Polkadots Cupcake Factory

Polkadots Spotlight: Suitcase Cakes!

2012-01-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

Throwing a going away party or a birthday party and looking for a suitcase cake? We have them in store for you! This week, we designed two special luggage cakes. The first one was a Harry Potter trunk birthday cake. The cake is lemon blueberry stacked on top of chocolate with nutella icing and covered in fondant. The fondant was sprayed to make it look like leather and then topped with gold accent corners, trim, and lock. We then placed the cake on a board that was painted to look like wood just to top it off! This is a great cake for a Harry Potter fan!

The other suitcase cake we designed was a Costa Rican themed suitcase. It is a quarter sheet cake of our delicious strawberries and cream covered in chocolate fondant with brown straps and gold accent. Different images were printed on edible sugar paper and placed on fondant to create "stickers" to be placed all over the suitcase, with a large print out of a Costa Rica brochure. The suitcase cake was placed on a board decorated with a map of Costa Rica out of fondant. It just puts the finishing touches on this magnificent Costa Rican Birthday cake!

If you're looking for a suitcase cake for your next birthday cake or going away cake or Harry Potter movie night, don't hesitate to give us a call! You can come with your own ideas and we can create a special cake just for you!

Polkadots Spotlight: Shoes

2012-01-24T21:28:00.000-08:00

There are many topics that keep popping up in our shop - from owls and monkeys, Yo Gabba Gabba and Hello Kitty; to Longhorns, lingerie, and Angry Birds etc. Therefore, I thought it would be fun to showcase some treats sharing a particular theme every now then!

Almost all women love shoes, so what could be better than a cake or cookies that look like shoes?!? That way, everyone can enjoy them! First, we have a 6" round blueberry cake with lemon butter cream. It is decorated with fondant hearts, and topped with a handmade sparkly silver pump. The young man who ordered this brought it on a plane to surprise his girlfriend in Wisconsin. Talk about being thoughtful and romantic!

Next is a two-tiered pink and purple filigree cake with a gold bow and matching handmade glittery high heel on top. Our artists spend hours crafting such shoes out of materials like gum paste, fondant, rice krispie treats, and edible ink.

Shoe cookies are also a popular request at Polkadots. An order called for leopard print dress and shoe cookies that coordinated well with the previous cake. Sometimes people don't want to eat them because they are too pretty, but once they do they say it was well worth it.

We've also made multi-colored heels, sparkly sugar print slingbacks, Cinderella glass slipper cookies, vintage Marie Antoinette shoes, and of course plenty of cowboy and western boots - being that we are in Texas!

As you can see, we are quite experienced in the edible footwear department, so please don't hesitate to call us whenever you are craving some sweet feet treats you can eat!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year all! Hope everyone got to enjoy the Christmas Break. Our newest addition for January is Peach Cobbler Cupcakes. It is a vanilla cake baked and filled with peach, topped with vanilla swiss buttercream and cinnamon streusel. It's available every Tuesday and Thursday. Peach Cobbler will replace Fluffernutter cupcake.

You don't want to miss this! It's so light, fluffy, and refreshing :)

New fun celebration cakes!

2011-11-08T08:06:00.000-08:00

We are so thankful with the cooler weather! Fall is always a busy time of the year for birthday celebrations, baby showers, and weddings. First is our latest version of Super Mario Birthday Cake that we made for Jacob. Last year we made him a Cowboy theme birthday cake. This two tier cake serves 30 adults (6" and 8" round). Both cakes were red velvet. All the characters on this cake were made from fondant - including Mario, Yoshi, and Bowser figurines. We added Lakitu on the first tier, piranha plants, and goombas on the bottom tier.

We love all the bright color palette on this cake, so bright and fun.

Next cake is a "diva" 21st birthday cake for Faith. She loves anything sparkly and leopard pattern. The shoe on top is a replica of Christian Louboutin made from gum paste. It was a 6" and an 8" round red velvet cake, too.

This cake is very chic. It's very clean and modern - just a simple pink buttercream decorated with gold balls accent.

Last but not least, we give a new look for our giant cupcake cake. It's all made from buttercream and serves 12 adults.

Thank you for stopping by our blog. We can wait to do more fun celebration cakes for all of you!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

So everyone knows that the best thing about October isn't Halloween, it's the amazingly creative and delicious treats that come with it! Luckily, at Polkadots, creative delicacies are our strong suit. We have a variety of flavors and toppings to choose from. Between your boundless ideas and our spectacular talents, the possibilities are endless.

Nothing can spook us, from the creepiest of crawlies to the goofiest of ghouls. For us, Halloween is a piece of cake :)

Place your order early, Halloween is only 2 weeks away!

First Fall Wedding Season 2011!

2011-09-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

I am so excited that fall is almost here! The weather has been too hot for baking and decorating at our kitchen. Our first fall wedding season started two weeks ago. Lauren and Justin got married at grand ballroom InterContinental Stephen F. Austin. I love the simplicity of the smooth buttercream accent with royal purple ribbon and of course, all beautiful flowers from West Bank Flower Market. This five tier cake was all red velvet flavor, and the grooms cake was blackbottom (chocolate cake baked in with chocolate chip cream cheese and layered with cream cheese buttercream). Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Powell!

Next is Sarah and Scott's wedding cupcakes tower at Angel's Ice House, Spicewood, TX. They had a BBQ theme backyard weddings at the draft house. This cupcake tower hold 150 cupcakes. The flavors are red velvet, chocolate mint, black bottom, and lemon and cream cupcakes.

Our heart pillow cookie is the most requested item for wedding gift favors and bridal showers. Here are few examples that we made in the made in the past:

Thank you for reading! We can't wait until the weather is nice and cool perfect for outdoor wedding in Texas.

Onesies Cookies

2011-07-22T00:19:00.000-07:00

Don't be surprised! Onesie shape cookie is the most requested item for baby showers favors. We made these baby boy onesies these week. In the past I always made them with just ruffles around the side of the cookie. This time I want it to make it more a boyish looking !

This one next is from last week. I made this one to coordinate with the baby shower theme "girly safari."

We also did little baby dress cookies to match with the party decor and baby shower invitation.

This last one might be my favorite just plain old simple onesies with the baby's name.

Please let me know which one you like the best!

Adorable Custom Cakes

2011-06-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

I love making any themed birthday cakes, but my favorite is working on animal theme cake. This past week we made a small cake topper for a duckie baby shower theme. I love the different pastel color stripes with the accent stitches. The 3D duck on top was designed after the party napkin and adding the little pink bonnet and dangling banner "Welcome Kennedy" around the top side of the cake. This was a 6" round honey and chai cake - serves 12 adults.

Next is Alexis's butterflies birthday party from last year! You can see her fabulous party details on her blog The Cul-de-Sac. This was an 8" round blackbottom cake - serves 20 adults.

She always does joint birthday party for her daughters. This year she came up with a silhouette birthday theme and used light pink silhouette fabric for the background display. It's so darling!

Children's birthday cakes are so much fun especially when I can incorporate design from other artists. The next cake was for Layla this past week, and it was a 10" round strawberry and cream cake decorated simply with pink and purple banner around the top and bottom of the cake with detailed stitches. The cute felt bunny was provided by our client from artist Myko Bocek.

Last, Robert did an excellent job on the figurines for Aaron's Cake. The little amp box, details on the guitar, and of course the cute monkey on top. Congratulations Aaron!

Thank you for reading! Hope everyone is having a great summer :)

Hot, hot, hot with no electricity for a bit?

2011-06-23T22:48:00.000-07:00

Hot hot hot that is all I can say today! When you run a shop there is always something broken or missing. Today was 95F outside, and guess what? We had no electricity for about 1 hr around 3PM. Fondant started sweating buttercream were soft and melting, no phone, no credit card machine, cash register was locked and the worst no AC. We survived today and finished the iPhone birthday cake for tomorrow's pick up:

The cake serves 30 adults. It is a vanilla cake with chocolate swiss buttercream. It took us a good 5 hrs to complete this cake from start to finish. Olga scaled the size of the iPhone. Carly baked the cake and filled with buttercream. Julia covered the cake with fondant. Kristen and Robert worked on the apps decoration. Word... that's a lot of people for one cake!

As our kitchen getting hotter, we grabbed a bag of ice and put it on our necks. Don't laugh, it worked :)

Oh not to forget these cute duckies and little mermaid sugar cookies.

We are glad that we got our power back. Thanks Austin Energy!

Spring weddings and Texas theme cookies!

2011-05-09T11:35:00.001-07:00

With graduation fast approaching, our shop is buzzing with all sorts of activity! We are preparing to fill orders for soon-to-be graduates from U.T. and various other institutions.

