Before Gina came to me for her husband’s 30th birthday cake, I had no idea what a kettlebell was, let alone Crossfit! She and her husband are part of a Crossfit exercising program. Gina was kind enough to send me some pictures of Crossfit items to give me an idea of what she had in mind. She wanted a 3-D kettlebell cake along with maybe a few decorations. As Crossfit seems to use a lot of kettlebells, barbells, and still rings, I decided to make a 3-D kettelbell cake along with some Crossfit equipments as decorations.
All equipment pieces are made with sugar paste.
Usually a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, only a video will be able to show that the still rings are actually movable and can swing freely.
For the cake, Gina’s husband likes rich chocolate cakes. So I made a sinfully rich double chocolate cake with chocolate ganache.
A note was sent to me from Gina the following day after the celebration that her husband loved the cake and so did everyone at the party. I was very happy to have been part of making Gina’s husband’s birthday special. Thanks to Gina, I learned something new about an exercising program.
Ireen loves chocolate, flowers and bright colors. For her birthday cake, these three things combined was a wonderful inspiration for a great cake. I envisioned a bouquet of bright orange, red and burgundy roses with a glossy chocolate covered cake as the perfect backdrop. Each rose was made by hand petal by petal with modeling chocolate and constructed and sculpted to make the rose look realistic. These flowers simply look too gorgeous to be eaten and the cake too beautiful to be cut.
The orange roses were dusted with red color to add dimension and realism to the petals.
For information on other cakes I have made, please go to https://tweetealicious.com/category/cakes/. If you ever need a custom-made cake for a special occasion, please feel free to contact me at tweetealicious@gmail.com.
Why not make an Afternoon Tea table spread theme cake for a great afternoon tea with some friends? That was what came to my mind when a request came for a cake for a small afternoon tea party. I think if I were a little girl, I would have wanted to keep the miniature table setting for my next tea party play date!
The tea set came with napkins, creamer and a sugar bowl!
The tea stand is almost fully edible with the exception of the rod in the center. It is loaded with small cakes, scones and eclairs.
The tiny rose on top of the double tier cake was made petal by petal by hand.
As for the cake? It is a Yellow Cake with Fresh Raspberry Chocolate Ganache. The tartness of the berries and the sweetness of the chocolate and cake was a wonderful combination which was well received by everyone at the party.
In Asian culture, people take pride in being able to reach a ripe old age. The elders are respected and revered as having been through much in life and wise from having those life experiences. In olden days, younger people stood when an elderly person entered the room as a sign of respect. Much fanfare goes into the celebration of the birthday of an elderly person, which includes large family gatherings and banquets.
Symbols are very important in Chinese culture. As a result, they are often used at these functions in gifts, decorations, and food. One of the most widely used symbol at the celebration of an elderly person’s birthday is the Longevity Peach. A famous Chinese legend, Journey to the West, has it that a longevity peach tree grows at the garden of the Queen Mother of the West. The peaches ripen only every few thousands of years and those who get to eat these peaches will obtain longevity.
Mr. Lin was about to turn 80 by the Chinese Lunar count which calls for a great celebration! His son and daughter-in-law contacted me to make him a Longevity Peach cake for this special occasion. They wanted a light cake and not too sweet. The original idea was to make a 3-D Longevity Peach cake. But a light cake most likely will be difficult to hold up the 3-D structure. Fondant would be the perfect material for the cover of a 3-D cake, but it will be too sweet. So this was my plan: large 3-D Longevity Peach topper with a cartoon like Mr. Lin sitting on top of the cake with another peach in his lap; a Boston Cream Pie is light and not so sweet, providing the perfect chocolate background mimicking wood color of an Asian type platform or tray which would be decorated with Asian paintings.
The large Longevity Peach was made with rice kripsy covered with modeling chocolate and was fully edible. The character and smaller peaches were made with all modeling chocolate.
Here is Mr. Lin’s cartoon character in a traditional Chinese wardrobe inspired outfit:
Chinese trays and furniture were often decorated with ceramic pieces painted with colorful pictures. For the cake platform, 8 different fan shape ceramic like chocolate pieces, each individually piped by hand adorn the side of the cake.
In addition to the symbol of Longevity Peach, bamboo is another symbol for longevity for its character of resilience.
Scenes of nature are often genres for Chinese paintings and decorative objects.
