This was prepared for a special lady who celebrated her 20th anniversary in my child’s preschool.  I kept telling myself not to forget the special feature of the cake, which is this cute little ladybug! Luckily I didn’t forget!

Here’s a baby shower and thank you cake for a special teacher who makes a special difference to children.  A pregnant mom was a perfect cake topper for the occasion.

This is my very first attempt on making a tiered cake.  There were lots of work involved - from baking the cake from scratch, covering with soft and fondant icing and to making all the little flowers and figurine.  It was very challenging indeed, and I was glad that it made it safely during transportation.

Pity that my camera shook and lighting was so poor when I took the photo just before having breakfast.  Oh, no, I didn’t stay up till the next day finishing the cake, for I finished it well on time the night before and had a very good night sleep that night.

These are chocolate cupcakes for a sweet boy who loves cars….Vrooom!

I’ve been looking for a good chocolate mudcake recipe, and thankfully stumbled across one that looked like it would turn out great-tasting and moist.   What is good about mudcakes is that it’s so easy to make - essentially put all ingredients in a giant bowl, mix and it’s finish! Since the whole batter is mostly liquid and chocolate the baking is slow under low oven heat, and this results in very dense and moist cake.  The cake was prepared and ’dressed’ for the New Year’s Eve masquerade party.  Can you tell that it’s mudcake inside?  Happy New Year everybody!

Two elephants, pandas, pigs, lions, snakes, ladybugs and giraffes - animals in pairs for the birthday celebrant Master J who turned two! 

This Ark is made of scuplted chocolate cake.  I had so much fun carving and putting together the cake pieces.  The most time-consuming parts here are cutting and nailing the timber…and making the lions’ manes (can you see that I got lazy and that they’re bald behind)!

Ely! Sleepy bird! Pocoyo! Pato! Loula!  Master J loves all these characters, and in fact he’s as funny, cheeky, curious and gentle as Pocoyo!

This is a small rectangular Sara Lee pound cake covered in white fondant. The figurines are all made with sugarpaste. I had the most fun making tiny sleepy bird.

These are chocolate cupcakes that were made specially for awesome twins.  The cobwebs are piped melted chocolate.

This is my first attempt in making a 3-D cake.  Master M has a same-sized plastic toy as the cake, and I used it as a guide to sculpt the chocolate cake.  I think this exercise also taught me to work fast on this type of icing otherwise “elephant skin” forms (dries).  Oh well, kids dont’ notice this and had a blast at the party and enjoyed the cake. Kachow!

These cupcake pops have finally reached the Australian shores!  They’re very popular right now in USA, thanks to the very creative Bakerella who came up with this ingenious idea.  Ever since I read about them, I’ve been curious for a long time how they taste.  So when contributions were asked for the school’s fete, I quickly grabbed the opportunity to test them out.  After a few hours in the kitchen - from baking the cake, shaping the mini cupcakes, covering with melted milk and white chocolates and to sprinkling of 100’s & 1000’s - I was so thrilled to see them standing nice and proud on sticks.  The amount of time and energy really paid off, for I believe they were a hit with the kids.  Of course, who couldn’t resist treats on sticks!

Cheers,
Jen

Spring’s almost here, and what better way to celebrate it than to make pink begonia cupcakes! Very easy chocolate cupcakes specially made for the school fete.

I admit that I’m not a big fan of buttercream frosting, since it taste too sweet and buttery.  But it’s the only frosting that I know right now that can be piped nicely into different swirls and twirls.  Unfortunately, the cold weather this winter made it difficult for buttercream frostings to reach a nice smooth, silky and shiny texture.  The recent batch of buttercream frosting I made was too dry, grainy and sweet that made my teeth cringe.  Pressed for time and needing rest badly, I wanted to avoid making the same mistake for the frosting, and I opted for something really easy to bake and used a no-fail commercial frosting instead. The frosting is smooth, easy to pipe and holds its shape well, but tasted too ‘commercial’ and sweet for my liking. 

To make the flowers, fill a piping bag fitted with a petal tip.  With the narrow end of the tip facing away from you and lying flat against cupcake, pipe upside-down U’s around the outside of the cupcake. Tilt the tip at a 45 degree angle and repeat making upside-down U’s in the next inner set of petals.

Chocolate Cupcakes

• 3 cups plain flour
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 cup cocoa
• 1 cup cold water
• 200 g softened unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cup castor sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 T vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 170C

Sift together the flour, bicarb, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the hot water and cocoa until you have a smooth paste. Add the cold water and whisk until evenly combined.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the sugar a third at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition. After the last addition, beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, and the sugar dissolved. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Add the vanilla.

Add a quarter of the flour to the creame mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add a third of the cocoa mixture and beat until combined. Repeat the process twice more. Add the remaining quarter of the flour and beat until thoroughly combined; do not overbeat as this will toughen the mixture.

Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Kitchen Wench alerted me of Australia’s very first national Cupcake day for RSPCA.  Funds raised from selling cupcakes would all go to RSPCA and help the animals they care everyday.

Here are the cupcake puppies that I made for my son’s classroom.  They’re butter cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, and I decorated it following the ideas found in this exciting new book, Hello, Cupcake! by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.

Cheers,

Here’s a cake for two-year Paige. It’s a store-bought rectangular vanilla sponge cake covered in fondant. Mushroom is vanilla butter cake with sugarpaste fairies.

This is the very first post to Cakes Place!  It’s so exciting to finally have a web place where people, who love to bake and eat cakes & cupcakes, can read all things cakes!  I hope that this blog will bring inspiration and assist in making baking an enjoyable hobby to many readers! Let’s get baking!

Jen