Love is also in the air at Polkadots...we made two creative engagement and wedding cakes last week. There was a topsy-turvy cake decorated with metallic stripes and squares, and a simple yet colorful peacock pattern cake. It is amusing to see how peoples' styles and personalities come out through their choice of design. It is also fun and refreshing to make such unique cakes for various types of special events.

We recently made an assortment of cute Texiana/western themed cookies as well. There were cute little cowboys and cowgirls, cacti, cowboy hats, cowboy boots, and Texas-shaped cookies decorated like the state flag. Some of these were baked with lollipop sticks in them, which makes for great party favors!

Stay tuned for more Longhorn themed cake this week! Congratulations, Graduates of 2011!

Pretty pattern, flowers, and Anthropologie inspired!

2011-04-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

We are so excited that we have more gum paste flowers cake this year. Here are a few that we've done recently for our clients:

Moth Orchids flowers on top of three tier cake. This cake was a surprise for one lady that turned 60 recently. Instead of number "60" on top, the husband especially requested for "The New 40." How sweet is that?

During our meeting he mentioned that he wanted the look to be classy, modern, and elegant. We threw in some giraffe gold print, antique brooches, and sugar pearls accent for the border. This cake was all gluten free - flavors are blackbottom and strawberries and cream.

The next cake was a 6" pink, grey, and silver combination. We meant to make an anemone flower on top of the cake, but due to Austin's humidity the petals weren't dry fast enough. They ended up all breaking :( Instead of making new petals flowers ,we were able to use some rose petals from another project. We are going to call this one fantasy flower cake! It was a strawberry shortcake, vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream and fresh strawberries inside. YUM!

I recently took a sewing class at stitch lab . Not only do they offer sewing classes, but they also sell various fun fabrics. This cake was inspired by one of the fabric patterns that I saw there. The original fabric was green, white, and turquoise. This fabric image was "Free Spirit Anna Maria Horner Little Folks Voile Little Honey Meadow" taken from Stitch Lab flickr page.

We tweaked the color combination and here's what we came up with:

Happy 27th Birthday again Erin!

We designed a small cake cutting for Sabrina and Geoffrey at the Allan House a few weeks back. Our inspiration was a tan cardigan from my favorite store, Anthropologie! We made a 6" lemon and cream cake covered with white fondant and topped it with grey and tan ruffled flowers. Congratulations Sabrina and Geoffrey!

As always, thank you for stopping by!

Easter Egg, Chicks and Bunnies Cookies

2011-04-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

This week, we have cute little Easter eggs, chicks and bunny cookies! We are still taking custom cookie orders for Saturday pick up 04/23. The last day to place custom Easter cookie order is 12PM, Thursday 04/21.
Happy early Easter!

Edible sugar paper

2011-04-02T04:24:00.000-07:00

Oh sugar paper...who doesn't love sugar? I have a love-hate relationship with this wily "creature!" When it's humid in Austin, I just hate working with sugar paper. It tears apart easily, gets soggy, and won't dry fast enough for cookie production. Yet when it's cool and dry, like the past couple days, I love them. Edible images on sugar paper come in very handy, especially on corporate logo sugar cookies. I can't imagine drawing computer chips like this:

Or writing pretty fonts like on these business cards:

I heart technology - printing with edible food coloring and edible sugar paper make fabulous cookie favors for all types of events!

Spring is Coming!

2011-03-09T18:23:00.000-08:00

Well it seems like winter is finally leaving us, thank goodness! We had an order for some Hawaiian sugar cookies this week, reminding us of the warmer weather that is soon to come. The cookies would've been perfect for a luau. We made pretty hibiscus flowers, hula girls/boys, tropical birds, colorful fish, palm trees, Hawaiian shirts, surfboards, flip flops, and coconut drinks with cocktail umbrellas.

Polkadots got political this week, with the creation of a birthday cake ordered for Governor Rick Perry. It featured silhouettes of Texan icons such as the Capitol building, the state flag, pecan trees, windmill, cattle, and a big silver Rice Krispie Treat star on top. The background was meant to be reminiscent of the big Texas sky around dusk. Hopefully the Governor enjoyed his special cake!

We made two unique cakes of similar styles recently - a Gucci purse, and a Hello Kitty lunchbox. The purse had intricate logo and design detailings, with gold fondant-covered Rice Krispie Treat handles, straps, and "hardware". It almost looked real enough to pick up and sling over your shoulder!

The lunchbox cake was covered in multicolored fondant, and featured the Rice Krispie Treat handle as well. Making a cake of this shape is often more difficult to work with than traditional round, square, or sheet cakes.

While we're on the topic of uncommon shapes, we also carved a movie popcorn bucket cake recently. The outside of the bucket was white with vertical red fondant stripes, and the top was coated in black fondant sprinkled with toasted "popcorn" pieces. It also included a Rice Krispie Treat film reel birthday banner as a final touch. Don't forget the butter!

Last but not least! A birthday cake for a pug lover, Happy Birthday Ali!

What's new?

2011-02-21T16:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we held our second cupcake decorating class at the shop. Each student learned how to make basic American buttercream, colored icing with food coloring of their choice, decorate cupcakes using different pastry tips (star, leaf, ribbon, round, etc), and learned basic fondant cut out decorations. The class was two hrs and each student got to take home 12 cupcakes. The class was designed for beginners so just have some fun!

Here are a few snap shots from the class:

Our next cupcake decorating class is March 13, 2011 2PM-4PM. Hope to see you in our next class.

What a week!

2011-02-06T23:27:00.000-08:00

It has definitely been a crazy week for us at Polkadots. On Monday our dishwasher sink broke! Of course, the broken part was on back order. Tuesday went pretty smoothly, then ...

Wednesday morning I went into work and found out that it was pitch black inside, freezing cold in the kitchen. The first thought was perhaps Ben (my husband) forgot to pay electricity bill. Pssst...... It happened before! I called him and he mentioned that he paid the bill last week. I was worried that we would fall behind on our cakes, so I called city of Austin and found that they were doing mandatory rolling black outs. Oh well! I tried to hang around the kitchen for an hr or so but there was still no power. Guess what I did? I went to get breakfast at Cafe Express. This is very rare occasion that I could sit down and enjoy delicious scrambled eggs. Yummm!

I went back to work after breakfast and found that there still was no power. This was around 10:30AM. We are usually done baking around this time. I thought I could use a little sunlight to wrap some cookies - to kill time. Thanks to my awesome assistant, Julia. She came and helped me wrap cookies in the dark :) Here are some cookies that we've done this week:

Mini Wedding Cookie favors:

Some more fun valentines cookies:

N housing Corporate sugar cookies - made with edible sugar papers:

"Will you be my bridesmaid?" Cookies in teal, yellow, and silver combination:

Some baby boy blue onesies for baby shower gift favors:

Packers and Steelers Helmet sugar cookies for a SUPERBOWL party:

Bridal shower cookies in their wedding theme color scheme - purple and lime green:

Thursday morning was very cold (18F). This was very rare for Texas! We got to work and found out that city of Austin put a notice that they are going to shut down the water on Friday morning. I guess when it rains it pours! When I got up Friday (2/5) morning, I didn't know that it's been snowing all night. I opened my front door and the streets were covered in snow!

We are thankful that we stayed open and managed to finish all the custom orders this past week - rolling black out, crazy weather, snow, and spotty water availiability during the weekend:)

Here are a few of our fun birthday cakes from this past week:

Disney themed "Tangled" birthday cake

This was a 10" round blackbottom cake, chocolate cake with cream cheese and chocolate chips covered with cream cheese buttercream - serves 30 adults.

Greek Myths Birthday Cake for Hayden:

First Birthday Boat Cake for Caleb:

Last but not least 2 tiered painted cake:

Two tiered cake - 6" and 8" round

Thanks for stopping by! We are so excited that Valentine's is just around the corner, give us a call at 512-476-3687. We can help you to deliver chocolate covered strawberries, cupcakes, cakes or cookies to your loved ones.

Hello February!

2011-02-01T06:36:00.000-08:00

Wow! January went by fast and February is just around the corner. This past week we've made some sample Valentine cookies and "cake for two." The cake for two available by advance order only. It is a 2" round buttercream cake of the following flavors:Red Velvet, Triple Chocolate and Vanilla Vanilla.

Cake for two available pre-order only for pick up on Feb 11-14, 2011.

Here are few examples of our new collection of heart cookies:

We will also have all cupcakes decorated with pink/red sprinkles on Valentine's weekend!

Last week we also worked on "Le Petit Prince" birthday cake for Evan. We also made a small 2" round cake decorated similar to the big 8" round cake. Both cakes were vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.

