Cakes for Hantaran 2015

Wedding and Engagement cakes are my specialty, especially if they adorned with sugar flowers and all things pretty. Brides will send me samples of their trays and decorations, and I will match the cake to the colours and theme.

Some brides will go for feminine, some will go for contemporary, and there's also some brides who want minimal decoration. This year seems to be the trend for 2 tier hantaran cakes, as well as the rustic wedding approach. I love it!

The modern Malay bride won't spare any expense, to ensure their wedding day is as perfect as can be. And I am honoured to be chosen, to contribute to this elaborate affair.

Below are a few of the Hantaran cakes, that I have done this year, so far.

 

 

Kindly email me at jessica.ting@miss-shortcakes.com to find out more about hantaran cakes or wedding cakes. 

Thanks for stopping by!

xx Miss Shortcakes

My Top Ten Cakes of 2014!

Well, here we are again, at the end of the year of 2014. I absolutely cannot believe how quickly this year has flown for me.

I have been SO busy with my  business that my last blog entry was in August 2014, when I filmed my very first video tutorial on Youtube.

2014 marked a beginning of opening my business to the help of others. Since 2008, I have been a one-woman show and now being back in Malaysia, the business has just grown so quickly that I cannot possibly do it all by myself anymore. I decided to hire an intern, to assist me with my day to day duties. It's been the best decision ever. An extra pair of hands makes so much difference!

I was also featured on a local television programme, Women's Zone on NTV7! The crew came over my home studio and filmed a 7 minute slot of me, baking, icing, and decorating a 4 tiered cake. It was such a fun experience! You can view the episode on www.tonton.com.my if you are in Malaysia. Go to Women's Zone and I am in Episode 13 Season 6. 

So if you are based in Kuala Lumpur, have some basic cake decorating experience, be reliable and highly motivated, please email me jessica.ting@miss-shortcakes.com
 
So today is the 31st of December 2014, and I would like to share my Top Ten Cakes of 2014. It's going to be a hard one, but I can already pick a couple which were just stellar designs and took me out of my comfort zone.

10. Butterfly and Blossoms

The cake that started the Floral Ball trend amongst my clients. Love this one for the subtle colours, textures and details.
 
9. Hungry Caterpillar

From the iconic children's story book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar cake. Something I can totally relate to, because my son is a huge fan and so are millions of children all over the world. I had so much fun painting the colour palettes and creating the shapes and decoration. Comments on my Instagram were, "Best Hungry Caterpillar ever seen". *grin*

8. Nursery Rhymes

This cake was based on invitations designed by my favourite girls at www.mint-events.com
I created this 3 tiered Nursery Rhymes cake for a regular client of mine, who's daughter was turning 1. It had Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and Humpty Dumpty as they were Daevinna's favourites.


 






















7. Emerald Ombre

Gorgeous, gorgeous cake!! This was a Maggie Austin design originally, and I changed the arrangement and type of sugar flowers, to include a Magnolia, frilly Ranunculas, and Tulips.
The colour was a mixture of black, green, blue and then it was shimmered with pearl. Loved this colour. The beads were placed one by one with edible pearls and dragees in colours to suit the cake.

6. Black and White Striped Mad Hatter

This cake was for a wedding anniversary, ordered by one of my regular clients as well. She left the design completely up to me and wanted sugar flowers as a must. I decided to do something out of the ordinary with the addition of edible wafer print on the surface of this cake, accented with black and white stripes AND a Mad Hatter shape. The bold colour of the orchids just brought this cake to life. It is my most liked photo on Instagram to date. 

 5. Ivory and Gold Ruffle 

An elegant ivory and gold wedding cake created for Sharmiah. Her theme was vintage and set amongst the beautiful gold and bronze ballroom at Cyberview Resort. This is the cake that started the ruffle trend and led me to create my first Youtube tutorial on how to make these simple, but effective scrunch ruffles. You can view it here Scrunch Ruffle Youtube Tutorial


4. 4 tier Hexagon 

Created for the TV show, Women's Zone, for NTV7. They wanted something tall and elegant, and basically a showstopping showpiece. This design is based on a wedding cake created by Simple Sweet Cakes and Cupcakes from Toronto. I changed the artwork and sugar flowers. Still one of my favourites.

