HAPPY 10TH BDAY NAAVIN

Susan emailed me ordering fifty (50) pieces of MyCupcakes (later added two (2) more instead of me refunding RM5 on the day of pick up) to celebrate her son NAAVIN who turned 10 and that the cupcakes are to have a SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS theme.

First of all from my previous entry:

http://anor-mycupcakes.blogspot.com/2009/08/cartoon-for-athirah.html

I do think that Spongebob Squarepants is one of the most detailed and most difficult cartoon characters I have done so far and so for this order I wanted to take this chance to brush up on my drawing of the same and am quite pleased with how it turned out.

8 colours altogether in order to have this end result.

Can you identify all of Spongebob Squarepants' friends? If you do... am MOST happy of course! =)






The ensemble:


Enjoy the pictures!
Happy 10th bday Naavin.
(I made the wordings for these to look like their "underwater")
Thanks Susan for the order!

Note:

Susan is apparently from Sabah and just to our beloved hometown Kuching and still new with our town and so on the day of pick up, we met at the Shell Station (opposite Plaza Astana), Petra Jaya and I delivered her cupcakes there. Best and easiest and closest landmark to my house.

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My first Celebrity recipient

My brother told me that her friend Niesa wanted to order MyCupcakes as bday cupcakes for her "cuzzie" (cousin) and so I told my bro to tell her to email me the details of her requests. When I got her e-mail she attached a few pictures of her cousin and wanted the same to be turned into edible image but due to the short notice I told her that I wont be able to deliver on time ... that's how I came to know that the recipient of the following is a celebrity:

Can you figure out who it is?
Anor @ MyCupcakes


Note: Since I told her I couldn't possibly comply with her edible image requests, so Niesa came up with the details of the above said deco. Continue reading...

HAPPY BDAY UMMI

My brother in law's fiancee, Ilot initially ordered ten (10) pieces* of MyCupcakes for makan-makan and whenever I bake, I will always always bake extra - for contingency purposes and they were also made for sedekah Maulidurrasul for the surau near our housing area.

Later on she told me she wanted the four (4) cupcakes to be decorated with HAPPY BDAY TO UMMI for her stepmom's bday and so I did the following for her:

4 for her stepmom

6 for Ilot

But later on when she came over to my house to pick up the same, she asked me whether I can deco and have enough to add more cupcakes for the bday cupcakes and I said I am ok with that since I was already in the middle of decorating for Susan (will update you on that one next) and so... Ilot asked whether it would be ok if she could try her hands on decorating and ... so she did deco some on her own ...

So here they are:

16 pieces as bday cupcakes for her step mom

Some I decorated and some are the work of art of Ilot... see if you can identify which is which... but you gotta remember... anything made out of love and heart are the most beautiful creations ... =)

*Note: Minimum order is 16 - but I do make exceptions to family and friends =)

Love
Anor@MyCupcakes

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My little Oko-men (Ultraman) is 2!! Part 2

The reason I wrote the first part to this post is so that you would know the kind of work involved and the planning whenever I have decorating to do (in this case for the bday cake for my son).

I think by now you know them as my "cake thoughts"...

Anyhow, now that you know how the cake came about... here it is peeps... My little Oko-men (Ultraman)'s birthday cake:

I like this angle:

(if you take out the No. 2 candle.. so it becomes EMIR IS "ULTRAMAN" - get it? get it? hehehe)

Enjoy the pictures!

Love,

Mummy and Daddy...

Our hopes is that you will grow up to be a good person and be happy with your chosen path and that we pray that you will always live under the grace and the blessing of Allah swt.

Note: I didn't and couldn't get a pic of him with cake.. cause he was too busy with his new bicycle... Couldn't even get him to blow the candle even... sigh...

Note: I officially started MyCupcakes on 2.5.2009... so this is officially the first birthday cake I made on my own for my son... Am so proud of myself on this one ... very proud indeed!

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My little Oko-men (Ultraman) is 2!! Part 1

Emir was born on 28.02.08 and in a blink of an eye he's now turning 2... and of course this entry would be about his birthday cake...

