There's a Snake in my Boot!

Here at polkadots we love making children's theme cakes and last week we made one from the movie Toy Story! Standing about 15 inches tall each of the three tiers is inspired from the movie. The bottom tier also has the popular etch-a-sketch which was sculpted out of colored fondant.

Every Little Thing We Do Is Magic

It's that perfect time of year for every little girl and boy to enjoy the magic and mystery that shines like mystic fairy lights on a warm summer's night. One, much loved little girl received an extra dash of magic in her Fairy Princess Birthday Cake.

The cake was colored to serve as a whimsical stage for an enchanted castle home to fairies. Cheery flowers and butterflies surround the castle in curly vines all under a veil of sparkling silver stars. The ruler is a purple haired princess with a glittery flower petal dress, a silver crown adorning her head and silver fairy wand to match.

The fairy princess was built with a wire frame that was then covered in various layers of fondant to form her body and dress. The curly "4" on top was hand carved to match the whimsical theme throughout the three tiers of the cake. Generous amounts of edible glitter and pixie dust were added to enhance little Kayla's big day.

This three cake tiered serves 60 adults with our 6", 8", and 10" cakes. All the cakes were iced in butter cream rather than fondant in green, blue, and purple that were blended by hand to achieve the graduated coloring. Once again the Polkadots Team achieved confectionery magic!

Hello February!

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.

The Sweetest Note

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!

Dream big - Empowering young women leaders

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!

Back to school and a little break

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!

August is here finally !

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.

Toys, Animals, and Sea Shells!

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!

Choo - choo!

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.

Shimmy-Shimmy-Shake, Sing Along with Pookie!

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!

First Birthday

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!