Next, the zebra print gift box cake was back in demand! I love the color combination of red, black, and gold. It's an 8" round cake, red velvet with cream cheese. Happy Birthday Ale!

For more ideas on birthday cakes/cookies, please check out our flickr page. Thank you for looking! We are taking Valentine's order whenever you are ready.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-23T22:16:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts! The past two weeks in January went by real fast. I finally recovered from jet-lag. I spent two weeks in Indonesia for Christmas and New Years with my family. Eating, sleeping 10hrs a day, hanging out with old friends and family, can't beat that! Here are some snap shots from my home sweet home:

My 1st birthday, can you tell I love cakes?

Sweet sixteen birthday!

With my parents on New Year's Eve at my aunt's house.

First trip to Disneyland with my brother, I think I was 8 years old.

A picture with my brother, I think I was 4 yrs old. My hair looks pretty wild!

Typical dinner at home! My brothers often joke that it's like our last supper on earth. Love every bite of it!

Look! Don't you think they should got a traffic ticket?

Pretty fresh miniature orchids from Bandung, West Java.

A typical neighborhood bakery, there so many to choose from and everything is delicious!

I got to hang out with my girlfriends from 1st grade, middle school, and high school. Time sure went by real fast!

Last but not least, my mom. I miss her so much! Now back to reality.. to cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and Spring weddings. Thanks for looking!

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-25T20:06:00.001-08:00

Just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Thank you for your continuous patronage. We are thankful for all our wonderful customers, employees, family, and friends. We would not be where we are today with out all of you.

Cheers to a great year 2011 with more fun sweets: cakes, cupcakes, and cookies! We are closed for Winter Break 12/24/10-01/09/11. We will be back on Monday, January 10, 2011 at 12 PM. Happy Holidays!

Something for Everyone

2010-12-22T16:15:00.000-08:00

This week at Polkadots, we were hard at work on a diverse selection of cakes and cookies. With graduation coming up this weekend, we fulfilled a number of orders intended to suit the occasion. Since UT has such a major presence here, graduation is almost like a biannual holiday to us! Breaking out the special cookie cutters and jazzing up the traditional Longhorn decorations with mortarboards is a fun twist on an always-popular concept. Some of the highlights included "special edition" Longhorn cookies, a funky "hook 'em" cake, and some cupcakes featuring mini diploma fondant decorations! Congratulations to all graduates!

There was also a batch of Beatles sugar cookies that turned out really well. I thought that the ones with colorful album artwork looked particularly groovy.

A very dreamy winter snowflake birthday cake for Lettie's 9th birthday - our decided favorite - along with matching silver and white snowflake cookies.

Pop culture baked goods took a turn for the nerdier with the creation of a Star Wars cake covered with chocolate buttercream and fondant decorations from a galaxy far, far away!

There were several music-themed orders this week, but sorry, no Justin Bieber this time : ( We made a sugar free two-tiered white birthday cake decorated with black musical notes, and an orange Longhorns cake with a fondant Bevo and some guitars.

Last but not least was our fun pig cookie project - the character "Hamm " from Disney/Pixar's Toy Story:

Thanks for stopping by!

Countdown to Christmas!

2010-12-17T13:41:00.001-08:00

Wow, the past couple of weeks have been a blur. It sure has been hustling and bustling here at Polkadots, filling many a holiday order on top of the usual ones for birthdays, baby showers, graduations, etc. Sometimes, we joke that our kitchen is like Santa's workshop, and all of our helpers are the jolly little elves! It sure feels that way during this time of the year, and even though it can be stressful now and then, we always manage to have fun together.

Last week, we completed an order calling for 60 dozen gingerbread men for 2 days! Yes, that would be 720 cookies, individually iced. Being that we do everything the old-fashioned way (made from scratch, and decorated by hand), this was quite a timely task. But we pulled together as a team, and ended up finishing them well ahead of time.

We also baked and decorated a wide variety of really cute, scrumptious Yuletide cookies. The selection included ornaments, reindeer, soldiers, Christmas trees, Santas, snowmen, angels, candy canes, snowflakes, wreaths, and stockings. They are like edible little works of art. A fun and little-known fact is that decorating just one of our more complex cookies can take upwards of 15 minutes!

Apart from all of the holiday requests, we've received an interesting and diverse selection of orders recently. Take for example, a rainbow post-impressionistic tie dye birthday cake.

We also made a batch of "El Toro Loco" cookies and a coordinating cake for a monster truck enthusiast. That project was definitely something different, and they turned out to be quite elegant somehow, despite the "dirt" on top of the cake!

The next project gave us all a good laugh - a "Harry Potter the sea otter" birthday cake, covered with a selection of happy fondant sea creatures. It is great to know that we have such interesting and creative customers! So next time you need a cake, consult us and let your imagination run wild, because we can do just about anything here.

Thanks for stopping by!

'tis the season...to ice cookies!

2010-12-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

As of last week, it officially feels like the holidays are upon us here at Polkadots. Leading up to Thanksgiving, we made what were likely our last autumn-themed orders for the year. They included hand-iced cookies..

Squirrel, pumpkin, turkey, fall leaves, and cute scarecrow!

and cupcakes decorated in traditional fall motifs...

and even a silly demented turkey cake! This cake was a 6" round consists of 4 layers chocolate cake, marinated rum cherries, and fresh whipped chantilly cream - serves 12 adults.

After those were complete, we moved on to creating what were the first of our many winter-themed treats. Holiday goodies are always lots of fun to make in our kitchen - we like to turn on Christmas music while we work, Country Christmas, R and B, pop, oldies etc...,which never fails to get everyone in the spirit. We tend to make more cookies around this time of the year, and each one calls for a lot of time and attention to detail. The varieties we made included snowflakes, mittens, Christmas trees, sleighs, wreaths, snowmen, ornaments, stockings, candy canes, Santas, reindeer, and gingerbread men. They look so cute together on a nice platter when they are all finished!

We'll have limited varieties available to pick up at the store starting this weekend, or you can place your custom cookies order with a 72 hrs notification.

G'day Mates!

2010-11-25T14:26:00.000-08:00

Given that I had some extra time last week, I took to creating a three-dimensional kangaroo cake for a regular customer. The original plan was to make a 2D shaped kangaroo,but I decided to surprise her by going all-out instead!

Now, planning and constructing a cake of such enormity was no easy task - fondant is a tricky material to work with, and an oddly-shaped cake often calls for a more cautious approach and tedious execution. Yet despite the challenging nature of the project, it was still one of the most fun and unique challenges that I have ever undertaken. Witnessing the client's reaction of surprise and delight upon receiving it was definitely the most rewarding part of the experience.

The structural design of this entirely-edible marsupial was roughly modeled after the character "Roo", from Winnie the Pooh, as it was intended to have more of a whimsical, animation-inspired appearance.

The core of the body and tail consisted of tapered layers of moist pumpkin cake, sandwiching and coating with our signature cream cheese frosting before being covered with various types of fondant.
The head and limbs were sculpted from Rice Krispie Treats before receiving the fondant treatment as well.

Here is a mini tutorial for our "Roo" inspired Kangaroo:

I baked two half sheet pumpkin cakes. The cake will serve about 20 adults after the carving process. Make different circle cake templates from parchment paper. I used the tail from the cake scrap.

Stack the different layers of cake with cream cheese. Move on to the tail part, repeat the same procedure as the body part.

Crumb coat the tail part, let it set for 30 min in fridge. In the mean time, prepare different fondant colors (chocolate, pink, green, purple, lavender).

Once the body and tail set, cover them with the chocolate fondant. Add the pink accent for the belly part, chocolate for the legs and arms.0

Don't forget to add the pouch! Repeat the same procedure for the tail part, add little stitches design.

Mold the kangaroo face using rice krispies, cover it with chocolate fondant and don't forget to add dowel in the middle for support.

Attach the face and the body using a dowel, add a little princess necklace "P.O.A" ( Princess of Australia)!

Finally, I added some fondant facial features, silver crown, and girlie accents at the request of the customer, and voila! The kangaroo was ready to (carefully) hop on over to the party! Happy Birthday Angie!

Baby Baby and Baby fever!

2010-11-15T16:07:00.000-08:00

Do you know when they say your biological clock is ticking? I think I am one of them now. Most of the party that I went to this year were for baby showers! The past two weeks were for baby showers back to back. Everybody around me seems to be having babies. At the shop most of the cake were baby shower cakes. I think I am having baby fever!

