The Cake Revolutions

Please pardon my absence in writing since it has been a whirlwind of a year for me!  Not only I've been busy with making sugar flowers, wedding cakes, exciting collaborations, AND..... I got some exciting news!

I am so proud to announce that I will be teaching sugar flowers in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA, at CAKE FEST 2015.  I will be teaching with my lovely friend and cake sister, Candace Chand of Beau Petit Cupcakes. 
In this fast paced and fun class, students will learn the technique on creating the ethereal Angel Cheek peony, the striking anemones, and delicate foliage, and learn how to arrange the flowers on their finished cake. In the span of 2 days (of 4 hours each), student will also learn how to design cakes based on inspiration pictures, working with color palettes and adding a wow factor to cakes without too much detail and truly making it their own.  The class will be held on Friday, February 20th, 2015 (1 pm-5pm) and Saturday, February 21, 2015 (8am-12pm)
   

I am also proud to announce our talented group of people that I am so proud to be a part of.
THE CAKE REVOLUTION is an independent collective of progressive North American cake artists who love to further the cake and sugar world through teaching.  These are the talented cake artists whom I am so blessed to know and call them friends:
Kara Andretta of KARA'S COUTURE CAKES
Michelle Boyd of GOOD GRACIOUS CAKES

Liz Marek of ARTISAN CAKE COMPANY
Rudy Martinez of MAN BAKES CAKES
Shawna McGreevy of MCGREEVY CAKES
Rachel Skvaril of FONDANT FLINGER
Avalon Yarnes of AVALON CAKES

Keep your eyes peeled for the next few days as I will be featuring all of them one by one and be prepared to be wow-ed with their talents and amazing creations!

beauty in simplicity

My heart skipped a beat when I saw there's a competition at Cakesdecor.com for Monochrome/Black and White Cake.  This is pretty much how I dress everyday, black and some white, more blacks, and occasionally gray color.  I don't know what it is, but I am very attracted to black.

I decided to go with very simple design, in a small time frame.  I literally submitted it, just a day before it ended for entries.

White anemones with black center was a no-brainer choice for my design.  I followed Nicholas Lodge's craftsy class for the instructions, using JEM cutters.  I also used Natasha Shomali's anemone tutorial on Cakesdecor.com

I was very happy with how it turned out... It really well-represented me.  

I received very positive feedback from the Cakesdecor.com community and a couple lovely surprises as well: I made it to the Daily Top 3 cake and Editor's Choice. 

Thank you to all my cake friends, this cake ranked 5th in the competition out of 180+ entries.  I am very honored to have placed fifth among so many talented cake friends out there.   

 

Here are the pictures and details, and my shiny "badges"



 



 

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!)

Adventure in Sugar Flowers

It was not an easy journey, but I am embracing it.  Breakages, tears, some wires pushed through the petals, and my 2 year old smashed them on the table were all part of the "fun."  Lesson learnt and we're moving on. 
It's so exciting to seeing the petals all there as I am waiting for them to dry up. There's a sense of urgency in putting them together. And just like that a flower is born.
Sugar flowers are something new and exciting for me.  Creating and imitating what nature provides for us is quite an adventure.  I always intrigued with sugar flowers, of how sugar flower masters like Nicholas Lodge, Alan Dunn, and Ron Ben-Israel do it.  I slowly learned how to make them.  I pored through books and online picture tutorials of how to make them.  Then, I found craftsy.com, is where I learned to make sugar hydrangeas through the fabulous teacher, Jacqueline Butler of Petalsweet Cakes.  She is a fantastic teacher and I was very lucky to be able to learned from her in one of her classes during Cake Love 2012.  What an eye opener that class was.  When I looked back to the craftsy online tutorial, I was more confident with the technique and although my flowers are far than perfect, they are significantly better than before.  I braved myself to make more flowers and bought another tutorial from craftsy again, and this time it's making sugar orchids with James Rosselle.  I ended up making about 5 of those sugar orchids.  By orchids no.4, they look much better than no.1 or no. 2 and 3. 
I used the sugar flowers as part of my Mom-in-law's birthday celebration.  She wanted a show-stopper cake and a table spread.  We looked at what we have at home and we did a simple yet effective table spread with a very minimal cost.
Here are some photos from the event, and the picture of the cake that I made for her.

table spread with the view of the red velvet cupcake tiers

side view of the cake with sugar orchids and hydrangeas

"beauty shot" of the cake

close up of the sugar orchids

Interlude, Educate, Contemplate

It's been a whirlwind of excitement and change in Sugar Penguin's World.  I've been taking a step back in caking as I am now back in the work force.  I've limited myself in caking as you can take only so much in a month as I want to spend a lot of time with my family as some of them has been dedicated to work.  Back to work has been a tons of fun, meeting my old friends, my old customers (who still remember my name!), and making new networks.
Though I've been taking a step back, but it really means another step forward for me as I am educating myself in more intricate techniques and sugar flower making from craftsy.com.  I have learned so many things these past few weeks through the classes I enrolled.  The first lesson I learned is that patience-which I am lack of- is definitely a must in making sugar flowers.  At one point I was too excited to put the wired petals together and ended up remaking all the petals again as they all broke (the wires pushed through the semi-dried petals) **SIGH** But all is well, I really enjoy my journey in making sugar flowers.

