Happy SPCA Cupcake Day New Zealand!

Hello everyone!  Today is the official SPCA Cupcake Day!  I encourage all of you to support this cause and go out and buy cupcakes where you see them.  The cupcake cooks will be wearing these stickers,

so make sure you grab some loose change from your pockets and give give give!  To those buyers who wish to receive a tax receipt for their donation* simply ask the cupcake cook to take your details on their Donations Receipt Register, and SPCA will send them a receipt.  How awesome is that?  You give some, and get some back.

Now, today I will be sharing my cupcake entry for SPCA's 'Most Creative Cupcake' Competition run by More FM.  Here is my entry:

Today More FM announced the winner of the brand spankin' new KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer valued at almost $1,000!

Sooo beautiful, huh?

Unfortunately, I don't get to take this baby home :-(.  More FM had a very tough time deciding on a winner as there were hundreds of entrants, but like any competition, they had to pick ONE.  And I am delighted to announce that the lucky winner goes out to the very talented Kate Boyt from Tauranga!  Here is her entry:

Congratulations Kate!  Your cupcakes were so cute and gorgeous!  Hope you made lots of moolah for SPCA and enjoy your new KitchenAid!  Now you have every reason to keep them baked goods coming!  Of course, I wouldn't mind you sending some my way (wink wink, nudge nudge).

One day, hopefully soon, I wish to own my very own KitchenAid Stand Mixer...but for now, I will keep on baking and caking with my very humble mixer that has been through a very hard life.  Sorry Mixer, you can't quite retire yet...I still need you to make beautiful cakes and bakes.  xo

Stay tuned this week as I will be announcing how much funds I raised for SPCA, thanks to Summerland Primary staff and students, my wonderful family, and other fellow Aucklanders that supported this cause.  It's lovely to see everyone in the community banding together to make a difference, however small it may be.

Have a cupcake-filled Monday and see you again soon!!  Blessings!

xo

*Donations over $5 are tax deductible.

I do

Last month I received a lovely email from one of my Mum's colleagues regarding a wedding cake.  Deepana (who by the way I only just met on Tuesday - such a nice young woman) had been so busy with finishing a paper she was sitting at uni whilst planning her big wedding day.  I say big because it really is.  She is expecting around five hundred and fifty guests!  Oh my word!  She said this is typical of an Indian wedding.  Thank goodness this cake was for her 'legal' ceremony, which will involve fewer guests.  In their culture weddings last up to several days as there are many ceremonies involved.  They actually started last week and it is still going this week, until the weekend for their 'big' wedding ceremony.  Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun and stress at the same time!  What a great tradition to have!

Anyway, since then we'd been emailing each other on a regular basis.  On one of her emails were her and her fiancé's specifications: two tier chocolate eggless cake with creme and hot pink colour theme and daisies.  She had seen some of my cake creations via my Mum and loved them.  I told her that I had never done a wedding cake before and that hers would be my first.  Fortunately, this detail did not bother her one bit.  She even trusted me with design ideas!  Wow!  I definitely had to whip something amazing as this cake would be the beginning of my wedding cakes journey.  Fun times!

After an intense sleepless night, I had what turned out to be a pretty amazing cake!  But before I did, I really immersed myself in their culture.  I remembered her telling me how much they love their bright colours and gold, so I made sure this was evident on the cake.  On Tuesday night I delivered the (verrry heavy) cake with my Mum to Deepana's place.  Let me tell ya, I was sooo  nervous about the drive!  She didn't exactly live nearby, and there were sooo many road works that we just had to go through.  I even had to remind Mum to take it easy on the curves, on the occasion she'd forget there was a wedding cake on board.  I swear I was praying and staring at the cake the entire journey!

Upon arrival we were welcomed by her lovely family (in amidst their wedding preparations).  I still had not met Deepana, so there I was trying to work out which one of the house full of ladies was the bride-to-be, all while trying to balance what felt like a tonne of brick in my arms.  Finally, I worked out who Deepana was.  The expression on her face (once she saw her cake) was just priceless.  She had the biggest eyes and the widest smile on her face saying, "this is better than what I imagined!" whilst staring at her wedding cake.  Yay!  Seeing her (and her family) sooo happy and thrilled about the cake made me really happy, too, and it definitely made all that labour oh-so-worth-it!

Introducing, my very first wedding cake...  

I really love the sepia effect I applied on this cake.  

For more pictures of this wedding cake (in colour) click after the jump...

A special Birthday celebration!