I wanted to bake Emir a choc cakes and am happy with this new recipe I found for this chocolate cake (using butter), it's easy to do and ... yummy to my taste bud. Will add this to my presently limited menu of vanilla cake and chocolate chiffon cake (using vege oil).

From my previous works, you can see that I have only decorates cakes and cupcakes using buttercream (a recipe which I have tried and modified myself to have that "just nice" sweetness) and that due to its consistency, it is very easy for decorating purposes. But for Emir, I wanted to try chocolate frosting for the cake... so I tried this recipe and the taste turns out yummy.

But the thing is I do not like the process of "melting choc" and... the clean up afterwards.. hence the hesitation to try and do "ganache" and such.. but for Emir, mummy wanted to try out something different for his cake....

When I tried this choc frosting, I had imagined the consistency to be similar of buttercream and that I would pipe nice wave-y deco for Emir's cake but it turns out the consistency is very much like "water" ... that's how I would describe it.. but then again once you pour the same unto the cake and your smooth the same... it'll set and and the consistency is fudgy like... that's the best I could describe it to you I guess...

So a bit messy here and there... but the effect on the cake was lovely and it compliments the fondant deco I did for my little Oko-Men...

I achieved what I wanted for Emir's cake:

1. try out a new choc cake recipe - loved it - very easy to do/the texture of the cake is firm and makes it easy to deco/taste yummy to me

2. try out choc frosting instead of my usual buttercream - I like the taste of the same and how it looks on the cake... but I found out that I don't like dealing with "melted choc" because I do not like the process of melting the same (using double boiling method cause I do not have a microwave - I might change my mind if the latter makes the process easier and less messy) and the clean up later...

3. kept the fondant deco.. all sweetness.... just like mommy's little boy...

End of Part 1

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Don't you have a "Package"?

A customer called me asking about how much would I charge for engagement cupcakes and I would normally answer (be it by sms/email/calls) would be "how would you like your deco to be?" ... and once I have the answer like... "I would like 25 pieces of simple swirl deco ..." ... then my answer would be then "for simple swirl deco I charge each cupcake at RM2/piece so in total your amount would be RM50.00.

OR that in certain cases... "I would like 16 pieces of simple swirl deco but I would like them to be packed in those clear window box". So I would then answer, your total then would be RM40 (ie RM2 X 16 = RM36) and you just add RM4 for the box.

Case closed. Deal sealed.... next move to arrange time to bake and deco and to ensure orders are completed.

How I wish that it was that simple...

but then again... my cupcakes are not decorated just by simple swirl... hence all the special request/decorated ones like BEN10 theme... with specific writings... are charged at RM2.50/piece and in this case, calculation is still easy. but then there are also requests like mini fondant handbags, bikinis... tiny hearts... fondant letterings... each deco would vary depending on difficulty of requests... and not taking into accounts top full fondant plus fondant deco...

Hence, the variation to the pricing.. but when it comes to fondant deco it would roughly be:

buttercream with fondant deco - RM3 - RM3.50
top full fondant (with deco) RM4 -5
(Still as I said prices will vary subject to request)

Initially peeps... I fell in love with cupcakes and decorating them as pretty as they should be but later on... little did I know that I would fall in love again... with decorating cakes! Who would've guessed that from lil tiny cakes that I would be decorating cakes for birthdays... to engagement... to wedding cakes!

So, here's where the headache starts for me .. how do I charge? How to customize details for my cakes and the pricing? For example, the size of cake... the frosting involved... then comes fondant (and that is different game altogether). Others seemed to be doing it effortlessly when it comes to this... which is why it is sooo much easier to just give them away right? Like the fondant cake I did for Aina, Aini and Alya... or the Tigger deco for Qaisara... or bday cake for Suszainne...

So far I have finalised a few of my BIG cake pricing and it is still a working progress...

What I would hope in the near future that I would be able to finalize the pricing (neither do I want to over charge MyCupcakes' customer nor do I want to over charge either right?) wherein what I aspire from that is that you... our customers would be able to crunch the numbers and punch all the right digits on your calculators and roughly estimate how much your very own order would be... both for cupcakes and big decorated cakes...

We are still a working progress peeps... so much to learn and to improve...

