Hailey's 3rd BIRTHDAY CUPPYCAKES

Hailey's turning 3!!! Her mum and dad (Cylynn & Eminem a.k.a. "The Riddler" -- yes, private joke peeps...) said she was into her blue-ballet-princess phase which, in no way was easy to combine baking-wise. Princesses have always been pink to me. Ballet, well, there's nothing you use in ballet that's easy to design. And blue -- well, Hailey's a baby girl. I smell a predicament.

So, the challenge begins..

I started out brainstorming how to design the cupcakes. I decided that a ballerina would wear ballet shoes, a princess would have a crown and wand ("scepter" I think is the appropriate word.. getting it confused with a ballerina-fairy now!), and the little girl is turning three. Blue would be the base color of the cupcakes and all the miniature candies would be pink. Predicament solved.

Although I was tempted to simply use buttercream icing for all, using mini-candies out of sugar and putting them on buttercream in humid Philippines was not going to be a good idea. So using homemade white chocolate fondant (no more ready-to-roll store-bought! Applause!!! Applause!!!) I wrapped the surfaces of the cupcakes with blue fondant discs, embossed with daisies. This way, everything would stay dry until cake time.

First up was creating the daisy wand-heads (scepter-heads!), with silver dragee centers:

Second was to make the bases of the ballet shoes. Ballet shoes have no rigid shapes, which is exactly why this was the HARDEST part of the whole project.. A single shoe could never look exactly right!

In the raw

Stringing the soles

Then, cut-out the mini-3's...

I attached the daisy head to the wand handle (scepter handle!!) which was in yellow to spruce up the colors a bit.

sorry for the unfocused photo =P

The ballet shoes looked much more real with the pink laces! 

And so, the final products... Ballet shoes, #3 buttons and wands (SCEPTERS!!!)

Note the crown in the background. Threw it in as a freebie.

Teal shades are bluer in reality. Camera settings weren't  cooperative in the shade.

'Til next project!

HAWAIIAN WEDDING

My friend Nina, had introduced me to a great couple who wanted a Hawaiian-themed outdoor wedding this October. Lemuel & Eunice decided on a cupcake tower with teal-colored lei orchids and flip-flops on the beach. After getting a few ideas on the web, I finally came up with the final look for the whole tower. Browse through the whole process of my Hawaiian sunday, as the cupcakes took shape...

I used our best-seller moist chocolate cupcake recipe as the base for both the cupcakes and the main cake. Now, it is my first time EVER to try making my own fondant, as an effort to rise up to my brother's challenge. Trying a white-chocolate fondant recipe, I think this turned out beautifully, despite humidity problems where I am.

Here are the orchids drying out in their molds:

5-petal petunias using silicon veiner mold
and platinum dust and silver dragees

Huge thanks to my sister, Cynthia, for all the wonderful cutters she sent me for  my birthday.. At least you know they've been put to good use!

Here is the main cake to be placed on the very top of the tower, The 6-inch is a dummy cake made with my homemade white chocolate fondant while the real 9-inch cake base I couldn't risk sabotaging so I used Satin Ice White/Vanilla fondant. As you can see, the homemade one looks EXACTLY like the commercial fondant, BUT it was much cheaper, with better tolerance in humid weather (Satin Ice perspires rather quickly )and definitely a yummier flavor! The only plus to the commercial fondant was it was easier to handle and roll out.

Moist chocolate with white rolled fondant

Next up is the garnishing for the cupcakes.. I hand-cut mini flip-flops from scratch (Thank God they didn't want Crocs!!) and attached white straps w/ flowerettes to match the beach umbrellas:

Havaianas, anyone?

Actual size. That's a regular pen right there.

70 cupcakes
x 2 flip-flops per pair
x 2 straps per flip-flop = 280 straps!!!
My aching back!!!

 After placing the teal orchids on buttercream frosting and slippers on a bed of graham cracker crumbs as faux "beach sand", we assembled the final tower with the cupcakes resting on teal ribbons.

flip-flops on the sand

flip-flops in the shade

 Here is the final tower without the main cake. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take a final picture with the main cake on top. We kept the main cake indoors because rain was threatening to fall. So there, happy Hawaii to all!!

Special thanks to: 

Cynthia Corpus (for the cutters), 

Billy del Rosario (for the inspiration), 

Nina Comsti (for the referral), 

Lemuel & Eunice (for trusting me on your special day and Congratulations!), 

Ella, Nick, Glen, Nicelle, Maymay, Jessa (my angels - for all the assistance)

And the RSR, CRP, CRR cake fund. 

See you at my next cake project!

HELLO EVERYONE!

Wow. My very first blog site. The people in our kitchen are really more of foodies than techies so pardon us for a very simple and minimalist blog space. I used to think blogging was really created more for ranting and stalking (hahaha!) until I realized that most of my favorite sources on food ideas came from blogs rather than recipe archives or official food websites.

I decided to create this blog more for personal networking purposes rather than business gains. Somehow there is something comforting about the thought that there are so many home-based bakers and hobbyists out there who are more than willing to share know-how, ideas, suggestions and troubleshooting advice. I wanted to be both a sharer and a receiver.

I despise the fact that a lot of recipe archives found on the net DO NOT actually give the real recipes and a lot of the details are vague such as "1 pack of gelatin" or "1 cup of oatmeal". For long-time bakers this is really frustrating, if not downright useless, and it is very misleading for amateur bakers who are only beginning to precisely master this already complicated exact science. What's a "pack" supposed to mean? 30 grams? 1/2 cup? Any brand? (Careful, in my country, a pack could be misheard as a foul word hahaha!) Or what kind of oatmeal are we talking about? Quick-cooking, instant, rolled or old-fashioned?

So on this blog, I plan to write about whatever my baker's life may bring, from new-found test kitchen recipes, to kitchen disasters and woes, to ingredient/brand comparisons, to launching the latest products of Kraze Kitch Bakeshop, to baking how to's that trouble me and leave me scratching my head...anything to do with food and the kitchen.

Bear with me as I slowly build this blog, do give suggestions on what you'd like to exchange ideas about! I'm excited to learn from you and I hope I can teach you a trick or two too!

-Cat

A note on who is behind this blog... I am Cat, from Manila, Philippines who discovered the joy of baking by accident. Fortunately, with the help of family, I have been able to establish a small business which is a dessert commissary. Together with my partner, we have tried to create cakes and desserts that we ourselves would eat. With no formal training, I do warn you that whatever comments or suggestions I may give are based solely on opinion, research and personal experience. I do not claim to be a professional in any way.