Good Monday everyone!  It makes me sooo happy to wake up to blue skies and sunshine!  I really love it! I can't tell you how much the weather affects my mood, lol.  It's harder to be chirpy when it's grey and gloomy, but of course I try not to let that affect my day too much, otherwise that's a whole season of being gloomy...and I feel sorry for my family if they have to deal with that every single day.  :-)

Over the weekend my family and I held a very small and impromptu birthday celebration for my uncle's 50th birthday.  The thing is, my uncle doesn't live in NZ, and there is about four hours difference between us, but we still wanted to make the effort to make it a special moment for him...after all, how many times do you turn 50?  How did we do it you ask?  Well, via SKYPE of course!  It's amazing how much technology plays a big part in our lives today in terms of bridging the communication gap.  It's definitely one of my most favourite tech advancements and my family and I use it all the time.

Anyway, my cousin asked me to make a birthday cake for the occasion...of course I was more than happy to help out.   I decided to take a break from chocolate and revisit vanilla bean.  I made a very simple vanilla bean cake filled and frosted with vanilla bean buttercream, and of course embellished with some colourful confetti sprinkles to make it more festive.  Here are some pics for you all to enjoy!!  Oh, and I decided to take pics of the cake with and without the writing...I was thinking every time there's a birthday I could just place a message on the blank cake and send it to the birthday celebrant!  Like so...

 Let me tell ya, I felt super clever after thinkin' of that idea!  LOL!  Lovin' technology and its endless possibilities!

Okay, so here are the 'real' pictures...enjoy!!

Tito means Uncle and Lolo means Grandpa :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TITO JOHNNY!!  xo

More pics after the jump...

Fashion Friday!

Another beautiful sunshiney day!  I am lovin' this!  Though it's still very nippy outside, it's nice to have blue skies and sunshine for a change.  I was beginning to get sick of the colour grey, and I own a lot of grey clothing!!  Need to bring in the colours because spring is near!  I'm thinking mixin' up some dull colours with some vibrant ones, add a bit of floral in the mix, and of course maxi dresses!  Okay, it doesn't have to be long, but if you know me, you'll know that I don't like to wear anything above the knees...unless I'm wearing tights underneath.  LOL.

So, what are some looks I'm diggin' right now?  Sources: Jeanswest and Just Jeans.  (Having some trouble with my connection atm, so I could only post up a few clothing images...grrr)

Drape Jacket :-)

and this pink sand twin pocket blouse

...wear it with these chinos.  I love these chinos!

And of course, ya gotta have a floral maxi in your wardrobe!!

Blossom printed maxi

More pics after the jump guys...

SPCA Cupcake Day

That's right guys!  I am a proud supporter of this year's SPCA Cupcake Day and the image above is the official sticker I (along with all the other Cupcake Cooks) will be wearing when selling our cupcakes.  If you would like to find out more about this event or how you could help SPCA, then click here.

This is very exciting for me because this is my second charity event that I've been involved in this year.  I haven't mentioned this yet but earlier this year (as most of you fellow NZers would know) we had the most tragic earthquake happen in Christchurch.  This natural disaster took a lot of lives along with their hopes and dreams.  I was shocked when I heard the news and all I could do was pray for survivors.  I remember feeling really helpless and wondering what else I could do to help (apart from donating money online to Red Cross).   Then I stumbled upon a page on facebook set up by the lovely Delish Cupcakes in North Shore, Auckland.  They had organised a 'Get your bake on' for anyone to join and all money raised would go directly to those affected by the Christchurch earthquake.  I had both my hands up!!  What a lovely idea and a sweet gesture to show Christchurch that we are thinking of them.

It was a great day!  Lots of people turned up with their loose change and empty stomachs yearning for sweet treats.  I was one of the volunteer bakers and helpers on that day.  I even put my "I (heart) cake" t-shirt fit for the occasion, because it was Black and Red - the Canterbury colours.  I donated some delicious chocolate cupcakes and banana cupcakes with red and black daisies (again, using the Canterbury colours).  It was an awesome experience!  I got to meet so many lovely people, doing their bit to help out.  We made over $6k that day - what an incredible achievement!!

See pics after the jump...

Colourful confetti

...on delicious chocolate cupcakes!  Made fifteen of these cuties last night for my sis-in-law, and reserved a special one for my eldest son, Javaughn.  Here's why - yesterday Javaughn received a classroom achievement award for "making significant progress in his reading".  Significant is definitely the highlighted word here.  Let's just say he is now reading a couple of years above his age :-).  Lui and I are sooo proud of our boy because we know this has been quite a challenging area for him.  His persistence in the past couple of months, diligently reading for half an hour to an hour a day, really paid off.  It's wonderful to see that he now knows and appreciates 'hard work' and its rewards.  As parents, we like to see our children give things a valiant try and not quitting at the first sight of defeat.  Like my favourite verse goes, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" (Phil.4v13).  This has been true in my life, and I share it with you because it really has helped me face some of the most challenging circumstances that came my way - I'm sure it will do the same for you.

