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 :-)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Guys, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Hope you all have a great time enjoying your holiday! As for me, it won't be any traveling at all, maybe just hanging out in the malls or if I am lucky enough, going to the beach when the weather and transportation allow and T's office is closed. So are you going somewhere?



Lately I have been quite swamped with cupcakes and became fond of them. There was a few corporate orders that sum up to 500 pieces of vanilla cupcakes required to be delivered within one week. It was kind of fun and amusing exploring how I could cope with tight deadlines, and cupcake stress.



When all was over and I looked back at the cupcake moment, I was pleased knowing that I have done my part in spreading joy to other people during this festive season, particularly those who have consumed my cupcakes. Hopefully at the end of it, those who liked them would do their part spreading words to their friends and I would get to bake more cupcakes next year, right?



As for now until the end of the year, I am delightfully taking my day easy, although I have to start thinking about the UK visa application soon.

Let's wish all the best for our 2012! Good luck and greatest success for all of you!

London... London

It has been a while since the last time I posted something on this blog. My apology to all of you who have taken the time to drop by only to find the same old post. And my gratitude to all of you who have sent warm regards and concerned emails asking how I was doing. Thank you!



A couple of things happened that took my time entirely away from blogging. First I was so overwhelmed of preparing my entry to the ICCA Wedding Cake Competition in Malaysia taking place end of last September. It was my very first competition so it was understandable how seriously I must have taken it. A three week dedication that consisted of flower preparation, coloring and dusting, and a lot of rolling and folding. In the meantime I also had to worry about the flight, accommodation, and how to carry my cake on board.



I was just super busy. There were times when I thought it was just too tiring joining such overseas event and should just quit. But then T was always there to comfort me and put me back on track thinking positively that it was a worthwhile journey of experience, either win or lose at the end. Due to the number of things we need to hand carry into the airplane, T finally decided to accompany me for the trip. A great support came just right in time, one week to the competition day.

Daring Bakers' Candylicious

Thanks to Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!, this month is passing by with lots of fun, call it candy fun!

I am sure many Daring Bakers have developed great chocolate and candy creations, and that is why I have been so excited about this challenge, and make sure that I will not skip it, no excuses whatsoever. This is a great challenge I have been looking forward to...



Personally I felt great that finally got to make a chocolate version of Ispahan, which is a blend of white chocolate, rose water, and lychees. It is in fact a compatible match with almonds, so I just can't wait to eat all these once the photo shoot is over. And they are in pink, who could resist?

At the same time, I also made Lychee Delight (a lychee version of Turkish Delight)and Coconut Lime Chocolate Truffles. So all in all, I have made two chocolate candies and one non chocolate candy. It has been a great time and I am on my way to fulfill my craving for chocolate right after this. I am sure you are too, aren't you?



The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies!

Shopping Bag

T landed a birthday cake order, for his company who runs a stylish shopping center in Bangkok. He was very excited about it as he was in charge of organizing the party and keen on making it extraordinary.



He thought I was the right person who could make the cake that fitted the occasion. I asked him what he had in mind and he firmly conveyed that the cake had to represent the company's business. So after throwing a few ideas, T settled on a fondant cake in a shopping bag shape. That would be the first customized fondant cake for such birthday event in his company and he was sure everyone would be delighted about it.



Apparently I was just as excited as him about the cake. Took the initiative to do a sample cake one week before the actual event. Just wanted to make sure that it would be the right size and decoration that would fit the theme that he had planned out for the party. It was also a good practice to get all the things right for the real cake.



Everything went smoothly with the sample cake, and the real cake in the following week. It was so much fun watching the company's staff who attended the party taking turns in photographing the cake. And as for the next day, I had seen at least two or three persons including the cake photos in their Facebook. Cool!



My conclusion is as everyone likes shopping, everyone seems to like a shopping bag cake too. Thanks T for having the confidence in me! And hope you all enjoy the photos of the pink sample cake and the purple real cake!

Daring Bakers' Fraisier

I had thought about skipping this month’s challenge due to my lack of focus. My mind was filled with thoughts about completing a shopping bag birthday cake which was initially being ordered for delivery on 22nd this month. For some reason it was postponed for another week and the new date was 27th which was also the date of delivering Daring Bakers’ Fraisier. It was tedious to concentrate on a couple of things at the same time so I finally decided to just focus in my shopping bag project.



The cake was delivered on time and I thought that was it – me setting aside the Daring Bakers Challenge and was merely happy with one achievement rather than two. But then something happened, on the way back home T bought me 2 packs of strawberries out of the blue. He never did this before and it was like a hint that within whatever time left out there I had to continue with the challenge, even though I was late. Well, better be late than never at all, right?



So there I was, making the best I could mending for the lost time. And I should really say that I am glad that I have done it. This Fraisier is filled with strawberries and instead of having a layer of almond paste on the top, I chose to cover it with Mango Jelly. I was just so in a mood of summer due to my boredom of the rainy season we have right now, so mango and strawberry definitely brighten up my day… and I am sure they will to yours too.



Thanks to Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes for this wonderful challenge. Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.