I received this wedding cake order in such a very short notice from Hector. He needed it on Wednesday for his friend's wedding and wanted me to deliver it at 11 AM to OSHATHAI Restaurant & Lounge. And I received the order on Monday!!! How "nice" Hector is However, I can never say "No" to a friend's request. And the design he gave me looked quite simple, so I say "Fine. Whatever you need..." End up, this cake costed me 2 sleepless nights to finish on time, besides all day working at the bakery, catching up with Holiday orders. Phew....



The base inside is Vanilla Sponge cake with Strawberry Jam, Raspberry, and Vanilla Buttercream. At first, I planned to keep each tier separate and assemble them at the restaurant. But somehow, I decided to assemble them all and deliver the whole cake, which gave my hubby such a heart attack when driving. He didn't want to mess up my cake, so he drive with super focus and silence Poor guy!!!! Fortunately, it arrived safely at the destination. Yay! Didn't have a chance to stay and take picture with the couple, hope they like it!

Last Saturday was Simon's 3rd Birthday Party. Sis Thu Nguyen ordered a 3-tier birthday cake for Simon, her son, with the theme: Thomas the Train and Pocoyo. The flavors include Chocolate Hazelnut & Praline Crunch (the biggest tier), Coffee & Shredded Coconut (the middle tier), and Strawberry Rose (the smallest tier).



The cake was finish right on Friday night (I made a couple finishing touch on Saturday morning before delivering). After gaining more and more experience in cake delivering, my husband and I were able to deliver this cake safely to Simon's house. Simon was super excited when he saw the cake. He kept turning the cake around and around (because I still put the cake on the turn table when I delivered it). According to sis. Thu, Simon loved the cake to pieces! What a relief for me to hear that from her
Let's take a close look at the characters on the cake:

These are Thomas and Jame:


These are Pocoyo (the boy), Ellie (the elephant), and Sleepy bird. I wish I had more time that I could be able to make all of the characters in Pocoyo cartoon. Simon kept looking for other birds around the cake. Poor Simon!!!!



This is my handsome Birthday Boy: Simon, who has just turned 3


He is waiting to blow the candles

Haha....He can't stop staring at the candles. How cute he is!!!! So glad that he loves the cake

Hi blog! Long time no see baby! Sau một thời gian vắng bóng trên blog, giờ Trang lại "tái xuất giang hồ" đây hehehe....Nguyên nhân của việc vắng mặt này là vì (nói ra mọi người đừng cười)...Trang ghiền luyện phim Hàn Quốc Cứ đi học về, làm việc nhà xong là vừa ngồi ăn tối với chồng, vừa xem phim Rooftop Prince. Xem cho đến 12h rồi đi ngủ nên ko có thời gian mà vào blog post bài nữa, mặc dù có làm bánh và chụp hình đầy đủ hihi....

Read more...

Thứ 7, ngày 12/11 vừa rồi là sinh nhật của Thu Trang, bạn thân của mình từ hồi cấp 2 tới giờ. Quen biết nhau đã 10 năm rồi. Dù cũng nhiều lúc ít liên lạc vì mình đi học xa, nhưng 2 đứa mổi lần gặp lại nhau đều thấy như xưa, ko hề có khoảng cách gì hết



Ban đầu mình định bọc và trang trí bánh bằng fondant. Nhưng vì thời tiết ở Vn quá nóng, fondant nhão, ko tạo hình đươc như ý muốn, nên mình đành phải trang trí bằng kem sữa tươi và chocolate. Tay mình hơi run thì phải, mấy đường chocolate ko được thẳng thóm nên nhìn bánh ko được sắc sảo lắm. Bùn!!!! Nhất định mình sẽ làm lại chiếc bánh Piano thứ 2, màu nâu cho SN nhỏ em họ sắp đến.



Có lần Thu Trang bắt gặp mấy mẫu bánh Piano cake trên mạng rất là đẹp nên đưa mình coi thử. Thấy bạn thích quá nên mình đã hứa là sẽ làm cho nó 1 cái Piano Cake thiệt đẹp vào ngày sinh nhật sắp tới của nó....