Here are few of my favorites from this past weekend. A baby block cake - It was my first time making it. It looks simple but it definitely took more hrs than I thought. I baked 3 half sheet cakes, then cut them with my parchment templates (8" square), stacked them high (8 layers) with buttercream, and let it sit overnight. One side was too high and it slanted to one side. So, I carved it to make it look straight. Let it cool off again in the fridge. Then the fun times begin, decorating with different colors of border and the baby initials.

Here are the details:

After cutting the half sheet cakes with the parchment paper templates, layer the cake with simple syrup and vanilla buttercream.

The cake was high (almost as tall as my kitchen aid), and a little slanted, so I carved it out before I covered the cake with final coat of buttercream. Then, let it get hard in the fridge. In the mean time, I started making the colored borders and teddy bear.

Next, our client requested a very soft simple colored cake for a baby boy shower. This two tiered cake was a 6" round Italian cream cake, and 8" round lemon and cream cake - vanilla cake with lemon cream cheese and lemon pastry cream - serves 30 adults. The color combination and design details are just clean, modern, but cute. I thought it's very " Anthropologie" ish theme. What do you think?

This next set of cookies are for baby shower too!

Toile pattern sugar cookies in "A" shape for baby Audrey. I didn't hand-draw the cookies. I used sugar paper instead. The mom picked this toile pattern that matched her baby nursery.

The next cookies was designed after Dr. Suess ryhme, one fish, two fish, and it was so many fish! My husband thought that this was a shark! of course I wanted to duck tape him right then (no I didn't do it!)

I made this green elephant cookies to match the baby shower invitations. I love it how it's all green with different tones and simple mendhi decoration.

The next two baby shower cake was modeled after our children birthday cakes. This lady bug cake was an 8" and 10" round cake black bottom cake (chocolate cake with cream cheese and chocolate chips) serves 50. Lady bug is edible too, she was made out of rice krispies.

This cake was modeled after our previous baby shower cake (pink version). I made a few changes: no banner, no bow, and adding a balloon "Welcome Baby Cannon."

Last cake was a whale theme for a baby girl shower to match the party invitation. I wish I had more time yesterday so I could put mama's whale splash on too! The cake was an 8" round cake, serves 20 - vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream, fresh macerated strawberry, and chocolate ganache. I think I should call it Neapolitan!

Thanks for looking!

It's not too late for Halloween Post!

2010-11-14T23:37:00.000-08:00

I love Halloween! I didn't grow up knowing anything about it, but now that I live here in America I have an excuse for another festive. Halloween colors are just so bright. It's so perfect for decorating party cookies, cupcakes, and cakes. One of my favorite project was the Halloween Baby Shower Cookies:

All these are sugar shortbread cookies and colored with royal icing. The addition of the pink little bow are just perfect for the occasion! They are not scary at all:)

We made a new set of Halloween sugar cookies design, witch hat, shoes broom, cauldron,candy corn, bat, ghost, and pumpkin.

Fun decorated Halloween Cupcakes and Cakes:

This little mermaid cake was a blackbottom cake, covered with fondant. It serves up to 75 guests.

Ben and I didn't get a chance to dress up this year, due to crazy busy week at the shop. We are thankful and blessed to have the support from all of you! Thanks for looking!

The Sweetest Note

2010-10-25T21:38:00.000-07:00

I just have to post the sweetest note I received this past weekend. This note made me cry, of course, happy tears! I am going to plaster it all over my kitchen wall. I always put 110% or more on the cake that I work on every minute, days, and weeks. I feel guilty, if I say NO to cake order. I just have to know my limit. My health is more important than staying up all night long trying to finish/rushing meeting a cake deadline.

I am thankful that I can be where I am today, even it isn't always a good day. I worked with my husband. I wish I wasn't so harsh with him. Then again, we are completely different individual. He's very laid back, where I always on the-go, planning here and there. Sometime, I want to scream to him, "Do you understand the word coming out from my mouth?" A Thank you letter will make the day better! Thank you Danielle.

Here is the cake that I made for Travis this past weekend, Happy Birthday!

This two tiered topsy- turvty cake above was an 8" round chocolate cake with chocolate swiss buttercream and a 10" round cake vanilla cake with vanilla swiss buttercream covered with fondant. The monster truck was from "TAR-JAY!" Got to love Target!

Fun Custom Cakes!

2010-10-24T00:11:00.000-07:00

I heart my customers. They always come up with fun ideas for cakes that I haven't made before.Yup, I love challenge which can drive me nuts! This past couple weeks, we had an animal week birthday theme cake. First was our popular zebra cake:

A 6" round red velvet cake covered with American vanilla buttercream, decorated with black zebra stripes, and pink fondant bow. It's simple, clean, and sassy!

The second one was a cheetah birthday party. The cake was covered with fondant and it's a vanilla cake with swiss vanilla buttercream.

Next, it's a super cute chubby penguin cake! The fiance surprised her with this cake, after his first attempt last year to made one at home.

It was a devils food cake, raspberry jam and cream cheese buttercream! Yummmm.

I just can't get enough of anything monkey theme, next our first topsy turvy modern monkey first birthday cake. I love the simplicity of the color, whimsical, and clean looked. It's a 8" round black bottom cake, and a 6" vanilla cake with American Vanilla buttercream.

Thanks for looking and I can't wait to make you one!

Dream big - Empowering young women leaders

2010-10-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

October is finally here and the weather has been so nice for the past week. This past Tuesday, I was invited to the Ann Richard School (ARS) Birthday Bash. It is a all girl public school in Austin for Young Women Leaders. Yes, that's right! Girl Power! The opening speech from one of the 7th grader students, " America is a land of opportunities, people came from all over the world to chase their dream.." Dream big. I was born in Indonesia, came to the USA when I was 17th. Why? I want to choose my own school since my parents had send me to all girls school for 6 years (7th - 12th grade). At the time, I hated it. Why? It was so hard and very competitive. Both of my parents didn't finish high school, nor college. Back then, I didn't understand why I have to go to that school. Through out the years, the school taught me to DREAM BIG. All things are possible! "When there's a will, there's a way". I wasn't a brilliant student that got all A's, but I thought I was pretty studious. I always good in Math, Science, or Art, but I never good in any language or sports. When I applied UT for college, I have to take TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) at least five times - just to get the minimum score. Hahaha! Looking back 13 years back... I am glad that I was able to come here to Austin, came without knowing how to speak proper English, graduated from college, able to run Polkadots with my husband, and support Ann Richards School for a good cause. This country give me freedom and a chance to prove that anyone can have a big dream! To learn more about ARS, click here.

Here is the cake that I brought to the charity event:

The flavor from top to bottom, vanilla with swiss chocolate buttercream, black bottom, strawberry shortcake - vanilla cake, fresh macerated strawberry, and swiss vanilla buttercream. All the girls on the cake have different roles, of course, one of them is a chef! (first tier on the top right). This cake serves 80-100 serving.

I can't wait to work with the school for the next year birthday bash!

Cake, cake, and more cakes!

2010-09-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

September is an extra special month because it's my birthday month, too. Unfortunately, I have to leave the crazy, fun 20's and move on to the big 30's. Yup, I turned 30 this past week. I was such in a denial why do I have to turn 30?! I know its going to get better, fun and more challenges ahead.

Want to know how I spend my birthday?

I had the honored to make this special cake for this little boy, Luke. His mom contacted me the week ago about the theme of the party and send me the birthday invitation. Luke has been in the hospital due to digestion/intestine issues. It's just break my heart, how could one little body handle all the IV's, needle, and those medicine....

You can follow more about him on his parents' blog The team of the cake is Superhero Luke, here is what I came with:

This two tiered cake serves 30 adults. It's a 6" and an 8" round cake. I covered the cake with buttercream and fondant decorations. I also did a mini smash cake for Luke with similar theme, black, red dots and super hero logo on the top.

The next cake was my very first 3D Lakers cap! Crystal came last week and wanted to surprise her boyfriend with his favorite basketball team. I never make a cap cake, but I thought why not! It's a 10" round base - 3 layers of them. I also added in one layer 8" round and 1 layer 6 " round on top.This was a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. I crumbed coat the cake, let it sit a few hrs and then covered with fondant. I was getting frustrated with the purple fondant. At first, I didn't get the purple color that I wanted it. I just can messed up Lakers color!

It's such an iconic team, everyone knows the exact purple color. I am pretty happy with the result, but next time I am going to use air brush instead of painting. What do you think?

