Ninjago On The Prowl  

Posted by: Audrey in

Here's my other project! I've been a bit more vigilant in taking photos as this one took me quite a long time to finish, so I wanted to commemorate it with more photos =P


If you can guess by now, it's a Ninjago theme! I've actually not heard of this Ninjago thing until my friend asked me if I could do a Lego themed cake for her. She showed me some photos for ideas and I told her I could definitely try. Then she asked for this Ninjago, coz her nephew LOVES Ninjago and she wanted to get him a cake with that theme. So, I Googled and then came up with these little fellas. They were so freaking hard to make. Let's not mention that they were small. Eep! The actual figurines were definitely much smaller, but my clumsy hands couldn't even begin to work with these guys. Hence, the fugly arms and weird drawings. LOL! 

I did the paintings on the figurines after letting it out to dry for a day or so. Who knew that painting (even though mine was a sorry excuse of a painting) could be quite therapeutic? I certainly had fun, though I was no Picasso. =P

And the piece de resistance (if I could even call it that! LOL!)...the 'setting' for where the ninjas are supposed to stand. Took me ages to do this (again because I wasn't smart enough to think out of the box and did everything manually) and they were far from perfect still (some were not as straight or as angled as I'd like it to be), but I guess for a first attempt, it's okay? *consoling self* Here I stacked it onto my baking tray to gauge how it would look like on the cake itself after it was done.


Another fun thing that I tried...I attempted the Lego logo font =P Found a tutorial online that demonstrated how to do it, so I went crazy and did this huge Happy Birthday sign...only to realize that my piece was on the mat and needed to dry out before I could put it on the board. I needed the mat to continue my other pieces! So I shifted it to a piece of parchment paper...and subsequently there were cracks in the fondant when it was handled..*sighhhhh*


'Funny' thing happened when I had rolled the fondant out and placed it on the cake. It covered 3 sides of the cake nicely, but the fourth one had about half a side come up short! Eep! I was panicking coz it was the night before I had to deliver the cake & I couldn't possibly lift it off and try again (buttercream is all over the cake and the fondant will never be reusable). So I did the next best I could...cover it up! Hope it wasn't too visible =/ This was right after I had placed all the 'Lego' pieces on the cake. I stuck them on using corn syrup brushed on it. 


 
And this was right after I had placed the cake onto the bigger board, placed the 'Happy Birthday' sign, stuck the figurines on and stuck Ethan's name on too (the name was hand cut using a Karate font). I thought I had it in the ball park....until the 3-tier 'gate' keeps falling off the cake! *sigh* I tried all sorts of ways to stick it on...corn syrup, water, toothpicks, bits of fondant, even using a knife to prop it up straight in order to it still upright till everything dries, but it seems that gravity has a way of pulling it down. =/ It probably also didn't really help much when I had so 'cleverly' iced the cake without making it level. The surface turned out to be a little  'domed' so it was pretty uneven for this gate piece to hold up. I even had a hard time keeping the figurines up! *sigh* Note to self: Go get some lessons on how to level cakes and ice them! 

Anyways, the gate eventually fell off enough times for the bottom black 'roof' to give way and break. Again tried all sorts of ways to keep it together, but in the end, I didn't want the cake to look horrific, so...


I settled for a 2-tier gate. THIS time...it stayed perfectly! YAY! Not as nice as I'd like it, but I guess practicality wins over prettiness =/ And I've also added little stars to this (thanks to a star fondant cutter I found in the baking supply shop after finishing the Angry Birds cupcakes) in the hopes of making it not too plain.


Close up on the figurines...as you can see, I still need to work on my moulding / sculpting skills. The edges are still not as sharp or clean as I'd like it to be. And I guess there could be more decorations on the 'floor' of this 'building....it would have made a better contrast and visually more appealing. But oh well...it's already 3am by the time I was done with this, so I couldn't keep my eyes open. LOL!


Here are the little details on the figurines...I kinda like this black cutie...some how I don't remember sticking him together to be slightly bowing, but he seems to be doing just so on top of the cake. LOL! That little guy in blue was also a little botched...my fingers happened to touch the painted areas when I handled him, and I dirtied his outfit a little bit =/ But oh well, I guess ninjas do also get dirty once in a while right? Hehehe! *consoling self*


My very first attempt at the figurines...he was the hardest to get right (probably coz it was the first time making it...the others were considerably easier in a way). I tried to hold him up together with bits of toothpick but it didn't really do the trick =/ So everybody else got the same treatment to hold together: brushes of water then left them propped on the tray to dry naturally...it seemed to work! LOL!


