Being a cake designer means I have to be familiar with what TV shows/characters kids of all age groups love. A few months ago, I had NO IDEA who the Octonauts were and quite frankly, I don’t really know who they are now but at least I know that they’re sea pilots(?), sea cowboys(?) that solve mysteries(?) or save the underwater world from evil(?) and say, “CREATURE REPORT!” (okay, THAT part I do know! ).
I really love this cake! I made a time lapse video of my putting this together but the camera work was HORRIBLE. That’s the last time I tape my phone to a box! The 30 minutes of filming turned into a 16-second video. If each cake took 16 seconds to make, I’d be stinkin’ rich right now!
You all know how much I LOVE matching cakes and cupcakes! These were SO fun to make. Super detailed but that’s what I love. Taking this photo was worth all of the 3 hours it took to put together!
If my cupcakes committed a crime, this would be their ’side mug shot’!
This hungry dinosaur is attacking Eason’s cake even before the birthday boy gets to see it! This dinosaur guy took me SO long to sculpt but it was definitely worth it because that was Eason’s one request (to have a T-Rex on it!). He looks more like Puff the Magic Dragon, don’t you think? I should stop thinking about him or his song will be playing in my head the whole night!
Made this cutesy pie monkey cake last week and he looks as cheeky as my nephew, The Monkey! I’m starting to like simple cakes with just enough details on it. This is definitely a phase! I’m also trying to use muted tones even though you know I love my *powpow* bold colours!
Here are some more detailed shots of Damien’s cake. I love, love LOVE details and anyone who has had one of my cakes knows this statement to be true. The birthday boy’s mom was so happy with the cake that she sent me multiple messages filled with gratitude.
It took me over an hour to hand cut his name and it was SO worth it! I love how it came out!
“Hiiiiiii Jennifer!
I just need to tell you that you are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo TALENTED!!!! This cake was ridiculiously amazing!!! The detail on it is off the hook and everyone at the party couldn’t stop taking about it. At one point Damien just sat in front of the cake and was staring and forgot that there was a party going on around him….lol…he said I just want to look at my cake please..lol it was so cute. Honestly Jennifer, I wish I could have picked the cake up from you to give you a big hug and show you how much it meant to Damien he really LOVED IT! His reaction was WOW lol.
We can’t thank you enough you are truly gifted!
Damien’s 3rd birthday was this weekend and his mom ordered an Angry Birds cake for him. This was by far the most “authentic” AB cake I’ve done because of the lettering. It’s the actual font from the game and it took me just over an hour to do his name and the #3. YES… ONE… HOUR! With a sharp exact-o knife, one episode of Hell’s Kitchen and one episode of Big Bang! I painted it with a super pearl finish and sprinkled some clear gold sparkles on it. Voila! It was SO worth it and if it took 2 hours, I still would have done it because I’m so in love with what I do!
His mom sent me the sweetest message afterwards and they came all the way from BOLTON (an hour+ away) to pick up the cake. I’m pretty sure that when I’m a mom, I will be doing the same for my kids. Err.. I won’t be picking up cakes though cause hopefully I’ll be making them! But you know, other stuff Although my company will be around full-time for the next 2 years, I’ll still be making cakes for my kids (fingers crossed). I started feeling the effects in my wrist this week… they started hurting for the first time which FREAKED me out! I’m only in my 20s! I can’t be experiencing joint pain already. Kneading fondant is hard work but it would be horrible if I have to stop in the near future. Maybe a vacation would help? I want to do an ASIA tour next year. Perhaps go on a short-term missions trip. I’m so excited to dedicate the rest of my life (when I turn 30+) to missions! Thinking about this causes the butterflies in my stomach to flutter Hopefully it will be cake-related But I trust God and His ultimate plan for me!
In the meantime, I have to get back to work. WHAT?! Working on a Sunday night?! YEEEPS. I’m working Sun/Mon and have the rest of the week OFF. Woohoo! Hopefully I’ll have more time to blog. But now, my cutesy dinosaurs are waiting.
As I make hundreds of cakes and cupcakes every year for everyone’s special loved ones, I finally get to make something for one of my own… my dear, precious baby Zachary (who is not a baby anymore). Since he came into my life 4 years ago, I finally knew what selflessly loving another human being meant. This boy stole my heart! I see him every other day and we do fun things together like go to the science centre, Ikea (for hot dogs + frozen yogurt), McDs (we share McFlurries), STC, Walmart, Costco (he loves samples — heck, I love them too!) and he’ll always come over and play at my place. He is the smartest and funniest 4-year-old I’ve ever met and we have the best adventures together.
The other day I was putting him in his car seat at Walmart and he goes, “Auntie… can you check my underwear? I don’t remember which one I’m wearing — Toy Story 1, 2 or 3!” (apparently this is very important to him) so I fulfilled my “auntie duty” and checked his underwear. I don’t even know the difference between the 3 movies so I just said 2… He also memorizes bible verses like a pro, reads Chinese and shamefully, he corrects my Chinese when I use the wrong word… (this was when he was still 2! SO embarrassing!). So to sum up… I’m so in love with this guy
3.5 years ago. Super melt!
