My Top Ten Cakes of 2014!

Well, here we are again, at the end of the year of 2014. I absolutely cannot believe how quickly this year has flown for me.

I have been SO busy with my  business that my last blog entry was in August 2014, when I filmed my very first video tutorial on Youtube.

2014 marked a beginning of opening my business to the help of others. Since 2008, I have been a one-woman show and now being back in Malaysia, the business has just grown so quickly that I cannot possibly do it all by myself anymore. I decided to hire an intern, to assist me with my day to day duties. It's been the best decision ever. An extra pair of hands makes so much difference!

I was also featured on a local television programme, Women's Zone on NTV7! The crew came over my home studio and filmed a 7 minute slot of me, baking, icing, and decorating a 4 tiered cake. It was such a fun experience! You can view the episode on www.tonton.com.my if you are in Malaysia. Go to Women's Zone and I am in Episode 13 Season 6. 

So if you are based in Kuala Lumpur, have some basic cake decorating experience, be reliable and highly motivated, please email me jessica.ting@miss-shortcakes.com
 
So today is the 31st of December 2014, and I would like to share my Top Ten Cakes of 2014. It's going to be a hard one, but I can already pick a couple which were just stellar designs and took me out of my comfort zone.

10. Butterfly and Blossoms

The cake that started the Floral Ball trend amongst my clients. Love this one for the subtle colours, textures and details.
 
9. Hungry Caterpillar

From the iconic children's story book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar cake. Something I can totally relate to, because my son is a huge fan and so are millions of children all over the world. I had so much fun painting the colour palettes and creating the shapes and decoration. Comments on my Instagram were, "Best Hungry Caterpillar ever seen". *grin*

8. Nursery Rhymes

This cake was based on invitations designed by my favourite girls at www.mint-events.com
I created this 3 tiered Nursery Rhymes cake for a regular client of mine, who's daughter was turning 1. It had Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and Humpty Dumpty as they were Daevinna's favourites.


 






















7. Emerald Ombre

Gorgeous, gorgeous cake!! This was a Maggie Austin design originally, and I changed the arrangement and type of sugar flowers, to include a Magnolia, frilly Ranunculas, and Tulips.
The colour was a mixture of black, green, blue and then it was shimmered with pearl. Loved this colour. The beads were placed one by one with edible pearls and dragees in colours to suit the cake.

6. Black and White Striped Mad Hatter

This cake was for a wedding anniversary, ordered by one of my regular clients as well. She left the design completely up to me and wanted sugar flowers as a must. I decided to do something out of the ordinary with the addition of edible wafer print on the surface of this cake, accented with black and white stripes AND a Mad Hatter shape. The bold colour of the orchids just brought this cake to life. It is my most liked photo on Instagram to date. 

 5. Ivory and Gold Ruffle 

An elegant ivory and gold wedding cake created for Sharmiah. Her theme was vintage and set amongst the beautiful gold and bronze ballroom at Cyberview Resort. This is the cake that started the ruffle trend and led me to create my first Youtube tutorial on how to make these simple, but effective scrunch ruffles. You can view it here Scrunch Ruffle Youtube Tutorial


4. 4 tier Hexagon 

Created for the TV show, Women's Zone, for NTV7. They wanted something tall and elegant, and basically a showstopping showpiece. This design is based on a wedding cake created by Simple Sweet Cakes and Cupcakes from Toronto. I changed the artwork and sugar flowers. Still one of my favourites.

3. 7 Tiers!!

Enough said. I still can't believe I did this all by myself!


2. Watercolour Flamingo

Photo courtesy of Jokee Tan of Coochicoo Lil Mama

Jokee from Coochicoo Lil Mama, and I came up with this Flamingo cake for her Tropical Paradise wedding event. She wanted something very unique and showed me a photo of a wedding cake that had this shape and the orange marbling effect. The artwork that was used at the reception had parrots and flamingos. So I suggested this watercolour effect flamingo, surrounded by gold scroll work. Jokee made paper flowers with crepe paper, to finish off the cake. It was so slim and heavy, that I was so nervous delivering the cake to the venue. Thankfully, it arrived in tact.

It was a marriage made in heaven, so to speak. The cake was stunning!! I loved making it and this also created a big stir on my Instagram page.

And now for the Cake of the Year...

1. Grand Piano 

It is without a doubt in my mind, that this is it - the Cake of 2014. And what a way to finish off the year! Just created a few weeks ago in December 2014, for a lucky man turning 60.

The client wanted a 3D Grand Piano cake, and it had to be as realistic as possible. This is the first time I created a cake on a platform base and upped the ante for complex novelty designs!

I was so nervous and anxious leading up to the cake and it took almost a month of planning to ensure, that this cake would make jaws drop.

My friend, Rob, who's a product designer helped me cut the MDF and base needed for the support of this cake. Thank you thank you thank you!!! Once that was done, everything else fell into place.

It took me 13 hours in one stretch, to decorate and finish the cake.

And here it is!

There will be a blog post to follow this that will show you how I created this masterpiece. My Instagram went nuts as soon as I posted the work in progress shots! This must be THE proudest moment of my entire career. 

2014 Wild card Cake

Only because I couldn't keep it to only 10 cakes, I threw in a wild card. This was a corporate  cake for a jeweller in Malaysia, turning 100. Edible jewels and black scrolls  framed the gold company logo. 

 

Thank you to all my amazing clients who entrust me with their wedding and birthday cakes. I can't tell you how honoured I am to be a part of your special day. Most of all, thank you for allowing me to have artistic freedom. And of course to all my fans who religiously like, comment and share my work from all corners of the world. It is you, that gives me the motivation to keep up the posts.

I'm so looking forward to 2015 and to more exciting projects. Watch this space.
More cake adventures and bigger steps to a brighter future.

xx Miss Shortcakes