And my most favorite one (probably my most successful one too!)...the white ninja. His was the most proportionate and closest looking of all 4 to the original Ninjago toys. Some how the arms seem to be able to hold up at different angles too...yayy!


Final one...a collage =P

So there you go...my other forays into fondant cakes. Hopefully there'll be more chances to do this. It's been fun! Challenging yes and very much time consuming but after seeing it come together, it's quite satisfying, even though the final result wasn't as pretty as other professional bakers. I shall work to improve on it =)

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Angry Birds Come Attacking Again!  

Posted by: Audrey in

Whew...another hectic week! I had two orders due on the same weekend, and both were kinda big projects too. Here's the first one I did:

Collage-style editing...LOL!

Yup, it's another Angry Birds project! I'm quite stoked that I was asked again to replicate these characters since Matthew's cake...wanted to try and make the figurines slightly better than my previous attempt, and boy was it fun when I see the characters all lined up on my tray, waiting to be 'perched' onto the cupcakes...LOL! But I'm getting ahead of myself..


The whole set of cupcakes...
This set was for my friend Jag's cousins, who turned 5 and 7 recently. I was told that they were big fans of Ben 10, but Jag wanted to give them an Angry Birds' theme instead. After a few IMs, she decided on chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and figurines on top. She was so cool to let me arrange for a theme, so I Googled for ideas and finally ended up with this set....the 'compulsory' characters and tools used in the game *grins*


Here are some close ups on the cupcakes...I tried to do the sling shot like in the game, but silly old me never learnt much about sculpting so I ended up with a slight disheveled looking sling shot =/ Since then I've learned how to do it properly, so hopefully next time (if there ever was one!) I can make a nicer looking sling shot...hehe! 


This was another thing that I was really proud of...the nest filled with little fondant 'eggs'! I didn't do the pretzel stick thing like last time. Decided to do a hand made fondant nest and glad that it turned out good =) Granted, it could still use some work but for a first attempt I suppose it was okay. LOL! Nearby were the white bird and some piggies =P


Some more characters of the set...

And stones and bricks to try and simulate some 'levels' of the game amongst the characters =) Oh yes, I did the 'Happy Birthday' banner thing too that's similar to Marcus' cake, but this time I wanted to try also with some luster dust brushed onto it. Turns out I've been too heavy handed with the dust, resulting in too shiny letters. LOL!


Ah yes, and I also did this little TNT box...seeing it's so small it should be easy peasy right? That's what I thought until I started making it =/ I'm guessing if the baker was smart enough (unlike me), he/she will be able to make this in to time but for me, I took the 'long cut', taking too much time with cutting the small little 'planks' together and sticking them onto the oh-so-not-square box. *sigh* Still, it WAS fun making the characters and when I see them all together, it made my heart sing *wink*

The only thing too bad about it was the fact that the pieces of green fondant that the pieces were sitting on were too plain! *sigh* I'd wanted to get some proper impression mats, but there were none that fit this theme, so I'd just laid them down plain. Come to think of it I should have jazzed it up with some small tiny stars or some tiny pieces of fondant shaped in some way, but I couldn't find them yet till later, so plain it was.

Jag was very surprised with the cakes...and she doesn't know how to deal with it just yet =P Oh well, I told her can just peel off the fondant and have the cake with the buttercream (the cake without tastes a bit bitter because of the chocolate). Happy Birthday, Rajbir & Ranveer =) May all your wishes come true for you this year! *grins*

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Should I Start Turning This Into A Food Blog?  

Posted by: Audrey in ,

So yeah, I thought I'd upload more photos of my baking and stuff *grins* It does kinda feel like it's turning into a food blog of some sorts, no? But oddly enough I don't feel the need to make this blog into one. Probably coz I'm just trying out recipes and not trying to create my own recipes of the sort...also probably coz there have been too many great food blogs with their recipes and amazing photography out there in the blogosphere. Doubt that anyone would read this little blog of mine...so for now, I'll just be posting photos of the recipes I've tried out, just as a memoir of what I did. Heh!

Focaccia bread, topped with tomatoes, garlic, salt and Italian herbs

After that successful attempt at Italian bread, I had a hankering to try out another kind of bread...this time savory. The thought of tomato focaccia bread crossed my mind and I jumped at it. Problem was, most of the time I can only do my baking in the evenings after work...and one of the best things with bread is to taste it freshly baked from the oven. By the time I'd finish baking it, it'll be midnight and I don't want it to get too cold. Solution? I slept earlier that night and woke up extra early (think 3 am-ish!) to make the bread. By the time I finished, it was around 6-7am and just in time for breakfast. YAY!


