Archive for February, 2012

Is Mickey Still Cool?

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

Back in the good ol’ days (gosh, I feel so old saying that), Mickey and Minnie Mouse were as cool as the high school prom king and queen but I’m not quite sure where they stand these days. They have been taken over by much cooler animated icons such as Lightning McQueen, Elmo and who can forget… Angry Birds? (surely not me with all the AB cakes I’ve been doing these days! – and MORE that I haven’t even posted!)

Iconic characters seem to be so trendy these days. My nephew LOVES Cars and everything he has is from that movie (I’m partially responsible for this). He even owns Cars 1 & 2 in Chinese (clearly dubbed)… have you watched Disney movies in Chinese? They’re ABSOLUTELY HI-LARIOUS! (this would make more sense if you are Chinese or can at least understand the language). Especially the idioms! Oh the idioms. Anyway, so Zach could say something like, “There’s LIGHTNING outside” and I would run out and get him Lightning McQueen PJs, matching slippers and perhaps toothbrush/kiddy toothpaste and nightcap if it’s in stock. Clearly I’m the cool aunt that spoils them silly.



I don’t remember Mickey and Minnie being this “crazy” as a kid. Maybe we were just really sheltered or poor… or both! I remember wearing Keroppi clothes and nameless characters from not-so-popular television shows like… geez, I can’t even remember them. My brother was really into Ninja Turtles and I think he secretly still is. Hmm. I was pretty easy-going… I love bears (and still do) so I was content with anything with a bear on it. I was such a good kid :D

A few weekends ago, I had the pleasure of putting together a Mickey’s Minnie’s Clubhouse cake for a 4-year-old girl’s birthday. I can’t tell you how much I love the purple and red colour combination… something about it is so HOT! Remember my super sexy high heel cake? Brings happy butterfly fluttery memories to my heart! :D



Sophie’s mom supplied the cake toppers which gave the cake a different look than the usual sculpted sugar characters. I love change :) I also super love the giant, pink, sparkly bow on top of the cake! MAYBE I should’ve been more attentive in tinting the bow to match the bow on top of Minnie’s head (from the figurine) but LOOK! The shade of pink is EXACTLY the same. Whattttt… ! I just loves it when things work out accidentally :D LOVES IT!

Topsy Turvy Cake

Sunday, February 26th, 2012

Hiya! This weekend I got to make my first topsy turvy cake and it came out wonderfully! :D Actually, let me revise that sentence… this weekend I got to make my first SUCCESSFUL topsy turvy cake and it came out wonderfully! Better :) Hee hee…

Now you’re probably wondering, “successful? What happened to the first one?”. Welll… my dad went on a business trip and came back on his birthday so I decided to surprise him with a cake. He loves Turtles (chocolate) so I chopped up a VERY GENEROUS AMOUNT and included them in the cake/frosting. The cake was a super moist chocolate cake and of course it was SO DANG MOIST that I couldn’t neatly sculpt it into the signature topsy turvy shape. Eek! I’m not sure what was going through my head but I left the two-tiered lopsided cake on the edge of the kitchen table OVERNIGHT (what was I thinking!?) and in the morning, I found my poor baby splattered on the floor. Baby blue fondant and all. Sigh. This is actually the first time I’ve spoken about The Incident. My dad didn’t even know I made a cake for him! All I thought about the rest of the day was all the Turtles chocolate I wasted.



I’m sure you can see how I could easily be traumatized over my first topsy turvy cake-making experience. It’s been well over a year and I decided to have a GO at it again. This time I used VANILLA CAKE which is a much sturdier cake to sculpt with fluffy chocolate ganache filling. Yummies! :D I made this for a team member I met in Miami for his son’s 2nd birthday. Two-year-old boy… Disney Cars theme… sounds about right! ;) I’m happy with how it turned out.

Remember my not-so-new-years’-resolutions resolutions? Successfully making a topsy turvy cake will be my “something new” for this week. OH! And I also took a latin-inspired dance class. SO SO FUN. I looked ridiculous because I am so so not coordinated but I had a TON of fun and that’s all that counts, right? So yes, I did TWO “something new”s for this week.

Have a happy Sunday! :D

Angry Birds

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

I’ve made an amazing discovery on this blogging system! — actually, two people told me about this (in one day, oddly enough) — automated/scheduled posts! Now I can write all my entries in one day and schedule them so they will upload automatically. HOW BRILLIANT! :D

My friend Charles wanted to order a cake for his nephew STELLAN. Seriously, how cool is that name? All he said was, “ANGRY BIRDS” (surprise surprise?) and “CHOCOLATE” and gave me full executive powers to make all the decisions for the cake… I was soooOoo excited! This is what I came up with…




I always wanted to do a GREEN Angry Birds cake. If you’ve noticed, all the ones I did in the past were blue which makes sense since the birds are being “flung” into the sky… and sky = blue. I wanted to change it up and be different so I used a green and brown combo (so I can texturize and emboss a cobblestone pattern on the brown tier). I also wanted to create more of a STORY and play on the “angry” emotions so I came up with this part…




I just love how that one pig is mocking the birds by putting himself in the slingshot. I think maybe, JUST MAYBE, I should make ANGRY BIRDS CAKES as my signature cake design. What do you think!? :D