Another challenge this week was damask cake.. word.. I bought the stencil last Summer break, but I haven't get a chance to make any cake with damask design. It was a 1/2 sheet cake, serves 50 and covered with white fondant. One thing that worried me was the white fondant and the black icing combo. It does look classy and elegant, but... I just never did this before! In my heart, please please... this black icing better be the right consistency, other wise I will have a zebra cake instead of damask at 2 AM in the morning! Hahah

The inspiration for the cake was the baby shower invitation. It's a marble cake inside ( vanilla and chocolate) with vanilla buttercream icing. Welcome Peanut Lawson!

This next cake was actually from the week before. Leslie came to the shop for a cake consultation. Her friend Monica is expecting a baby boy. I asked her if she has any particular design that she had in mind. She said no. So I asked her what are the party theme? Toy, duck, dots,...? and She said no there was no any particular theme, but she brought in the images of the party platters. I asked her which one was her favorite. She said crocodile. And I said... what about a crocodile cake? She said yes!

Here is the cute "crocodile" cake:

This cake serves 30-35 adults and it was a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. It was covered with fondant. Don't be scared! Our fondant taste good, no it doesn't taste like rubber :)

On the side note, I hate turning down custom cakes order,... but I can only do so much in one day, in my tiny 300 sq ft kitchen. My next wishes is to have a bigger kitchen.. no matter I have more assistants, but there wasn't any room to work. Oh I would also love to have freezer, dough sheeter, walk in cooler, personal office, proper working AC, and the list goes on!

I know I always want more and more! Is that a part of getting older?

Back to school and a little break

2010-08-30T04:52:00.000-07:00

It's been hectic since school is back in session. I finally feel I am catching up with all the daily routine. This coming week, we are going to have a little BREAK! Yeahhhhh It's labor day weekend, and we had a family event so we will be closing early on Saturday, September 4 at 2 PM. We will back on Tuesday, September 7, 2010 at 12 PM.

Here are few of my favorites from our last creations. The first one was "It' s a small world" baby shower cake and cookies.We used the baby shower invitation for the inspiration.The cake was a 10" round lemon and cream, covered with fondant. Some of you may ask why we are starting to cover our cake with fondant? Our fondant is yummy, it tastes like marshmallow, almost like the white part cream filling of oreo cookies. I promise you will like it. It's not Satin Ice Fondant. It's a little bit more expensive, but it taste delicious.

We put the hot air balloon on top, Oscar and Emmy (the couple's dog) are waiting patiently, a little Korean and Vietnamese girl are playing on the side of the cake. Love all the color combination on this cake, it's just too cute! We also made 50 hand iced cookies for their party favors. Congratulations Tammy and George! We can't wait to meet baby Gabriella.

The next one is "Party Animals First Birthday Cake." This was a two tiered cake (6" and 8") serves 30-35 adults, vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and black bottom cake (chocolate cake with cream cheese and chocolate chip baked in and cream cheese buttercream). I love all the bright colors dot, stripes, cute animals inspired from the birthday party plate. Happy Birthday Watson!

Last but not least, Elmo is back! We made a few version of Elmo birthday cake in the past, so far this is my fav! It's simple, clean, and everything is edible. The cake was a 6" round red velvet with cream cheese buttercream, covered with yellow fondant. Happy Birthday Sienna!

Hope everyone had a good week and looking forward for the first UT football game this weekend!

Under Pressure!

2010-08-17T08:49:00.000-07:00

Last week was a total whirlwind. My whole body was dying from baking, stacking, icing cakes and racing the time. Totally underpressure like the Queen lyrics! " Pressure pushing down on me Pressing down on you no man ask for Under pressure - that burns a building down Splits a family in two" Nah.. Ben and I still together :)

Ben always told me that I shouldn't over promised, but I told him I love challanges especially on the cake that I never made/know/ think about making it. I took a topsy turvy graduation cake order that served 200 guests for the first time. The only thing I know about topsy turvy is "slanted" cake. That's it.

So what did I do? I researched on you tube, watching many topsy turvy tutorials and read cake blogs about topsy turvy cake. On top of all of this, the cake will be picked up and delivered to Giddings which is one hour away from Austin. It has to be sturdy! Oh.. I also have to covered this cake with fondant. Mmmm, I never covered cake with fondant bigger than 10" round and this 200 serving cake will have a 16" round. Anyway.. the more I think on how doing this cake the more streess I became. Honestly, I never seen pimple on my face since my teenager years! Guess what? I produced four this past weekend.

So, did I survived? Yeah.. I am pretty happy for the first time result. Will I do it again? Yes!! yes!! Now I know how to do it. Here it is:

From top to bottom 6" round strawberry shortcake, 10" round devils food chocolate, and 14" & 16" round red velvet with cream cheese frosting.

I am so glad that last week went well considering the all nighter, aching body, and last but not least my finger got stuck into pastry tip while washing it. I'll be back with this coming weekend celebration cakes (wine bottle, willy wonka, and fiesta cake).

Almost back to school!

2010-08-08T23:03:00.000-07:00

Two weeks away before UT students and football seasons begin and I am already feeling the anxiety for this up coming school year for charity events, birthdays, weddings, baby showers and so on.... I do love challenges but too much .. is no fun! especially dealing with the heat, scheduling, and meeting cake deadlines - trying to remember every little details on what I need to put on the cake, delegating tasks for my assistants, do logistics for weekend delivery, looking for the tape for cake box, and of course ruler and scissors are nowhere to be found when you need them. This week went by very fast and I am thankful that all cakes got done on time even though I was shorthanded.

Without further ado, here are few of my favorite cakes from this past week:

Paige's first birthday cake - it's a strawberry shortcake, vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream and fresh strawberry.

Yo Gabba Gabba Birthday cake for Carson and Foley - It's a vanilla cake with cream cheese and covered with classic American Buttercream

Cullen's first birthday cake, it's a 10" round (serves 30), 8" round (serves 20), and the tent (serves 12). I never made this cake shape, so I was a little stressed out. I am pretty happy with the final result! of course I always hope that I had more time so that I can do...this or add that..

Layla's birthday cake was a 1/4 sheet chocolate cake (serves 20-25) with vanilla buttercream. I love the clean look and simplicity!

Luci turned three and had a cowboy theme party, so I thought a cute pink boots on top will be cute for her! I added farm animals around the side of the cake. Thanks for looking! I am anxious to make my first topsy turvy cake for 200 serving this weekend!

August is here finally !

2010-08-02T22:36:00.000-07:00

This past week our calendar was full of fun birthday cakes. At least we got 16 birthdays on July 31st! My husband theory is parents want their babies to be born in July, so that they don't have to miss school calendar in August! Is that right? I think he was bias since his birthday is in July :)

Here is a few of my favorites, let's start from baby shower cakes:
The Truelove's is expecting another grandchildren. They are so sweet for sharing the special day with us. The future grand dad came pick up the cake on Saturday and said, "Let me take the invitation back, so I can show how awesome the animals are on this cake!" Welcome blessing!

Monkey baby shower cake design's was inspired by the invitation. The cake was chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and decorated with fondant accent.

An owl birthday cake for Kline was a blackbottom cake - a chocolate cake with cream cheese and chocolate chip baked in and cream cheese buttercream . Happy first birthday Kline!

A fiftieth "sorghum" birthday cake for Karl. It's a red velvet cake and cream cheese buttercream. Do you wonder why sorghum?

Thanks for looking! I hope everyone starts with a fab Monday.

Hot hot hot!!

2010-07-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

No doubt that the heat is killing me and the girls in the kitchen. My hubby even put a portable AC! I can feel the buttercream and fondant screaming in front of my face, " It's hot and sticky!"

It was a space shuttle for Taryn, the second we put the fondant on the cake... There you go fondant acted up! It looks like fondant has been running two miles with me outside in 100F! I couldn't wait for nice cool fall weather.

The cake was devils food cake with chocolate buttercream. I just love the color combination. Taryn, we hope you had a great birthday!

Toys, Animals, and Sea Shells!

2010-07-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

Well July 4th is over, we had a nice one day break and back to making fun birthday cakes! The first cake was for Hudson. It's a toy story theme, and he specifically requested for woody, buzz, slinky dog and pig. We didn't use fondant for these character, but we used the edible sugar paper instead to get the exact same look for the character - of course it's more economical and less labor intensive. Here is what the cake look like:

We absolutely love making first birthday cakes! Both clients wanted somewhat elegant/modern cakes, but still with a fun animal theme!

The next cake was for Maddy. It's a lady bug theme, an 8" round cake and a mini 2" round cake. We've been getting so many request for this tiny cake. Just come and ask us, we'll make it one very special cake for you son/daughter!

Next, a summer theme/beach birthday cake:

Last but not least a surprise birthday cake for one of our client! sssh she's going to be 87! Happy Birthday!!

Thank you for stopping by!

Stripes and Stars!