This single cupcake was made with lots of joy and love.  It symbolises how proud we are of him and what he has accomplished.  I showed it to him this morning and he looks forward to eating it after school, with a nice cup of hot chocolate.  Here are some fun pics I took this morning that really made my mouth water...ahhh, yum-ehh!!

Hope you enjoyed this post!  Have a wonderful Wednesday and drop by again soon!

xo

Good Monday

Hey guys!  Hope you're all having a good Monday so far!  First of all, I would like to apologise for not posting much last week.  I planned to but was very busy with my most challenging cake order yet.  Remember the carrier pigeon cake I made last time for dancer Kimberley?  Well, she ordered a second cake from me, but this time it was for her dancers.  Kimberley is currently travelling in Europe, shuffling from London to Barcelona, and who knows where she's off to next!  Now, before I get into the cake, here is a pic she sent me taken in the streets of London.  This is what she wanted me to create for her dancers...

She originally envisioned a 2D cake, but me being me (forever challenging myself) thought she wanted a 3D version.  When I mentioned the idea to her she got all excited about it (I was secretly stressing - lol).  I began to plan how I was going to achieve this tip-toe action...let's just say I was sleep-deprived for a while.

Once I had some plans drawn up (mainly in my head) I approached my Uncle to help me with building a base for it, since he had all the cool tools needed for this project (like Tim the Toolman Taylor from Home Improvement, and Handy Manny, hehe).  We sat down and discussed and sketched some ideas until we decided on one that we thought would work best.  I have some process pics on my phone, but I can't find the cable to upload them onto my computer...when I find it I will show you the pics.

This cake took a lot out of me.  I was really exhausted!  No sleep and a lot of trial and error in the process.  I'm just sooo glad it turned out pretty cool (for me anyway).  Sure there are things I would do differently next time had I had a bit more time to work on it, like creating the creases at the bend of the shoes, brushing off the excess icing sugar on the shoe laces and soles to give it a more streamlined finish, etc, etc - next time, with more time!

The lovely Antoinette (who works for Kimberley) collected the cake from me, but when she arrived I was still finishing it off...and so she waited very patiently.  She was watching me do my thing, talk about pressure!!  She also ended up helping keep my twin boys from attacking the cake.  They just kept running towards it.  If you don't know my boys, they are cake-aholics, but I refer to them as my cake monsters.  They love anything CAKE!

Click after the jump to see how the cake turned out...

This is dedicated to the one I love...

The title is from a song btw...  Anyway, to get our Wednesday started, here is a cute image I found on one of my favourite daily reads.  Since our subject today  has something to do with both Love and Chocolate, I thought this image is perfect!

Image source: Atypical Type A

Today I have something special to share with you all.  It's a cake I whipped up this morning for my dear husband, Lui.  Recently we've been witnessing blessings in our lives for which we are truly grateful for.  My hubby has been working very hard at his job, and sometimes it may go unnoticed by some, but his bosses and I know the amount of dedication he's been investing in his role that has and is making a huge impact in their company.  He's the go-to guy for anything - Lui this, Lui that.  Very similar to my current role as a stay-at-home-Mum - Mum this, Mum that...hehehe.  Lui very rarely wants a piece of my cakes, maybe because I make them too often it's lost its special factor about it, I don't know, but when he asked me on Monday if I could bake him a cake 'just 'cause' I thought 'wow, this is strange'.  So today I made a simple but rich-in-chocolate-and-deliciousness cake for him.  If he is reading my post today then there won't be a big surprise reveal when he gets home later, but that's okay, we can all still enjoy eating it as a family after dinner.  :-)

Of course, when I say simple, I meant about the decoration of the cake.  The frosting is not perfectly finished, but I think the handmade look gives it a nice touch.  I couldn't help my self from adding some embellishments to the finish, in this case making some frilly border to surround the bottom of the cake, and some Maltesers shaped in a heart to go on top.  I have to admit I couldn't resist eating a couple of those Maltesers in the process, lol.  But I didn't eat any until I saw what resembled a heart shape, hehe.

