Catching up!

I haven't posted in a while. Been a busy year. Don't know where to begin so I'll start with my latest bobblehead - here's Slash made for Noah's personal groomer's birthday.

Missy Giraffe

Missy Giraffe is a chocolate overload cake! Her body is 14 layers of Lindt and Koko Black chocolate mud cake and milk chocolate ganache. Her head and legs are cake pops - mud cake offcuts mixed with dark chocolate ganache and formed into shape. Her muzzle and arms are rice krispie treats. Everything else is edible except for the 4 alphabet blocks which are styro blocks.

I made Missy's necklace using isomalt and Marina Sousa's bead mould.

These made-for-kiddies silicone cups are perfect for melting small amounts of isomalt in the microwave. They're great coz just wait for the isomalt to cool and harden, then just pop them out.

Aren't they pretty? Marina's bead moulds are expensive ranging from $30 upwards but well worth it.

 I also made some isomalt butterflies, here's one of them.

I prepared the cake board weeks in advance. First, I covered the board in white fondant, and left it for a few days to dry out nicely. I then made a template for airbrushing.

Airbrush the pink gingham design.

In the meantime, off to see Mr Bunnings again. PVC pipe with connectors. Also got painter's masking tape. My fellow cakie Lisa Brown suggested using masking tape for delicate surface instead of template to avoid wonky lines like what I got above.

Got hubby to attach the PVC pipe to the cake board, then wrap it up with a layer of baking paper and 3 layers of cling wrap to protect it. Oh, don't forget to run the pipe in the dishwasher and wrap with foil before attaching to the board. This is when I got carried away again. Got preoccupied shaping and cutting the support boards, so no in-between pics again.

The pipe is cut to length, attach a small cake board cut from foam board and cover everything in foil.

This forms a platform and support for Missy's head.

Shape head with cake offcuts and ganache, slice and shape RKT (rice krispie treats) for the muzzle. I attached the underside of the muzzle using ganache and held in place with cling wrap while waiting for ganache to set. While waiting, it's time to ganache the body.

 Body and head all ganached, very rough looking, wait for ganache to set.

Once hardened, smooth out with gloved hands dipped in hot water.

Cover in segments. I cut out a template from baking paper for Missy's chest and belly which will be covered in pink fondant later.

Missy all covered.

Add ears and nose.

Eyes and lids.

Close-up.

Add giraffe spots.

Add arms, legs, tail and horns.

This is the fun bit - Accessories!

Ran out of time to done all sides of the alphabet blocks so letters only on one side. Here's the isomalt butterfly and glossy lipstick.

Batty eyelashes are a must to add to the adorable factor. LOL.

Missy Giraffe all ready for a baby shower party. Message to the expectant mother? It's only a matter of time your baby girl will grow up to play with your makeup and jewellery! Hahaha.

"What's wrong mummy? Can't I play with these?"

Another 40

Finished another 40 puppies tonight - Malamutes and Bloodhounds. Took me 4 hours, tired now, off to bed!

Tractor and cats

Made this Tractor and Cats cake for afternoon tea. The cake is to celebrate the end of fieldwork (tractor in the field) and to cheer up friends at work who have been working so hard chasing for monitoring data from various policy areas. We often say "it's like herding cats" and that's what the red cats represent. I'm quite pleased with this effort coz it took me only 6 hours in total, and that includes making the white chocolate cake batter from scratch and baking it (I don't believe in pre-mixes), making the white TimTams filling, carving the cake (with a little bit of help from hubby!), icing the cake, AND making the fondant tractor and cats. Not too bad, eh?

I was a bit concerned about how the cake turned out because this is the first time I'm baking a full-sized cake as opposed to small cakes like cupcakes. I got the recipe from my Planet Cake book. It's a dense white chocolate cake suitable for carving and sculpting and it will not crumble or fall apart. The recipe says bake in 180C for 1 hour 40 minutes and I thought, "gee... that must not be right coz cupcakes take only 10 minutes." So, I was checking the cake every 10 minutes after the first hour, but Paris Cutler was totally right - the cake was done in exactly 1 hour 40 minutes! And, unlike cupcakes, there's no prior tasting... I mean, I cannot just cut a slice of the cake to try! So, it was fingers crossed and watching people's expressions as they take that first bite.... they love it! Success!

Hello Pita and Binboy!

Yes, I think I've gone quite mad. I've assigned names to my sugar puppies! Meet Pita the Purple Pitbull and Binboy the rubbish-loving Bull Terrier. Haha. I made these as showcase pieces to promote cupcakes for the RSPCA Cupcake Day fundraising. Binboy and Pita are strong advocates against BSL (breed specific legislation). Till now, the scariest things they've ever done are raiding the rubbish bin and grocery bag. Watch this space, I think. There'll be more "Adventures of Pita and Binboy."

As always, I get carried away and forget to take any progress pics of Binboy, but here're some pics of Pita. Start with a bar of Kellogg's LCM breakfast bar. Make sure it's the original plain one.

Cut the LCM bar in half and stack them. Roll out some green fondant and wrap the LCM to resemble a green grocery bag. Make it flop and crinkle like fabric to add realism. I also added piping on the sides and attached that little hoop that supermarket checkout chicks use to hang the bag at the checkout. Yes, I'm anal retentive! Various angles of the bag...

 Roll out some brown fondant to cover the exposed LCM.

Add Pita the Pitbull and some carrots.

Add more details - green stems on the carrots.

Add a pineapple coz who goes grocery shopping just to buy a bagful of carrots... hmmm... actually, I DO know someone who once bought 10 kilos of carrots but that's another blog!

Two carrots outside the bag adds to the realism.

Don't forget bag handles!

Here's Pita's buddy, Binboy...

Don't you agree they look good enough NOT to eat!