2010-07-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July! Hope all of you got some fun time with family and enjoyed all the festivities this past week. We celebrate this week at work with little festive red, white, and blue birthday cakes and cookies.

The first one was a birthday cake for Deleon. It's a vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream and covered with red vanilla buttercream. It's accent with white and blue stars and ribbon. I finished the cake with the red, white, and blue dots around the cake.

Next, a simple red, white, and blue stars cake for Angelica:

Some festive red velvet cupcakes with stars, flag, and fire work fondant decorations.

We also delivered Britton and Austin's wedding cake to Villa Antonia, Jamestown -TX. Three tiered simple cakes, the flavors from top to bottom: vanilla, red velvet, and our signature blackbottom cake. We decorated with simple dots border and stacked them with fresh red roses. Congratulations Britton and Austin! Thank you for letting us to be a part of your special day!

"Animal" Baby Shower theme

2010-06-25T10:42:00.001-07:00

I love anything whimsical, baby animals... who doesn't? They are just too cute. This week we made two tiered "baby animal" theme cake. The cake was Italian creme cake with cream cheese buttercream. The fondant lion is my favorite, he looks delighted in his party hat.

We have been doing lots of baking for baby showers lately. We prepare some mini cupcakes arrange them with white daises and complete the party with tiffany blue bibs and yellow duckies.

A few cute baby shower cookies we just finished. More baby animals!

Can't wait to do more fun baby showers cake or cookies! Thanks for looking.

Choo - choo!

2010-06-23T19:53:00.000-07:00

This was our first Thomas the train birthday cake. The cake was a surprise from Aunt Hilda in San Fransisco to Jasper in Hutto, TX. It's a banana cake with nutella chocolate buttercream. Yum! Happy Birthday Jasper.

Family Ties

2010-06-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a great father's day! We had a customer come in the other day with a great idea of making sugar cookie ties for a father's day gift. We loved creating various wacky ties for this special dad and his family. So, in the spirit of this special holiday, we featured these cool ties!

Happy Belated Father's Day to all Dads out there!

Shimmy-Shimmy-Shake, Sing Along with Pookie!

2010-06-19T17:25:00.000-07:00

Our vacation went by really fast last week. We got a chance to visit the East Coast and do a little cupcake tour! Now we are back home and, of course, back to work decorating fun cakes. Here is one of my favorites:

Pookie is a little character from Sandra Boynton's children book, " Let's Dance, Little Pookie." This little character is petrified to try new things, such as dancing, but ends up loving it! We loved the Pookie cake here at Polkadots and wanted to create the perfect image of this fun- loving children's book character. Here is little Pookie!

Summer Break is almost here!

2010-06-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

I can't wait to get a week break, yes in two days! Busy, busy, busy for sure before I leave the shop this week. I managed to finish few cakes that are schedule to be picked up tomorrow afternoon. The first cake was the barnyard theme, for a 3 yr old:

I love all the farm animals, here are the details:

Which one is your favorite farm animal?

The next one is pirate themed birthday cake. I sketched it couple days ago and wanted to put lots of pirate theme. I changed my mind... and I ended up with more simpler design, just stripes, pirate, skull flag, treasure chest, coins, parrot, and palm trees.

I am pretty pleased on how it turned out, simple but still festive! Happy Birthday Cole and Will!

Last but not least, I got the honor to do a wedding cake for a very fun couple. They are getting married this weekend at the marina on Lake Travis. I just love these birds. The design was taken off from their wedding invitation. At first I wasn't paying attention, while I was working on the fondant work...I realized that these birds are wearing swim suits. I am very pleased with the result. It looks clean, yet fun too. Congrats to Chris and Aaron.

Thanks for stopping by our blog! We'll be back next week on the 15th. Back and refresh, yes we'll be celebrating our 2nd year anniversary for Polkadots. Thank you Austin!

Kindergarten graduation cake

2010-06-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

Hailey's mom came last week and wanted to get a special graduation cake for her. As I sat down with her and took notes for the things that she wanted to incorporate on the cake design: must be girly, colorful, bow, dots, pink, green, coins, books, crayons, pencil, scissors, ruler, black board, and etc....

I was so excited to do her cake! Both cakes were red velvet with chocolate buttercream. Since Hailey got an excellence grade on counting money, I also made quarters, dimes, nickle, and pennies scatter next to her on top of the cake. Here is what I come up with the cake design:

Congratulations Hailey!

First Birthday

2010-05-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

My favorite cake to do is the first birthday cake. It is colorful, simple, whimsical and fun theme. I love it when my clients trust us on our creativity. It gave me an extra "stretch" on cake design.

Cambrie and Callan had "Zoo" first birthday party, and I also made 30 animal faces sugar cookies for their party.

Details on the cake:

Next, Jackson has "Safari" first birthday party, so I decided to do elephant, lion, and monkey figurine for him.

A little mini cake for the birthday boy, the cake was also 4 layers with vanilla buttercream.

Savvy has a fairy garden theme party for her first birthday cake:

Her matching mini cake:

I am thankful and so blessed to be included on your special day!

Summer Break

2010-05-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

Polkadots will be closed June 6 - June 14, 2010 for summer break. We will be back on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 12 PM . Thank you for all your support to our little shop! Hope all of you get a little break as well.

Congratulations Graduates!

2010-05-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

I was the first who graduated from college in 2002 from UT. Hook'em! My parents, especially my Dad, always ask me where I put the $50K (at least) Engineering diploma. He said at least I could put it up at the store - of course, No. Note: my diploma is still in the original mailed envelope with the 2002 mail stamp! I remember that year I move to Los Angeles to go to USC for grad school. Until one night, I watched food TV and there you go... I saw an advertisement for the California School of Culinary Arts. That night, I called my Dad and told him that I was going to cooking school instead of grad school at USC. I never regret it, and I think it was the right decision. Moral of the story, graduates follow on what you love to do! I feel more fulfilled now than I was working at the office . Until these days... my dad often jokes that he spent at least one million dollar, but I ended up working in the kitchen everyday. Hahahah!

Alright,... enough ramblings... back to cake business. This past week has been crazy. At first I wasn't sure where I need to put all the cakes for the weekend pick up. Well.. I used some space on the drink cooler! Here is a few favorites from this past week:

For one of our UT cheer:

I love the combination "matrix" white and brown dots on this cake!

I thought this one is very true, " What starts here changes the world!"

I have to sneak in this for one of my assistant! Not only she graduated from UT, but she's graduated from Polkadots kitchen, and going to French Pastry School in Chicago. Congratulations Julia and Hook'Em!

We'll miss you (soon!)

Tie Dye Cake!

2010-05-18T06:28:00.000-07:00

What a perfect birthday theme for us in Austin! Keeping it groovy, we did tie dye colored cakes. It so bright, fun, colorful. Who wouldn't like it?

We should make the inside cake tie dye cake too next time! Have a groovy week!

30th Birthday Cake

2010-05-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

This 30th birthday cake is perfect for shopping diva. The top of this cake, we stuffed with fondant tissue paper, a shoe and coin purse chocolate modeling, and pink lipstick made out from rice krispies. The cake was blackbottom, a chocolate cake with cream cheese and chocolate chip baked in and layered with cream cheese butter cream. Happy Birthday Anne!

Details on the shopping bag:

The second cake we made for Monica's 30th birthday party at Highbowl. Her Mom came to the shop and mentioned that she wanted to have all her favorites things on the cake. We made pearls, lipstick, nail polished, miller light, Texas koozie, and Copenhagen tobacco. Monica ran "Go Fit Wilco" fitness company in Round Rock, we made her company cookies for her party favors. Hope you have a very special celebration Monica!

Real Wedding: Red Corral Ranch Wimberly, TX

2010-05-10T20:27:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to post these wedding picture from last week. We delivered these cupcakes out to Red Corral Ranch in Wimberly, TX - an hour away from downtown Austin, TX for Amanda and Brad. I didn't get to see them, but I got a chance to snap all of these fun details at their wedding reception. Congratulations Amanda and Brad!

The main entrance to the ranch:

Amanda and Brad's DIY sign:

Dining reception:

Vintage theme guest table:

Dining table details... each table has different pairs of salt and pepper shaker:

Here is their cupcakes tower:

Thank you for including us on your special day!

St. Edward's Graduation 2010

2010-05-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

Wow wow It's May already? Where did the time go...? Next month it's going to be our 2nd year! Thank you Austin for an exciting year ahead of us.

This week is St. Edwards graduation weekend. Here are a few graduation cake that we made:

Congratulations to All SEU graduates!

