G'day Mates!

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!

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!

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

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!

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

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!

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?