A cake for Jesusa

Two years ago, my friend Rose was worried because the baby inside her tummy was not making any movement anymore--for two days straight! When she had it checked, she found out that the baby was already dead for 2 days.

Two years after Baby Jesusa came out, her mother asked me to make a cake for her birthday. I wanted to make it happy as she's already in heaven. Here's how the cake came out.

and I added a cuppie that they plan to leave at the cemetery.

And the Best Cake Wreck Award goes to...

my camou wedding cake for the topper that got dismembered minutes before delivery. haha! Take a look.

I ended up delivering only these as giveaways. 

And the wedding cake...

was a FLOP! Gosh!

Will post the cake wreck soon.

Busy weekend!

Getting ready for a busy weekend. I'm having butterflies just thinking about the wedding cake for next Saturday. Gosh!

Flowers and toppers weekend ahead! How about you? ^_^

Yet another rose cake!

Forgive me because I have not been stretching my creativity in designing cakes lately. My clients keep on asking the same cake design in different color/s and would not take my suggestion for me to conceptualize a new design for them. So, here's another of the roses cake in pink and green.

the blue cake

O-M-G!!! Sorry for being away too long. Haven't been doing much in my kitchen which also caused the "lull" in my posts.

So, yesterday I made an officemate this cake. Blue is her favorite color and she specifically requested for a "blue cake." Feast your eyes on this monochromatic piece of art.

With the last minute topper I made ^_^

And here's the birthday girl with her cake.

Ben10 cake for my beloved

My little boy turned 5 yesterday, Valentine's day. We had a school celebration last Friday and a family lunch yesterday. I'm posting below his Ben10 cake which he personally requested. ^_^

The look on my little boy's face, PRICELESS!

Major cake wreck!

It was a tiring weekend topped by a major cake wreck! Gosh! I had to ram my head for a last minute remedy for the cupcake tower topper. The barbie cake that should go on top of the topper was too "weak" to hold the fondant. Meaning, di pa luto. Haha! And it was too late for me re-do the baking. This is how it turned out.

Butterfly fun!

This is gonna be a super busy weekend as I have an order for a Barbie cake with 100 pieces cupcakes for Sunday.

I bought this Wilton butterfly cutter last night and put it in use as soon as I got home. And look, they're so pretty, especially in pastel colors! These go on top of the fondant covered cupcakes. I can't wait for Sunday. ^_^

Gumpaste recipe

Emz, as requested, my gumpaste recipe. ^_^

I actually use 2 gumpaste recipes. One I learned from this fondant lesson that is really yummy but cracks easily therefore not suitable for nice gumpaste figures and flowers. The other one I learned from net research. I use this one in my sugar flowers and figures. It's really nice for sugarflowers because you get to roll this gumpaste really thin giving a more life-like look to the petals. Here's how to do it:

4 - Large Egg Whites

1 - 2 lb. bag 10x powdered sugar

12 - Level teaspoons Tylose

4 - Teaspoons shortening

Beat the eggwhites with an electric mixer at high speed to break it. Mix in the powdered sugar reserving at least a cup for kneading later. sprinkle in the tylose powder. Bring the mixture on your kneading table and knead in the remaining powdered sugar with your hands generously smeared with shortening. You should keep your gumpaste in a zip lock bag or any plastic bag so as not to expose it to air. Air makes gumpaste hard. Put the gumpaste in your refrigerator before using it. If your not consuming all your gumpaste, just keep it tightly sealed inside your ref.

You may also use gum tragacanth or food-grade CMC powder in lieu of tylose. For those in Manila, it's kinda hard to find tylose. I found get mine at sweetcraft.

If you are making a gumpaste with only one color, put in your food color while still mixing the ingredients.

Happy sugarcrafting!

Little Missy cake

It was my little cousin EJ's birthday yesterday. Saturday night, it was already almost 10 pm but I haven't baked anything yet and I was feeling too lazy to play with the gumpaste. I heavy-heartedly started baking and toying with the gumpaste. Then like magic, I was again at my element!