The research for this came led me to pictures of some well known ancient Chinese gardens and paintings. Looking at each picture and taking them in one by one gave me a renewed appreciation of their intricate beauty… Happy birthday, Mr. Lin!
Kyra is a beautiful and vibrant one-year old who was about to turn two. In addition to her obsession over her new kitchen set, Kyra really likes Caillou, a character from a Canadian children’s television show based on the books by author Christine L’Heureux and illustrator Hélène Desputeaux. To make her birthday a really special day, Kyra’s parents contacted me to make her a cake with Caillou.
Caillou and Sailboat Birthday Cake
Being almost a total none TV watching person, I knew nothing about any of the latest popular characters. I turned to the internet and Kyra’s parents to help me narrow down to more specifics. Kyra’s father mentioned a Caillou episode where Caillou went to a park with his grandfather to play with toy sailboat. I watched the short clip. In the episode, Caillou imagined himself on the sea in a sailboat while racing the toy sailboat. So I decided to apply my imagination to give the theme a bit of a twist. So here was the idea: Caillou in a white sailboat loaded with present boxes sitting on top of the cake. Then on the side of the cake there would be scenes of sea life under water.
My first attempt at making Caillou did not turn out as well as I wished. I used gum paste, but I started finding many small cracks on the character the next day probably from the high heat of the radiator. So I decided to start all over again with modeling chocolate as an alternative which was a success. Caillou was complete with all the little details of his shirt collar, buttons, and shoes.
The sail was made with gum paste. Instead of writing “Happy Birthday Kyra” on the cake, I added the script to the sail and named the boat “Kyra” to make it more fun. As nautical themes can be more boy like, I added more girly details such as small red flowers in Kyra’s name on the boat and red, pink and lavender colored present boxes.
Sailboat named “Kyra”Present Boxes in Various ColorsCaillou and SailboatCaillou and Sailboat
At the front and side of the cake, different sea animals along with colorful corals and seaweed adorned the cake, making it more fun and appealing to children.
Stingray with CoralsShark, Shell and SeaweedFish with Colorful CoralsCrab with CoralsMarble Coral
For the cake itself, I made a chocolate chip pound cake filled with chocolate ganache and covered with blue colored meringue buttercream. All the decorations, with the exception of the sail, were made with chocolate or modeling chocolate, making them all pleasantly edible.
Cake in the WorksChocolate Chip Pound Cake
Reflecting on the business of cake decorating, it is a business of making people happy as many businesses do. However, being in the cake decorating business allows one to be included in the celebration of those very special occasions. There was nothing more satisfying than seeing the happy excitement and anticipation on Kyra’s parents’ faces and knowing that I was given the opportunity of blessing and celebrating Kyra’s life on her very special day. Happy Birthday, Kyra and God bless you!
Kirschwasser which specialty liquor from the Black Forest Mountain region in Germany. It is a clear liquor distilled from tart cherries and is typically added to the cake.
In 1933, Ruth Wakefield who owned Toll House Inn with her husband prepared cookies for her guests. While using a cut-up Nestle chocolate bar as a substitute for something she did not have, she created the chocolate chip cookie. Nestle stuck a deal with her later to print her recipe on their Toll House Inn brand chocolate chips in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate.
As the holiday season is upon us again, it is time to think about family dinners and gift giving. It does not have to a nail-biting time or a head-scratcher. Let Twee-tea-licious (www.tweetealicious.com) be your go-to place for your time of gift giving.
Here are some suggestions:
Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinner at the in-laws or friends – a ready wrapped Cookie Gift Box or Scone Gift Box starts at $24
Cookie Gift Box
Scone Gift Box
Christmas Gift Exchange for the Office – a dozen of delicious Shortbread Cookies or 4 Scones in a bag tied with ribbon starts at $9
Scone Bag
Cookie Bag
Something fancy for a dinner party – a gourmet quality cake with filling and frosting which starts at $35 or a one of a kind custom-made cake to make it even more special which starts at $100
Before the creation of electric mixers, a lot of mixing was done by hand. Based on Pound Cake recipes from 1700’s and early 1800’s, how long does one have to beat the ingredients to get air into the batter?
Based on recipe from The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse, facsimile 1747, one has to beat the ingredients for 1 hour by hand or with a wooden spoon! That had better been a great cake after it came out of the oven! Even it was not, I would still heave eaten it and made sure I liked it considering the amount of effort.
Twee-tea-licious 