2013 Recap

2013 has been a busy year. My caking activities took a new turn this year and I discovered my love for bobblehead cake toppers. To my utter delight and amazement, it turns out I'm not the only one loving those bobbleheads. As a result, it's been a steady stream of orders through the year and almost every weekend has been a bobblehead weekend, hence why I've neglected my blog. 

In addition to bobbleheads, I also discovered a fitting name for my little hobby-turned-small-business, Cakicature, which is a play of words combining "cake" and "caricature." I set up a Cakicature Facebook page and a website as well. Do click on the links and check them out. 

To all those people who have been a great source of support to me this year, I'd like to say a big Thank You. My hubby Greg for being so patient, my fellow cake decorating friends on Facebook, whom I fondly refer to as "my cakey friends" - an uber thank you.... yes, you know who you are! Thanks for all the invaluable support, advice and awesome tips. And of course, to all my customers, thank you muchly for giving me the opportunities to make such a variety of bobbleheads and cake toppers. They each have their own unique challenges and I've learned so much more from them. 

Finally, I'd like to thank the master cake artists whom I've been fortunate enough to meet and learn from by attending their workshops - Peggy Tucker and Dawn from Dinkydoodle. The skills I learned from you have greatly expanded my capabilities. Oh, and all those Craftsy video lessons have been truly priceless as well. 

I still have one more person to thank, and that's Gary from Oldvision for his "how to pack fragile items" youtube. If not for this youtube video, I wouldn't have a clue how to pack and ship my bobbleheads safely. Check out his video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4X-8a2YVtw

That's my oscar-wannabe-speech done. Hahaha! Here're a few pickies from 2013. First, the bobbleheads....

And I made some cakes too...

Uncle Bill's racing cake

A 90th birthday cake for Jo's uncle who likes horse racing. 

I make LCM shapes for the horses - head, body and legs.

Cover the shapes with fondant.

Assemble the body and leave it to harden overnight. My trusty silicone petit four mould to the rescue, as usual.

Next day I attach the heads and use paper towels to hold them in place. I then leave these for a few days to dry out and harden properly. This is necessary to ensure that the legs would support the weight of the body and head.

Add details. I pipe the hair and tail using a Makins clay extruder - used only for fondant. If you have a clay extruder that you've used for clay or polymer clay, you need to get a new one. I never mix food tools with non-food tools. The same goes for brushes and other equipment.

Don't forget to make 2 holes for the nostrils.

For the ears, start with 2 small teardrops.

Make a line indent on each teardrop.

Attach the ears.

I cut a cardboard cake board into a rectangular shape and cover with green fondant. I make railings out of toothpicks covered in white fondant.

Fine details are added - jockey complete with boots and caps and a fallen jockey adds to the drama.

Final cake is quite different from what I've originally planned! I initially thought of a rectangular cake iced with buttercream (Jo wanted the most simple flavours) and covered with green tinted desiccated coconut, topped with the horses and race track. But when I completed the topper, I realised I didn't have a cake box large enough for a rectangular cake. So, the cake design was converted from rectangular to round. Can't take credit for the design, though coz I found heaps of cakes like this on google. BUT, I can take credit for the fallen jockey idea! LOL.