Novelty Cakes (2nd of 2 Parts)

As mentioned here I learned baking and cake decorating techniques without going to a culinary school, and I have included here some of the kid’s celebratory cakes I’ve made in the last two-three years.

Three years ago when Disney’s Frozen movie was all the rage, one of my friend’s little girl was crazy about Princess Anna so she asked me to do a Frozen-themed cake for her daughter’s 3rd birthday.

I’ve never made anything like it but took the challenge and it turned out great, if I may say so myself. 😉 All the cake topper figures are plastic toys while the cupcake toppers, Princess Elsa and Anna, was edible, it’s printed on rice paper using edible ink. It’s made of vanilla sponge rainbow cake with Italian buttercream icing; the sugar-glass candy (melted white sugar with corn syrup and turquoise food colour) was cut up to look like an imaginary front facade of a castle and it made the cake a little bit more magical. The birthday girl and her friends went gaga over it.

On the same day I posted this Frozen cake picture on Instagram, another friend asked me to do the same cake for her grandchild who was also celebrating her 3rd birthday the following week. Both made of vanilla sponge cake but the only difference was the first one has in 7 layers, rainbow colours, while only two for the second, only because the food colour I ordered online didn’t arrive on time and I only had a few drops of pink food colour left.

A few months later, a five-year old girl at my Sunday school class celebrated her 5th birthday, and because she’s always singing Frozen’s theme song ‘Let It Go’, I decided to make her a ‘Frozen’ cake. Again, the cake toppers are plastic toys while the cupcake toppers are edible images of Frozen characters.
Then another girl in my Sunday school class turned four and also wanted the same ‘Frozen’ cake. I made a different one, this time a chocolate cake with ‘white chocolate cigarellos’ and topped with the two main characters of the movie, Princess Elsa and Anna, both inedible plastic figures and edible printed pictures.
When our little nephew, Trystan, turned 5 he wanted a Power Ranger Samurai cake. He was in a ‘Samurai – Ninja’ phase and was very happy with his cake.
My Japanese language skill came in very handy when making the fondant Katakana and Kanji characters (Katakana is Japanese characters used for writing foreign names and words whereas Kanji refers to Chinese written letter or symbol). I couldn’t find any mould to make any of these ‘characters’ so I simply used a pastry knife to make the cake toppers. 😉 I particularly enjoyed working with fondant trying to make these characters.

Another girl at our church celebrated her 3rd birthday and loved Barbie dolls hence, her mom and I did a ‘Barbie-themed’ party for her. It was the first time I did a doll cake and it was quite easy to make. The Barbie doll cake topper was ordered from Amazon; it’s only a half-body doll and you just stick it on top of the cake and decorate it accordingly.

As you may have already guessed, we have quite a few kids at our church, and baking cakes and other sweets for their birthday is part of my ministry. I love doing it even for friends outside of the church. One time I made this choo-choo train cake for Aaron, another baby at our church. The cake toppers and decorations are made of fondant and sugar paste, and I wasn’t very happy how mr. teddy looked. 🙂 As it was my first time to make a fondant teddy bear, it took me almost an hour to work on that one by watching a youtube tutorial and didn’t have the energy to make another one afterwards, and settled on the ‘not-so-handsome mr teddy.’ 🙂
When one of the elderly ladies at our church celebrated her 75th birthday last year, her grandchild also turned 7 and their party was combined, and held at our church. Ryan specifically told me a few months before that he wanted a ‘Despicable Me Minions’ birthday cake. He was very happy when he saw the cake and couldn’t wait to eat it. When he finally got to blow the candles and sliced the cake he shouted, “I killed him!” We all had a good laugh. Oh, and I must mention that I forgot to put Mr Minion’s mouth. Only noticed it after the party while looking at the photos. 🙂 Left photo below has a mouth —  thanks to the iPhone app that enabled me to do it. No one, not even little Ryan noticed that Minion’s mouth was missing. LOL! No good excuse to give except that it was a crazy day. I baked and decorated 3 huge cakes plus 4 dozens cupcakes. It was a big project especially the vintage-theme cakes for his grandma that I forgot one important detail of the Minion cake but at least no one else except myself noticed it. 🙂

Another friend has a son who turned one and two of her friends have also kids who both turned one and they combined the party together. She asked me to bake a cake for them. Hence, there’s 3 names on this one.
The toppers — teddy bear, elephant and dog — are made of marzipan, and I had a lot of fun making them. I love working with fondant and marzipan — it’s like a play dough. It was around Christmas time and the green fondant pine trees are for the gingerbread house decors.

