My Christmas sweets

This was the first year we were celebrating Christmas away from Family & friends. But that didn't stop me from preparing Christmas sweets which has been a tradition in our family.So these are few of the sweets I made this Christmas - Cherry Knobs, Fruit Cake, Coconut Cake, Date Rolls, KulKuls & of course my all time favorite Marzipan's!! I molded the marzipan's into carrots, plums, peaches, pears, cherries, watermelons, mangoes, oranges, pumpkins, peas, pineapples, strawberry's, rasberry's & also a christmas tree that I made using a cookie cutter ;-)

Hawaiian Themed Cake

The Birthday girl along with her Cake.





This cake was made for my dear friend Jenny's Birthday who loves Hawaii.She is a Cake Instructor at the Michael's store .I tried to incorporate her entire family including her 2 dogs.I used graham cracker crumbs to give the sand effect.This was my first attempt at trying human characters as well as animals.I used sugar technique for the first time to get the water effect, although the island ended up covering most of it. The Tiki Bar was made out of RKT, that also happened 2 be my first time. Anywayz I learned a lot from this cake.TFL.

BlueBerry Muffins

We recently brought a box of fresh BlueBerries from the store & I thot that it was a nice opportunity to try making BlueBerry Muffins from scratch, stumbled across the recipe from the Blog Happy Home Baking & thot it was the right one. I hadn't realized that my stock of Paper Muffin cups had exhausted so used the silicon cup molds to make these.Although the recipe said it made 12 muffins I managed to make 12 cupcakes with the same amount .They turned out very yummy!! My special thanks to Happy Home Baker for sharing this wonderful recipe on her blog.


Here's the recipe for all those who wanna try it.

Ingredients:
(makes 12 small muffins)

250g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
60ml vegetable oil
175ml milk
125g granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
125g (about 1 cup) blueberries

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180degC (350 degF).
2. Wash and drain blueberries. Dry with paper towels and toss them in a tablespoon of flour.
3. Place egg, oil, milk, sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl. With a manual whisk, whisk until thoroughly combined.
4. Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre.
5. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture. With a spatula, gently fold all the ingredients to form a wet batter. Mix until the flour is just incorporate into the batter. Add the blueberries and fold in gently. DO NOT over mix. The batter should appear lumpy.
6. Spoon batter into paper muffin cups. Bake for 15~20mins until muffins turn golden brown or a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
7. Let cool on a wire rack. Serve warm.

Wine Bottle in a Crate

Johnson's office is having an after hrs party at work tomorrow to celebrate Labour Day.So decided to make this cake.Its a Chocolate Rum Cake filled with Swiss Meringue Butter Cream.Hope they like it!! Initially I was planning 2 make the Crate out of Chocolate but as the weather was kinda warm the cake wudn't survive the heat so I changed my mind & used MMF instead.The bottle is covered in Fondant , filled with cake & colored with Edible Gel Color to give it the shine.I covered teh Crate in MMF & gave it a woodgrain effect, also accented it with tiny bunches of Grapes.All the Greens on the cake are made using Gumpaste .The Label on the bottle is hand painted & I also added a bunch of Grapes along with a slice of Cheese. Everything Except for the Foil is edible.

Plumeria Flowers made out of Gumpaste

Looks like I've switched over from cake making to flower making....lol. Its just that I love flowers & always wanted to try out some Gumpaste flowers , coz I've seen people make beautiful wedding cakes decorated with flowers. I must mention Neryl's blog has been my inspiration. Although you won't find any of these flowers on her blog, but I love the way she uses Beautiful floral sprays on her cakes.I referred to a youtube tutorial to make these flowers.Hope u like it.Thanks for looking.

Sweet Pea Flower made from Gumpaste

This was my first attempt at making the sweet pea flower from gumpaste.I followed the instructions from the book 'The Essential Cake Decorating Guide' & I'm happy with the end results.Thanks for looking.

