Johnnie Walker Blue Label Cake

One of our daughter's carer in CC saw the photos of Alana's birthday party and praising the cake and all the sweets that we made. Before we know it she approached BakerzMum and asking us to make a cake for her partner's 30th birthday.

She picked Johnnie Walker Blue Label as the theme and we accepted the challenge. We've done 3D cake before and I think this project is not really difficult. However there some technique and material that we never used before and it makes the project more interesting.

One of the new material is modelling chocolate, which I've been dying to try. After watching so many episodes of Cake Boss I've been curios on this particular material. I found a simple recipe on the internet it turned out quite hard to work with and not as easy as fondant but I think people prefer eating chocolate rather than pure sugar so it was a god try. I used the modeling chocolate for the neck and cap of the bottle.

The other technique/material that we never use before is edible print. I've been wanting to try on edible print before but it's not cheap so I put it on hold. Receiving order less than week from delivery time makes finding printer for edible printing a challenge. I leave it up to BakerzMum to do the research and she found it not in the internet but in a place I never thought would do it. She went to the local cake shop that does edible print on cake and surprisingly their willing to do just the print without the cake and it's cheaper than the internet price and they can have it done in 2 days which is perfect. Applaud to BakerzMum and her 'think outside the square' thinking.

I begin with carving the cake and shaping the modeling chocolate and cove them with ganache. And then I cover the cake with dark chocolate fondant and the cap with beige color fondant which I painted god with gold lustre dusk, and I painted the chocolate fondant with pearl shimmer dusk.

The cake floating on top of Pyrex container

Once it all done I placed the cake on top of cake board and applying the edible prints and voila it transform from normal bottle cake into Johnnie Walker Blue Label cake.

Close up on the edible label

Secret message on the bottom label, I hope they notice it

Well honestly the edible prints come a little bit smaller than it suppose to. I've already instructed them not to scale the file but the obviously did but at least it's still looks good.

Another view

Another angle

This project is super fun and I'm doing it while seeping on aged whiskey hehehehe...just kidding. I wish Damo a very happy birthday and hopefully this cake marked one of his milestone. Thanks for checking guys.

Golf Cake

Golf themed cake that we made for a friend, designed was supplied by our friend. The first attempt to do cake with white chocolate ganache instead of butter cream and I love it. The design is quite simple and not taking much time.

The only thing that's a little bit unusual is the giant half golf ball on top. Initially was thinking to use polystyrene ball, cut it in half and cover it with fondant. Or make a half ball Rice Krispie treat and cover it with fondant...but since I have been lazy lately I just made it out of white fondant, I think I used at least 300 grams of fondant for the golf ball alone hehehehe. Wel at the end of the day it's the quickest and most economic (according to me).

 
I put number 29 on one of the flag as the birthday boy is turning 29. As this is a friend's order for her friend that we don't know I guess the reason on the golf theme is because he's a golf enthusiast.

I just need to take you around the cake as the decoration is all around the cake.

Another corner of the cake

View from the top

This cake is quite simple in term of design yet it looks really nice. Thanks for checking, I will update you with my next project.

NCIS Cake

A family friend contacted me for a surprise birthday cake for her husband's birthday. I have to admit making cake for an adult man is a little bit tricky than a woman. For woman you can always resolve to girly stuff such as flowers, pink color etc. but for a guy is not always that simple. So we did a little bit of brainstorming and she told me that her husband love to watch NCIS and CSI on TV. She we came to an agreement to do NCIS/CSI themed cake.

I did my research and have to admit not many NCIS cakes floating around, the only idea came in mind is to make the yellow banner 'CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS' after I saw CSI DVD cover with that sign on it. After pitching the idea back to this family friend she throw in the idea of NCIS cap and it agreed that it's a great idea.

So I did the cap with Rice Krispie Treat (RKT) covered with fondant, it's quite a job but I think I did alright. The only regret is I didn't allow the eyeshade enough time to set. As the form is a little bit curved and should be like duck beak it will need to set and harden with support. But I didn't do the cap untill the night  before I have to finish the cake so when I put them together I have to let the support on the eyeshade. I know it's not perfect but I'm quite happy with the result.