Last year another little boy, great-grandchild of a member of our church, had his 1st birthday and the parents asked me to make an airplane cake for him. He obviously likes airplane toys and was very excited to see the little red airplane on top of his cake.
His mom helped me with rolling and cutting-out of the fondant for the cupcake toppers.

For our nephew Trystan’s 7th birthday the theme was ‘Mutant Ninja Turtles’ and this is what I came up with . . . didn’t wait for the buttercream icing to dry before adding the ‘brown-tiles’ fondant pieces around so when it dried up the next day some were crooked. 🙂 Lesson learned — always allow the icing to dry before putting on the other decors/toppers.
He and his school friends, like most kids, preferred the cupcakes than the cake itself, simply because they sometimes like to eat only the icing and cake topper. I came to a conclusion, after being around a number of kid’s parties, that cupcakes should always be served at all kiddie parties. No compromises. Cupcakes should be included at all cost. 🙂

Another girl at our church turned 8 and asked me to make her a ‘Disney Lego Friends’ cake. It’s made of chocolate cake and the toppers are plastic toys, Lego of course, not fondant.
For a baby shower I hosted at our church almost two years ago, here’s the cake, cupcakes, cookies and other sweets I made.
When three of our teenagers at church graduated from high school last year I made a pyramid cake for them. The church had a special Sunday lunch for everyone and this ‘not-so-good-looking’ cake (blame it on the grey icing not the baker 😉 ) was actually delicious, if I may say so myself. 🙂 It’s marble cake with Italian buttercream icing.
Another kid at our church turned 3 last year and because he loves car I got him a car toy and used it as a cake  topper. Pretty easy! And he got to enjoy playing with the car toy afterwards. 🙂
Another friend asked me to do a ‘My Little Pony’ themed cake for her daughter’s 4th birthday party.  The purple and pink pony, both made of fondant, took hours to assemble and dry. Sadly, I don’t have any picture of the cake with the rainbow and ponies on top. I missed the party; when the cake was picked up, the ponies weren’t put on top yet because I was afraid it would ruin the cake while it’s being transported to the venue.  I have yet to ask my friend for a picture of the cake.

I also made two dozens of rainbow cupcakes to match with the cake.

Another girl at church celebrated her 5th birthday last year and wanted a ‘Princess’ cake.  It was a chocolate cake with Italian buttercream icing; edible gold glitters and edible silver balls were put around the cake. Then the little  tiara toy I got for her was placed on top of the cake to complete the ‘princess-look.’ 🙂
Of course, I made some cupcakes as well. Otherwise all the kids will be asking me, “Why don’t we have any cupcakes?” 🙂
Last year I made this Minnie and Mickey Mouse Cake for another friend’s two children ages 2 and 5 — their birthday party was combined for the first time (they were born only a few days apart in December). Both are made of vanilla sponge cake.
The Minnie Mouse car cake was a lot of fun to make — the Minnie Mouse fondant, purple flowers, bows, and all of the cake topper are so girly and cute — I really enjoyed decorating this cake. And the birthday girl is the sweetest five-year old I know; during her party she kept coming back to me giving me hugs and kisses telling me how much she loved her cake.
As for the Mickey Mouse Cake, it’s covered in Italian buttercream icing. Only the Mickey on top as well as the name and the round band around the cake is made of fondant. The Minnie Mouse cake is by far my number one favourite of all the novelty cakes I’ve made.
These are just some of the many cakes I’ve made. As you may have guessed, I have quite a few friends, both in and outside of the church, with little kids and baking cakes and other sweets for them and their kids is part of my ministry. It’s a labour of love. I enjoy doing it, and I don’t charge anyone for any of it. It is a great blessing from the Lord, and I don’t take it for granted that God has given me the opportunity to do this for my family and friends here in London.