Miss Shortcakes: July 2012

Monday, July 23, 2012

A Pink and Glittery Baby Shower

Recently, a very old, dear friend of mine, had her baby shower to welcome her little girl that's arriving in a few week's time. I was supposed to attend, but due to conflicting dates with another friend's 1st Birthday party, I had to regretfully decline.

Lo and behold, as fate turned out, I was dreadfully sick anyway the entire week, so I couldn't go to EITHER of the parties! But anyway, I still ended up making the 2 cakes for each party as promised, but only just managed to scrape through.

I decided to write a post on her baby shower as it was so pretty! Her younger sister, Azuree and husband, Mark organised the party and I loved all the little details.

The theme was based around the colours hot pink, gold, and a hint of diamonds. And the party was held the happy couple's home in Damansara Perdana. It was such a shame that I missed the event, but I look forward to meeting her little bub very soon!

Here are some of the pics taken from the party, from her Facebook page, with her permission, of course.

Bombonniere

Table setting with fresh lilac daisies

A peek through the clothes line :)

I love this photo. Great feature wall.

Pretty pink clothes line

Gorgeous dessert table. That gold mirror sets it right off!

Proud hubby and glowing Mum-to-be

I love this photo too :)

My cake!

To Azwin and Mark, I'm sure you'll make the bestest of best parents to a very lucky girl! Congratulations once again! xx Miss Shortcakes

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Gorgeous cakes this weekend!

It was Etto's 1st birthday weekend and what a lucky boy he is to have 2 parties. The first one was a swimming party as Etto loves to swim. His mother requested a swimming pool with Etto, of course in the pool amongst the usual suspects of beach ball, flippers, bucket, and sunglasses.

I decided to place different shades of blue mosaic tiles around the side of the cake, to make it look like the tiles used in a swimming pool. The "water" in the pool was a flat piece of marbled blue icing, then I used cold mirror gel, mixed with a little marble blue royal icing mixture, to create "movement" in the water. I think this method gives it a much softer touch, rather than just straight royal icing, which makes it look very stiff.

I was very happy with the result of the cake, and the colours as well, were very pleasing to the eye.Will definitely repeat this design again, as is!

The next party planned for Etto, was sports-themed. His parents are huge fans of soccer and football and I think the entire family would love for Etto to be a sportsman.

So, the theme of the party was orange and green, and I designed his cupcakes based on the invitations sent out.

And there's Etto, in his Arsenal jersey, sitting amongst his Sports-themed cupcakes. I LOVE the orange against the brown cupcake casings, and the black board also made the cupcakes really jump out at you!

And finally, I had an old friend's Baby Shower cake to do as well. She wanted something girly with hot pink, gold, and diamonds as the theme colours of the party.

Mind you, the budget was tight, so instead of a 3D pram, I suggested for 2D, but with touches of gold and diamonds, and ruffles. I think it looked fantastic! So there you go, 3D need not necessarily be the ONLY way to go!

The rest of the cake had a few baby items such as a rattle and pacifier, and she also wanted some name blocks, with the words, "It's a girl!" on them. Instead of the creating a letter for each block, as I always do, I decided to handpaint the message using only 3 blocks.

For one, the cake was only little, so I had to resize the blocks according to the cake size. And I also had limited space on the cake board. It worked out terrific and looked so much better than having a letter for each block, in this case.

The white polka dots on the cake add some sweetness, and I also added a few gold polka dots, just to make it a little more interesting.

It was a simple cake, but I really loved how gorgeous it turned out.

Hmm....I might have to make this a Miss Shortcakes signature Baby Shower cake :)

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Beautiful Weddings in Malaysia

I love being a part of a wedding. As stressful as it may be for all the wedding vendors, when everything comes together beautifully, you can't help but feel proud that you were part of that special day.

Here in Malaysia, a "small" wedding is considered for 300 people and under. The norm, I would say is around 500 - 600 guests. Everyone is invited! Most Malaysian families are quite large. One can have at least 5 aunts and 4 uncles, along with 25 cousins, out of which half of them have spouses, and children. And that's just one part of the family. It extends even further and some don't even know of these "relatives", until they get put down on the guest list!

But they do go all out for the wedding. If I'm not mistaken, the Malays usually hold the legal and religious part of the wedding, called "Akad Nikah", at home. It still is a serious affair and lots of preparation is involved. This particular ceremony that I was involved in was for 600 people, and it was at the bride's family home.

Dozens of tables set up, outside the home and all over the entire street.

Bridal table

My cupcakes

Later that evening, I had to deliver another wedding cake, but this time to a hotel ballroom. It was decorated in fresh pink, lilac, cream, and blue flowers and I could see, all details were covered very thoroughly. It was a very pretty set-up indeed.

The cake, was a monster-sized cake. My largest cake to date, made from home, that is. It measured around 70cm tall and the base of the cake was 14" wide. The bride and groom were keen on a hexagon-shaped top tier, and also wanted some pretty and to suit the theme of the night.

I was so excited to make this cake and I loved making all the sugar flowers too! It turned out so pretty and I was very happy with the result. Delivering the cake was the worst part of the job. But lucky me, my dearest brother gave a much-needed helping hand with the delivery!