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Saturday 25 August 2012

Life is a Rose...... beware of the thorns!!




Why are people always captivated, spellbound by a ROSE I wonder sometimes.... but when you look at one you always understand..... its beauty is out of this world. .....trying to capture that essence is not an easy task, I am still in the process....whether I will reach there is questionable but here are few of my attempts....







Check out my very first published tutorial on roses on cake central. Don't know how descriptive and helpful it is though.
Glitzy Rainbow Rose Tutorial Using Circle cutters Tutorial on Cake Central on Cakecentral.com




Smocking cake....

This cake was done for a very good friend of mine and I am also dedicating this to another special person who only last week wrote  how much she was missing her smocking( she makes beautiful smock dresses. she had sent one when my son was born, Thank you so much). So this is for you KM and my good friend and also to my mother who almost always made all my dresses. Miss you so much Amma...
This is inspired by couple of dresses my daughter has. I always loved smocking.......not to do it but to look at and appreciate( I did do one though but I don't know where it is... If I find it will post (eventhough it is not cake).
Coming back to the cake... had a bit of a hard time with the Royal Icing ( tried a new recipe), It was really thick but it worked out in the end. It is a  fondant/ royal icing and vegetarian fat free chocolate cake.





Enamel Effect Cake

 This cake is also for another very special in-law. I had problem with the fondant with this one. Maybe because of the weather?? Corrie and Nadia thank you for the inspiration. The design is based on Henna designs. Fondant/ Royal Icing/ Buttercream chocolate cake.




Venetian mask , Lace and Rose


This cake was for a very special in-law. Hand made mask inspired by a cake decorator and author. Always been fascinated by the mysterious venetian masks. The orange lace on the sides inspired by a piece of lace my mother had. As usual a Fondant/ Gumpaste/ Buttercream Chocolate cake.




Patched Heart


A special patched up heart shaped cake for a very very special person. This was done in a hurry without planning hence I didn't do a design of my own. Got this design from the net (It is not the exact version but similar)  and ended up not finishing it. Had to take it over half way through.... Oh well 3/4 way through. Fondant /buttercream chocolate cake.

Thursday 23 August 2012

Lacey Indian Vintage Rose....





A birthday cake for a special person. I wanted to do a classy cake Indian/Sri lankan style,  don't know whether I ended up achieving that effect. Colour scheme is based on what she likes. The pearl border above is not part of the cake it is from the photo editor. This was a full Vegetarian chocolate cake with gumpaste/ fondant/ buttercream. Internet inspired pic of  lady, Thank you



Fascination with MOSAIC....




This was an anniversary cake done for a nice couple. It was the culmination of my fascination with mosaic. I was initially going to do the full cake as mosaic but thought better of it ( It also reduced my workload a bit hee.. hee ;-)). Doing the mosaic rose was the hardest part of this cake especially the centre of the rose!! 










Wednesday 22 August 2012

STITCHED UP.....

Top of the cake . Depicting a child's drawing. Appa means Dad for those who didn't understand.
Stitched up with love for my hubby with some of the things he loves...to speak, listen and  play. Done with Chocolate fondant/ fondant/ gumpaste and  chocolate cake. Stitching done with royal icing


Very proud of his language....
Loves Ilayarajah's music
Annoys me by playing Angry Birds whenever he gets a chance....Now he has taught his son too!!!hmmm :-(



Another annoying habit...mysteriously the TV has caught on to this habit... I wonder HOW  ????




Skylander Spyro: 
Another guy cake for another nephew of mine. He was very exact in what he wanted...he wanted 'Spyro'... I was like what??? what spyro?   I didn't even know what it was!!!(welcome to the old generation.. I tell myself). His mum did describe it...some orange and purple dragon thingy...and I was thinking eeek.....How in the world am I going to do a dragon!!! 

So next best thing I did was to get on the net and do a bit of research. I got some pics of the dragon. My son decided that the original dragon does not look nice (according to him scary it seems, the one shown below on the portal of power). He wanted me to do the more friendly version ( shown below too). Initially I was just going to do the dragon on top of  the Portal of power. Then changed my mind and added the NINE to it  !!! Can you, smart sparks, guess why??:-).  Also added the grass and gems to look like Spyro is actually playing a game and in the process of  picking up points/bonus??( did my research remember ;-)). As usual done with fondant/ gumpaste/ chocolate fondant, buttercream and chocolate cake.





Monday 20 August 2012

1st Birthday Party...

I ended up doing quite a bit for this event, I didn't know where to start and how I did it. 
Couldn't book a hall  on the actual birthday so had to make two cakes. I went all girly...girly doll/Princess crazy for this birthday
  
1) Cake for the actual birthday

With my daughter's hand print on icing and a doll dressed like Bo Peep sitting on the cake.The flowers had the stitched on effect like on a quilt.

2) Centre Pieces for the table (22 Nos.)
The head and hands were done with fondant/gumpaste. Wasn't very happy with these. It was tedious towards the end  (and got some help with the hands and dress )that I didn't end up taking pics of it set up!. Took too much on I think and didn't do this properly.

3) Cake for our lovely son for the party so that he doesn't feel left out 

Used one of  picture from his books as reference to create a Bas Relief effect using gumpaste. This was a butter cake.

4) Cake for my daughter for the Party


This was my first 1st birthday cake...... the first one that had a structure (3 layers. First time I hammered a Dowel into the cake was heart stopping, I was seriously praying, next day was the party with no backup plan)...didn't know whether the cake was going to be enough for everybody, I was so stressed till I got it to the hall( I got an old highchair box to transport it....IT was bloody HEAVY(excuse my language). To top it all off I had covered the board also with fondant.....it looked good but carrying without damaging it was not easy). I wanted to dress the dolls in traditional attire. So the pink one is wearing a Ghagra choli the other one is my version of a Half saree, with lotus in a pond, pearl in a shell candle holder(getting the candle into that round shape and painting it  to look like a pearl was a pain). All done with fondant and gumpaste. Did both butter and chocolate cakes and layered it with buttercream

All these + arranging the party( designing the invitation, booking the hall, party bags, entertainment, food/drinks etc...) EXHAUSTED by the end of it ......... You all must be thinking I am crazy...... maybe I am....but I do function a lot better under stress most of the time ...that's what most mothers do anyway.....hmm. To tell you the truth, all the praises for the cakes, I got at the end of the party made up for everything I went through. I would also like to thank all those who helped with the event( if they ever happen to read my blog). My Hubby, Dad , kids and family were the champion in all this. If they hadn't been accommodating and understanding of my grumpy self, I wouldn't have been able achieve all this....Will I do this again???I don't know maybe for their 21st....I need lots of time to recover!!! ;-).  But then for their 21st I don't think they would want their old mother to arrange a boring party for them..... so I think I can escape.......;-)

Sunday 19 August 2012

A birthday cake for my Dad

A fondant/ buttercream chocolate cake with my Dad and his grand kids sitting in our sitting room.

 I went through hell doing the soccer ball.......maybe the next time I do the soccer ball, I will plan it better. That is, if I have learned anything from the experience!!! Covered the cake with fondant and painted it to get the floorboard effect. Internet  and my dad was my inspiration for this one.