Yoga Cake

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I had planned to make a yoga figurine for my sister's birthday cake. I have never done human figurines before, unless you count Fireman Sam as one. Well, I guess it counts, so this is the second then. 

I thought of so many yoga poses that I wanted to do but I also had to make sure that it could stand on the cake without breaking a limb. I watched a few youtube videos on human figurines and they seem to make it look so easy. It is always harder than it looks, so I picked an easy pose. A sitting yoga pose with both hands on the lap. There will be lots of stability, I thought. 

OK, first off, I made the legs with grey colour to look like tights. It took me so long to make mainly because my fondant was rather hard. Finally managed to get the even length and size for both legs. Then I pushed a toothpick into the centre for the body to be attached on later. I let it sit and harden overnight and then made the feet.

Made the body with an extra large breasts because one advice from YouTube was that you start with it bigger and it gets smaller when you work on it a bit more. (Sounds a bit rude...)

Anyway, then I made the arms but I forgot I wanted to make the arms rest on the thighs so somehow I made it into a prayer pose. 

I am not an alien

Then I made a sleeveless red tee for her, which made the breast look even bigger. Hahaha.... I forgot the extra layer of fondant will make it bigger. Then I made the head and it looked so much like an alien head. Did the eyes, teeth and lips. The hair was the fun part to play with. I gave her straight hair with a side part. It looked a bit like Medusa at first but then all started to fall into place. Drew the eyes and gave her a soul now. She looks like a girl now and not so much like an alien. 

Giving the hair some texture

What big eyes I have!

Ready to exercise

Happy Birthday Pei

The cake was the one that I wanted to eat, it was a flour less chocolate cake covered with chocolate ganache and a layer of white fondant over it. 

I made 2 yoga mats, textured it and rolled one up. The purple one actually looks very much like my yoga mat. Made 2 yoga blocks and a strap as well. Placed the yoga girl on the mat and it was ready. 

Even though she looks a bit funny with the extra big eyes and breasts, I am pretty happy with it. She looks energetic! haha....  I wish I gave her a bit more of a chin though. Happy birthday Pei, wishing you good health and may your life be filled with joy and positive energy. Namaste.

Yum

Yum Yum

Tiramisu Birthday Cake

A whole term has past since the last assessment but I didn't do any post on it. Reason is that there is nothing interesting to post. It was a full term on Occupational Health and Safety. Not that it is not important to learn OH&S, just don't understand why we need a whole term on it and zero practical days. 

So basically there were no hands on class at all for the whole term. That doesn't mean that I didn't bake at home. So today I will post on my birthday cake which was in August. Don't ask me why it took so long to do a post. 

To talk about my cake, I need to also talk about my sister's cake. Because our birthdays are only 2 days and many years apart, we always celebrate together. This year, Pei wanted a Tiramisu cake and I wanted the same cake as I had last year, which was a flourless chocolate cake. 

I had planned to make a little yoga figurine made of fondant for her cake. But it wont look nice sitting on a tiramisu cake as the surface of the cake is mascarpone cheese. So I decided to swap our cakes. I will have the tiramisu cake and Pei will get the chocolate cake. We still get to eat both the cakes anyway. 
After searching and searching on the internet for a tiramisu cake recipes and comparing them, I chose rasamalaysia.com 's recipe for the cheese filling and the sponge cake was from Annie Rigg's Make, Bake & Celebrate book. All set and ready to bake. 

Sponge base 

Almond Praline

The sponge cake was a little different to the normal sponge cake, it had almond meal in it. It gives it a bit of a texture and I guess it will hold its shape better after pouring in the coffee syrup. Then for the sides of the cake, instead of leaving it plain with mascarpone cheese, I decided to make almond praline to cover the sides. Then the topping was just classic shaven chocolate. I used Lindt 85% dark chocolate, yumm.......

Tiramisu Cake

Happy Birthday to me :)

The cheese filling was a mixture of whipped cream and mascarpone cheese. It didn't have any raw eggs in the filling which was good. I feel more comfortable when there is no raw eggs in the cake. 

Want a slice?

