Winter Gymbo

A very nice lady called me after my vacation from the Philippines. She apparently has left me a few messages while I was vacationing. She wanted a cake for his son turning 2. The party was going to be at Gymboree so she opted to do Gymbo the Clown who is the mascot of Gymboree. She provided me with the photo of Winter Gymbo and requested I replicate as close as I can in cake. Here's how it turned out. What do you think?

Santa Needs Help!

This Christmas, I was in charge of desserts for our family gathering. I decided to do a tres leches cake which is a family favorite, hazelnut "kitkat" bars (another family fave) and a christmas cake in fondant. I did want to do a snow globe fondant cake from the beginning but the design I had in mind was too much work for the time I had left so I decided to go with this.

Santa hanging on...

The design is partly inspired by an actual snow globe I wanted to purchase. But since it's an unnecessary expense, I decided to just customize and make a cake inspired by it. The "globe" is a vase which I purchased in a local craft store. All decorations are made out of gumpaste. I had a lot of fun making this cake. I wish I had made Santa's bum a little bigger though! He was pretty lean.

Inside the globe

Another shot of the whole cake

Hope everyone had a great Christmas! And may you all have a happy and prosperous New Year.

Ben's Alphabet Cupcakes

Last September, I made cupcakes for a baby Rebekah's naming ceremony. This time it's for her brother- Ben who is turning 3. The night before I got an email from Ben's mom, I was actually thinking if Ben's birthday has passed or not. It's just one of those things I remembered from one of the conversation with Ben's dad, Andy.

Ben loves the alphabet and he loves his name too! Particularly the letter B. So the theme for his birthday cupcakes were the alphabet and the B. His mom Julie requested that I form the cupcakes into the shape of a letter B as seen above. Unfortunately, the cupcakes moved during transport after pick up and they had to be brought back to all be re-iced and cleaned up. Lesson learned: never form them into something with space in between for transport. And cupcake boxes with holders are the way to go!

This shot by me. Pardon the bad lighting.

Julie arranging the cupcakes to form a letter B

All photos except the second one above are taken by Andy at the party. Each and every cupcake had a different design representing each letter of the alphabet. They were quite time consuming but I was quite happy with the end result. My little girl loved them too!

Happy Birthday Ben! Thanks again Julie and Andy! Till next time :)

Enzo's Baptismal Gown

This is a replica of what baby Enzo wore for his Baptism. His mom requested a blue and brown background either in stripes or dots but went for the stripes. I decided to add a touch of white after seeing how nice a set of baby bedding with the same color scheme.

Not much to say about this cake :P Welcome to the Christian world Enzo!

Mia's Toy Box Cake Part 2

Just wanted to share with you all Mia's toy box cake with the lights on.

Happy viewing!

Cara's Cake in 3 Layers

Last June I made a cake for my neice's 1st month celebration (see previous post). My cousin saved the shoe and hand carried them home to Manila so we could use it for the baptism. I didn't want to do the same one layer cake I did last time but they wanted to same look so here's what I came up with. I wanted to make it extra special, my being the godmother to Cara, by adding on a jeweled pacifier and rattle as well. It was simple, sweet and oh so pink!

Jeweled Name

The Rattle

Jeweled Pacifier

Hermes & Guiseppe

I just got back from a good month break from Manila... home. It was very nice to see old friends and family, and to get some pampering too! While there I did a couple of cakes for family and here's one of them. Photo on top taken before we left for the party...bad lighting!

This cake was for my sister-in-law who was turned 50. She's always wanted a Birkin bag and loves shoes by Guiseppe Zannoti. Since we can't afford the bag nor can her kids, we decided to go with this for her cake. And the shoe was just an add on as well as the twilly, which is also a product of Hermes. To those who don't know (like me prior to doing this), a twilly is a small scarf with many uses. It may be tied around the neck, wrist, hair and even on the bag itself as an accessory. And oh, did you guys know that a Birkin bag is designed to be worn open? Yes, open. Now, I wonder why it comes with a lock? Heh!

