Blue High Heel Shoe with Bow and Jewel Cake

This is another shoe cake ordered by Gurveen for the birthday of her two friends, Navya and Ishita last weekend : ) how sweet it is! similar technique in making the shoe like I did for Christian Louboutin Shoe Box Cake a few weeks ago, all edible :-D. This time no fondant was used to cover the cake, it is pure vanilla buttercream outside,  rich chocolate cake and chocolate ganahe buttercream inside ❤

The birthday girl likes blue so we designed this blue high heel shoe with big bow and glitter jewel/brooch for her : )

The gold buttercream piping really fits the theme and elegantly shows off the shoe : )

Pumpkin Chiffon Cheesecake

It is the pumpkin time of the year to go trick or treat!!! Have a Happy Halloween everyone :-D

Pumpkin Chiffon Cheesecake

Ingredients 

4 egg yolks
50g pumpkin puree
50g cream cheese
1 tbsp milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp mixed spice
50g plain flour

4 egg whites
70g sugar
50g pumpkin seeds

Utensils

5 inches round angel/chiffon/bundt baking tube tin

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170C degree.
2. Beat egg yolks, pumpkin puree, cream cheese, milk, vegetable oil until combined.
3. Sift in mixed spice and plain flour until well incorporated.
4. In a seperate clean bowl, beat egg whites until fluffy, then gradually add in the sugar and whisk until very stiff.
5. Add a big scoop of egg white mixture into the pumpkin mixture and mix well, gently fold in the remaining egg white mixture into the pumpkin mixture without deflating the mixture.
6. Mix in the pumpkin seeds.
7. Carefully pour into the mixture into the tin, smooth the top and bake for about 20-25 mins.
8. Remove the tin from the oven and invert the tin. Leave to cool and gently run a knife around the sides to remove from the baking tin.

Christian Louboutin Pigalle Shoe Box Cake! ❤

No fashionista can dispute her shoe collection is complete without a pair of Louboutins. Chic shoe-lover Fatinah is a big fan of Christian Louboutin's signature sky high red-soled heels, Namit wanted to surprise her with this Louboutin shoe cake for her birthday.

The shoe was made of fondant and shoe box was a belgium chocolate cake with chocolate ganache buttercream. I was asked a lot of times where I got the shoe from, I actually did make it myself :) lol

I tried to sculpt and replicate this Louboutin pump cake topper as closely as possible by tracing, measuring all the curves/angles and making templates from my real shoe, otherwise it would just look like a normal pump.

and the shoe box definitely needed a bar code label to finish :)

Iced Parisian Poodle Dog and Eiffel Tower Sugar Cookies

One of the fun things to do on a rainy day is bake cookies and make the kitchen full of freshly baked cookie smell! To me the more fun part is to decorate cookies with icing :-D

I have been collecting various kind of cookie cutters, Poodle Dog and Eiffel Tower make a very pretty Parisian theme. I wanted to play more with royal icing, I thought piping the Eiffel Towers was difficult, but it is actually quite easy especially with a very small writing nozzle (I used Wilton size #1 writing nozzle).

Iced Parisian Poodle Dog and Eiffel Tower Sugar Cookies

Make about 12 large cookies, depends on how large your cookie cutters are.

Ingredients

125g butter, softened
125g sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 tbsp lime zest (or lemon/orange zest or vanilla bean paste)
1 egg
250g flour, plus extra for dusting

Equipments

Cookie cutters of your choice, I used Poodle Dog and Eiffel Tower Cookie Cutters
Writing Nozzles Wilton size #1 and #2

Methods

1. Cream butter, sugar, salt and zest together until pale and fluffy. Add egg and beat until combined.
2. Sift the flour in and mix until just combined.
3. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.
4. After chilling, roll the dough into 5mm thick on a lightly floured surface.
5. Use cookies cutters to cut the dough into your desired shapes, place them on a parchment lined baking sheet, chill them for 30min or until firm, this will prevent the cookies from spreading.
6. Preheat the oven to 180C. Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes. Cool the cookies with the baking tray on a wire rack.

Royal Icing

Ingredients

450g icing sugar
30g egg white/meringue powder
1 tsp cream of tartar
vanilla or lemon extract
150ml warm water
a few drop of food colouring of your choice

Methods

1. Put icing sugar, egg white powder and cream of tartar in a large grease-free mixing bowl, beat with a hand-held electric mixer until well blended.
2. Add in water and extract gradually, beat on high speed until icing is very thick and glossy, about 5 minutes.
3. The soft-peak icing can be thickened with more icing sugar to pipe the outlines, and the runny icing can be loosened with a few drop of water to flood and fill the outlined shapes.
4. Keep icing covered in damped towel at all times when it is not being used.
5. Divide into a few bowls for different colour, add food coloring and mix well with a teaspoon.
6. Use a piping bag fitted with size #2 nozzle to pipe the soft-peak icing around edges of cookies and make designs.
7. Flood (fill) the cookies with the runny icing, allow the icing to dry completely before adding the next layer.

(Optional) Add some sparkling sugar on the fur of the poodle dogs :)

8. For the Eiffel Tower, thicken the icing by mixing in some icing sugar until a bit sifter, use a piping bag fitted with size #1 writing nozzle to pipe the Eiffel Tower designs.