Chỉ có mấy bông hoa hồng nho nhỏ này là có thể nặn được từ fondant thôi. Cũng struggle dữ lắm vì nhão và mềm quá Bông lại nhỏ quá ko bắt bằng kem được. Cũng may là nặn được ....



Cốt bánh bên trong là bánh bông lan chocolate mà trong tiếng Anh là Devil's Food Cake. Link công thức bánh bằng tiếng Anh ở đây:
http://my.opera.com/trangskitchen/blog/black-forest-cherry-cake-gateau

Mình đổ và nướng bánh trong khuôn chữ nhật rồi cắt thành 1 hình chữ nhật lớn và 1 hình chữ nhật nhỏ, xếp chồng hình nhỏ lên hình lớn rồi cắt tỉa lại cho giống hình cây đàn, chờ bánh nguội hẳn mới phết kem trng trí. Nắp đàn làm bằng chocolate trắng đó. Lần sau mình phải tìm cách làm cho cây đàn có chân mới được



....And here comes the lovely Birthday Girl:



Happy Birthday Trang! You're my best friend ever

Hon ordered this cake for Tram's Graduation at UT. Tram was born in a Cat Year (Chinese Lunar Calendar), therefore the fondant figure on the cake was a cat. Yes a graduated Kitten with the hat and the paper roll



Here is my brown Kitten. To be honest, it doesn't really look like a cat. It looks more like a bear or a mousse in Tom and Jerry cartoon ....but we just assume it is a cat for now



Here is long-horn figure of UT and Congratulation banner for the Graduation Party



This cake looks very happy and colorful right? I love the combination of green and brown and blue very much! The base of the cake is a sponge cake with pineapply jams between layer. I covered the cake with pandan heavy whipped cream, and decorate with fondant outside. It looks pretty cute, doesn't it?

This cake is a surprise for my boyfriend. He has successfully defensed his Ph.D. dissertation today and was approved by the committee. Now he has become Dr. Huynh! Yay! I did attend and listen to his dissertation defensing. Although I didn't really understand but I was very impressed by his confidence. He was very calm and prepared for this most important day. He was able to answer all of the questions from the committee and answered them well. I'm so proud of him! In my eyes, he was, is, and will always be the best!


From the top down. I like the hat, the paper roll, and the stars a lot!



The bottom (largest) tier has jasmine flavor and the other two smaller tiers have pandan flavor (all Asian flavors ). I made some lemon curd and spread between cake layers before putting the orange cream cheese frosting on and all over the cake tiers. Then I refrigerate the cake with frosting on for about an hour before applying the fondant. I decorated each tier separately before putting them all together. This is also the first time I make a 3-tier cake, totally covered by fondant. Luckily, the tiers kept their own shape and the color of each tier worked pretty well with the other tiers' colors. Phew!!!



On the second tier are the long-horn symbol of our university. The long-horn symbol was also what I spent the most time on. Other than that, I finished decorating the other tiers pretty quickly because I had planned the design for a long time.



My boyfriend's favorite color is blue, so I cover the largest tier with blue fondant. My boyfriend really love how the cake looks like and its taste. I will be making him another larger 3-tier cake on his graduation day, which is also his 30th birthday. Such a big occasion on the way and I'm eagerly waiting for it to come!

Model: DODGE RAM 2500
Color: Milk Chocolate
Base: Devil's Food Cake with Blueberry, Raisin, and Milk Chocolate Frosting
Paint: Fondant
Manufacturer: Trang's Kitchen
Owner: Christopher Campbell
Ordered by: Amy Zhou
Delivered on : 04/10/11
...anything else to say?









Above are the picture of the cake in comparison to the real pickup truck. I received the pictures of the real pickup truck from Amy long time ago. I actually made the Candy Truck for practicing and gained a lot of experience from that. For this cake, I actually had to measure every part of the truck on the pictures and resized them to the cake size on this rough sketch:

Such a detail-oriented and challenging work! But I've got a lot of fun and it absolutely worths the efforts







To make the cake looks realistic, I cover it with fondant and try to put in as many details from the real truck as possible...from the longhorn decoration to the windshield to the license plate with the correct number...





