A Flowery Weekend with Nicholas Lodge

The day finally arrived!  I have been waiting impatiently for this day to come... A two FULL days of sugar flower making with the one of the best in the industry, NICHOLAS LODGE!  Nicholas Lodge is one of the most respectable, brilliant, and amazing sugar artists in the world.  It's very hard to differentiate between his sugar flower works and the real flowers.
I took his sugar flower classes on Craftsy and immediately I said to myself, I MUST learn from him in person.  He is very methodical and precise.  From just the two wonderful Craftsy classes, I have learnt A LOT!

He offered two wonderful classes for his trip to Vancouver this time.  The fall basket and the Exotic Sugar Orchids.  I chose the latter though I'd love to take both classes due to the practicality of the latter class to be applied to wedding cakes and such.

The Master Sugar Flower at work... showing his magic

Chef Lodge's class is fun, fast-paced, and very informative.  He showed us a lot of neat tips and tricks along the way.  He is very precise in his method, and I believed that later I should be able to replicate at home.  On one note though, this class probably more catered to those with some previous sugar flower work.  I am still a novice at this sugar flower making, and I have to pace myself to work a little faster to go along with the class.  Regardless, in the wet and rainy Vancouver days, we managed to learn to make 6 types of Exotic and Tropical Orchids.

Thank you to Nanette of Devine Deals in New Westminster, BC who hosted Chef Lodge for this wonderful class!  Until next time!

whisk me away to somewhere... exotic

 

We have been so blessed with the wonderful weather this year, but the glorious sunny days almost draw to the end unfortunately... The wet, with some thunderous days are back.  It has been a ultra busy but fun for us this year!  My little boy, Robert, is going to Kindergarten and my not-so-little-anymore James, is going to preschool.  Big adjustment time for my husband and I, as well as for the cake.  I have to unfortunately, take a step back and look after the family first.

 

Now, back to business :) 

I was approached by our lovely family friend whose daughter is getting married this August.  I was very honored and privileged that she wanted me to make the cake for her daughter's wedding.  She showed me the color that she wanted for the wedding which is deep coral colors with yellow and whisper pink.  Such an exciting colors to work with!  I made some yellow cymbidiums with bright coral throats, some coral ranunculus, whisper pink roses, and lush green hydrangeas.  I kept the cake design very clean and minimal, by using lace stencils, outlined with royal icing and added some sugar pearls on them.   

 

I thoroghly enjoyed making this cake despite some breakages of my hydrangeas, they all went to the "graveyard of broken sugar flowers," I had to dust some more at 1 am in the morning because I had the need to move some of them after I review some of the shots.  *SIGH*  BUT, it's all good, and I was very happy at the end. 

 

And the "icing on the cake" of these whole experience was that my little rascal was at his very best in being the ringbearer on the wedding!  He looked very dapper in his tux.  I am a proud mama!       

 

Amour en Rose et Argenté

Another busy week at Sugar Penguin Cakery!  Lovely roses for a dear friend's wedding.  I have known Vionna and David for a while now.  Such a lovely couple with so much love for each other.  Vionna has been my biggest supporter and she even helped me to open the door for fun classes.  Very thankful for this brilliant and beautiful girl.  I am very fortunate to have known these two lovebirds.

Vionna showed me her inspiration picture and it was from one of my cake idols, Tracy James of Cotton and Crumbs (UK).  I love Tracy's signature vintage roses and her Cakemasters' online tutorial has been helping me tremendously in achieving this particular style of rose.  The cake inspiration that she showed me had lots of beautiful applique.  Though it's beautiful, I really wanted to have my own style in the cake.  I opted for a beautiful stencil from Gateaux, Inc. and we hand-piped to outline the stencil with royal icings.  Lots of works, but at the end I was VERY, VERY happy to how this cake turned out.  

The D-day turned to be one of those magical days!  No rain in the forecast, no scorching heat either... It was just a lovely, overcast day, with a delicate sun.  Simply magical!

And the icing on the cake was when the lovely bride, email me the next day:

"... thank you so much for the cake! We loved it...a lot! It was gorgeous..."

Totally made my day!!

CONGRATULATIONS, Vionna and David!

A Romance in Pink

This wedding cake is my recent labor of love. I am grateful that I am surrounded by my wonderful friends and understanding families:  my dear husband who always cope up with me during cake time, my two boys who would not touch any of my cake stuffs, and my dear friend, Neha, who always there for me in my cake journey!  BIG bear hugs to all of you!

This cake is for a dear friend who I used to work with. I met and hired her when she was just in university. Not only she is beautiful, but she is brilliant and very down-to-earth. I am honored and privileged that Pary chose me and wanted me to be a part of her special day. Pary showed me her inspiration pictures and what elements that she loved for her wedding cake. She chose this romantic and dreamy wedding cake. We did a final adjustment by adding some lustre on the cake. I paired the lustre with muted white for the pearls and cameo. The sugar flowers: roses and hydrangeas, also kept very subtle and muted. Some silver dragees were added to add some sparkle and bling to the cake.