Before I reveal the cake, here's a scanned pic of something I found inside my (yummy) cereal box (Hubbard's Light & Right Berry Uplift).  I cut it out and placed it on our fridge, just as a reminder of how blessed we truly are.  Hopefully you can appreciate this, too.

Click below for the cake reveal...

"It takes a Wong to make a right"

Okay, so today's post is non-cake related but too cool not to share with you all.  As you may know by now, I'm also a dancer (currently inactive due to my baby duties, but still following the dance world when I can).  One of my hubby and I's fave past time is youtube surfing...and usually for new talent and maybe something hilarious!  Our eldest son loves it, too.  This vid I'm about to share with you all we absolutely love, and have watched countless times already.  Definitely inspiring and makes you wonder about what you could be capable of doing when given the opportunity to push past your comfort zone.  You may be pleasantly surprised with a latent talent?  Who knows!  But this dude is certainly one super talented dancer... Check it out by clicking here!  And as an added bonus, check this one out here!  You wouldn't wanna miss this!  It's sooo cool and funny!  :-)

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday guys!  See you again tomorrow!

xo

DJ Kiwa in the house!

Good morning guys!  Hope you had a fantastic weekend!  Today I am excited to share with you a cake I made for (last) Saturday.  This cake was for my friend's son, Kiwa, who turned 8 last Friday.  His Mum originally requested for a rugby themed cake, but Kiwa wanted a DJ turntable cake.  Of course, ya gotta make the birthday boy's wishes come true right?  So, I googled some images of turntables and found a Technics one that looked pretty cool.  I used that image as a guide to help me make this cake.

Kiwa's favourite colours are black, blue, red and yellow, which I wanted to incorporate on the cake to personalise it more for him.  I also wanted to add some sparkle (some bling bling) on the cake to give it a more superstar feel, so added some silver cachous and edible glitter.  What a fun cake to make!  I hope to do another again soon.  Here are some shots I took of the cake - enjoy the pics guys!

Message from Kiwa's parents - "Happy 8th Birthday Kiwa, you awesome kid!"

More pics after the jump...

A little quickie action in the car last night...

...with my cake!!  Com'on guys, what were you thinking?  LOL.  Since it's Friday I thought I'd spoil you guys with a second post!  If you haven't read my first post today, then simply scroll down or click here.

Remember yesterday how I said I was going to whip something old school and traditional for my Father-in-law's birthday?  Well, today is the big cake reveal!  But before I show it to you, I thought I'd tell you a little story of how the cake came to be...

Now, my sister-in-law was very adamant that we couldn't be late or else we'd have to pay the whole bill.  Well, I was kinda busy yesterday and only got to the baking part later in the afternoon so I was really pressed for time.  My hubby was like 'com'on we gotta go' and I was like 'but I still have to frost the cake'...he reminded me about what his sister had said, so of course I just packed my things and went straight to the car.  LOL

After dodging a few red lights, and really putting a heavy foot on the gas (just kidding guys, it was more like, "another red light?  com'on!!") we got there bang on time!  We decided to unload the kids first, then find a carpark.  I decided to stay behind just so I could quickly frost the cake and do some quick decorations.  Man, can I just tell you that there was not a lot of room to manoeuvre in the car!  Plus it was really dark in that carpark, I had to turn the inside lights on, and even that wasn't bright enough.  But, ya gotta work with what ya got, right?

While resting the cake on my legs, and using my left hand to rotate it as my right hand was busy smoothing with a palette knife, I realised that this was one of those moments that needed to be documented.  So, I (very carefully) placed the palette knife on my left hand and grabbed the camera with my right and snap!  I didn't have the luxury to take too many pictures, so I settled with the one.  Then after that I went straight back to work.  After some smoothing and sprinkling magic, here's what I ended up with...

Not bad for a quickie-in-the-car job huh?  If you'd like to read more about our night, then just click below.  There are some pics of what we ate, too - yum yum yum-ehh!!

Hello deer...

This week our street has been busy with a film crew and super star reindeers!  I know, reindeers!  (Hence the post title...)  They blocked off our street from the general public, put signs up everywhere that filming was in progress, authorised personnel only.  We even had tow away signs!  It was pretty exciting as my Mum and I were driving back to my place from a walk and I had to verify that I lived there in order to gain access to my casa!  Hehehe...

My neighbour tells me that our street is very popular with the film industry.  I mean, our street does look good and does resemble Wisteria Lane (from Desperate Housewives),  just not as grand and without the white picket fences.  Many members of our family and friends have given us the "wow, your street looks like Wisteria Lane on Desperate Housewives!"  LOL, I just find that too funny!