...oh yes! Happy Birthday Chris!


And this is the comment from the birthday boy:

Christopher Campbell April 10 at 1:19pm (Report on facebook )
"thanks the cake looks awesome and you did an awesome job...it looks just like my truck even all the little details..this made my bday great"

This is my 26th cake order in the row . Anh Minh ordered this cake for his wife's 24th Birthday. He wanted a cake with 24 roses, a cat, a dog and the writing: "Happy Birthday Vo Yeu." You can see how much he loves his wife and together, they make one of the most lovely couples I've ever seen! I decided to make a castle cake for them. A castle of love where Kitty and Puppy live together. This is also the 2nd castle cake I've made. Different from the first one, this castle cake will have very warm colors to create a cozy atmosphere. Minh also asked for 2 different flavors in the cake. So the largest tier has vanilla flavor and the other 2 smaller tiers on top have chocolate flavor.

For the cake base, I combined a (1) Whipped Cream Layer Cake with a (2) Devil’s Food cake. I made both these cakes and posted the recipes in my previous entries. SO you can find the recipes in these links:
(1) http://my.opera.com/trangskitchen/blog/whipped-cream-layer-cake-for-my-papas-birthday

(2) http://my.opera.com/trangskitchen/blog/black-forest-cherry-cake-gateau

For the frosting of this cake, I made orange mousse to keep the frosting, as well as the whole cake, stablized at room temperature. Also, because chi Lien, my closed friend on Opera, had some problems making the mousse last time, I made the mousse again with step-by-step photos to show her what I did...

Ingredients for the Orange Mousse:
5 tablespoons cold water **
2 tablespoons warm water **
4 teaspoons (14 gram) unflavored gelatin
1 1/3 cups orange mandarin, puree (for this you will need about 2 cans of orange madarin, see the tutorials below as well)
2 cup chilled heavy cream
1/2 cup caster sugar (this is an addition from last recipe to make the mousse sweeter a little bit)
(** I used the canned orange syrup instead of water)

To get the orange puree, don't use fresh orange! Instead, I need 2 cans of orange madarin like this:


Drain on a wire strain to divide the syrup with the orange:


Blend the orange in a blender


Measure exactly 1 1/3 cup of the puree (you will need more than 1 can, but less than 2 cans, so save the rest of the orange for other cakes)


Take 5 tablespoons of the orange syrup that you drain off from the can before


Sprinkle the gelatin over the syrup and let sit for 5 minutes until softened.

Whisk the cream with caster sugar by either a handheld or standing mixer until stiff peaks form.

In a small bowl, take another 2 tablespoons of syrup

... and microwave for 30 seconds to warm it up.

Stir the warm water (syrup)in the bloomed gelatin,whisking to completely dissolve.

Then, whisk the orange puree into the gelatin mixture to dissolve

Fold the cream into the orange-gelatine mixture in three additions.
1)
2)
The final mixture should be thicken, smooth, and no white streak remains.
3)

Chill the mixture for 30 minutes, then either pour the mousse over top of the cake in a spring-form pan (like the orange mousse joconde), or spread evenly over the cake surface (for the cake in this post) AND chill for AT LEAST 2 MORE HOURS before serve.

...Now look at the castle again...I missed it already!


Of course, I used fondant to make the rose, the cat, and the dog. Here is the tutorial to make the castle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqOP4iygW2k


I actually used a toothpick to make the pattern on the dog and the cat...

They look pretty cute, right?

---------------------------------------------
After a while submitting but getting rejected, this cake marks the return of my photos on foodgawker.com with #97216. This is also my 17th photos selected on this website so far. So bless! Check it out here:
http://foodgawker.com/post/2011/03/28/97216/
...and here:
http://foodgawker.com/post/archive/tranglam/

And here is the couple of the year: Anh Minh & Chi Ha., with my Castle cake. Lovely! Lovely!