Mharcus' Spiderman birthday cake

In August, we were asked by a friend if we could make two cakes for her sons. Mharcus is turning 6, and Mikhail is being christened. They were having a combined celebration. Fun, right?! :) This Momma bakes and decorates cakes for friends and family, too, so we were especially surprised and flattered (if that's the right word) that she would even trust us to make the cakes (she left the design & details all up to us). Thank you, Rio (and Mark!).

Mharcus wanted us to make a Spiderman-themed cake... so that's exactly what we did!

Meet Spidey --- we went for a younger version of Spiderman... closer to Mharcus' age (",)

"Do you know who I am? I am Spiderman!"

The cake at the venue:

And here's a photo of the beautiful family:

A very belated happy 6th birthday, dear Mharcus!

Thank you for joining us in this sugary-sweet journey!

Franz & Kristin's babyshower cake

Two years ago, we had the honour of making Franz & Kristin's fun Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head wedding cake. A year and a half later, we were commissioned to make their baby shower cake! :) We especially love it when we get return customers. :) 

Thank you, Franz & Kristin for your continued support!

This is the brief for the baby shower cake they had in mind: unisex colour (green, white), a cot, and a baby. They decided to "not" know whether they were having a boy or a girl.

This is the cake we came up with:

The cake is banana mud cake with white chocolate ganache frosting.

Here's a few close-up shots:

The Baby!

 Thank you for joining us in this sugary-sweet journey!

ps. The baby is now almost 5 months old... 

a very healthy and beautiful baby girl named Azariah. :)

3D Leopard Cake

Hello again, we hope everyone is sailing sweetly :)

Remember the 3D lion cake we made a while back? Well, someone who attended the event remembered us and came to us for this next number:

As always, there are many things we would do differently / better next time.

But in comparison to our first panthera 3d, we reckon this is a massive leap!

Anyway, before it became like that, here is a peak at the different stages the cake went through:

1. Sculpting & Ganache frosting:

 2.Fondant-finishing and additional sculpting and moulding:

 

3. The head is constructed separately. L: early stage of detailing.

R: Final stage with shading and contours.

  

And for some side profiles:

 

 The cake board was custom-made by Kenneth to accommodate the length of the cake:

ROOOOARRRR!

Thank you, Renata, for joining us on this sugary-sweet journey!

Chris' Wine Bottle Cakescape (70th)

Yet another first for us. We love a challenge! 

Often the cost of making a cake does not take into account (at all) the extensive time 

and immeasurable effort we pour into our creations.

And we blame nobody else but ourselves for this -

we have, countless of times, found ourselves carried away

and diverting from what's meant to be a simple cake.

The true reward is simply proving to ourselves that we could!

Here is a perfect example of the above scenario: 

The box is the cake. 

The wine bottle (a replica of a real NZ winemaker's bottle) is made of fondant.

 The grapes and grapevine leaves were hand-crafted. No silicone moulds!
(Ain't buying overly-priced moulds for one-off jobs!Hmp! LOL)

Thank you, Chris & Penny, for joining us on this sugary-sweet journey!

Giane's Birdcage 11th Birthday Cake

Our little cousin isn't so little anymore... She's 11! 

Giane is Nathan's (Winnie the Pooh Cake-scape) big sister. 

Her parents asked for a small and simple cake,

and that was the plan, until...

an idea struck! Then we couldn't help it.

Here are our 3 fave shots of the birdcage-themed red velvet creation:

Thank you, G, for joining us again in this sugary-sweet journey!

Kodie's Skate Park Cake

This next number was a collaboration,

so we cannot take full credit for the concept.

Kodie's mum had the idea of using marshmallows to fill the foam pit.

We had to research quite a bit for this project 

as we know very little about indoor skate boarding.

 

We were so happy to make this cake for Kodie after hearing his story.

He is a lovely young man, and he deserved a very happy birthday!

Working on this cake, we learned skating jargon such as:

half-barrel, flip, etc. We only wish we had more graffiti skills...  

 

The cake itself is chocolate mud through and through.

Thank you, Kodie, for joining us in this sugary-sweet journey!

 

Ezrah's "Happy Feet" Birthday Cake

Jane's fiance's workmate celebrated their son's birthday with a 

Happy Feet - inspired birthday party.

Here is our best attempt: 

And the cake came with a dozen boxed matching cupcakes 

with hand-crafted toppers on piped swirly buttercream icing:

And for a last look:

Thank you for joining us in this sugary-sweet journey!

Barbie Haute Couture

Joy has recently come back from a short pre-birthday break in Hong Kong.

The little princess, of course, went along too. 

We thank God that Kloé-cake has coped 

with her first ever long-haul/overseas trip exceptionally well!

While there, Joy had the privilege to work with the wonderful Lady D

of Kwun Tong, HK on one of her projects... Here is the end result:

 But of course, there is more to it than the picture-perfect result.

When Lady D was telling Joy about her plan/concept for the design,

Joy didn't really get the picture, all she knew was that it was going to look awesome!

This was her inspiration by Joseph Massie Creative:

 Here is Lady D herself, working fastidiously on the Barbie cake:

   Lady D is a bowl-full of inspiration! She is a loving wife, and mum to a witty boy.

For a 'grown-up job', she enjoys being a flight purser for Cathay Pacific.

In between flights though, she really is just like us - 

a big kid lost in the wonderfully enchanting world of cake styling.

 Check this out - we needed some rhinestones to accentuate 

the neckline on Barbie's bodice,

so Lady D did the only thing that made sense - sacrifice her own top!

But wait, there's more... If you think this cake was baked in a dolly vardem,

well, you've thunk wrong ;D Lady D moulded it by hand!

This is her very obliging 'instant sous chef', Carmella, 

who learned to make perfect fondant rosettes in a flick:

Barbie's full skirt took up hundreds of these flowers shaped into frills/ruffles.

It almost felt like a losing battle.

Joy arrived at their place at 9pm, Carmella went to bed at 2am.

Joy took a nap at 3am. At 6am, when both Carmella and Joy re-joined

the work-table, Lady D was still going - no break whatsoever,

straight through the night and up to 11:00am the next day.

Talk about dedication!

In Joy's mind at the time: "I know this drive very well, 

sure, it's just a cake... but oh, the adrenaline rush! It was well worth it.

To work alongside someone who speaks the same language - 

of fondants, and frills, of frustration and then freedom... Bliss!

We take no credit for the amazing creativity and skill

as you've seen in the images above. We are grateful indeed to have shared

a journey with another kindred spirit.

More power to you, Lady D!

Thank you, for joining us in this sugary-sweet journey!