Dior

A red Christian Dior bag, a birthday dedication for Ning.

The Vow

Are men not into cakes? Apparently most men eat cakes, but they don’t seem to take much effort reaching out to cakes, especially if it comes to ordering customized cakes. Over the years, the number of male customers ordering my cakes could be counted by fingers. Why so?



So when recently Scott, a British gentleman rang me I had a great surprise. He wanted a special cake for his wife, Da as their second anniversary present. She is a LV bag fanatic and adores anything blue and purple. I promised him (and myself) that I would do my best to craft her surprise bag along with her fancy Anemone flowers.



I had to admit that this bag reminded me of the scenes in the movie “The Vow”, the story about the power of love and the possibility of falling in love with the same person all over again despite a memory loss. The most touchy moment was when Paige, played by my favorite artist Rachel Williams declaring her wedding vow.



“I vow to love you love life
To always hold you in tenderness
And to have patience that love demands
To speak when words are needed
And to share the silence when they are not
To agree to disagree on red velvet cake
And to live within the warmth of your heart
And always call it home”



And her husband, Leo played by the latest Hollywood heartthrob Channing Tatum replied...

“I vow to fiercely love you
In all your forms, now and forever
I promise to never forget that this is a once-in-a-lifetime love
And to always know in the deepest part of my soul
That no matter what challenges might carry us apart
That we’ll always find the way back to each other”.



And suddenly, my room is completely filled with the air of love!
Scott and Da, Happy Anniversary!
Wish you both all the greatest joy in love and life!

Jill and Matt

When I got a call from Jiab, Jill’s sister I knew that Jill and Matt’s wedding ceremony was finally confirmed taking place in August and that meant that I would be making them a wedding cake. Everything went so as apparently both Jeab and Jill were very easy going and Jill knew exactly what she wanted: a blue wedding cake. It took us merely one short lunch and one email later to settle with a cake design that incorporated 150 cupcakes along the tiers. And we also agreed that blue would be accompanied with a play of white, yellow, and pink.




Jill was thrilled of having peonies, to be exact giant white peonies as the main flowers for the cake, and suggested plumeria as the secondary flowers as there will be lots of plumeria trees in the garden where the wedding ceremony was planned to take place.




In the afternoon of August 25th I and Ning, my buddy traveled on a one and a half hour drive before we assembled the cake next to a swimming pool in a beautiful, mainly in blue decorated garden at a farm in Nakornpathorm,60 kilometres West of Bangkok. Ning was very handy and briefly worked out an impressive white satin table set-up (Thanks, Ning! You are the best!), while I was concentrating in arranging the flowers and cupcakes. My final touch was placing my very last blooms at the top tier cake. Just as it was accomplished, I allowed myself to exhale in total relief.




The completed cake quickly found many happy faces. Lots of photos were taken. There were cheers and laughter everywhere and guests were so relaxed and into the mood of romance.



I just love weddings, don’t you?

Hibiscus

A while ago in Farnham I was introduced to Alyson Reynolds by Beverley Dutton of Squires Kitchen. At the same time I got a great opportunity to attend her Hibiscus class. It was such an exciting and inspiring class that I had got the Hibiscus image sticked to my mind ever since.



Inside the class, Alyson was a great teacher who managed to create a playful yet comprehensive learning session for all the students. Outside, she was a warm and cheerful friend who always had a big smile. We had great conversations about her flower craft of both sugar and cold porcelain. Alyson had shared many useful tips and tricks of the craft. We also talked about her first published book "Autumn Glory - Cold Porcelain and Sugar Flowers". A great book to keep!





Before we parted, we had hoped to meet again next time and wishfully if time permits in the future, there would be a scenic drive to Scotland, her country of residence.



Back home, I like to remember the special moment of meeting Alyson and making beautiful Hibiscus. "Thanks Alyson! You have been such an inspiration!"

Gold

It has been a long silence here in this blog. If you happened to read my previous posts, you might have guessed what I was up to. Suffice to say, it was a complete break that was filled with exciting competition, learning experiences, tool quest, fun, and new friendships.



Where to begin? After an intensive 3 week preparation of the 2012 Squires Kitchen cake competition pieces, I was finally on my flight to London on 8th of March. My heart was beating hard and my mind went restless. A journey into an exciting unknown event was felt like going to a marvelous yet dangerous fairground. Especially when the flight to London was scheduled to arrive in late afternoon followed by supposingly one-hour drive to Farnham. So I bet by the time I was in Farnham it was already dark. Haunting dark. My worries had set in all at once.



Amidst my worries, I insisted on making the best use of my time during a 5-hour transit in Shanghai Airport. The airport had to entertain the sight of me touching up my miniature wedding cake in the passenger sitting area. Several Mandarin-speaking women couldn't help themselves from approaching and questioning me of what I was doing. My quick smile response managed to send them away but yet each of them was so thoughtful of leaving polite complement for my cake. "Thank you and sorry for declining a chat!" was a grateful message sent back silently as I quickly went back to work on the beads. Hours passed by without notice, the next thing I knew was the loud boarding announcement was fueling my anxiety - I had to stop and embark to the next flight!



11-hour flight to London was daunting. The food was horrible, seat was uncomfortable and I couldn't sleep. The over two hundreds in-flight movies were suddenly so stale and boring, I shut the screen off and tried to close my eyes as long as I could.

Ivory

It was great working with just one color: ivory, a strong color despite its light and humble being. It carried pure charm that didn’t need to shout just to be noticed. And it owned an elegant property that never missed to impress any cake decorator who determined to indulge in this color. I truly had my special moment with it.



It was also intriguing working with a single color and anticipating how it would turn out at the end. Apparently my client was pleased that she got just what she had expected for her wedding. Could it be the fact that a bride just couldn’t resist a cake with accessories on it? A simple touch of silver dust and sheer glaze was all that it needed to turn heads.



Well, January was a month of bliss welcoming the year 2012. And with this joy I present this piece of work to you! Enjoy :-)