The harders part doing this cake is to cut the letters for the yellow banner. Cutting letter is not the fun part of cake decorating but sometimes we have to do it to write the message, but for this cake the writting is actually part of the main components and it took a long time and team effort between me and BakerzMum at 1 in the morning. At least the end result looks great that make the time spent is not wasted hehehehehee.

Another view of the cake

View from the top

This is quite a unique design and I quite enjoy doing this cake, it might not seems complicated but a lot of labour and love spent on creating this cake. I hope you enjoy this post, thanks for checking and I will update you with my next project.

Domo Fashionista Cake

Out of the blue I received a message from a friend to make a birthday cake for his wife. Easy, she's a well known fashionista among our peer with extensive designers collection. And I know for sure her passion is designer bags, and things are started flooding my mind Chanel...Gucci....LV...Balenciaga the possibility is end less. Yet her husband requested something to do with Domo....what the heck is Domo? Or should I say who the heck is Domo?

So a few click later on the internet I found out that Domo is 'that' chocolate square monster with gigantic teeth that I saw nearly every week, last time I remembered was in a form of back pack carried by a teenager with Beiber haircut in the city. Turned out Domo is the official mascot of Japan's NHK television station. 

Well my friend wanted a Domo theme I understand, so I pitched in the idea to add some designer bags and he agreed. So I decided that this particular Domo will have to carry designers bag and surrounded by girly things. To accompanied this fashionista Domo I replicate LV Alma BB which my friend's wife actually has in real life, it is to be wear cross body by lovely fashionista Domo.

I added more bags and shopping bags in tune with fashionista theme, and a tiffany & co. box what kind of girl wouldn't love tiffany's jewelry? The cake is Lapis Surabaya covered with butter cream then fondant. I made quilted marks on the cake to make it more glamorous and I think it did the trick.

This cake was a really fun to make, and mashing between Domo and fashion theme proven to be a brilliant idea. I love doing this cake and hoping that this fabulous couple enjoy it as much as I do. Here are some more pictures.

Side view

Side View

View from the top

Thanks for checking my blog, I will update you with my next project. Cheers.

Kitchen Sink Cake

This is the biggest and heaviest cake I've made by far and I think this is very unique, not everyday you got to make edible kitchen sink.

I received a message on Facebook from a dear friend of mine stating that her cousin looking for a cake baker for her mum's birthday. I jumped to the opportunity thinking that it's going to be easy project, 2 tiers of cake with flowers or other feminine decoration. BakerzMum was the one who talked to the customer and she mentioned that the time is around dish washing (what?).

She sent us the invitation and it shows a lady in front of kitchen sink with latex gloves and apron on. First came in mine is making 2 tiers cake and drape it with apron and latex gloves, and we pitched the idea to the customer. But she came back whether we can make the cake like kitchen sink. So I went to the internet and got to be honest not many kitchen sink cake that I can refer to but at least we got some idea.

The cake is 50cm (20') x 25cm (10') and this is the biggest cake I've ever attempted to make and iced.
BakerzMum baked 4 10' square chocolate cakes, I stack them together the filling is chocolate ganache with raspberry. It's covered with vanilla butter cream and fondant.

The cakes stacked together

I've been watching Cake Boss and really inspired by him, one of the technique that I adopted is lining the cake with butter cream before I put on the filling therefore when I iced it with butter cream there wont be any nasty chocolate smeared on the butter cream.

My new cake cutter/leveler, found this beautiful equipment while visiting Good Food and Wine Show last weekend. I used this cutter for this cake and loving it already, really good investment.

The cake iced, look how big it is compared with the tissue box

To make the kitchen sink with dish washing theme what more that could capture the essence of the theme if not dirty dishes. I made the fondant tea cup, bowl and plates days in advance to make sure it's set and harden by the time I need to stack it. I painted them with gold and blue trims, blue because the color on the invitation is blue. I used skewers to support the plates so the wont fall down during transport.

