Peaches

It was my Gran's 84th birthday this weekend. Naturally, I was going to make her cake :) Coming from an Asian background, where so much of our culture is based around symbols and meanings for everything (especially what is auspicious or could ward off bad spirits) I wanted to incorporate much of these traditions into the cake whilst making it modern and beautiful.

One main criteria of this cake was that somehow or some part of the cake would have to have a peach. For those of you who don't know, peaches are a symbol of longevity in our culture. The God of Longevity called "Sau" would often carry a peach in his hand. Traditionally, Chinese cakes called 'Longevity buns' or 寿桃, which is basically a sweet bun filled with lotus paste or red bean in the shape of a peach are made for the birthday boy/girl. I wanted to follow this tradition but not have the old fashioned look. As I had already made a giant golden peach before I wanted to do something a bit different.

Initially, I wanted to incorporate lots of red and gold because these are the colours for prosperity and happiness etc etc I wanted a dragon wrapped around the cake with a golden peach on the top. I thought this might be a bit cliche so instead I opted for a more girly, pretty design. I love the colour combo of mint green with gold, so I used this as a basis and came up with this.

It was modern and pretty yet didn't steer away from the traditional meaning and wishes we wanted to give to our Gran. All the decorations including the flowers were hand made and hand painted. The flavour of the cake was Chocolate with fresh strawberries and a lovely chocolate ganache.

 Happy Birthday Wor Ma!! Wishing you a happy, healthy and long life. 

 ♥

McChicken & Mini Me's

I made a burger cake this weekend just past and to my surprise loads of people on my Facebook page and whoever would physically listen, actually guessed right the type of burger it was! :D :D :D

It was a McChicken burger with 2 slices of cheese - the birthday girls favvvourriitee!! Let me tell you making this cake was such a mind f*ck. The whole time I was craving McChicken (the savoury one) and when I went to pipe on the "mayonnaise", I was so into it that when I tasted it, it even surprised me that it was sweet!! I can only imagine how odd this would've been for those who actually ate the cake! hahaha

The cake was my "Mango-nut" flavour. I was stoked with the rave reviews, suppose everyone loves MANGOES!!! and boy I cant wait for it to fully come into season... its still an exy $5 each at Woolworths and Coles :(

There are so many things I love about this cake, besides the fact that its a SWEETTTT BURGER!! It also has a lot of cute little figurines that reflected the birthday girl's likes and personality. Once I had finished the cake I realised.."omg, I made real life sized cakes of almost all the little figurines". Check it out .. my Mini Me's

These cute little figurines were no more than a few cms each. How cute is her little fluffy dog called Mimi! 

This is the back view of the burger... I wanted to show it because the scattered fries couldn't really be seen from the front.

I made the board look like a McChicken burger wrapper - totally edible of course! ... what do you think?

Sensible me

Real  Silly Me hehe

So tell me? Whats your favourite burger and what would you like to see turned into cake? Here are some other recent things I turned into cake :)

Glee Slushie

Dragon 

Dodge Charger

♥

Decorating Cakes

Harlo!!!

I am back from my European adventure!! (actually been back a few weeks but was so swamped with work I haven't had the chance to post!) It was great ... my goodness, 3 weeks of eating, eating more eating and of course roasting it out in France was intense, relaxing and awesome all at the same time! As per usual it went by much too quickly but before I jump into details of it all, I have to share with you all something very exciting! I received this beauuutttiful cookbook upon my return. It's a new cookbook out called "Decorating Cakes" by The Australian Women's Weekly.

Although I was totally jetlagged I had a quick flick through and was totally mesmerized by the gorgeous eye candy staring back at me. This book covers all bases from basic cake mixes recipes to cake decorations on all levels (easy, experienced, expert) and even tips and tricks/ conversion charts the lot! An added bonus is that its all just so PRETTYYYYY which makes it alot easier to digest!

It was quite difficult to choose between all the decorating options available but I decided to show 2 ends of the spectrum to demonstrate the versatility of this book. For my sisters birthday I made her a Hello Kitty Cake. I used the method for making Hydrangea's as shown on page 62-63 to add to the decorations around the cake.

This is quite an easy and simple technique to master. It makes a huge difference to your cakes by adding that extra 3d element. Simple and quick for a massive result!

Another great thing about this book is the step by step guide of how to do a certain technique. Personally, I dont like reading copious amounts of writing in order to get out what I can with a few pictures ... could be my laziness but hey "pictures speak a thousand words"!

The second technique that I learnt from this book was "raised embossing", not sure if thats what its called but that's the best way I could explain it lol. Basically its using embossed fondant on a cake then piping with royal icing over the top for that extra layer of lace look. I used it on a recent wedding cake that I made and was really happy with the results. It's more difficult than the Hydrangea flowers but its all about practice! 

Mine wasnt as fancy as the one in the book (see below) but I know with practice I'll get there! :)

     

Here are some snap shots of random pages in the book...

Its so prettily done isnt it? I love the styling in the book. I didn't get a chance to try out the recipes but there was one I had my eye on, it was the "Raspberry Hazelnut cake", sounds delish!! And... for all the recipes there's a chart for loads of different sized pans already calculated for you, so you don't even have to do any conversions or calcs! Genius!

I also forgot to mention its not just cakes. There's cupcakes, cookies, cake pops everything! A one stop decorating .. book :) Be great for a gift or even to surprise a baker.

The Australian Woman’s Weekly Decorating Cakes, ACP Books, RRP $49.95  Available from bookstores and online at www.acpboks.com.au

♥