Grace's 2nd Birthday Teddy Cake

Grace is my youngest niece (so far!) and she is turning 2 this year!!

I have been planning to make a special birthday cake for her since after Savannah's birthday in January (please refer to my first blog).  I wondered what character I should put on this cake so that it Grace will really have a big surprise! I have decided to replicate this teddy bear Scott and I gave her for Christmas last year.

Scott and I both believe that it is important to encourage young children to show love and to teach them to take care of young people and things.  That is why Grace received a "Jesus loves me" Teddy from Santa in 2011 X'mas.  However, Grace didn't know how to take care of the teddy at first, and she didn't even want to hug her.   Then I found an old, small dress that belonged to Grace and put it on Teddy.  Maybe it is the familiarity of the dress, Grace began to hug the Teddy to sleep. 

Grace named the Teddy "Shawn Shawn", which is "teddy bear" in mandarin.

In my attempt to make her birthday special this year, we have "Shawn Shawn" Sitting in the Daisy Garden Cake for Grace!

Shawn Shawn Sitting in the Daisy Garden

That is the "Jesus loves me Shawn Shawn".

Happy 2nd Birthday, Grace~ 

May God bless you and watch over you 

in all the days of your life!!

Love from Aunty Julie and Uncle Scott

Yvonne's Wedding Gift

Today, I want to blog about my friend Yvonne.  Yvonne is a very good friend of mine since High School.  Currently she is living in London with her super intelligent husband, who she got married to last year.  

A beautiful photo of  Yvonne and Jeff on their Wedding Day, Tuscany Italy.

Yvonne is a very sweet, cheerful and a encouraging person, many of you who know her may agree with me.  

She always sees the best in a person and encourages the person to achieve what they want to do in life.  

I remember back in high school, Yvonne would say how good of a singer I was, when I think I am almost tone deaf and I always sing off tune.  She would say how she thinks I am very skinny and can fit in an extra small sized T-shirt, where in actual fact, I think would rip the seams of a XS T-shirt!

Never the less, Yvonne is a very sweet, encouraging friend!  

Because of her positive words,  I had hope in achieving things I never thought I could do.  For instance, I ran marathons on two occasions simply because she said to me, 

"Jules, I think you can do it!".  She helped me trained for the City 2 Surf and I was able to go for it, in 2008.

  

It was because of this kind of encouragement, that I was able to give things a go!  Yvonne made me wonder, how could I not believe in myself when others may have so much faith in me?

I really know how much faith Yvonne had in me when she asked me to make her wedding cake for her last year!!  

I was seriously surprised!!  Simply because I have never made one before, and now she want me to make it for the biggest day of her life?!  Ok...................

Then she said, "Jules, I think you can do it!!".   

Ummmmmm....... How can I say no to that?

The most incredible thing she said after that is: 

"Do whatever (design) you like, I trust you!!"

Ok...... You really have that much faith in me huh?! 

Thank you Vonnie~

So I decided to GIVE IT A GO!

The mission:

To make a Yvonne and Jeff's Wedding Cake.

Here are the some of the images of my attempts~

I am so blessed up to this point, because the cake looked edible!! Mind you, this was done last year, before The Fairy Cupcakes and Winnie the Pooh Cakes!  So basically, this was my very major cake that I have done in a while.

Now that the cake is iced, I then tries to cover the cake with a layer of fondant.  This will help to keep the cake moist and gives it a nice, elegant finish.

It is always tricky to do this step! Because I am very scared that the fondant will go wrinkly~~  

 

I have hand made these rose flowers out of icing sugar with the help from Naoko. Thank you Naoko!!

Also, in the following picture, I have covered the cake in glad wrap because I just wanted to see where I want to position the icing flowers~

I dressed a silk ribbon around the cake to give an elegant look!

 My focus while making the cake:

1. Just believe you can and go for it!

2. Spread out this project over a few days so I don't over exhaust myself.

3. Know your limitations and get help from people~

Thanks to Anna who helped with icing the cake and Scott who helped me deliver the cake!!