For the water I used royal icing base and pipping gel for the water effect. This is the first time I've used pipping gel another inspiration from Cake Boss and I'm loving it. For the bubbles I pipped some sphere with royal icing. Love the overall effect of the water and bubbles.

The latex gloves follows the color of latex gloves on the invitation. I add tea towel because I think apron will be too big and I used the apron color on the invitation as inspiration. I used BakerzMum hand as a guide to make the gloves and scale it down a little bit to fit the porportion.

When we asked what message they want to put on the cake they said it's great to put Happy Birthday message but specifically asked to put Carmomatic instead of Carmen (the customer mum's name). I think it's really cute and wondering if Carmomatic can come and help us with the dirty dishes got a ton of them in my kitchen sink at the moment hahahahahaa.

I have to admit this might be the most challenging cake to cover with fondant by far. It's so big, I had to spend around 20 minutes just to roll the fondant to the right size. But I'm happy with the end result and make all the hard work worth.

The lady put another request, a cupcake for her father's birthday that fall on the day of the party. I think it's really sweet and selfless that the husband organized a surprise over the top birthday bass for his wife on his own birthday. So we think cupcake will be to simple, we made a small cake instead. The customer told us that her father love classical music hence the music theme.

It's long weekend here in Melbourne and I spent my Saturday finishing these two cakes. It's really tiring but looking at the cakes turned out make it all well worth the hard work. Thanks for checking on my blog, I will update you with my next project.

Ballerina Cake

Ballerina cake with lots of pink, my friend commissioned me and bakerzmum to do her daughter's birthday cake. And yes you guess it, she loves ballet.....plie...jette....and pirouette. First thing came in mind is ballet slippers, I bought my daughter a key chain with tinny ballet slipper from Opera Paris and I think it would look lovely on top of the cake. Something that I didn't count is this is a cake for a 5 year old and as nice as ballet slippers idea was it might be too serious.

After back and forth with idea (mostly in my mind), my friend send me a picture of a very cute and sweet figurine of a ballerina sitting on a cake holding a bouquet of colorful flowers. So I drew all the inspiration from that picture and I created pinky ballerina cake yup it's pink overload but totally appropriate for a 5 year old.

Rainbow cake is a big thing in Indonesia at the moment, my facebook newsfeed full of people posing in front of their rainbow cake proudly. As if it's something special, all I know it consist heavily colored with food coloring layers of sponge cake yup it's glorified sponge cake yet people so proud that they've eaten rainbow cake and decided to brag about it on Facebook. So, as a trend conscious mum my friend requested the cake to be rainbow cake. With a little help from my dear cousin who posted her rainbow cake, the one she baked not bought we tested a recipe that suited to our need. hence you got 6 layers of colorful cake filled with cream cheese icing. My first ever rainbow cake, it's a labor intensive cake but looks really nice, close your eyes and stop thinking about the food coloring.

Okay, now I have to remake the sweet and cute figurine and I tried my best. At the end my version of figurine is decent enough I think. Yes it looked a little bit chubby and the proportion is a bit off, and my friend thought the figurine looks more like her than her daughter, so you got ballerina mum hehehehe.

I've been spending time watching tutorial youtube video on pipping technique and it seems doable so in tune with the feminine theme I decided to do a simple lace design using royal icing. One of the brief if the birthday girl requested silver balls so I incorporated silver balls on the lace design and I think it worked well with the design.

View from the top

The little ballerina and her cake

They cut the cake...and look it's rainbow cake, very happy with the colors

Look at that little hands I think they tried to pinch the silver balls

A slice of rainbow cake anyone?

As much as I think the buzz about rainbow cake is a little bit ridiculous I have to admit that it's a one gorgeous cake. This is a really great project and I have to say that I enjoy doing this, thanks to BakerzMum that spent a whole day baking 6 layers of mutlicolor cake and whipping delicious cream cheese icing. Thanks for checking my blog, I will update you with my new project.