3. 7 Tiers!!

Enough said. I still can't believe I did this all by myself!


2. Watercolour Flamingo

Photo courtesy of Jokee Tan of Coochicoo Lil Mama

Jokee from Coochicoo Lil Mama, and I came up with this Flamingo cake for her Tropical Paradise wedding event. She wanted something very unique and showed me a photo of a wedding cake that had this shape and the orange marbling effect. The artwork that was used at the reception had parrots and flamingos. So I suggested this watercolour effect flamingo, surrounded by gold scroll work. Jokee made paper flowers with crepe paper, to finish off the cake. It was so slim and heavy, that I was so nervous delivering the cake to the venue. Thankfully, it arrived in tact.

It was a marriage made in heaven, so to speak. The cake was stunning!! I loved making it and this also created a big stir on my Instagram page.

And now for the Cake of the Year...

1. Grand Piano 

It is without a doubt in my mind, that this is it - the Cake of 2014. And what a way to finish off the year! Just created a few weeks ago in December 2014, for a lucky man turning 60.

The client wanted a 3D Grand Piano cake, and it had to be as realistic as possible. This is the first time I created a cake on a platform base and upped the ante for complex novelty designs!

I was so nervous and anxious leading up to the cake and it took almost a month of planning to ensure, that this cake would make jaws drop.

My friend, Rob, who's a product designer helped me cut the MDF and base needed for the support of this cake. Thank you thank you thank you!!! Once that was done, everything else fell into place.

It took me 13 hours in one stretch, to decorate and finish the cake.

And here it is!

There will be a blog post to follow this that will show you how I created this masterpiece. My Instagram went nuts as soon as I posted the work in progress shots! This must be THE proudest moment of my entire career. 

2014 Wild card Cake

Only because I couldn't keep it to only 10 cakes, I threw in a wild card. This was a corporate  cake for a jeweller in Malaysia, turning 100. Edible jewels and black scrolls  framed the gold company logo. 

 

Thank you to all my amazing clients who entrust me with their wedding and birthday cakes. I can't tell you how honoured I am to be a part of your special day. Most of all, thank you for allowing me to have artistic freedom. And of course to all my fans who religiously like, comment and share my work from all corners of the world. It is you, that gives me the motivation to keep up the posts.

I'm so looking forward to 2015 and to more exciting projects. Watch this space.
More cake adventures and bigger steps to a brighter future.

xx Miss Shortcakes





 

Choosing a Wedding Cake

Everyone often thinks, "It's just a cake. Why do I have to spend so much on something we are going to eat, anyway?"

Let me tell you that it's not just cake, but it's a statement. The wedding cake is just as big as a statement, as choosing the right gown on your wedding day. It's part of the wedding ceremony, where the bride and groom cut the cake, and feed each other a piece of the cake, as husband and wife. This provides endless photo opportunities for the photographer on the day, and having a beautifully executed cake, that match the details, makes the day complete.

A good timeline to give yourself when choosing a wedding cake, is a minimum of 6 - 8 months prior to the wedding. This will give ample time for yourself, and the cake designer to bounce around ideas and to start planning. Some items may need to be ordered from overseas, or if there are any changes to colours or themes, this timeline is realistic enough to make any necessary adjustments.

Most cake designers are booked well ahead of time, so it's always best to get in as early as possible. Once, I got a phone call for a wedding cake for 300 people on a Thursday afternoon, and the wedding was for that Saturday! I was in utter disbelief, especially when the person over the phone could ask me, "How long does it take to make a cake?!" 

Ahem. For 300 people? Sure, let me see what I have in the back. 

Riiiiight.

Always browse through the portfolio of your cake designer. This will give you an idea of what his or her style is like. You may be after something clean and simple, or romantic and vintage, or traditional and conservative. Most designers these days are willing to replicate a photo, but it will never be exactly the same as the original. Always choose your cake designer for their style, because this will ensure that your cake will illustrate, what they do best.