Housewarming Cake

Ariel view
Rear View
Front View
A dear friend of mine has recently purchased her first home here in the US.I made this cake on the occasion of her housewarming.I personalized the mailbox with their names also added the house no. to it. Everything on the cake is edible & made of Homemade Marshmallow Fondant & Gumpaste. All of the guests as well as the hosts were pretty excited about the cake. The cake was a Chocolate Cake layered with Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC). This was my first attempt at making SMBC but it turned out Gr8.I enjoyed making all the toppers for this cake.A special thanks to my hubby without whose help & suggestions this cake wud not have turned out the way it has :-)

Overflowing Basket of Flowers

As mentioned earlier we have recently moved into a new apt. so I thot of baking a cake to share with our new neighbors.This was my first attempt at Royal Icing Flowers, I enjoyed making these flowers.For the bird I have used colorflow technique. The handle is made out of Gumpaste .The tiny red flowers & the Lady bug are made out of homemade MMF.Overall I'm happy with the outcome.Hope u like it .Received this beautiful Thanku card from my New Neighbors who I gifted a block of the Basket Cake.This card was handmade by her daughter.It meant a lot to receive this.TFL

Fondant Decorated Cupcakes

I know its been a while since I've updated my blog, thats coz I had been busy packing & unpacking as we've moved into a new apartment.I tried making these cute little cup cakes that were accented with Ribbon Roses & Cherry Blossom flowers made of Marshmallow Fondant.

Royal Icing Flowers

I also tried these Chrysanthemums,Apple blossoms,Primrose ,Violets & Daffodils.Making the other flowers were a lot more easier than making the Chrysanthemums.The Bird is made using Color Flow Technique.

Pansies made of Royal Icing

It happens to be my first attempt at making flowers out of Royal Icing.I tried these on my own & I'm pretty pleased with the result. Initially I was too intimidated by Royal icing, but I've realized that as long as you get the right consistency & angle the piping bag in the right position it works great, also its less messier than Butter Cream Icing. I guess I'll try more of these soon .

Freehand molding!!

I had some free time so I thot I'll try my hands at some molding.So here's my Turtle, Bumble bee ,fish , 2 vases in different shapes . This was made from some spare fondant hence they aren't in the actual colors you wud expect them .

Marzipan Molded fruits

I tried molding marzipans into Strawberries, Mangoes, Pumpkin, Carrots, Bananas & Oranges.The stems are readymade.

Marzipan Easter Eggs

Last Easter was the first time I attempted making easter egg mini cakes. I used an easter egg mould to make these. Just made a few & decorated it with Royal Icing.

Baby Shower Cake Toppers

These are the toppers I used on my baby shower cake.I had fun doing the detailing on the bassinet & all of the other accessories.

Baby Shower Cushion Cake

This was a practise Baby Shower Cake. I carved a cushion out of a Devil's Food cake covered with Marshmallow fondant (MMF) & gave it a quilted effect .I made the Cake toppers well in advance. This was the first time I used Gumpaste.The bassinet was made out of Gumpaste & all of the other stuff on the cake is made of Fondant. I enjoyed making all of the stuff , the buttons, the baby bottle,baby bootie,the bib,heart shaped pillow , rattle & the Baby bassinet.

3D Red convertible Car cake

I made this cake especially for my Hubby.He wanted me to try my hands at cake carving.I had this tiny Red car at home & I tried to replicate it into a cake.I had fun doing the interiors of the car.The car seats & all accessories within the car are self made . I finally added a cool tag at the rear end of the car which gave it a Kool look.Later I realized maybe I shud have pushed the tyres a little inside coz they were almost out.But anyways there's always a next time ;-)

Homemade MMF Fondant 2 Tier Rose Cake

This was a cake I made for my 2nd Marriage Anniversary as a Gift for my Husband .It was the first time I tried making Marshmallow Fondant.I made almost 40 Fondant roses (small, medium & large) in advance & enjoyed every moment of it. I also tried using the ribbon technique which I happened to see in a Cake decorating book at a bookstore (at Borders) . I loved the way the cake finally turned out.I also added a Fondant lace frill to the edges which made it look elegant.The Roses are made of Rolled fondant with Gumtex added to it.