The best part is when you got the message from the bride the next day and said how perfect the cake was!
" ... The cake was so perfect - thank you so much! The cake was beautiful and delicious!.."

stylized pale pink roses with white hydrangeas

side view of the cake withe the pearl swags

cake on location

Highlights and Lowlights

Let's start with the lowlights!  I've been so busy for these past few months that I have completely neglected Sugar Penguin Cakery's blog!  BUT, lots of highlights during these writing absence that I am very excited about and would LOVE to share with you!

In this coming September, I will be taking a 2-day course with the one and only NICHOLAS LODGE for making 6 types of sugar orchids.  I am VERY EXCITED for this opportunity and I simply cannot wait for those days to come!  I hope I won't be THAT star-struck when I see him in person (which I think I will be).  I took his classes at Crafsy and I like how detailed and meticulous he is in his method of teaching.

Another highlight is that one of my cakes that I got the opportunity to create for an auction at a local bank for Ride to Conquer Cancer was acknowledged in a few cake communities around the world!  It made it to NO.1 at "Daily Top 3" in Cakesdecor.com, "Editor's Choice" for Australian Cake Decorating Network, and "Cake of the Day" at Peggy Does Cake (with 40,000+ followers for her Facebook page).  I was so humbled and over the moon for this!   

I got the inspiration from the very lovely Sharon Wee of Sharon Wee Creations for the ruffles and the simple-but-oh-so-lovely sugar Southern Magnolia was added at the end.   

 

 

And here's my shiny badge from CakesDecor.com! :)

 

 

(More) Adventure in Sugar Flowers

After being so busy with work and the holiday, I finally have the time to "exercise" what I have learned back in Cake Love 2012, making sugar peony from the fabulous Jacqueline Butler of Petalsweet Cakes.  I even made my own gumpaste this time!  I used Nicholas Lodge's recipe. I tweaked the recipe to my liking, which using a little less tylose.  By reducing the tylose, it allow me to work a little longer which benefits novice like me, as the gumpaste doesn't dry up too fast.  I made the pistils earlier, and made some extras.  Thank God for the extras as my curious two years old thought those pretty colored pistils are drum sticks.  I managed to save 2 sets, and the rests, all the pretty pointy tips were all chipped *sad face*

I made not one, but two peonies!  I was playing with the size and colors.  One I left with no colors (first photo), and the second one, I dusted with some greens (second photo).   I really like the gumpaste as I can roll it very thin, almost paper-thin.  You can see from the second photo, the petals were almost see through as it was sun-kissed by the morning light!

Although I am quite happy with them, by no means they are perfect, I still have to make sure do tweak a few things as I make them later.  I got positive feedback from the Facebook page by friends, families, and cake friends.  The one that made my day was from Jacqueline Butler herself:

"..Your peonies are FABULOUS! Meticulously crafted and beautifully made...you are a perfect student! Congratulations...they are really gorgeous! Jacqueline xx"

Thank you for your guidance Jacqueline!  You're a fabulous teacher, incredibly generous, patience, and kind in sharing your wealth of knowledge!  I am so privileged to have known you!

Pocoyo Revisited

Pocoyo is probably one of the anime that I like for little children.  My Robert grew up on that series and he (used to) love it.  It's very simple anime, but very effective.  The characters don't say much, but they have all the expressions.  It's narrated by Stephen Fry and oh, he's so fab with his British accents.  Pocoyo was one of my very first few cakes that I made, back in 2010.  Back then, I was spending days and nights trying to get the details right.  Elly's (the elephant) hand kept of falling because I did not know how to attach them properly.  Pato's (the duck) hat was weirdly placed, and Pocoyo looked like a lego character... haha... I still remembered that I was almost in tears since the bottom of the cake was ripping and I had to re-do.  Those were the days....  So here's the two Pocoyo cakes: the first one was the recent one, and the second picture was the one that I did back in 2010.  I am very happy that I have come so far and I am very proud when I see the progression of my cakes.

 

circa 2013

circa 2010

Princess, Blings, and Baubles

I might have 2 boys but I am a girly girl at heart.  I love my simple blings, baubles, and the girly things.  I have been making all boys cakes for my little ones and the only way I can channel my inner girly girl, is through my cakes and cupcakes.  This one is for Little Princess named Kaitlyn!  She has a fabulous Aunt who loves Hello Kitty.  I was happy to get her stamp of approval when I previewed the figurine to her!  *Happy Dance*

The tiaras for this set were created by making a custom mold, then painted in edible silver luster, and a tiny little dragee (pronounced as DRAH-jay) on them. To make the "tiara," I molded a scrapbooking photo corner and shaped them up as "tiara" before I started to color them.  Here are a couple of pictures of the set.

 

 

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year!  May the new year will bring new hope, joy, love, and peace....
We've been busy this year!  New skills and knowledge acquired, new friends bonded, and new, exciting adventure in caking ahead!
Here's a year in review of all the cakes that we did!  (it was almost impossible to put this collage together!)