The reason for this entry was prompted by a question - "kitak sekda package ka?" (Dont you have a specific package pricing?". And my answer to her was that... it all depends on what you want ... and not one order is the same ....

For eg, for a minimum order of 16 - and the requests are as follows:
5 swirls then it'll be RM10 and
10 of special request cupcakes, then it will be RM25 and
1 top covered with fondant with a mini fondant handbag deco then it will be RM4.50
packed in clear window box - to add RM4
So here you total sum order would be RM43.50


.... hence my answer to that would be as of now, I do NOT have a specific package pricing."

Note: hmmm... maybe I should be thinking about this - fix my price and come up with specific package pricing like RMxx.xx for XX no of cupcakes with specific deco) ... hmmm... let me sit on this and see how ok?

Then again... if you guys have some more suggestions for me to improve on this... do drop some comments... any inputs is much appreciated.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAK UDA

Kak Adlin ordered sixteen (16) pieces of MyCupcakes with top fondant and left all the deco to me and only requested for the wordings HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAK UDA.

I wanted to keep it sweet and simple and I thought a double layer of the fondant lettering would give it a much more nice height and a 3-D look to it =)

So here they are peeps:

Enjoy the pictures!

Thank Kak for the order.
Happy birthday MAK UDA.

Note: had to show off my shiny shiny stickers ... =)

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NISA's ENGAGEMENT CAKE

Ewin called me and said that her cousin Nisa is getting engaged and would like to have an engagement cake to be one of her hantaran items. Actually Nisa wanted tulips with long stems and leaves... but the request was made (prior to my busy busy weekend baking and decorating for Amy, Misa, Ellyn and En Zul ie 13-14.2.2010) so I couldn't comply with her tulip request because:

1. Due to the short notice, I dont have time to sit down and make the flowers myself and

2. When it comes to edible flowers for engagement cake, it must be spectacular and I will not compromise the deco on the cake. It will not look good on the cake and I would never ever want to be associated with shoddy work....

Note: Which is exactly why it is very very important to give me ample time k...

So, I suggested to Nisa and that I'd go to My Sweet Secret at Matang (they supply beautiful beautiful flowers from http://www.cakeconnection.com.my/ ) and take photos of the flowers they have there and mms the same to her for her to choose.

The deco requested by Nisa was the cake to be all white and that she would like dots on the side. I just love this kind of design for a cake - classy and simple. That is how it should be.

Oh ya, I forgot to mention to you that Nisa is in Bintulu? And that initially the cake was suppose to try by ROAD all the way to Bintulu from Kuching... which of course gave me a headache just thinking about it! But later on, there was a change of plan.. a good one .. apparently he aunty would travel by plane to Bintulu and she would be bringing the engagement cake to Nisa. Alhamdulillah...

Yes... there is still a BUT to this story...

The arrangement was for Nisa's Aunty/cousin to pick up the cake from my house on THURSDAY and hence I have made plans and arrangement to deco the cake the night before... AFTER... dinner, Emir has taken his bath etc etc... cause that would my routine when it comes to a maintaining a normal and functional time at home.. how can I work when both my main men are hungry and cranky right?

But on WED I got an sms and a call from Aunty Norlia, Ewin's mom that apparently Nisa's aunty's flight on Thursday was actually at 730 AM.... and NOT noon as they thought... and that her aunt actually lives in 12th Mile and that the arrangement would be for me to send to Aunty Norlia's house and somebody would send the cake to Nisa' Aunty's house later that night... I told Aunty Norlia to inform the people at her house that I'd be coming over atleast by 10pm ... or sooner if I could complete the cake earlier.

Chronology of event:

530 pm - got home after picking up Emir from Nursery and went straight to the kitchen (still in my work clothes)

(6pm - 8pm - managed to catch Americal Idol while kneading fondant & decorating cake hehe)

6pm - made one batch of vanilla buttercream and frosted my cake.

... started with the base of my cake board. Finally got to use my patchwork embosser - lovely lovely effect...

... covered the whole cake with fondant

Can you see the white ribbon? The same is "glued/attached" to the cake using royal icing.

... I covered the side of the cake with white ribbon. This is my first attempt at doing this and had my handy cake decorating book on the side as I do this.. and it turned out great! Now I've got plenty of ideas of how to use ribbons for my future fondant cakes!