Verdict of the cake, I think it needs double share of the mascarpone filling and maybe next time I will add in some stabilized whipped cream to the mixture so that it holds better. Then the cake can probably be thinner or maybe add more coffee syrup into it. Absolutely love the almond praline and chocolate shavings. Overall, I like the cake and will try making it again with some adjustments. 

Next cake up will be the Yoga cake. 

Transformer Cake

 This is the Transformer cake that had to be ready the same time as Fireman Sam. Sebastian is turning 6 and he loves Transformer. His mummy was contemplating between  Bumblebee or Optimus Prime. I guess he must like them both! In the end she wanted a simple round cake with bumblebee toy on the cake. 

Again with the power of internet, I found so many Transformer cakes that were so beautiful and showed her a few that I thought was simple but still had an impact, rather than just a round cake with Bumblebee toy on top. 

She liked the one where the cake was exploding in the centre with the toy standing in the middle. I was happy with that too because I thought it was cool. Now we have decided on which design to do, my planning starts on how to make it! It looks simple but how do I get the base of the explosion to have black? how do I get the back on the inside of the yellow for the exploding part? 

Exploding stars

Anyway, started with what I thought was the easier bits. I made the stars. It was simple but wire is not exactly food safe product and I do not want to stick the wire into the cake. How do I do this? Not that simple now.

Transformer logo

I had to get the template of the logo before I can cut the fondant. Andrew helped me print out a few sizes of the logo to choose from. There were some logos of Decepticon too but I stayed with the good guys! I wanted the logo to have a base to sit on before going on to the cake. It looks more dramatic with the black base. I then placed it on the side of the cake tin to get the curve. Logo done. It took quite long to get the logo done because of all the fine lines. I was so sad to see a little crack on his face but I didn't want to spend another 3 to 4 hours on the logo. Hopefully not many noticed it.

First thin layer of fondant on the surface

I read a few blogs and found out how they did the base to have the black. First I placed a thin layer of black on the cake surface. Then I placed another round thin layer of black on the back of the yellow fondant before covering the cake as normal. But I had to make sure both black fondant are aligned. Then carefully cut the top layer with a scissors to make the explosion. I was a little nervous at this point. But I got it! I wished I had the yellow fondant a little thinner, it would make the finish much finer. I had the flaps of the explosion to rest on some rolled up cling wrap to set in place. 

Logo on the cake

Then I did the bottom edge with black and positioned the logo on the front of the cake. Then I did the black stripes. This part was a little stress free. But then I had to write happy birthday on the cake. I have shaky hands and I was a little scared that my bad piping skills will ruin the cake. So, the stress is back. I held my breath and did it!! I think it looks ok. Of course it can be better. 

Royal icing piping

Setting the cake

Sticking in the stars

Ah, the part about the stars in wire. Well,most bloggers say, stick the wire in but not all the way to the cake but I was still uncomfortable with that idea because people are still going to eat the fondant part where the wires were in. So more research, found one that says stick the wire in straws and push the straw into the cake. Good idea but I dont want straw because straws are too big so I thought of lollipop sticks! I cut the lollipop sticks to 2cm length. then filled it with royal icing and stuck the end of the wire into it to set. Then just stick the part with the lollipop stick into the cake. That way, the wire doesn't touch the cake! Ha Ha Ha! So happy!! It worked! 

I put 6 stars on the cake because Sebastian is 6. I didn't have the toy with me so I had to guess the height of the toy based on what Sebastian's mummy told me. 

Ready for delivery

All set and ready to be delivered. It sits cosily in the tailor made box. (Thanks again my box engineer,  Andrew). I hope Sebastian likes the cake. I guess he will super excited to see the toy first! 

Below are photos that I got from Sebastian's mummy. Well the toy is a little smaller than I thought it would be. Luckily his hand was up, gave him a little height! haha. 

Sebastian and friends

Sebastian and brother Lachlan

Happy Birthday Sebastian

I am so happy that I managed to deliver both the cakes on time and both parents were happy with the cakes. This transformer cake seems simple but it had so many little things that I didn't expect in the beginning. I am happy that it all turned out ok. I want to thank Sebastian's parents for the opportunity to make the cake! It was challenging and also lots of fun. 