4. Pray to God and hope for the best~!

A few days later, Yvonne told me that they would have about 200 guests coming to the reception!!!

OMG!!!!  My cake can probably feed only 25 people if everyone has a cube! >.<

So I made some cupcakes as well... as many as I possibly can!!!   

We accomplished our mission at the end!

Just out of the oven!

Ready for delivery~

Beautiful Yvonne in the centre of the bridesmaids~

 

The Main Wedding Cake Tower

 

Wedding Cake arrangement

 

 

Thank you hubby for your support!!

Yvonne and Jeff fed each other with some cake~ Sweeeet!!

 

 

I prayed over the cake and hope that everyone could have a try of the cake. God is faithful! With His help, the wedding cake we made along with the 60 cupcakes was able to satisfy 200 guests that night!

Matthew 14:13-21- You can find read more miracles of how Jesus fed a large group of people with a 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, if you like~~ :D

http://bible.org/seriespage/feeding-five-thousand-matthew-1413-21

Yvonne, thank you for believing in me and giving me the chance to make your Wedding Cake.  It may not be the best cake or the most glamorous cake, but it surely had God's blessing on it!

This opportunity has also inspired me to make more cakes for people and reminded me to always put our God given talents to good use to bless others! 

I hope I can be like Yvonne, and be an encourager and always see the best in a person!

Who am I going to encourage today?

P.S- Happy Valentine's Day Vonnie!! xxoo

Winnie the Pooh Birthday Cake

 

Thanks to my friend's kind recommendation, I was invited to make a cake for his niece who turned 1 year old last weekend!

I discussed with the mother of the birthday girl a week in advance, what she think Adele would like for her birthday cake.  What is her favourite colour, favourite character and which flavour of the cake she prefers. She said Adele loooooves Winnie the Pooh!!! And also teddy bears~ 

Well, guess what? We don't settle for second best, we are going to make Adele a Winnie the Pooh Birthday Cake!!!

Once at Church, I heard the pastor saying, before a girl heads out, she would choose her outfit very carefully~ Girls would consider what occasion it is?  What time of the day it is? Where it is (indoor/ outdoor)? Who will be there? And how the climate is.  That is how much a girl thinks when she chooses what to wear!

Where as men~ they just do the sniff test!

Similarly, perhaps, I am an ordinary girl as well, there are multiple levels of things I consider when I design a cake for my clients.  

I would think: what occasion is it for? Who will be eating it? Do they prefer a less sweet option? For how many people is the cake for? And whether my client has any food allergies.  Also I would design the cake to the best of my ability according to what theme they like. This time the theme is Winnie the Pooh!

This is an example of my sketch of the design I came up with. 

Winnie the Pooh's birthday picnic in a park!! 

So, I will have to make some sugar figurines- Pooh, Piglet, cupcake for Pooh, lemon tree and lots of flowers!!

This is my first attempt in making Winnie the Pooh and Piglet!! 

I guess there are some resemblance to the real characters! 

What do you think?

Winnie the Pooh, before he could see...

 Piglet without eyes.

 Now I will show you how the cake was constructed!!

There is a layer of dark chocolate ganache in between 2 layers of Dutch chocolate cake!!

 Tip: Have a glass of 

warm water and a towel handy.

It is very helpful if you warm the spatula first before you smooths the icing out~ it will make it easier to work with.

 Tip: I used a pizza cutter to cut around the edges of the fondant.

The green fondant represents  the greens in the park!

 Handmade flowers for the park.

Decorating the lemon tree.

There is a picnic rug for Winnie the Pooh and Piglet to sit on next the tree.

I skipped a few steps..... and here it is~ the final product!!

Tadah~ 

Final Product!

Ready for delivery!!

The following picture was taken at the birthday party~

It looked liked Winnie and Piglet was very glad to celebrate the girl's 1st Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Adele!!

  

This is the nice SMS I received the day after they had the party:

Hi Julie, the cake was a hit! This morning when I showed my daughter the photos of the birthday party including the cake she gave a squeal of excitement! Hahahahaa!! And the cake is absolutely delicious!!!! Thank you so much!! xoxo (D.W NSW)