Love Birds Strawberry and Chocolate Mousse Engagement Cake

Two of my best friends Azzy and Omar got engaged was definitely the greatest news of the month! How wonderful it is to see how they first met, became close friends, started dating, were in a long-distance relationship because of work, now happily got engaged and going to start the next chapter of their lives together. We are all so ecstatic or them taking this exciting step together!

I have been making cakes for Azzy's birthdays, we always do and celebrate lots of things together : ) this time the cake was made for their engagement party! Azzy likes strawberries and Omar likes chocolate, this Strawberry and Chocolate Mousse Cake seemed to best match (like the couple themselves) for this special occasion ❤

As fondant would be too heavy and not suitable for a mousse cake with fresh fruits, I used tempered white chocolate for the sides, so I could put more strawberries around as decoration (strawberries and white chocolate go so well together). The party was also to welcome Omar home, this love birds design were made to surprise the couple : )

Wishing both of you all the best with the lead-up to the wedding and for the future. 

I think I havent put Azzy's birthday cake here yet, I guess her 2013 birthday wish has come true now? ;-)

Lots of love xoxoxoxo

Despicable Me Minion Cake

This Minion Cake was made for Elizabeth's son Kayden's 5th birthday, he is a big fan of the Minons, I also think the Minions from Despicable Me are definitely the cutest and funniest cartoon characters Universal Studios has created!

This is a carrot cake with orange buttercream, the number 5 was for Kayden's 5th birthday, it was so fun to make such a cute Minion cake :-D

Happy Birthday to Kayden again, hope he had a great Minion Birthday : )

If you havent watch this, this Minion's banana video is one of the best!

Sweet Taro Chiffon Marble Cake

Not sure if I have seen any Taro in the supermarkets/markets in London, it is quite common in SE Asia, we use it for dessert and savoury dishes, I have tried many yummy cakes made from taro in Japan and I certainly miss them! I managed to find some taro powder from a cake ingredients supplier back home, I used it to make a simple chiffon marble cake which bring out the lovely flavour and purple colour perfectly. This taro cake is really soft and yummy, the fragrant of taro is very similar to vanilla, if you like taro bubble tea, you will like this too : )

I think Taro powder can also be found from some Asian groceries store.

Taro Chiffon Marble Cake

Ingredients

4 egg whites

100g sugar

120g unsalted butter (at room temperature)

80g sugar

4 egg yolks

2 tbsp milk

20g plain flour

50g taro powder (can substitute with cocoa/green tea powder or lemon/orange zest)

100g plain flour

2 tbsp sesame

Utensils

A 23 x 13-cm loaf tin, greased and lined with baking paper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites until fluffy, then gradually add in 100g sugar and whisk until stiff. Set Aside

2. In a seperate bowl, cream butter and sugar together until the colour turns pale, Stir in egg yolks and milk, mix well.

3. Divide the butter mixture into 2 portions and put them into 2 bowls.

4. Add 1/4 of egg white mixture to one portion, sieve in 10g plain flour and half of the taro powder, mix until well combined. Repeat with another 1/4 egg white mixture, 10g plain flour and the remaining taro powder, mix well until incorporated. Set aside.

5. For the other bowl of butter mixture, add 1/4 of egg white mixture and sieve in 50g plain flour, mix well. Repeat with the remaining 1/4 egg white mixture and 50g plain flour.

6. Gently pour in half of the taro and then the plain mixture into the prepared tin, alternating the flavours to give a marble effect.

7. Sprinkle the sesame on the top of the mixture, bake for 45mins until the skewer come out clean. Enjoy : )

Most Popular Oreo Cake!

With the varieties of cake flavours, it appears Oreo Cake is ordered the most - rich chocolate cake layers with oreo buttercream and chopped oreo cookies filling :-d This was a birthday cake for Nandita's friend Chetak, it look simple but sweet, I was told this was the most popular cake among the group!

Looking at this picture now makes me want to have a slice too...

✿ Sugar Peony, Ranunculus and Rose ✿

A side project I have been working on, when your favourite flower is not in season, sugar flowers work best on cakes, and they last infinitely as long as they are kept/stored away from direct sunlight and moisture. The petals are made of edible florist paste, the thinner they are rolled out the more delicate and more lifelike they look.

I like Peony, Ranunculus and Rose, sugar flowers do take a long time to make, a lot of patience is required in rolling, cutting, frilling, drying, sticking many petals for one sugar flower, the outcome do worth the effort : )

This is actually my first time making Ranunculus.

and a large rose

wired petals for the peony

and unwired peony

Unwired peony and ranunculus are my favorite here ♥

Another angle of the flower arrangement

A few different views from different side ❤

Black Forest Gâteau with Russian Doll Macarons

This is a recent birthday cake I made for Nandita's friend Shirin, the idea was to have a doll topper on a Black Forest Cake, but sugarpaste/fondant toppers melt when sitting on fresh cream, so I made the dolls in macarons instead!

Although it  was a large cake, Nandita told me it was gone in minutes :-D

I think the Russian Doll macarons look very cute here, a bit like Little Red Riding Hood in the Black Forest :-P

The macarons were made by the same method I use for the teddy bear macarons, I piped them free-handed with a plain nozzle joining two circles together, then draw the face and flowers with chocolate and royal icing.

Sandwich them with chocolate ganache

and the whole little family is done double-sided :)