Tues: Favorite Cake

2010-05-04T06:17:00.000-07:00

I don't care about soft drink. I think because my dad always mentioned that soda has lots of sugar and not good for your body and so on.. when I was younger. I drink coke when I eat greasy food ! Pizza, Hamburger, fries. ... ah.. then I burb! LOL.....

A client called and wanted to get a coca-cola themed cake for her boyfriend. Of course I was excited! To keep it clean and simple, I covered the cake with vanilla buttercream on the outside and decorated with red fondant Coca-Cola logo on top of the cake.

Here is what I come up with:

Happy Birthday Johnny!

Real Party: Modern Baby Shower

2010-05-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

We love making baby shower cakes! specially when client just drop off an invitation and mentioned that she wanted to be served for 30 and the rest is up to us. Here is an picture of the invitation that Channing dropped of earlier last week, isn't cute?

Here is the cake that we come up with, something similar with the invitation design, modern, clean, and elegant.

We also made shortbread cookies favor for the guest, wrapped it cellophane bag, tied it with brown ribbon.

Congratulations Kelsey and Jared for your baby girl!

First Birthday Cake

2010-05-02T19:47:00.000-07:00

I remembered when Clara ordered a baby shower cake for her daughter. They were expecting Chloe around this time a year ago. I can't believe time went by real fast. Chloe just turned one last week. She got her very own 6" round cake as her smash cake, while guests got the two tiered cake. Happy birthday Chloe!

Our next cake was made for Kinsley. She's also turning one. I just love the combination of green and fuchsia that her mom picked for her party theme. Adorable! Matching green and fuchsia cupcakes, and we topped the cake with "1" fondant figurine.

Another fun train theme birthday cake. Happy Birthday Pooja!

The last birthday cake was made for Hudson. His mom requested for baby blue color, green, and yellow star theme. We also made monogram stars cookies for the party favors.

I can't wait to have my own daughter or son! So I can plan for a fun 1st birthday party.

Wedding Favors

2010-04-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

Dianne contacted me a month ago for doing her brother's wedding favor. She send me a picture of her future sister-in-law and her brother e-pic!

Here is what I come up with:

Sugar cookie with purple border royal icing and edible sugar paper

Cupcakes with custom fondant topper, edible sugar paper, and bordered with purple royal icing

How adorable! Congratulations to Burke's Family.

Fav project: Dino Birthday Party

2010-04-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

I got a chance to do Jake's birthday party again this year! Last year Jake has a Super hero birthday theme, this year his theme was Dinosaurs. Here is some of his party ideas:

Jake's Birthday invitation specially designed from his mom at Invitingaffairs

Party favor bag:

Cupcake topper and wrappers:

Here is what I come up for his two tiered birthday cake.Michelle's request was to include yellow and green and both are black bottom cakes, chocolate cake with cream cheese and chocolate chip baked in.

A few closed up of the dinos:

I love the combination color of bright blue, orange, green, yellow, fuchsia. It's so festive. The dinos are just too adorable. I want to include all the characters but keeping the dino from the invitation as the main focus.

I also made dino cookies for Jake's birthday party favor:

A special thank you for Michelle from Inviting Affairs to include us on Jake's special day. I can't wait to do his birthday party next year.

Fridge can get sick too you know..

2010-04-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posting these couple days, the fridge at our kitchen acting wierd on Thursday night. It was cold, very cold ... fridge, but there was so much moist inside the fridge, and it was raining and soooo.. humid!! All the fondant decorations are melted!!! Luckly, we got enough time to rescue all the cakes that were supposed to be picked up on Friday morning. I am so thankful for my hubby and the girls at work!!!

The first cake that we rescued from the fridge disaster was a two tiered bridal shower cake. The color are lavender, purple, and silver. It took about 20 min to redo this dots and bow. By the time we put in the box, the lady came in and pick up the cake. So glad that she loved it!

We re-decorated the Fairy cake for the afternoon delivery for an eightieth birthday party! I managed to save the cake and the buttercream. I got to redo all the butterflies, sunflowers, white flower, dots, and the writing. We got it done and delivered on time !

They said three time is a charmed! This vintage cake,.. we re-print the sugar paper four times. Yes, Thrusday was so humid, the edible sugar paper got so soft, melted, and ripped off as I cut it. At the end,... it's a lovely 70th birthday cake.

Of course some vintage sugar cookie party favor:

Now onto children birthday cakes, one of my favorite from last week was the Animal Farm theme, we includes tractor, pig, chicken, cow, barn, and the windmill.

Another animal 1st birthday party theme, a 6" round cake with simple pink elephant decoration all around for the birthday girl and a matching animal face cupcakes for the guests.

Summer is around the corner... one little girl had a Hula Birthday Party this past weekend. It was a chocolate cake layered with strawberry buttercream.

A small 6" baby shower cake.. multicolored polkadots theme:

Thanks for looking and have a great week!

Mario oh Mario

2010-04-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

Mario was my first video game when I was growing up, I remember of having this game on my game boy!

Mario was the most character cake requested. I lost count.. not sure how many of these cakes we made for the past two years. From the smallest size, 6" round:

An 8" round covered with fondant:

A 1/4 sheet cake:

Bigger Mario?

Oh Mario Party Cookie Favors!

Want more? I'll make more Mario cakes! Hope you are not Mario-out!

Monday Cookie Mania!

2010-04-12T01:00:00.000-07:00

I remember my first hand iced cookies that I made during Christmas 2007. I iced them till late in the morning. You can call me crazy, but I just love the feeling once you were done icing them. Joy!

To decorate sugar cookies, you can use several medium - edible printing sugar paper, rolled fondant, and hand iced meringue powder. My favorite is using the edible printing sugar paper. It can be "painful" but it a shortcut.

Once you baked your sugar cookies, let them cool, iced them with royal icing, topped with the edible sugar paper right away, and border them with sugar rim - royal icing.

Here is a few that I made at the shop:

Here a few example with hand iced technique:

Thanks for looking and have a great week!

Last minute weekend gateaway!

2010-04-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

I was so excited that I got a chance to visit my childhood friend, Grace, in Los Angeles this past Easter weekend. I left Austin Saturday afternoon and came back on Tuesday afternoon. I can't thank enough to my lovely husband and assistants! They took care Polkadots very well when I was out. Grace's dad passed away last week from lung cancer. My condolences for her and her family. On the brighter side, I got to spend some fun time with her mom, sister, and her hubby!

She took me to Farmers Market, Hollywood CA. Los Angeles just keep growing and growing since I left 5 yrs ago. We went to an early mass for Easter Sunday and had brunch at Farmer's Daughter.

I got the Easter Sunday special plate. Two free range eggs Benedict, topped with Hollandise sauce, two slice of grilled ham, and hash brown. Yum!! I wish I can have this every morning.

Just like being at home, I got to hang out, chat, and laugh with her and her family. Priceless!

Not to forget pink berry for dessert, mmmmmm It's so fluffy!

Next, we were off to Susina bakery for their famous red velvet cake:

Yeah, we were bad ...we went to Vanilla Bakeshop in Santa Monica, too. It's tiny, clean, and so cute! Very chic and modern.

I got to try on their mini cupcakes - delish!

After a few days I was out from work, I was ready to go back in action. Here are a few of my favorite from this week:

Cupcakes for the cat lovers...

Fun 21st Birthday party! I hope she went out to her birthday party then passed out.

First Birthday cake Bug theme!

Paisley theme bridal shower cake:

Hope every one have a good weekend!

Perfect little cake

2010-04-07T00:12:00.001-07:00

One of the most request cakes is a small serving cake with simple decoration. I like putting a simple bow and add a little note for your special one "Happy Birthday." This 6" square cake will serve up to 12 adults

Or a 6" round cake

Both cakes are 4 layers, alternating between cake and buttercream. You can choose our cake flavor from our current menu: http://www.polkadotscupcakefactory.com/cakes.htm
Not sure yet? just give us a call at 512-476-3687 or email us at info@polkadotscupcakefactory.com

Having fun with Easter Cookies!

2010-03-31T17:34:00.000-07:00

I love Easter. Its a time to celebrate that lent is over. Pretty pastel colors, pink, purple, yellow, green, and much more....

Hippity.. . hoppity! Easter bunny in different pastel color...

Yellow chicks...

Colorful eggs

To make it more festive, add your guest name on to the egg!

Happy early Easter from all of us at Polkadots!

Another Twins Affairs

2010-03-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

I wish I could have two cute little twin girls like Taylor and Leighton! These two girls are just too adorable. They turned one this past Sunday. Happy Birthday Girls!!

