Double Happiness for old friends.

I recently found out that an old primary schoolmate of mine is getting married in December. He told me that his fiancee was thinking of giving away some pre-wedding cupcakes to her colleagues. She had in mind the Chinese character 'hei', which signifies double happiness - a character commonly associated with Chinese weddings. Prior to this, I'd not written much in Chinese before, let alone pipe in buttercream. So with much trepidation, I proceeded to practice and practice with leftover buttercream. I got it right from the get-go, much to my mom's and my surprise.

Here are half of the cupcakes which were presented that day.

Upon their request, I created slightly different designs to differentiate the three flavours of cupcakes.

I'm incredibly proud of these beauties. Mostly because I was able to make a special couple really happy, and make my mom proud of my rudimentary piping of Chinese characters.

Close-up of the three different designs: Medium pink one with three blossoms was chocolate cake. Pale pink one had marble cake, and the red one was coffee cake. All three were iced with vanilla buttercream.

Thomas the Tank Engine Cupcakes

A very dear friend from London requested some very special cupcakes for her beloved nephew who was turning four. She mentioned that he loved Thomas the Tank Engine, so I said I would try to make something very cute for him.

These are chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. The characters and lettering are handmade from fondant.

Happy Birthday, Vish! I hope you liked your Thomas cupcakes.

Hari Raya Cupcakes

This past Hari Raya Aidilfitr, I received a couple of orders from a dear friend. She wanted some special cupcakes for two of her friends celebrating the festival. She mostly left the details to me, but stated that she would love to have some amount of variety in the set.

So, I decided to put together three different flavours, and was able to, surprisingly, fit in tiramisu cupcakes along with some marble and chocolate ones.

The outer ring of cupcakes are tiramisu; middle ring ones are marble with vanilla, and the 'ketupat' ones are chocolate and vanilla.

Diagonal view of the arrangement.

I really love the little ketupats I piped out of buttercream.

Look at how teeny tiny they are.

Maureen & Elson - Wedding Cupcake Tiers.

I recently made my first real wedding cake. Technically, it was a cake with cupcake tiers and a cutting cake at the top. It's a really new trend that's just about catching on here in Malaysia. I am most grateful to have been given the honour to make the cake for this beautiful couple.

The cupcake tiers from the side view. I made the entire stand by myself using cake boards, styrofoam dummies, pretty textured paper and loads of satin ribbon.

Slightly higher view to show the different tiers. I made these tiers closer in size because the customer wanted height but not too large a quantity of cupcakes.

View from the top. I had to stand on a chair to take this photo. Love how it looks from up there.

Close-up of the top cake, which was also the cutting cake. It is covered in ivory fondant which is starting to bubble a little because of the heat. The pink ribbon bow and all the flowers are also handmade using fondant.

The lovely newlyweds cutting their cake.

The inside of the cutting cake - it's dark chocolate espresso cake with orange creamsicle buttercream. Very yummy, if I may say so myself.

Sexy layers of cake, with just the right amount of buttercream.

Thanks, Michelle, for the wonderful opportunity to make this cake for your sister and your new brother-in-law. I hope that it was a sweet surprise for them.