... prepared my royal icing and made those tiny dots around the cake ... and ...

MY FONDANT CAKE is done! As I said, I just love white fondant cake... just keep it nice and simple and it will turn out great!

Flowers

Now, it's time for the flowers... I bought two types of flowers at My Sweet Secret.

They are:

1. Rubrum Lily Brunch and

2. Blossom Filler Spray

Basically, when I buy these flowers I would have already envisioned how they would look on the cake and that is exactly how I would know what to buy in the first place.

(All the above was completed within 3 hours and I manage to deliver the cake by 930pm)

Note: Which is why DATE and TIME of pick up is VERY VERY IMPORTANT. Please take note ok peeps... dont give me gray hair aaaa)

So peeps, here it is, Nisa's Engagement cake:

On top of the box, I gave a few instructions and prayed hard that the cake will make it safely to Bintulu for Nisa's big day:

1. NOT to keep the cake in the fridge.

2. Keep the box slightly open for ventilation.

3. Keep the box at a cool and dry place/an aircond room.

Anyways, Enjoy the pictures and thank you for taking the time reading this entry...

Despite rushing for time, I am happy that the cake turned out wondeful!

Congrates Nisa on your engagement day!

Regards

Anor

~MyCupcakes~

The occasional Amazing Race engagement cake decorator

Note: I called Nisa and happy to say peeps... the cake made it all they way to Bintulu .. in good condition and she's happy with it... phieeww... sigh of relief there...

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FROZEN BUTTERCREAM TRANSFER

When I first started, honestly I was rather intimidated with hand drawing cartoons based on famous characters like MickeyMouse etc ... cause as I have mentioned earlier in my other entry like:

http://anor-mycupcakes.blogspot.com/2009/06/mycupcakes-marvel-lous-collection.html .. or ... http://anor-mycupcakes.blogspot.com/2009/05/ben-10-for-sue_24.html

I have this absurd imagination seeing kids screaming and running away from my crooked drawing that does not in any way resemble anything like the actual cartoon characters...

But as I progressed and with practice and more practice from one project to another, you become more confident and my hand drawn cartoons gets much better looking... (with the exception of Mickey Mouse at this stage)... For example.. like my BEN10... SHINCHAN... DORAEMON... Am quite happy with them...

But for the above, I am taking in terms of Cupcakes and cupcakes only ... wherein the top diameter of the same is roughly... about 7cm... a very small space to work with... but now that I have ventured in big cakes... larger hand drawn cartoon are very and I would think be quite difficult to do for a larger space ... and to date I have not done such deco ie handdrawn decoration unto big cakes.. as you can see from my work..

Luckily, I have a very resourceful and very the semangat other half who likes doing the research and homework with skills and techniques involved in decorating cakes... and wants me to excel in what I do... am one lucky gal =)

I present to you.... FROZEN BUTTERCREAM TRANSFER (FBT) - Credit goes to Mr Erwin Effendy Sajali for the research and my heartfelt love and gratitude for relentlessly pushing me to experiment and get off my lazy bum to try out this technique.

Basically, this technique would be a further addition to/alternative to edible image and fondant deco... I would say ... the final product is rather life like and you could almost replicate most of the characters I would think.

Why is is called FBT?

1. Once you have done your buttercream design, you would need to keep the same in the fridge for it to harden ... hence the FROZEN bit.

2. Once the said buttercream design has harden, you would then just TRANSFER the said design unto the surface your cake and tadaaaaa.... it's ready!

So now based on what I have done... I would say now that I would know what to do and Insya Allah would be more confident if there is a request for hand draw characters for MyBigCakes...

Anyways, as they say, pictures speak a thousand word and the following would explain everything to my peeps...

Imagine peeps... imagine peeps...

Patrick:

PIGLET:

ELLE

Ensemble of all my FBT:

So, am kind of looking forward to deco a cake request with BFT...

Now, Everybody say it together...

F...... B........... T..........

Just some updates and something nice to share....

