Angry Birds Cake & Cupcakes

I love Angry Birds. So do my kids and many others. Not many birds can look as cute when they are angry and suicidal, throwing themselves from catapults.

This little girl Joanne loves the black one especially. So for her birthday, I was given the theme of Angry birds to make some cupcakes for a small party. I made six little angry birds and a big black angry bird mega cake-pop. 

The angry birds were really easy to make actually. In the center of each was a Lindt chocolate, wrapped in fondant. For the details, I literally sat my phone next to me with the internet images of each bird as I modelled them. I especially enjoyed making the pigs. For the giant black angry bird cake-pop, I rolled a big ball of crumbed chocolate cake mixed in chocolate frosting and then covered it with black fondant.

Another order came for me to repeat the angry birds two months later. This time, it was a  small cake order and I decided to bake them into 3 mini cakes instead. The top of the cake was covered with coco pops instead to imitate soil terrain and the Happy Birthday words were made with brown coloured fondant to imitate wooden blocks that the pigs sit on.

Initially my plan was to make the 'Happy' sit on top of 'Birthday' but the structure was extremely unstable and couldn't balance on the cake. Luckily they didn't look too bad sitting apart either.

Flash Cake

This cake had many firsts for me. 

First of all, it was my first time making a sugar figurine of a person and it was my first time hearing of the superhero Flash. I had to google to get an idea of the man and then I recalled vaguely this very unfamiliar red suited hero during my childhood days. It was also my first time making a non-dairy cake. 

Flash Cake

Luckily, Brandon's mom was very patient and understanding. She volunteered to supply me with the non-dairy cake mix and chocolate to make the cake for her lactose intolerant son as she wanted him to have a taste of his own birthday cake.

Following the cake mix instruction was easy, only problem was it didn't raise. Probably because no eggs were added. The 8" cake turned out slightly crispy and really short. I had to rush to the supermarket to get another pack of mix to make one more layer to get the cake looking taller. The cake was then coated with non-dairy chocolate ganache (made with non-dairy chocolate, soy milk and margerine) before covering with fondant.

I then made a lightning flash shaped platform for Flash to stand on. It was a rectangular block of madiera cake, cut diagonally and slided apart to make like a "Z" shape. As it was for a 3 year old, I made a cute version of Flash and I hoped Brandon did get a taste of the cake. 

XBox Cake

As I was just starting out, I welcomed any opportunity to make cakes for anyone that requested it but I didn't expect one day to receive a request for an XBox cake. It was for R's 18th year old son's birthday and he loved to play the Xbox, just like my sons. So it was no coincident that I happened to have the real machine just sitting at home to be my model.

It appeared to be a rather straightforward cake to make at first, one rectangular box with a few controls buttons. I was more worried for how to shape the handheld remote control. I'd already planned to make it life-size, so I took the whole xbox and used it to trace its outline onto baking paper. The cake was huge, it consisted of two layers of chocolate cake baked on my rectangular grill pan and can served about 40. I'd earlier spent considerable time (and much breath) making the grey side panels and punching out hundreds of little holes using a straw for the ventilation. I wanted it to be dried and hardened so that I could just attach it to the side of the cake. It did but only one problem, it was just slightly taller than the cake. I had to increase the height of the the cake by piling on more chocolate icing. ;p

The anticipated challenge of the remote control was solved when some cut off of the crown of the cake came to be in a triangular and sloping shape. Which was fantastic! I kind of parked them together, place the template over it and sliced off the excess cake. It must be some angels blessing me cos I'm not sure how I actually achieved it now.... The little knobs and buttons I'd made earlier attached nicely and it became to look more and more realistic.

Covering the main cake with white fondant was more difficult than I'd thought. I thought it would be easy cos I don't have to cover the sides, but I guess I'm just not experienced enough. There were dirty smudges and uneven patches which I desperately tried to cover up. After the cake was covered, it was time to add the details. That was the most fun part but also the most tedious. You wouldn't notice the details until you start to imitate it. To make it realistic, I even tried to imitate the power sockets and the bar code on the behind side. Thanks to this project, I increased my collection of tools by 1 edible black in pen and edible silver dust. I realised that if I paint the dust on white fondant, it will take on a metalic colour, which was great for the main button on the controller.