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

I never knew I could experience such a strong emotional attachment to a cake until this weekend when I couldn’t bear to part with my newest creation. I wanted to keep it for myself… not to eat, but to put on display and admire and perhaps take shameless, off-centred, self-portraits with it and use it as my Facebook profile picture. I was in love with this cake from start to finish and how fitting that the recipient was also named “Jennifer”. It was meant to be! *winK!* :D




When I received a request to do a Breakfast at Tiffany’s-themed cake, I was ecstatic! I’m not a fan of square/angular cakes because of its sharp edges and the pressure to get them exactly at 90-degrees but me being me, I never like to turn down a challenge. Complex techniques stretch and build my skills as a cake artist and if you’re not moving forward, you’re just staying still (or possibly slipping back). In order to grow in your profession, you have to continually take risks and do something different. You can’t expect to do the same thing every day and get different results. So instead of turning away or being intimidated by detailed cakes, I stare at it and say, “BRING ITTTT!” I’ve always been an admirer of Tiffany’s jewelry, from AFAR. How far? FAR… FAR… farrrr. I browse their website once in a while and I even went to their store at the Peninsula Hotel (Hong Kong), but that’s as connected as I am to this brand (until I find my rich husband, of course!).




I love everything about this cake from the pearly white bow to the edible image of Ms Hepburn herself. I love the softness of the pink and ivory roses preserving the delicateness of the cake and how the signature Tiffany Blue is just right. I enjoyed every minute that this cake and I spent together… all 8 hours!

During that time, I was watching one of my favourite movies, Sweet Home Alabama and lookie! They have a scene dedicated to Tiffany’s! (start from 0.33 minutes)



Is it every girl’s dream to receive a Tiffany’s engagement ring? I thought about this when I was making this cake. I’ve never really been big on jewelry so if my boyfriend proposed with a 25c candy ring pop from one of those vending machines, I’d be fine with it. However, I can foresee problems in the future (many many problems) and a lot of, “Remember when you proposed with that ring pop that I forgot in my purse and it attracted ants?”… ha ha! :P

Also, I would like to THANK everyone for entering Sweet Escapes’ Valentine’s Day Cupcake contest on Facebook. The question was, “What is your perfect date?” and I love all your responses! :) I guess it’s fair that I answer that question as well, huh?

I don’t have a picture of a “PERFECT DATE” in mind but I would like my ideal partner to be versatile, spontaneous and grounded. We can do anything and everything together from working out to traveling together, from going ice skating to dining out. He has to be a true man of God and have a BIG loving heart to match his larger-than-life spirit.

Life to me is a sum of the little moments we share together. Those moments that we get so lost in each other that the world fades away and all we want to do is STAY there. I love trying new things so doing something that is foreign to both of us would be my perfect date. Life is about sharing adventures together and what better company to share that with than your potential life partner? :)

I’m such a cheeseball.

Have a GREAT first day back to work, everyone! :D

An Angry Weekend

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

Hello! Just a quick post before I head to bed (yes, I know it’s 6:10am!). I don’t know what’s going on but every cake inquiry I’ve had in the past few weeks have been about Angry Birds. I think someone’s promoting my AB cakes somewhere online and I don’t know who it is! But if you’re reading this, I’d like to say THANK YOU! :D


Here’s a cake I did this weekend taken from a previous design of mine.




I freehandedly embossed the quilted pattern that gave the cake TEXTURE. I also invented a new word… “freehandedly” :)


I love the “clean lines” look on this cake. I love this cake :) Don’t the flying pigs look like the back of Mickey Mouse’s head if he spent his “off season” (when he’s not trekking between Disney World and Disneyland) putting extra hours in at the nuclear power plant? That green glow looks mighty fine on him! His ears got smaller too! Ha ha… this is what I think about when I’m decorating cakes. SERIOUSLY.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

It’s Valentine’s Day and I finally get a day off. I’m ecstatic. I’m also really nerdy like that :) I did 5 cakes this weekend… FIVE! They were all very detail-oriented and everything turned out better than I expected. After 1 hour of combat tonight, 2km run and a little bit of weight training… this girl is TI-RED! In the meantime, enjoy this cutesy owl cake from this weekend. I always wanted to do an owl cake and now I can cross it off my list! I’d be scared to encounter an owl in real life though… hoO! :D

Valentine’s Day LoveBears!

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Hello lovelies! I’m back from my business trip in Miami and it was mucho fun! :) If you call 14-hour days sitting in multiple seminars, networking and listening to speaker after speaker FUN. Yes, I had fun :) I learned a lot about how to grow my business by streamlining it, utilizing social media (which has been titled “the next big thing”) and increasing sales by building relationships. I met a TON of people… my FB friends list exploded and I love it! I had a blast.

Valentine’s Day orders are well underway… check out this year’s design!



Aren’t they adorable?!

Just for Valentine’s Day, get a set of these two lovebears on a dark chocolate cupcake + vanilla chantilly cream filling + fresh strawberry buttercream swirl wrapped in a clear box and ribbon for $10. Order deadline: Friday February 10th, 2012.

E-mail me at info@jenniferchao.com to place your order! :)