Fireman Sam Cake

I am a few weeks behind on my blogging because I have been really busy with 2 big cake projects. I got 2 orders for fondant decorated birthday cakes. One is a Fireman Sam birthday cake for a 2 year old girl and another was a Transformer cake for a 6 year old boy. 
Both cakes are to be delivered on the same day! I had to make sure I organise my time very well to be able to deliver both cakes on time. 

I had about 3 weeks to plan for the cakes. Fireman Sam! Ok, who is this Fireman Sam? I have no idea. I am not familiar with kid's cartoon. But fret not, there is always internet. I am so happy that I live in this time and era where everything can be found on the internet. 

Even though I am doing a patisserie course now, we only have 1 lesson on fondant decorated cake and it is a really basic lesson. The class was not even on until after these cakes has to be delivered. So I had to do my own studies on this. I have to thank all those bloggers and people who shared their photos of their cakes because I looked at so many photos when I was researching on Fireman Sam cake. On top of that, I also watched a few episodes of Fireman Sam on YouTube to know more about Sam and his fire engine. I watched till I could sing the Fireman Sam theme song. Ha Ha Ha. 


I started with Fireman Sam figurine. I thought I should give myself ample time to make sure he looks like Fireman Sam. I took so long to make Sam. I don't even know how many hours. Yes hours! but it was worth it when I saw how cute he was. I only wished I made him a little taller. hehehe.... but I guess he is a young Sam so he is cuter with shorter legs. haha. 

Fireman Sam's head

Blue eyes

Sam needs a smile

I wanted the ladder to be resting on the fire engine rather  than be part of the truck, so I made the ladder and let it harden as well. Made all the small bits and pieces such as the logo on the truck, the siren, the lights, the safety cones and birthday girl's name, Ellie. 

Head lights

Logos and other little bits and pieces

Birthday girl Ellie

Then came the cake itself. This project is a really big cake. The size of the truck was 12" x 7" x 4 1/2". I baked a chocolate mud cake and filled it with chocolate ganache. Shaped the cake to look like a truck.. It was tricky on how to cut the cake and pile it up to form the shape. I had to draw templates before cutting the cake. A wise one told me, measure twice and cut once and so I did. Glued each piece together with chocolate ganache. I feel like I was building a house, brick by brick. Finally it looked like a fire engine truck.

Building a truck

Do I look like a truck?

Smoothing out the ganache

The day came for me to wrap the cake with fondant. Now how do I make the windscreen look like it is not protruding? hmm.... I have to do the windscreen before wrapping the cake. I actually had a workflow plan as to which piece goes on first and which is next. The time used for planning was worth it because it made the process of wrapping the cake much easier and it wasn't as complicated as I first thought it would be. 

Windows :)

I look like a truck now

I wanted to have Ellie's name standing on the board to have a 3D effect and the "Happy 2nd Birthday" on the logo. I used royal icing to pipe the words. The result was simple and sweet. 

Birthday logo

I spent one whole day from 9am till 9pm covering the 2 cakes with fondant and finishing all the detail works. I wonder if other people take that long. Maybe I am still an amateur and I admit I am a little pedantic. I nearly broke my back at the end of the day but felt really happy when I saw the end products. 

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Now this is a really big cake and I had it on a 16" square board. The cake shop didn't sell any box that big, which means I had to make my own box. Well, I didn't make the box, Andrew my box engineer made it for me. heheh... The box was a perfect fit because it was tailor made for the cake. I tied it with a ribbon to make it a little prettier and also to make sure it is opened at the right side. 

Tailor made box

Now Fireman Sam Cake was ready for collection. I am anxious to know what they thought of the cake. Did Ellie like the cake? Did Ellie's parents like the cake? I hope I did a good job.

Happy birthday Ellie

 Finally I got an email from Ellie's mummy saying that they loved the cake! Yay! I am so happy to hear that. They were so kind to send me a photo of Ellie with the cake. Unfortunately Ellie was a little overwhelmed by the attention that she got and they couldn't get a photo of her beautiful smile but she is just adorable. Happy Birthday Ellie! Thank you Ellie's mummy and daddy :)