Close up on my slice of bread

I loved the taste of this bread...drizzled with some olive oil, it's a healthy yet hearty kind of bread =) With the herbs, it tastes faintly like pizza too...yum!


A while after that I found some butterscotch chips stashed in my fridge! They were gifts from a friend visiting from Canada...I'd forgotten about them when I left them in the fridge. When I found the chips, I looked up recipes for butterscotch chips and found Bakerella's recipe for triple chip cookies! They were AMAZING! Little bit on the sweet side coz of all the chips, but SUPER yum! It's too bad that we can't buy butterscotch chips in Malaysia...else I would have made this recipe over and over and over again. LOL!


Next, I made some rosette cupcakes for my Mom for Mother's Day...wanted to make something for her, but I am not as good as her in the cooking department. So I just baked up some cupcakes and stuck them into a bouquet!


These cupcakes were quite pretty...not a brag on my own skill, but the genious use on the Wilton 1M tip by I am baker to make rosettes was so cool! After trying it out, I find that it really WAS that easy...heh! Tried also to make some little shading on the frosting by painting some gel food coloring in the bag, but they didn't turn out as well as it did...still, all was good though!


The bouquet was done by a florist, not me...hehe! I wish I had the skills, but I didn't so I left it to the pros. They initially advised against me just using the dowels as a guide for the 'flowers' as they wanted to see how big the cupcakes were to figure out placements, but I didn't have my cupcakes with me then so they just had to make do. And boy was it difficult sticking the frosted cupcakes on to the dowels! But thankfully, it was not too bad, and made it to my Mom's hands without much smearing...yay! Excuse the coloring of the cupcakes' frosting. I don't know why but the photos taken with my iPhone changed the pink frosting to peach. LOL!


The rosette cupcake bouquet was done on a Friday evening...I presented the bouquet to my Mom on Saturday morning, then went for the Russell Peters' show on Saturday evening. Came home Sunday morning-ish, then headed out to the PJ Dawn race (yay!). After the race, I slept for like 2-3 hours before I started on another marathon...a cake 'marathon'! LOL! Yes, another friend ordered these cakes for her party. It was quite a last minute order, but I was gung ho and didn't want to pass up on an opportunity to bake so yeah...'clever me'. LOL! This cake was a meatloaf cake for her dog, Buddy who turned 12! 


Some little close ups on the cake...I colored the top part of the mashed potato frosting purple (and they turned out blue -_-""). Then I topped it off with some fondant pieces to jazz it up a little. No, fondant shouldn't be eaten by our dogs coz it's all sugar but I've learnt that a little bit of sugar every now and then wouldn't hurt. Plus, it's for his birthday...it's okay *wink*


I quite like the way this cake turned out...the mashed potato made a great frosting to make even (though I do still need practice on this, as you can see). The side of the cake got decorations in the form of ham pieces and cheese *grins* From the feedback I got when the cake was cut by my friend: "The cake smelled so good that even the kids wanted to eat it! I had to stop them by telling them the cake was for the dogs only." LOL! I told her that the cake can also be eaten by humans since I've not used any kind of dog food in it...it's all human-grade ingredients. Just without salt so the cake might taste bland, but hey...dogs taste with their sense of smell first so if it smells good, there's a good chance they'll eat and enjoy it! *wink*


I made this cake on the same day too...chocolate ganache cake! Cake was the chocolate sheet cake by the Pioneer Woman baked in 8-inch round pans then glazed over with chocolate ganache. I was a bit tired by now so the finishing was left to be desired...partly also coz I was too anxious with time and didn't let the ganache set enough to apply it on the cake. Result? The ganache spilled and overflowed almost everywhere. Eep!


Luckily it was salvageable, and I decorated the cake with some fondant mums again =) I loved the colors this time around...the contrast of the cheery colors with the dark dark chocolate background made me go "YAYY!" once I was done *grins*



And in some other unrelated photos, I thought I'd upload some of Scottie and Kenji's photos again....they've been getting 'cute' these days. LOL! Scottie just recently got groomed so he looked presentable (though the beard is still so stained! Eep!). I'm working on making his beard white again so hopefully it'll work in a few months or so...heh!


Well, that's about it for now...I've still got more big projects coming up, and some other updates. So here's to more great and positive updates! YAY!

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My First Ever Run - PJ Dawn 2012  

Posted by: Audrey in , ,

Okay, my bad for procrastinating until now....it's been a couple of weeks since, but I'm still kinda proud that I've actually completed a run! A 12km run too...*grins* Yeah, it's not much in view of so many others who've been running for ages and can run marathons with ease, but for me it's quite huge since I've only started 'training' (and I say this loosely coz I haven't been training like how the other runners would) about 1-2 months ago. 