Sincerely

Anor

~MyCupcakes~

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FOUR BDAY CAKES FOR ALYA, AINI AND AINA

Amy Joe, one of my BFF, emailed me asking whether I can bake and deco one (1) birthday cake for her daughter, Ms Alya who turned 1 on 14.2.2010 here in Kuching at her parent's place. But of course, I'm just happy to do the same for her and her lil one ... but later on there was a change of plan... Amy told me that the birthday party would now be shared with two other birthday girls, Alya's cousins - Aini and Aina... and she requested for four (4) cakes instead and advised me of her requests for the cakes.

Cake thoughts:

1. 1/2 kg for each cake Amy ... hmmmm (shaking head) ..... ayoooo not so nice lah Amy... so I baked all four (4) cakes my usual batch... roughly 1.3 - 1.5kg each I think... then it'd rise nicely and would have a nice height to the cake... my gift for the girls...

2. For the fourth cake... I'd surprise Amy and all three birthday girls with something sweet and spectacular just like them! fondant ... sweet and simple.. flowers... pastels... pink... blue..

So over the weekend I baked not one, not two... but four (muahahahaha - Count Dracula from Sesame Street style)...

So here they are peeps:

For Princess Alya:

For Princess Aina:

For Princess Aini:

Jeng jeng jeng.... Aunty Anor's birthday present for the girls...

Enjoy the pictures peeps!

Note:

Emir was also invited to the birthday party ... but he had an upset tummy ... and so we had to leave early... but am glad to meet my girlfriends; Amy, Lenny and Lyn (and her boy Adyan)... while wishing the others - Sal, Azra and Eton were here too... I miss my girlfriends... we get together gether soon k. Hugs and Kisses.

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Qaisara's Tigger-rific Bday Cake

When my BFF (Best Friend Forever), Ellyn text-ed me whether I can help to deco Qaisara's birthday cake (for her bday bash on 14.2.2010), there was no doubt in my mind that it'd be a definite BIRTHDAY GIFT from me for cute-sie lil pie... Qaisara. The cake itself was ordered by Ellyn's mom and Ellyn told me that hotel couldn't do a Tigger deco for the cake hence asking me whether I can deco the same for them ... well, a chance for me to brush up on my fondant skills... and I knew exactly how I would want them to be.

The first thing that popped in my head was to do a 2-D Tigger as the main centre piece and some birthday letterings and ... 3-D figurine for Tigger and friends (If I had and could find the time - which Alhamdulillah luckily I did manage to do so)*

Planning peeps... that's the main ingredient to decorating. Otherwise... sure stress one...

The second reason I proposed this fondant deco to Ellyn was so that she didn't have to deliver the cake to my house and in turn I have to send the cake over to hers... I could just bring over the fondant deco to her place and assemble them there unto the cake ... make sense right?

And I specifically told Ellyn that the cake must be at room temp (prior to me decorating it) otherwise... poor Tigger and friends would just wilt due to moisture.... When Ellyn first told me that they've booked the cake earlier, I was afraid that the cake would be frosted with fresh cream and true enough that was what they intended to do... and that with fresh cream you would have to keep the cake in the fridge and that's a big NO NO when it comes to fondant.... so I requested for the cake to be frosted in buttercream instead...

So we went earlier to Ellyn's house, I assemble all the fondant deco unto the cake and here it is peeps:

*btw - that's me hehehe..
a kind note - if you do see me or recognise lil ol me. .. do say Hi... sometimes I am oblivious to the world esp when I go out with my son and of course... all attention and eyes are on him before he's up to mischief...

Back to deccorating Qaisara's cake:

Almost there...

A little bit more...

Tadaaaa... here it is peeps....

Both Emir and Qaisara recognised the figurine... so definitely pass the quality test!


You like? =) Me like-y very much too ... am so happy with the deco =)

Enjoy the pictures!

Happy birthday Qaisara Khadijah.

Beautiful daughter to proud parents - Foraiza and Ellyn...

Word of the day: *ger ger ie Tigger by Qaisara Khadijah

From: Uncle Win, Aunty Anor and bro Emir...

*Note:
People always ask me when do I have the time to do this... here and there peeps... like for these figurines I manage to do them during my lunch break.... gotta be creative not just in terms of the deco... but also in actually finding time to do them =)

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