Top left : Photo courtesy of Mint Events, Bottom left:  Photo courtesy of McKay Photography

Once you have selected the designer, then it's onto the design requirements. The first place to start is how many portions you would like the cake to feed. Do you want it simply for photographs, or would you like each and every guest to have slice of cake? If it's just for photos, then more often than not, you can opt for styrofoam tiers. The bottom tier will be the edible cake, and the rest in sytrofoam. Your guests will not even know the difference. As for cost-wise, it will work out to be slightly less expensive. But having said that, the decorations on the outside still remain the same, which is where most of the time is spent. 


Some brides like to match their dress to their cake, and providing swatches of the fabric and photos of the dress, help the designer recreate it, as close to as possible. From gorgeous ivories to pearl whites, lace work to embroidery, these days almost everything can be replicated into icing and cake. 

I did a Steampunk Wedding cake a few years ago in Sydney. Steampunk was an exciting era of new inventions, corsets, metals, and strong bold colours. What could be more fitting than a cake in rich red, gold, bronze and copper?

Top left: Photo courtesy of Everylastdetail.com, bottom left : photo courtesy of Etsy.com, Steampunk cake by Miss Shortcakes

Left : Photo courtesy of Brides of Adelaide and Cake by Miss Shortcakes

Left photo courtesy of Wedding Inspirasi , dress by Vera Wang, Cake by Miss Shortcakes

Wedding flowers and invitations are also elements which can appear on the wedding cake.  It's best to match the wedding flowers with the sugar flowers or fresh flowers used on the wedding cake. Continuity is key. And also ribbons or textures that were used on the invitations, can be added onto the cake. It's the smallest details that make all the difference.

Here are 2 cakes which were derived from the Wedding Invitations

Some couples also like to customize their wedding cake, in a more personal manner. Below is an example of a personalized wedding cake. The bride was Chinese and the Groom was German. Hence the use of the Chinese lacquer box and German-themed travel stickers on the luggage. Both of them loved to travel and have lived in many places all over the world. 

The most important thing to remember when choosing a wedding cake is, to ask yourself, "Does it suit the theme of the night?". You may like to get a cake with red roses and black detailing, but if your wedding is filled entirely with blush pink and ivory, the cake would look out of place. So in this case, perhaps you can keep the same details of the cake, but change the colours instead. Easy peasy.

A reasonable-sized budget is also a good idea when planning for a wedding cake. As cake designers become more and more skilled at producing extraordinary cakes, the price tag may seem steep. But don't forget, it takes days of preparation and production, some times, weeks, just to execute the cake from baking to final product. The hours and hours of consultation and follow-up's before the baking starts should also be accounted for. 

And finally, have fun with it. Choosing the right wedding cake should be the most enjoyable task of all. At the very end of the night, there's a delicious wedding cake to be devoured! 


Thanks for reading x 

Do stop by my Facebook page for more updates here www.facebook.com/msshortcakes

   

Royal Wedding Cakes

This year, I have been blessed with 4 Royal Wedding Cakes for the same family. The State of Pahang is massive, and with that, so is their extended family! I grew up with several princes and princesses from various states, in my primary and secondary school days. It's such a small world!

As many of you already know, the first 2 Royal wedding cakes I did, were in January this year. 2 couples were getting married on the same day, and I had the daunting task of creating 2 huge wedding cakes for at the same time, plus 30 mini wedding cakes for the VIP table as well.

You can check out my blog post on that wedding here January 2013 Royal Wedding Cakes

It's the month of August 2013 now, and one of my best friends, A, who is related to the Pahang Royal Family got married as well. It was an intimate wedding held over a course of 3 separate celebrations. For 2 of the occasions, there had to be cake. Of course, the cakes came from myself, and these are what I came up with.