Anyway, check out some pics I took of the filming commotion that went on this week...after the jump...

Going down memory lane...

Good Thursday guys!  Hope you're enjoying the clear blue sky that is outside.  I am loving the warmer and sunshiney days we're being blessed with this week.  Definitely savouring them while they're here, because you know what Auckland weather's like.

Today is my Father-in-law's birthday!  So I'll be whipping up a little something sweet to present to him at our family dinner tonight.  I'll post pics up tomorrow!  I am excited because we're having authentic Malaysian food.  We've recently discovered this amazing restaurant that is delicious and well-priced (thanks to my lovely sis-in-law for introducing this wonderful place to us a couple of weeks ago).  It has won some awards, including the Best in the West in 2009.  Where is it?  It is in New Lynn, West Auckland, called Bunga Raya Restaurant.  I absolutely love the food, and yes, it tastes so authentic I feel like I'm in Malaysia again!  It definitely brings back some awesome memories from when I went to Kuala Lumpur (KL) as part of my Performing Arts (Dance Studies) degree, where a group of us (we called ourselves 'Mango Jammin') represented New Zealand for the TARI International Festival of Dance 2007, (ASWARA).  Good times!!  While we're on that subject, let's take a little trip down memory lane to my life as a dancer.  Enjoy!

Just arrived and already immersing ourselves in the Malaysian culture.  Of course, first stop was FOOD!  Ah, so yum-ehh!!

More pics after the jump...

Ribbony madness!

If you've been following my blog, then you may have seen on the and more... page that I am involved in a Pinterest Challenge!  Today is the day where we all get to share our creations!  I'm so excited to share with you guys a little fun and sweet thing I made.  But before I do, here's a graphic to make it all official, courtesy of Katie from Bower Power.

Not quite summer here in NZ like it is where they are, but still, what a fun challenge, huh?  I couldn't wait to get cutting!!!

Here is a sneak peek at what I made...

This is what was in my ribbon bin...I had to separate the boy-ish colours from the girly ones as this project is for my twin boys.

Did you guess what I made?  Probably not with that picture, lol.  Find out after the jump...

Special cake delivery!

Hey guys!  What a glorious day it is today!  The sun is shining, my washing's drying, I think spring is just around the corner!!  Yippee!

Today I have a very special cake to share with you all.  I received this cake order from...LONDON!!  I know, London!!  The very-talented dancer Kimberley from Vibe One emailed me while shuffling the streets of London wanting to send a special cake to her bf in Auckland.  To make this a very special moment for her bf, she wanted to send him a 'carrier pigeon' cake.  Here's the pic she emailed me:

Cute, right?  She's a genius for thinking of this.  I must say, I have never been asked to make a bird before, so of course, I  considered this a challenge that I was sure not to pass.

Read more and see the cake after the jump...

Happy Monday guys!

Wow, can you believe it's August already?  I can't believe how quickly time passes when you're having so much fun!  I must say, I am sooo ready for spring!  It's getting a tad to chilly for me...although, I do love snuggling up in bed indulging in a hot coco, or two, (that's both the beverage and my hubby, hehe) and a couple of dark choc tim tams by Arnotts.  That's what I had last night before bed anyway.  Sooo bad but oh-so good!

Looking outside my window I see big clouds and far too much grey for my washing's liking.  Did I mention how ready I was for spring?

I think what we need for this gloomy Monday is for something cheerful and sprinkly!  (I may have just invented that word guys...:-P).  Last week I had some cake scraps and did not want to put them to waste.  So what did I make?  CAKE POPS!  There are so many names for these babies, it can get a bit confusing - from truffles, cake balls, cakelets and sweet bites, to cake drops, cake babies and cake nuggets...the list goes on and on.  It doesn't matter what you call them, they all sound scrum-dili-yum-cious!  (Another invented word - I'm on a roll!).

Here are some fun shots I took!  Couldn't decide between the two different backdrops, so will show you both.  Enjoy! - and try not to lick your screen!!  xo

Sprinkly fun!

These would be perfect party treats!

Hmmm...let's call these 'PARTY POPS'!

Oh, and before I go, did any of you attend 'The Food Show' this year?  Regrettably, I wasn't able to due to circumstances beyond my control (both twin boys were sick to name one reason).  But, I would LOVE to hear about your experiences, so please comment below, or if you blogged about it, send me the link!  The closest I was to The Food Show this year was when I used the wine glass from last year for my 'Party Pops' photo-shoot, hehe.  I 'heart' The Food Show!  xo