House Cake

I was driving for a business trip out of town when BakerzMum told me that we had a last minute cake order. A friend of ours was texting BakerzMum if we could make her a cake for her husband's birthday in 2 days, that means we have limited time to finish the cake. So we took the challenge and ask for instruction how the cake should look like.

Our friend didn't have any idea what it should look like and asked for our suggestion, and we came with basic simple question: 'What is his interest/hobby?'. She replied that he has many hobbies and interest, so we dig deeper, does he like cars? footbal clubs? anything? At the end we settle with house, because he is a property developer. It was quite exciting because I've never done house cake before, and I saw many of great examples in the internet.

So we didn't waste any time and start working on the project that night by building the walls, door and windows. Since we're in a hurry I didn't got a chance to take pictures of the process. Our friend picked Lapis Surabaya for the cake and actually it's not my ideal cake to shaped, but I didn't see any problem using Lapis Surabaya for this particular design. I built the walls and roofs in advance and I made them in pieces so I won't need to roll and cover the cake with fondant like normal cake, so the Lapis Surabaya won't need to bear too much weight.

The only process photo I could snapped

I used a lot of butter cream for this project, at least I used 750grm of vegetable shortening. I need the butter cream to cover the cake and to shape the roof. I pre-measured the walls and roofs so it's not the fondant that follows the shape of the cake but the cake has to follow the measurement from the fondant. And I happened to over estimate the length of the house, this is where butter cream take charge, so I slapped at least 1.5 cm of butter cream on each side of the cake. But at the end everything works perfectly.

Facade

The other thing that's time consuming is the roof, because I have to cut and placed the roof-tiles one by one. If I got a chance to do another house cake I will consider simpler method. This is quite a last minute project and ideally I would love to add more details on the house but with the time constraint I think I've done quite a decent job.

Bird eye view

The birthday boy was turning 35, so I put number 35 as the number of the house. I hope they notice it when they cut the cake hehehehe.

View from the top

East Elevation

West Elevation

Rear elevation, I didn't have time to make another door hence the ugly back of the house

Detailed View

BakerzMum told me that our friend was quite happy when she picked-up the cake, I hope her husband appreciate her thoughtfulness and enjoy the cake. Thanks for checking out, I will update you with my next project.

Burberry Cake

A good friend of mine ordered a cake for her mother's 60th birthday. Her mum is a funky and awesome 60 year old (I didn't realize she's 60 as she's so energetic and fun). She likes everything Burberry especially her Burberry hat and quilted jacket.

So I did my research and found some great Burberry cake in the net. I did the figurine in advance because I need it to dry.

The figurine was originally designed with hand on hip and the other hand sort of touching the hat, but it didn't go well. So I have the right hand waving which at the end not really looks like full on waving, so I came out with the idea to put a Burberry handbag on the her elbow. Hence the handbag incorporated with the figurine.

Originally I was thinking of making number '60' to stand next to the figurine, but the figurine turned out quiet tall and I don't have any number cutter to balance the proportion with the figurine. So I decided to make a plaque,  using my new letter impress and letter-number cutter.

The cake is 8 inch chocolate cake with chocolate and raspberry filling, covered with fondant. It took my ages to get this shade of beige but I'm very happy with how it turned out.

The cake covered in fondant and placed on top of the cake board

I found this design at cake central and what else screams Burberry if not the Burberry check. Well obviously it's not really Burberry check pattern, because it suppose to have 3 black strips but I cut the strips to wide so I can only fit 2 strips hehehehe.

The cake minus the figurine and plaque, I think it looks good enough as is but it won't represent anything of my friend's mum.

Close up view of the figurine and the paque

This cake turned out to be a huge success, my friend's mum loved it and they said the cake tasted awesome. Really fun to make and love how it turned out. Thanks for checking my blog, I'll update you with my next project.