Here are a couple of things that I made in October:
A cake for my buddy at work (an avid golfer and he has a mini schnauzer named Tonk)

Then, this one is my favorite, making a figurine topper for a co-worker's granddaughter's first birthday:

  

Cake Love 2012

I've been waiting for this event to come for a whole year!  This is the second year of The Vancouver Cake Society held the "Cake Love" conference.  You probably read my previous post in regards to this fabulous event back in July and FINALLY, it's here!!  And out of the days that I got a soft tissue infections, this was the week that I had to endure.  *SIGH*  The rain and the pain did not dampen my spirit and I decided to make the most of it.  

The first workshop I took was with James Rosselle.  What a delight to finally met him in person.  I have admire his works as he was not one, not two, BUT THREE times Food Network Challenge champions.  He is very down to earth and we had such a great time in his class, the Ba Da Bling! Mini Wedding cake.  He was very patience with us, who kept on dropping those super pretty dragees (DRA-jays).  Nevertheless, we ended up with a cake that it very, very pretty and glamourous!  Thank you, James, for sharing your knowledge with us! 

My finished cake and with James Rosselle

Ba Da Bling! Mini Wedding Cake with James Rosselle

My next class, it's the class that I've waiting for, for years!  I've been a BIG HUGE fan of Jacqueline Butler's work.  I was dying to learn from her.  I took her online class with Craftsy.com, learning to make hydrengeas and filler flowers.  I love how she is very precise and methodical and the result is just breathtaking!  Thank you, Jacqueline, for being so patience with me and sharing your tremendous knowledge in making your signature open peony.  Thank you!


The very awesome Jacqueline Butler

 

My peony from Jacqueline Butler's Petalsweet Open Peony class

All of us were so grateful for Norm and Zane for spending an hour (and more) of their time by giving us a free demo.  Norm and Zane have a valuable bag of tricks that they shared with us.  I had a whole day class that day and exhausted, but I am SO glad that I went and met with two of my cake heroes!  Thank you, Norm and Zane!

With one of my cake heroes, Norm R. Davis

with the wonderful Zane Beg

I had a lot of fun when I took Ruth Rickey's "Blings, Bows, and Fantasy Flowers."  Ruth has a lot of fantastic and neat tricks up her sleeves that have added a whole new level of knowledge for me.  Ruth is very kind and generous and I loved every single minute we're at her class!  Thank you, Ruth!

(will add picture from Ruth's class later) 

with the awesome and fun Ruth Rickey

This is my display cake.  I wished I have done a bit more "wow" to it.. The cake was done in less than 4 hours altogether.  I had 4 months to do it, but between kids, work, and cake order, and myself being the biggest procrastinator, I left it to the last minute.  Lessons learnt.  Nevertheless, Norm was giving me a very kind criticism, and I know he is being kind to me.  He said that my work is very clean, and "clean" is awesome!  The only thing he would add is a few flowers by the bear.  Thank you, Norm......

My display cake at Cake Love 2012's display room

BIG kudos to all the ladies and gents at Vancouver Cake Society for bringing this awesome event to Vancouver!  I had the most fun weekend, I was exhausted, but absolutely inspired: new sets of skills acquired, new bonds of friends formed.

Looking forward to Cake Love 2014!



September Round Up

It's been a whirlwind of a month!  It feels that the month of September breezed right through me as I was kept busy with me going back to work, more cakes to make, and of course, James's 2nd birthday.  I still can't believe that my little one is TWO!  This month we also had a lot of birthday milestones celebration from our clients: RJ who turned ONE, Maddy whose Mom and Dad are a good family friends of ours, and one of the wonderful ladies, a woman of God, who we knew from church.
Happy Birthday to RJ, Maddy, and Tante Ance... and also my baby James! 

Mickey Mouse/Mickey Mouse Clubhouse-themed cakes.  When I was designing this cake, I was steering away from the recycled ideas of putting Mickey Mouse Clubhouse as the main focus of the cake.  I decided to take the element that was in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, that is the Mouskedoer with the clockworks.  I chose the bright colors for the cakes and also the clockwork,  Boy did I ever had so much fun in making them!  Then handmolded Mickey, Pluto, and the letters were added at the end.

For Maddy's birthday cake, I worked with her Mom of knowing what she likes.  I decided to make a bedroom scene for her and added her favorite things like the guitar that she received from her Dad.  I kept the color in the blue tones, and I thought blue ombre tones will be so pretty with the ruffles!

Tante ('Auntie') Ance's cake was inspired by the Kumon website.  I made some Kumon books, and handpainted the cake and added some numbers and letters in between.

Max of "Max and Ruby" for my darling James was unfortunately made at the last minute... I made the figurine is less than 20 minutes.. new record for me!  I was happy that the birthday boy was able to recognize his favorite character!  *PHEWWW*