The finishing touch was putting on the Happy 18th Birthday words on the cake. I had a sudden inspiration to spell "HAPPY" with the little grey dots of fondant (ventilation holes) and the "18th Birthday" appeared as wordings on an Xbox disc.

It was not a perfect cake but I'd put in a lot of effort and I really hope Liam liked the cake and appreciated the loving thoughts of his mom who ordered this cake for him. Especially after I heard R was hospitalised and they actually brought the cake to the hospital to cut it with her, I wished my cake could bring about some happy moments for them. I wish R the best of health!

Practise, Practise, Practise!

I realised that playing with sugar is much more fun than eating it! With the ingredients and tools that I've slowly accumulated from previous projects, I begin to make small creations here and there, playing with mixing colours and shapes. Practice, I needed as much of that as possible to finetune my skills. Only problem is what to do with the creations I made? Some ended up on cakes served over tea with friends while others were given away for friends' birthdays as cake toppers.

Spong "bob" cakes!

One of the first fondant car I made

"Joanne" cupcake topper

Button cakes

I learnt to make a basket to put in some of the many flowers I'd made. This went to Tiffany's cake.

I made Hoot & Hootabelle as a sample upon request by a customer who did not order them in the end. They were sold subsequently to someone in NSW.

Dora The Explorer cake topper for a little girl's 4th birthday.

Hello Kitty & My Melody cupcake toppers

Tried to recreate the hero of Dragon Ball Z "Goku" - my son's favourite comic series

An odd couple "Rabbit loves Pig" - still don't know what to do with it till now :)

Tae Kwon Do Cupcakes

The man and boys in my family, total of 3, have all been learning the Korean martial arts, Tae Kwon Do, for the past year. The latest addition was my youngest son who started this year when he turned 5. His instructor, upon our request, was very kind to donate two sets of his daughter's old Do-bok (uniform) to us. They were very suitable for Dillon although the pants required some major folding in. Still, we're very thankful that it helped Dillon get started and he was very proud to don them for lessons.

As a gesture of appreciation, I baked a batch of cupcakes for his family and decorated them to...what else...the Tae Kwon Do theme! Here's to a very dedicated and passionate TKD family!

A Racing Car Cake

My younger son turned 5 last December. It was during that time when our new house was handed over and we were right in the mist of preparing to move. In fact, we officially moved into our new house one day before his birthday. As a result, it was a very simple and low-key celebration for our son, who had to make do with a chocolate mud cake from Coles.


When I finally found the time after being more settled, which was about a month after his actual birthday, I decided to make him a "make-up" birthday cake. When asked what kind of cake he wanted, he said a "racing car cake". Your wish is my desire, master.

I had no experience sculpting cakes but I imagined that I could possibly stack 2 rectangular chocolate cakes (baked in bread tins) together and shape the top layer to make the shape of the car. I covered the cake in chocolate icing and blue fondant and then came the challenge. How am I going to make the spoiler? I experimented with coating a biscuit with fondant but it looked very heavy. Finally I made the spoiler using a Kit-Kat wafer balanced on 2 Nutrigrain cereal :) The wheels were made with Oreo cookies. I had a hard time sticking them into the cavity and after a day, the cookie tires started getting soft and the car started to slant a little....lol. 


Despite all these, my little 'master' loved his cake. And his smile of happiness is what is most important to me.

Valentines Cupcakes & Mini-cake

Valentines Cupcakes

Valentines Mini-Cake

Valentines Day 2012. What an excuse to bake some sweet cakes again and decorate! Chocolate was my family's favourite flavour when it comes to cakes and ice-cream, so I made a mini-cake and 6 cupcakes and decorated it in the classic black and white theme, contrasted with a red fondant rose or heart decoration. A friend, who was interested in photography helped me to touch up the photos a little and whoa, the cakes suddenly looked like they came from a hotel!

