Monday 23 July 2012

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!

Sunday 22 July 2012

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.

Saturday 21 July 2012

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!

Friday 20 July 2012

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.

Thursday 19 July 2012

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.