Last week he said, “Auntie… my birthday is coming up… can you make me a Nemo cake?” and I thought.. sure, of course I can. My original idea was to make a PLAYABLE Angry Birds cake but then I thought that would be way too much work. I still had other orders to do, you know? Then I wanted to do 4 cakes for his 4th birthday. Since I read a lot of bedtime stories to him (yes, after I give him his bath — I should win some ‘auntie of the year’ award!), I wanted to re-create his favourite storybooks into cakes. Clifford, Curious George, Cars 2 and Angry Birds. But then I remember each cake takes AT LEAST 10 hours to do and I still had other orders to think about. When he said “Nemo”, it helped a lot. NEMO IT WAS!!
Or so I thought!
I started sketching, brainstorming ideas and knew exactly what I was going to make. We were up north the other weekend and I stupidly showed him my phone of Angry Birds cakes and he said, “I change my mind! I want an Angry Birds cake now!” and my inside voice said, “Nooooo…. WHY… WHY did you show him the cakes?!”. I tried to persuade him saying that Nemo was cooler than Angry Birds (such a bad argument) and that he wanted Nemo to begin with and “no backsies!!”. Sigh. That DID NOT work. He kept saying that he wanted Angry Birds. I realized at that point that there was NO changing this kid’s mind. So I told him how about I do a mash-up cake with Nemo and Angry Birds? His face LIT UP. He said he wanted Nemo in the slingshot. DONE. This will be fun
Us being “us”, Easter weekend (before the kids went on stage to perform, hence the bow tie!) Yes, he is holding a gigantic lump of multi-coloured Playdoh!
Long story short I made a mash-up cake of the two themes as you will see in this short clip and brought it to his place on his birthday. This video is mostly in Chinese but I will do my best with my mediocre skills (according to Z) to translate. His grandma actually bought him a chocolate cake and he said it was the “best cake he’s ever had” (try living up to that standard!) so you will see that cake in the background. We call that cake the “eating cake” and my cake is the “looking cake”. See see no touch!
… because it’s just SO funny!! (I want a niece so bad — can you tell??)
You will see James in the background trying to get attention from us by sticking his stinky foot on the table (he knows he’s not suppose to do that). Zach watches all Disney movies in Chinese and Nemo’s Chinese name is “Ah-mo”… as in… ‘Mo. I’m guessing that’s his street name too if he was ever in a gang. Some clownfish gang thing. You can’t really hear him at the beginning when he sees the cake cause he’s just so happy that his voice is a little distorted but he says, “Angry Birds and Mo-jai” which is I guess Nemo’s nickname? Then he makes a comment that the pigs stole the bird’s eggs. I’m so glad he noticed these little details I put in!
Enjoy!
(PS. I know you can see the back of the cake which is BARE… since this was a non-paying cake made from the goodness of my heart, I had to save on fondant. Sorry you had to see that)
Hi everyone! Happy Friday! I hope you’re enjoying this beautiful day.. the weekend looks promising!
It was my Zachary’s 4th birthday yesterday — I can’t believe he’s 4 already! Where has the time gone?! My life changed 4 years ago all because of him and I’m so excited for our future filled with fun and crazy adventures.
This will be a short post today because I’m SWAMPED with orders (but in a good way )… so here’s a picture I snapped of Z and his cake. Will explain the design later and will post two videos about his cake. If you want to see the videos, check out Sweet Escapes’ Facebook page
It’s 1:36am on Sunday morning and my sponge cakes just came out of the oven and are cooling upside down now. Every Sunday evening a bunch of us meet at my friend’s house to watch The Bible Series on the History Channel (party animals, huh? ). Is anyone following that series? I’m loving it so far! Last Sunday I attended a business seminar so I didn’t have time to bake anything. I ended up going to T&T to buy a loaf of thick slice bread and a can of condensed milk. I made a traditional Hong Kong-style favourite — condensed milk on toast. Before you gag or think “YUM!”, you have to try it first! It is absolutely DELICIOUS! We also had a jar of Nutella. Mmm!!! And had popsicles. We’re a weird bunch
Now that I had a little time to bake, I made sponge cakes for tonight. I cannot wait to have the first slice all warm and soft and sunshine yellow. Wish you were here! I’m also preparing for a photo shoot for my new site. I had to ice, examine it from afar with my squinty eyes, scrape off the icing and re-ice until it was perfect. Let’s just say, I had to re-ice many, many times! So looking forward to the shoot!!
Until I post the pictures up (hopefully Monday), enjoy this sweet snapshot of Anson and Naomi’s birthday party last week at a bowling place. Making cakes is not ALWAYS fun/enjoyable. It is 99% of the time but sometimes that 1% sneaks up on you and you want to quit. Or no matter how late you stay up, that ‘character’ you’re working on just doesn’t seem to look right. Little moments like these kids’ sweet smiles remind me why I still love to do what I do. Naomi loves Hello Kitty and Anson loves basketball and somehow those themes worked together I’m so blessed to have been a part of their birthday celebration!
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The 30 minutes of filming turned into a 16-second video. If each cake took 16 seconds to make, I’d be stinkin’ rich right now! 
Then I wanted to do 4 cakes for his 4th birthday. Since I read a lot of bedtime stories to him (yes, after I give him his bath — I should win some ‘auntie of the year’ award!), I wanted to re-create his favourite storybooks into cakes. Clifford, Curious George, Cars 2 and Angry Birds. But then I remember each cake takes AT LEAST 10 hours to do and I still had other orders to think about. When he said “Nemo”, it helped a lot. NEMO IT WAS!! 