It all started when some friends at boot camp asked about whether we will be joining the famous KL Marathon organized by Standard Chartered Bank every year. I've often heard of the marathon but never gave much thought to it since I'm no runner, but that day I've been rather inspired and motivated by how I'm feeling good with boot camp and almost daily training so I told my friends I'd love to try a run. No, I didn't sign up for the marathon....it's 42km!! I didn't even dare try to attempt the half marathon but I signed up for the 10km run =) From then on, a few friends of mine also wanted to join and we made a little 'pact' to do some running at least once a week (not much I know, but I figured with daily boot camp and stuff, it would be sufficient with the weekly long run) and we did keep up with the schedule, I'm glad to say =) 

Fast forward to about 1 month before the PJ Dawn race...my friend asked me if I would be interested to join this race since she would be joining as well (she's been joining runs for some time now, so she's like a seasoned runner). I thought, why not? It's only an extra 2km from the 10km run of the KL Marathon...and it might be a good experience to try and finish. Up till this point, I still haven't reached my goal of having tried out a full 10km run. In fact, up till the day of the race, I've only attempted one try of a full 10km run and was wheezing the heck out of my lungs and knees throbbing when I was done...eep! Not a good sign!

Anyways, long story short (not really short also come to think of it =P) I went for the run right after attending a Russell Peters' show here in Malaysia (YES, he came to Malaysia for TWO days! And he was HILARIOUS!). I reached home at about 1am after supper and stuff with my friends, and checking the race programme I realized there was a runners' warm up exercise thing at 2.30am. Thinking it was compulsory I changed, packed my stuff and headed out at about 2am. I reached at 2.15am and was stumped! SOOOOO many people! And there was no 'exercise' thing as I thought it would be...so it turns out I was super early for the run. LOL!

The start / finish line...

Since I had so much time on my hands I decided to walk about the place...on the one hand, I get to 'look' busy and not so lost as the throngs of runners start pooling in for the 21km flag off; and on the other I will be able to get a bit of a warm up before the race and also keep myself from feeling sleepy (I've been running on no sleep from Saturday morning). I didn't have to keep myself busy so much...the flag off for the 21km run was so festive and cheerful, it made me excited to go! Suddenly I couldn't wait to start my run...LOL!


Moments before flag off!

4am came soon enough and I went to the starting line with (I think) thousands of other runners raring to go. The horn blasted, and we were off! I got to say, having not experienced a run before, this first experience was amazing....the cheerfulness around the runners (despite it being so early in the morning), the helpfulness of the police and volunteers during the race, and even the weather was being cooperative! All in all, a very good experience =) I started out in the middle of the crowd, and the first 2km was a bit shaky since I kept looking out for my friend (who was gaining speed as the crowd dispersed into their own comfortable running pace) hence losing my own pace. But after I lost track of her, I decided that hey...I should just enjoy the run as it is, and concentrate on finishing it in time. Maybe even beating my own personal time! So, I concentrated on my music from my iPhone and started getting my own pace.

I also had the Endomondo app running on my phone, so it tracked my progress as I ran/walked and updated me at every km on how long I've taken up for each km. Perhaps it was the weather (it was cool and breezy at times), or maybe having some water replenishment every few km (they had water stations every 3 km), or maybe it's just sheer adrenaline coursing through my veins along with the atmosphere of being in a run with so many other people that got me through it. I was pretty impressed with my own timing...no, I didn't win anything. I didn't even place in the top 100 runners (my friend did though...so cool!) but my objective this time around wasn't to place anything. It was just to finish the run within the time limit (2 hours) and I'm proud to say I've finished my 12km run in 1 hour and 37 mins (according to my Endomondo app)! YAYY! It definitely beat my previous 'best time' which was 1 hour and 27 mins for a 10km run I tracked *grins* I find myself being able to push through whenever I focus my mind on something else and just like keep my legs running instead of concentrating on how winded / tired I was. LOL! Kind of hard to explain but I guess that saying "Mind over body" does have its merits =P

Anyways, the official race results have not been out yet so I don't really know my official run time just yet, but I'm hoping it's around the same time that I logged. Still, it was a lot of fun though =) After that I went home (at around 6-ish after downing a whole 500ml bottle of water, collecting my goodie bag and catching up with my friend) and slept for a few hours...only to wake up and start my baking 'marathon'. LOL! More on that later *wink*

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