Lightning McQueen CARS Cake

Seeing my enthusiasm in cake decorating, a friend asked me make a Cars theme birthday cake for her son Joshua's 5th birthday in January. That was technically my first order and I really thank this friend for her faith in me and for giving me the opportunity to practise my skills. 


I spent a considerable amount of time making the 3D Lightning McQueen car which I modelled after my son's toy Lightning McQueen. For the cake, I made a 2-tier mini-butter cake and covered it in fondant. That was my first attempt at fondant covered cake and it wasn't very smooth. The design also included 10 cupcakes which featured another two 3D cars, his name and two racing flags.

     
My friend was very impressed, the kids ate up McQueen and I got another order for her daughter's birthday in June - this time, Angry Birds theme! Thank you my friend for another chance to hone my skills further!

Chinese New Year theme Cupcakes

My next opportunity to make cupcakes came during Chinese New Year, sometime in January/February. Hubby invited some western friends over for Chinese steamboat dinner and I thought perhaps they will appreciate a western dessert in case they didn't really like the main course. It turned out they really loved our way of eating 'steamboat', which is essentially a hot pot meal. Everybody sits around the steaming hot pot and cooks their own meat, vegetables and dumplings inside the soup. The hot pot of stock gets richer with the flavours of all the meat and vegetables as the dinner progresses and at the end, you drink the wonderful soup. It's really a meal suitable for winter, which is what the season is traditionally during Chinese New Year in the northern hemisphere, but our guests and us enjoyed it nonetheless. 

By the time the cupcakes came out, our guests were all too full to eat much but they brought some cupcakes home. They were white chocolate cupcakes and I especially made effort to include various symbolic items related to Chinese New Year. There were the traditional chinese girl and boy; cherry blossom tree and flowers, asymbol of Spring; firecrackers; red packets and the words "Gong Xi Fa Cai", a greeting we exchange when we meet others. Basically it means to "congratulations on prosperity". The Chinese it appears are pretty obsessed with getting rich...lol. 

The white chocolate cupcakes were one of the best tasting ones ever and again, I had loads of fun making the decorations with fondant.

Love At First Touch

Hi Everyone!
I'm a homemaker who got the baking bug after moving to Melbourne 4 years ago. Well, it's no secret that I've always like sweet food, especially cakes and pastries, hmm...I can never say no to them no matter how full I am. So baking and making yummy cakes for myself and my family (well, mainly for me ;) became a past time and hobby. Since then, each year, I personally baked the birthday cakes for both my sons and my husband. I stopped short of baking my own birthday cake. I would but they say it's my birthday, I should take a break.


Anyway, other than those special occasions where I'll make some effort to decorate my cakes, I never bothered to put icing or decorations on my cakes. Cakes were meant for eating right? But December last year, I caught sight of some really pretty fondant decorations done by "Magicyn" (from Singapore) for cupcakes. They made the cupcakes look so good and appealing. I wondered if they were difficult to make.


With the encouragement of "Magicyn" and a bit of tuition over Face Time, I began to try making my first fondant creations. There was a party coming up for Christmas and I decided to bring a set of Christmas themed cupcakes there.


Here's a glimpse of my very first attempt at cupcake decoration.

They were very amateur and I spent a lot of time but I had loads of fun. Like a little child playing with Playdoh, I created little models related to Christmas. From angels to snowman to Christmas stocking and Christmas trees. I only had 2 bottles of liquid food colouring then - red and blue, so the colours were not too vibrant. And I fumbled the most with the icing but luckily the little decorations kind of distracted the attention from my lousy skills at spreading icing. Upon completion, I felt a magical sense of achievement. I think I just found my latest hobby!


I created this blog to share photos of my cupcake and cake decoration projects under the brand name "D'Cupcakes of E". This is also for me a documentation of my growth and journey in baking as well as a showcase of what D'Cupcakes of E have to offer. Please enjoy the photos and I would like to hear from you if you like what you see.