We prepared two matching cake, green and pink theme accent with cherry blossom flowers and ribbon. We also made matching mini smash cakes.One cake was banana cake with cream cheese, and the other one was black bottom cake, a chocolate cake with baked in cream cheese and chocolate chip.

Their mom worked so hard on the party details "Cherry-Blossom Princess," here are the details:

Candy bar buffet, pink and white theme, and of course the matching flower sugar cookies:

Closed up of the cake:

My favorite details is the butterflies:

At least but last the birthday girls:

Too cute!

"Twin"kle "Twin"kle double happiness!

2010-03-29T19:48:00.000-07:00

This week I got an opportunity to work on twin's party. First was Dr. Suess baby shower theme. I didn't grow up in the States, so I am not familiar with Dr. Suess story book. I did an online research on google, flickr, wiki, and much more!This was the inspiration from our customers. Her is what we come up for the twin baby shower. The cake was a strawberry shortcake. A vanilla sponge cake with macerated strawberries and strawberry buttercream. I covered it with blue turquoise vanilla buttercream. Decorated them with baby onesie, rattle, and silver socks. Congratulations for Melissa and Chris! They are expecting a little girl and a little boy.

Spring Birthday Party at Polkadots

2010-03-18T08:21:00.000-07:00

Birthday is the best holiday! Hangout with your closed friends, chit chat, play, and the best part is lots of presents. Last week, Avery turned 10. Her mom decided to bring 10 girlfriends, laid out picnic blanket, brought her rabbit, goodies bags, games, and color pencil. They hung out in front of our porch for few hrs, of course I have to snap a few pics!

Here is the birthday girl with her furry friend:

Matching party favor bags in pink, blue, green, and brown colors:

Comfy picnic blanket, nice weather, coloring activities with girlfriends, and lots of presents:

I hope you had an awesome birthday celebration at Polkadots Avery! The "damage" for Avery's party last Saturday (cupcakes and drinks) for 10 girls and 5 adults less than $60!

Of course the best part, I got to keep all their drawings. I was teary.. happy tear.

Can't wait till the next birthday party! Oh, I wish I can be 10 forever yeah! Sometime growing up isn't as fun.

Simple elegant cake 101

2010-03-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

Most of you ask when I am going to teach cake classes. I would love too... Hopefully I will launch the 1st class in the summer.

I will share a few tips on doing simple cake with big bow from chocolate fondant. I love love... doing custom cakes. Something modern, clean, elegant and clean look.... mmm whimsical too! Of course, I am always up to what my customers' request. Simple rule - less is always more. One of the most request cake is the bow cake. I like to share on on how to make the bow decoration from chocolate fondant. I know fondant sounds scary!! yikes!! A lot of people is afraid of the word fondant because of the taste. Fondant is usually made from gelatin, sugar, water, corn syrup, and powdered sugar. I am using chocolate fondant for this bow tutorial. Chocolate fondant tastes just like tootsie roll. I promise its yummy.

When I was growing up, Fisher Price Kitchen Set was on my wish list. I never had one, but my mom got me Playdoh kitchen set instead. I think that was the first time I made little figurines, dolls, fake fruits, and hamburgers...Fondant's texture remind me of play dough, elastic yet temperamental.

First knead your chocolate fondant (about 9 oz), getting out all the air and make them more appliable for rolling.

If it gets too sticky you can use a little corn starch. Next, roll the chocolate fondant into a "sausage" shape.

Using rolling pin, rolled the fondant into a rectangular shape 8" x 10":

Trim each side using pairing knife:

Slice the chocolate fondant into 1/4" in width:

Begin assembling the ribbon parts, you can cut the excess part with paring knife or siccor. My favorite brand knife is Global. I am petite in person, I like something small and light. It's just a personal preference. Any paring knife will do!

Assemble all chocolate fondant as the following, and be patient let them rest and relax for at least an hr. If it's too humid, you can add Tylose to your chocolate fondant (while you knead in the firs step) to help the firmness and fight the humidity.

Don't forget to save some chocolate fondant for the "excess" ribbon:

I like to line up all the different size of the ribbon "petal":

After one hr, into the fun part! Just like assembling rose petal, seven pieces on the bottom, five, and three petals in the middle. Use room temperature as your glue. Here is the final product:

What do you think? Very simple and pretty! Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions, just leave a comment. I promised I will get back to you.

Husband of the week!

2010-03-07T20:54:00.000-08:00

A lot of you ask me how do I like working with my husband? mmmm on a scale 1-10, on one day it can go from 1 to 10! Why? I have been asking him to get a new microwave for 1 year - at least. The door is broken, I always have to slam hard the door to be able to function. Perhaps 200 watt microwave? Even my hair dryer has 1300 watt! For some reason, last Monday (my weekly day off) the plate inside the microwave is missing. Yes, its gone. You think it will be easy to keep everything in place when you have a tiny kitchen. No, we lost things all the time, X-Acto knife, tiny brush, pastry brush, knife...etc. Some of you might think... really microwave? Yeah, we used it every day. Finally, this past Monday I have a brand new microwave. It's fast, even, heating up from center to outside. It took only 1.5 min to melt 1lbs of chocolate!! I dance happy dance happy dance. Honey, you are a 10!

Alright... enough bragging about Ben and the microwave, this past week we started our Spring wedding season. First, it's a simple two tier brush stroke wedding cake that we delivered to Lanai:

Next, we went to Villa Antonia in Jonestown, TX for Leslie and Matt's wedding. I ran into Andrew from Table4weddings photography. I can't wait to see his snapshots!

Instead of traditional groom's cake, Matt has mini and regular cupcakes - red velvet, carrot cake, lemon and cream, and blackbottom cake.

Then we went to the Caswell House for Lauren and Chase's wedding. Their theme are black and red, simple and elegant.

Fun cakes and cupcakes of the week:

Yeahhh... the best part was we have 0 complaints!!! for the week. Yeah yeah..Have a good week everyone!!! SXSW week is on the fly....

March already?

2010-03-01T08:01:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a fun weekend! After a busy week at the shop, I escaped Saturday morning. I got a chance to go to cake show this past weekend and watch some demonstration from Celebrity Chefs! Mike McCarey, Nicholas Lodge, John Kraus, Katy Scott, Geraldine Randlesome, and Lauren Kitchens. Mike McCarey and Lauren Kitchen have been in several cake challange on Food TV. They were all so talented and share some good tips on how to decorate structure cakes, what to use, what not to use, what product, what's the new trend... and etc. It reminds me when I was in culinary school 7 years ago! Time sure flew away! Here are few shot from the event:

Mike McCarey(brown) owns "Mike Amazing Cakes, " Nicholas Lodge (green) from International Sugar Art Collection is a gum paste guru, and Lauren Kitchens own "Fancy Cakes by Lauren" in Dallas.

Now back to cake business, here are few celebration cakes that we made at the shop:

Monkey theme baby shower, of course it's a "monkey" flavor cake, banana cake with nutella chocolate buttercream.

A special birthday party for a mom that loves shoes and purses:

Twenty first birthday cake:

A simple two tiers wedding cakes:

Children birthday cakes:

More baby shower cake:

Have a good week everyone! This week we are starting our Spring Wedding season. Excited!!

It's going to be an exciting week!!

2010-02-22T21:24:00.000-08:00

Mission accomplished... I slept in on Sunday! That was awwwwwsome. Then off to work out and had some calamari salad at North restaurant. Yum!!

Not sure what I was thinking...., I signed up and planned to have 2 big events during the week, custom cakes, cookies, and of course "That takes the cake" event.This last one will be so much fun! Can't wait till Saturday morning.

First event on Wednesday, February 24 7:30PM-10:30PM at The Allan House "The Mad Hatter Tea Party." We will be sponsoring the first Catalyst 8 event of 2010.

We will be have a dessert table, full of our signature cupcakes - red velvet, honey and chai, pumpkin, and blackbottom. We'll also bring our "Mad Hatter" cake, some bars, and cake lollipop. All proceeds from the event go toward the Catalyst 8 Boost Rental Subsidy program, which awards rental subsidies to Austin-area emerging and underserved arts groups.Check out their website for more information.

I can't wait to complete these project on Wednesday, and take a picture of the dessert table. Fun fun fun!

Second, we will be sponsoring the Supply Chain Management Student Organization for Spring Kick off. So... if you are Engineering or Business major student, don't forget to attend their Social Meeting on Thrusday afternoon. For more information, please contact Elizabeth - Elizabeth.Liles@bba07.mccombs.utexas.edu

Ben and I are UT graduates! We love to give it back to our school, so HOOK EM!

Some sneak peak of this week decoration:

I am ready to leave the shop now, off for hot bowl of ramen with extra egg. Good night!