The cake. Photo taken at the venue by my nephew Louie. Thanks Lou!

The Lock

Front Straps

Twilly

The Philippines is a hot and humid country being situated close to the equator. Having lived here in the US for almost 10 years, I almost forgot how humid it gets in Manila especially when it rains. Lucky me, just as I finished this cake, it rains! There goes my gumpaste bag straps! Hence the straps being interlocked vs upright which is how it's supposed to be. Both snapped and being few hours away from the party, my hubby and I fixed it by supporting with wires and patching it up a bit. The fondant was slightly affected too... see the ridges? As for the shoe, I made them a few days earlier which gave it time to dry some but it still started to get soft since the underside wasn't completely dry.

Designed based on an actual Guiseppe Zannoti shoe. All edible except the gems which are cubic zirconia.

My nephew Toby getting a head start on the cake.

My sis-in-law slicing the cake.

Thinking back it was a good experience to do a cake under different conditions. Next time, I think I know what to take back home... a dehumidifier!

Happy 50th Birthday Achi Jojo! We miss you all!

Jimmy Choo Shoe Cake

The night before I got the order for this cake, I just had this urge to make a shoe out of sugar. I've never made an adult shoe before and thought to try just for fun. The next morning, I get a call from a very good friend of mine. She wanted a cake for an 18 year old who loved Jimmy Choo shoes. I had a day and a half to work on the cake and was a little flustered to start because I didn't have enough time for pieces to dry especially if I were to do a high heeled shoe. Browsing through their online site, I settled on this one. I can't afford Jimmy Choo's but if I did, I would probably buy this pair! :)

Here it is. The shoe box is the cake. Shoes made out of gumpaste.

For My Biggest Fan

My daughter turned 2 the 18th of September and months before, I told myself that I will make Izzie the best Minnie Mouse cake I can possibly make. She is my biggest fan (aside from my hubby). When I work on cakes, even when it's not done, she always says "Nice cake!" It melts my heart!

Unfinished Minnie Mouse Cake

My hubby was my handy man for this cake. He helped me a lot with structural support. We went to our favorite store Home Depot and picked out different sizes of PVC pipes and connectors (I don't know if this is the right word for this). This is my first cake supported with such a structure and the biggest 3D cake I've ever made -- over 2 feet high. Luckily, my hubby was just as excited to work on this cake as I am!

The idea I had for this cake was for Minnie Mouse to hold a cake which Izzie will blow. As seen on the photos, she has one hand palms up. Unfortunately, since all of the weight gravitated towards the front, adding the cake will bear more weight and possibly make Minnie's torso split even with the suppport. There already is a small crack on the side of the dress and in the back which happened while finishing the arm and during transport. I had to settle on a cupcake and have the small cake on the side.

Minnie's head is made out of styrofoam. A very good friend of mine who just happened to be in town from the Philippines helped me carve the nose and part of the head. I then formed the cheeks and further contoured the nose and covered it partly with fondant and part with modeling chocolate. It was my first time to use modeling chocolate and I wish I had done more research on how to use it. I ended up with a bumpy Minnie face! :( It is said that modeling chocolate does not leave a seam when patched together. For the most part, I did not have one but on some parts, you could see where they were pieced together. I know better next time. IF there is a next time!

The body is made out of cake and rice krispies. I used 3 layers of firm cake filled with buttercream frosting then covered with fondant. Arms and feet were covered part with modeling chocolate and part fondant.

My Family :)

The cake that was supposed to sit on Minnie's hand

Donald Duck's Hat and Mickey Mouse Head

Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck's Bow

Goofy's Hat

I don't know if I can ever make this cake again and it is far from perfect but I am very happy that my daughter loved it. That's all that matters. She would kiss Minnie's nose before she went to bed and would wake up every morning, walk up to the cake and say "Minnie Mouse!". She did say once "WOW! Minnie Mouse! Big nose!" Haha! But right after, she said "Nice cake!" :)

I love you so much my Izzie bee and happy birthday!

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!