This cake was designed for a very lovely lady, Melinda, who turned 21 last week! Since she is currently racking her brain at South Dakota State University doing Electrical Engineering, I decided to humor her with a circuit board cake.
It isn't coincidence that she's taking a power electronics class this semester so I asked Mark (my husband) to bring home one of his dummy circuit boards for inspiration. He did and the cake above is what I came up with.
Simply put, Melinda is trying to figure out the power factor of the circuit while her Professor looks on.
PS: This cake also raised a few eyebrows at Mark's workplace as they couldn't imagine seeing an edible version of a circuit board that they build everyday, lol.
We had a customer today that requested the traditional Indonesian Spiced Layered Cake for Valentine's Day. This cake is famous in the Southeast regions of Asia and is flavored with cinnamon, cloves and ginger.
In Asia, this cake is usually purchased or given as a gift during the Lunar New Year and is eaten very sparingly, because of it's richness and cost. Having said that, it is hard to describe the pleasure of biting into one of these slices. You will have to try it to experience it's imploding taste.
Oh and did you know that cloves and ginger are aphrodisiac spices? Now that's a cake to feed your loved one on Valentine's Day!!
The biggest challenge of my baking career came when we (my husband and I) decided that I should make our wedding cake. I thought about it long and hard and decided that since this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity, I'd do it.
Mark and I decided to have a small (50 person) family and friends occasion and was held at the Church of the Epiphany, Plymouth, MN. We were using the church hall as the reception hall so everyone pitched in to transform the 'Sunday School room' to a wedding reception hall. Since it was a small wedding, I basically planned everything from cards, to deco, to flowers, to outfits, and finally to the service sheet. Mark took care of everything else including the reception menu. To top it all off, 2 days before the wedding, I had to make the cake (if not for the support of family and friends, I would have crumbled).
So fast forward to the 17th of December 2009, the adrenaline is starting to pump through my veins. Thank God I had Aunty Anna, the sweetest lady in the world, to help me with the cake. We started by baking the 14 inch bottom tier and then the 10 inch top tier. We then left it to cool overnight and I went back to the church to finish up the table settings and the pew decorations.
Come morning the 18th, we meet with the photographer, finalize the service bulletin, set up the audio system and returned to Aunty Anna's at 6pm. We whipped up the chocolate cream, spread it over the bottom cake, stacked the top cake, covered it with whipped cream and allowed the cream to set. We then started lining up the pirouettes against the sides of the cake, all 6 tins of pirouettes :)
The finishing touches were to line the cake with green ribbons, pine leaves and top the cake off with white gumpaste flowers (made a week earlier). The last challenge was to transport the cake to the church in one piece, and we managed it with the help of two very close friends. Finally everything was ready for the 19th of December 2009, our wedding day.
It was a beautiful ceremony and although it was in the dead of winter, beautiful candle lights, a Pirouette Garden and smiles of all our guests made it an unforgettable night.
Cake toppers are a very nice way to finish a cake. They can resemble any motive, season or occasion from weddings, baby showers, Halloween and Christmas.
I've assembled a few videos on how to create simple but interesting Christmas themed cake toppers.
I made this mango cake for Rob, Elsie and Nikki, who are friends of ours from Tucson, AZ. We meet up as often as possible whenever they come visit LA and it's always over exotic Asian cuisines. So tonight is Malaysian night and I'm really looking forward to meet them, along with Daniel, our cousin and a couple of his friends over some good Malaysian food.
Chocolates were my inspiration for this cake and I decided to made a simple 'chocolate box' for some Bliss dark chocolates that I got. The base of the box is mango cake with mango flavored buttercream, all decorations are fondant and the butterfly is edible as well. Finally, I placed all the chocolates in gold mini muffin cups and into the 'chocolate box'.
I've always had a bubbling desire for designing cakes, and baking pastries. I believe, you can create wonders with a little creativity and loads of passion.
We recently moved to Tucson, AZ and currently operate a home based cake studio.
