A Literary Themed Birthday Cake.....

This was one the hardest cake I had to make in terms of coming up with the idea. I was supposed to finish the birthday cake by Thursday and by Tuesday afternoon I was still huming and harring  and tossing about ideas on what to make. The problem was for me the person I was going to make it for, I didn't know what he would like or whether he would like a cake at all  or how he will take it( It was supposed to be a surprise, My hubby's friend had asked a while back to make it for this person who was coming here for a literary/religious function from overseas and staying at his place )!!!

So finally I tried to work out in my head what he is involved in and got my hubby to give me some hints too. He is a person very involved in and quite a famous religious and literary orator in our community and well versed in Tamil literary classics of Thiruvalluvar (celebrated Tamil poet and philosopher) and the works of  Kambar (medieval Tamil poet and the author of the Tamil Ramayanam). Based on this I finally decided to do a book with a picture of Kambar on it, then I had doubts as to whether he would be happy to cut into picture of a person he has placed on such high esteem. So I decided to do another dummy book with the picture and place it on top of the cake book. The rest of the bits and pieces sort of flowed on from there based on the literary theme.

So here is the final outcome of my war with ideas and my hands. The first cake of the four cakes that I needed to this year before my self imposed rest( which has actually become five cakes instead of four 'cos It was also on Tuesday that I found out that my hubby's friend's(who had asked me to do this cake) lovely wife's birthday was also on Thursday. So how can I not make one for her too and quick one :-) ( my hands willing !!) A first time I did two cakes in a day , It was a bit daunting.

A full vegetarian chocolate cake, with chocolate filling and covered with butter cream and fondant. By the time I did the painting ( based on a picture of Kambar I found on the net) my hand started playing up, must be the repetitive strokes :-(.

Hope it was appropriate and you all like it too.

Rose Vines: A 60th birthday Cake

 

My first cake since I have been diagnosed with mild Carpel Tunnel Syndrome on both hands a week and a half ago ( the nerves on the wrist get pressed which causes numbness and pain ). Not in the best of moods these days. Best part is not to do anything  ( a good excuse... ;-)) and the worst part is I have to learn the hard way what I can do and not do by doing it ;-). the laptop seem to be a definite no no especially the touch pad, piping on cakes (which I hardly do anyway)  also seems to be one but doing fondant cakes I would put it under maybe….with this cake middle of my palm and wrist are were aching after doing the tiny vines and roses on the 60 but the rest of work felt okay even though it did take a lot longer to do( having rest in between) . Even cooking is a yes and no.....like cutting something for a long period of time is a bit painful. I guess anything repetitive  and involves the wrist is not good!!!

Did any of you have this problem and how did you overcome it?....cos I am still passionate about doing cakes and also getting on the laptop. I am trying to avoid surgery as of now and trying to rest my hands as much as possible ( but sometimes the temptation gets the better of me like now :-).....and have four more cakes I have promised and need to do before end of this year hopefully it is not too much of a load!!)

I should be talking about the cake instead of talking about me so sorry about that… Chocolate cake with chocolate filling covered with orange flavoured buttercream and then fondant. Wanted to go subtle this time with the colours. Hope you like it . Got the idea of doing the vines when I went to the display garden at hunter valley and saw all the lovely roses there.

Thank you for looking and for all the lovely support, encouragements and comments that have come my way since I started this blog.

 

Cupcakes......Monster High and Colour Riot.

 

I had a really late sleep deprived night but I had decided  that I was going to make these little treats for one my son's lovely classmate who loves monster high ( http://muppyat.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/monster-high-party-pinata-cake.html ) and some for another good friends of ours. Only problem was I was not in a state to try out any elaborate designs, so the design element on these cupcakes are bit on the minimalistic side :-), I hope they enjoyed it in spite of it.

Vintage......

This was one of my quick creations for a dinner at a good friend of ours.  A design on the run, just had couple of hours to make this one ( Baked the cake in the morning, left it to cool, went shopping, started decorating at 3:30 pm  and finished at 6:30pm, took photos  and was ready by 7:15pm . That was not bad I thought but my hubby as usual thought otherwise ;-), We were 1hr & 15mins LATE!!!! according to him. Funny thing was when we reached our friend's place, most of them were arriving just then hee...heee, that made me feel so much better. Had a really lovely long  night, came back home at 2am and I had another set of cupcakes to do in the morning..............

Blog Revamp Take 2

Taking in all your helpful pointers after the last blog re-dsign, here I am again re-designing my blog :-) ( which seem to be never ending). This time the background has bit of the design elements of some of my cakes. Any critically constructive review would be welcome. Thank you for looking.

Before

After

Election Day School Fundraising Cakes.

Since I started my foray into baking, today is the first time my cake is being SOLD , that too not by me (a weird feeling all the same). Not selling any of my creations so far has been by choice.

Donated a chocolate cake and a dozen cupcakes to the school stall that was set up for the Election day today. I wonder how much they will go for.......may be not much since it is not at a cake shop but it will be better than nothing  I guess :-).

Left the top blank so that whoever buys can use it as a celebration cake if they wanted to. The flower on this cake is just a ruffled freestyle.