's office. He saw me and ran towards me saying that he loved the cake and next year he wanted the Ultraman burst out from the cake!!!!..."Makcik boleh buat kan?" (You can do it, right?).
This was a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache fillings.
I received a call one day from an unknown lady who told me that she got my number while browsing through all the cake blog that she can found in Selangor. She was impressed with my previous works and she was confident that I can do the cake that she had in mind.
The cake was for a hantaran cake for her nephew's engagement. She had seen the teapot cake that I made years ago and she e-mailed a ceramic teapot and requested me to replicate it with the requested theme colors. Since the engagement was for another 1 month, I had ample time to plan.
The most crucial part doing this cake was the petals pieces that had to be really dried otherwise it would be easily broken.
I was amazed with myself, the blue petals really enhanced the overall look of the teapot. I sent the cake to her sister-in law's house.
To date, I never meet the lady in person, just through phone calls and e-mailed. Nevertheless, she "sms"ed me after the engagement ceremony by saying thanks for producing a good work of art. It really made my day.......
I really like the overall finished of this 3 tiered wedding cake. These were a 10 inches, 8 inches and 6 inches cake. The height of each cake was 4 inches.
These were moist chocolate cake, therefore its considered as soft cake, not suitable to be stacked.
The cakes were adorned with purple roses as requested by client, with leaves and tendrils falls beside the cake.
This 3 tiered wedding cake was for Shima's soleminization ceremony. It was held in a quaint and small club house. When I reached the club house, there were only 3 children, below 12 years olds, with 2 adults , I guessed from the catering contractors awaiting at the club house. I asked them where is the cake table, they have no idea at all. One of the children informed me that everybody were in the mosque attending the solemnization ceremony.
I just put all the boxes on one of the table and started setting-up the cake. While setting-up, the children just can't resisted touching the butter cream, OMG!!! I had to repair a few spots, that had delayed substantially the proses of setting-up. They requested to taste the butter cream, as usual, (I have done this so many times) I asked them to hold out their tongue and I piped a dallop of butter cream on their tongue.......well, it does not look hygenic, at least these children will stop bothering me.
While piping little dots on the top tiered, suddenly the main door opened!! the solemnization had over and a stream of guests started coming in. I just stopped and cleaned the table. One of the lady that came in earlier showed me the place for the cake and we carried the cake on the designated area. I thought of finishing the little dots on the other tiers but I find it impossible to do it.
This doll cake was for a three year old girl. The girl's father had booked the date one month in advance. A few times I have to decline his order due to the date he wanted usually fully booked.
This cake I made a few years ago, Actually I was searching for some other photos but stumbled upon this photo, the Guitar Cake. This cake was for a 55 years old guy, who was also going to retire soon. This was quite a large cake with 24 inches in length. The bakery shop does not have a 24 inches length of board. So, I went to the hardware shop to purchase the board. I never knew there's are so many type of plywood, there's one ply, double ply, triple ply, etc,etc......Nevertheless, the shop assistant was very helpful and he chooses the board for me when I told him what I'm going to use for, he cut into my required dimension.
After decorated the cake, I tried to lift it up and put into my large fridge, my god, it was quite heavy for me.
This three tiered wedding cake was for my cousin's wedding held at Sungai Siput, Perak. So I have to bring this cake separately and set-up at the venue and my brother, Sabri, was the appointed driver. I told him tried to avoid sudden brakes, not to go into potholes, and goes slowly when there humps/bumps, as usual, being himself, he did not take heed of what I requested. After more than 2 hours ride, we reached the destination, I open the cake box, 60% of the flowers dropped!!!!! Arrghh..........I took a few deep breath. He looked at me and said " Instead of spring season cake, you change the concept to fall, you just spread the flowers around the cake, there you have it!!! I have solve your problem". Sometimes, how I wish I can.........him. But that "act" is forbidden.
I carried the cake to the table and fortunately, I brought extra royal icing to "glue" the flowers into position. It was very tedious and time consuming, however, I am being blessed with two wonderful sister-in-laws that gave a helping hand.
About my cousin, the groom, Syed Ahmad Thamrini also known as Che Tam, he's an English lecturer. His has strong resemblance with his late father, Syed Namat, who was an English teacher in a small quaint kampung. His late father like to converse English with my sister and I when we visited our Opah (grandmother). I remember vividly, being a twelve years old, I just "bulldozed" when I spoke English with him. At times he will corrected by grammar and he said my English sound like the "Chinese Kampung English"!!!, hey! blame on my "environment" , my class was predominantly consisted of Chinese Hokkien and there were only 5 Malays out of 30 plus Chinese and 1 indian.
Back to my cake, overall the cake turn out alright.
A very pretty cake, this was a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache fillings, very simple yet elegant.
A few clients asked me whether I still do cupcakes, yes I still do. It's just that many designs were repetitive therefore, I will not show again in my blog. So, only occasionally I'll show it, if I think its' worth showing. This white roses chocolate cupcakes were for gift to guest during a solemnization ceremony. Each cupcake was put into a transparent container. Pipping a lot of white roses, makes my eyes goes "bonkers" for a while........
This simple hantaran cake with pearl white roses adorned on top of the cake. Actually it was not purely white, there's a slight pinkish pearl. Actually in reality it looks very "pretty". but my photo does not reflect the true colors, something to do with too much absortion of white colors. I should put a black cloth on the background while taking the photo.....I'm still learning the technique of taking photos..........
I received many orders on rainbow butter cake that involves children. Actually this is a basic butter cake with colors added to it. It's very popular amongst children below 10 years old. I asked my nephew who is 7 years old, why he preferred the colored butter cake over the plain one. He said the colored ones taste better.......mmm, how colors effects children mind. There's one article I came across years ago said that, children prefer bright colors over subtle hues, their eyes not adapted to see dull colors, therefore they are partially color blind, something to do with their rods and cones not fully developed. Bright colors and saturated hues associated them with pleasant memories.