I originally wanted to make an edible little girl figure with a frilly skirt and hugging a little teddy. I started with the teddy bear but realized later that it was too big for the little girl to hug, so I made her carry a bunch of flowers instead.

Here's the cake that had me working till 6 am. lol.

A bouquet of roses!

Wonderful, wonderful day!

I made a cake designed like a bouquet of roses for an officemate. To surprise his girlfriend, he said. Well, here it is:

It's a 6"x4" round chocolate-filled chocolate cake decorated with fondant and gumpaste flowers.

More cakes to come! Happy weekend!

Oh, Sweetcraft!

So far, Sweetcraft holds my best confectionery award. All thanks to Kate's entry on where to buy baking stuff. It's small but very organized and super clean. The attendants are really friendly and helpful, too. And surely, they sell cheaper than CL. I found the all too elusive tylose powder there, too. They also have a wide-range of cake and pastry boxes at the stall next to the confectionery.

Sweetcraft is located at 373 Boni Ave., Mandaluyong City. You could reach them at 532-1595 and 532-6289. I suggest you call them first when looking for hard-to-find products.

I don't have my own car so I just commute going there. If you're coming from recto or cubao area, take a jeepney going to stop and shop. From there, hail a boni-mrt jeepney and tell the driver to drop you off Rizal Technological University (RTU). And if you're coming from EDSA, take a stop and shop jeepney near the MRT-Boni Station and get off RTU. You may also take a tricycle. Sweetcraft is right across RTU.

Off topic: some brownies my officemates ordered: ^_^

Weekend sugarcrafting

Hello! Can't believe it's midweek again. Days are passing by too fast. I read somewhere that age has to do with people's sense of time--the older you get, the faster you perceive time. Whoah! Now that gives you an idea of how young I am. ^_^

As a working mom, I only have Saturdays to spare for my confectionery shopping. So last Saturday, I was planning to bring my sister to Divisoria to check on their baking products but ditched the plan the last minute and opted for Chocolate Lovers at Quezon Avenue instead.

(I love the castle-like structures of Chocolates Lovers stores. It gives you that fairy tale feeling^_^)

In the afternoon, I passed by Gourdo's in Trinoma after our family's mall stroll and got myself a heart cutter for my calla lilies.

Come Sunday, I used up the remaining gumpaste from my sister's birthday cake and made these flowers. I enjoyed painting the roses with red powder color. They're so RED!^_^

(I used the upper part of my steamer to dry the flowers)

(I steamed them the next day so the powder would stick)

Can't wait for the next weekend!

I love Gourdo's!

I'm a newbie baker and I am just starting to discover and explore confectioneries in town. I frequent Chocolate Lovers for my baking needs because their Q. Ave branch is the nearest to my place. But gosh, do I love Gourdo's! Gourdo's does not sell flour and chocolates but they have the widest selection of Wilton products that I have ever seen (so far)! The coolest thing is, I always pass by their Gateway branch every day after work (you know, being an MRT patron.) ^_^

Last week, I dropped by and saw that they have nice items on sale and I grabbed myself a buy-one, take-one cake stand. The attendant said it's from Turkey and quite durable.

I also got myself a black color mist, hoping that I could use it to tint my fondant. Bad idea! Turned out this food color spray is best for boiled icing and buttercream but not on fondant.

And so, two days after buying it, I finally got to use the stand.^_^

roses and a bow

Great day everyone!

I was supposed to make this entry last night but I was dead tired to do it.

Anyway, I told you I would make a black and pink ensemble for my sister's birthday but I had a disaster with this black edible spray from Wilton (Will make a separate entry for it) so I had to make a last minute decision to save the cake. ^_^

So, here's the end result:

It's chocolate cake with chocolate filling wrapped in fondant and decorated with gumpaste roses. The roses are brushed with shimmer dust from Wilton. Look closely.

And the cake tastes great. Thanks to fellow blogger Kate.^_^