I was given free reign of the designs (Yay!), BUT, under no circumstances were there to be any white flowers or black. Damn! I was SO close to putting a little touch of black on the wedding cake. Oh well, it still turned out beautiful though, and had a soft, vintage feel to them. I was very pleased with the cakes!!

And with A's wedding out of the way, that was the last day I would have a night off for a long, long time. The moment her wedding was over, it was crunch time. I had a huge 6 tier, the following weekend in Kuantan.

I spent the entire week prepping for the trip and to make sure all elements of the cake were flawless. All the tiers were boxed and my Dad did a stellar job, custom making my boxes to the precise heights and widths that I needed. The hardest part of the job, in my opinion, is the delivery. Everything may look great when it's done, but when you need to drive a fragile item in varied traffic and weather conditions, through a hurdle of obstacles, wrong turns and bends....the cake can get damaged.

So, the day finally came to transport all my cakes, equipment, luggage, and myself to Kuantan. The driver was prompt and ready for the daunting task of driving us to Kuantan, without any damage. He was pretty good, taking it easy and of course, he was very familiar with the route. So every bump and uneven surface along the way, he could anticipate. I was very impressed.

Meanwhile, a few drivers from his clan were racing up the highway, enroute to the Royal Wedding. It was quite funny as he was really embarrassed to be driving that slow!

We arrived 3 hours later, which wasn't bad at all. The staff at the Zenith Hotel welcomed me back, and it was great to see all the familiar faces once again.
My work space was ready in one of the conference rooms, upon request. And then it was time to unload!

This was where I was most anxious. I prayed that there would be no severe damage. But I was quite confident that I packed the cakes up well, and they weren't moving in the boxes at all! 

All the effort paid off, and there was not a single petal broken from my sugar roses, nor any major damage to the cakes. The two largest tiers had a little icing droop down the bottom, but nothing I couldn't fix. I was very, very relieved.

Meanwhile, travelling behind us were 10 other fondant cakes, from a different supplier. These cakes ended up in my conference room as well, and the driver had kindly asked me to have a look at them. When I settled in and had a moment, I opened the boxes up one by one. Out of the 10 cakes, 4 were damaged. Roses were falling off, a few butterflies had broken, petals had broken, mini blossoms were loose....it wasn't a pretty sight.

So. What do I do? I fix them. These cakes were gifts to the various Sultans from each state. I had to do something. I picked up my piping bag and filled it up with royal icing, and get to work. These cakes were poorly put together and even when I picked up the decorations, they weren't even stuck on the cake properly! No wonder during the delivery, the decorations fell off. The delivery is the most important part of the cake, I think. You can make a hell of a cake spend days on it, but once you put it in a moving vehicle for 40 minutes or 2 hours, and it starts to fall apart....all that work means nothing anymore.

So to all the cake decorators out there, do take note. Make sure all your bits and bobs are firmly attached to the cake, and nothing is moving. Stacked cakes shouldn't have any movement on them, whatsoever.

Once those were done, it was almost 5pm. Time to unwind and relax before the big day. Where's the vino? :)

I was up quite late the following day, and began my day at 11 a.m. I was raring to go! I also decided to document the assembly of the cake, just for the heck of it. And will upload that at the end of this post.

Meanwhile, here are a few pics of the ballroom. What a gorgeous gold setting and ambience the boys at Kamasutra Events created! Some of the finishing touches were not ready yet, so do keep that in mind :)
 

The pelamin (stage)

Stage

The red carpet for the bride and groom to enter onto the stage

Ballroom

VIP table

VIP table

The cake stage, right in the middle of the ballroom

The cake was well on its way by 2pm and I was very happy with the results. It turned out so beautiful, and forgive me for sounding corny, but it really was fit for a princess! :)

I really hope I get to do more cakes like this in the future. It's such a beautiful sight when it's all put together and complete. And the sense of achievement I get, is exhilarating!

And here's the AMATEUR video of the making of the Royal Byzantine wedding cake video. It's a 3 part series, but for this blog post, I will upload the final part. The first 2 videos can be found on my Facebook page Miss Shortcakes .
Thanks for stopping by!