What's in a name? That which we call a rose By anyother name would smell as sweet.....

Its been a while since I worked on a complex cake and finally got this opportunity. Aptly chosen for its sheer beauty and the attention it commands, I selected to make one of Peggy Porschen's amazing cakes with my own twist. I guess that was the easy bit!

Getting the color scheme and the roses right was an all together different ball game....specially the roses. For this 12inch square cake, I calculated approximately 170 roses would be needed and was close, I used up 168 of them! It took me over 2 days working over time on the roses... roll the fondant, cut cut cut and frill frill and again and again and again and again and again (I could go on and on and on and on!) until all were done. And then hang on, I couldn't just sit them on the cake, they had to be individually dusted with edible luster....hhhmmmmm! deep breath in and start again.

This is the final product...and very proud of the fact the roses came out well and the cake in all looked damn good.

Hocus ...... Pocus......time to focus

After a wonderful holiday for 3 months, I was a bit hesitant in getting back into handling fondant and was even considering mastering my skills only in butter cream. I got an opportunity in redeeming my faith in fondant by taking up this cake.

This cake was made for a dear friends son's 9th birthday a few weeks ago. The book is a triple chocolate mud cake and the wizards hat is a white chocolate mud cake with raspberries.
Details include urns spilling over with magic portion. As for the poor Imp, well I tried and tried to get the face but it didn't quiet get it right and so choose to cover it with yet another urn. So the story goes.....the naughty little Imp was so impatient and could not wait for Wizard Rishi (my friends son) to complete the magic portion and instead stuck his head right into it!!!

Rishi absolutely enjoyed the cake and even gave me a top score by saying & quote "this was the best birthday ever" ! That made it all worth while....and as for me giving up fondant.....hhhmmmm...guess that's not happening :)

Thank you

Recently I had to be admitted at the West-mead Hospital to undergo a procedure which was a very testing time for me in my life. I was sad and concerned and over ridden with emotions. I was able to come out of it with better control thanks to the Nurses at the post operative ward and the Day Surgery Clinic.

Today marks one week since the surgery and I decided I needed to thank them for their support, concern and dedication shown to me on the day of my surgery. So I baked a batch of Banana cupcakes topped with chocolate Swiss butter cream swirl ( that is the only suspicious bit..the all elusive SIMPLE SWIRL!!).

Thank you for being such dedicated and compassionate NURSES. Your compassion has touched me and helped me heal.

To be or not to be ....

from my not so perfect heart

Mummy,.....yes dad....love you too Viju Bhai and Vinu Bhai..... this was mostly how my kids and I spent our 3 months away from Sydney...with our loved ones. Sadly as all things must come to an end (in our case our chosen path to live away from family) we packed up and came back to pick up pieces of our life here. Its been a bit of struggle for me (specially given I am very close to my family) to try and fit back into the daily routine of school, playgroup and cake orders. Don't mistake me....its nice but I wish we were all together. So is it wrong to want it all?? well in my case I guess there is a price to pay in trying to gain ones own independence.....and what a sad price that is.
Trying to move on and continue is my primary task and what better way than to express myself through my favorite medium...BAKING. I created these tiny heart shaped bite sized pieces of chocolate indulgence specially for Valentines day..... remembering my family and thanking GOD for their presence in my life. So thank you Ma and Daddy and Viju Bhai and Vinu Bhai for all your support and unconditional love over the years. It has meant a lot to me. And thank you for showing my children what families do the best....LOVE EACH OTHER no matter what.

Happy Birthday my little angel

God bless you...my precious, my little lady bird! you are 7....seven year of joys...seven years of laughter....seven years of amazing memories...and many more to come....as you always say....I love you from here till the moon and back.

Two weeks ago Anu and I sat down to choose her birthday cake. We had 2 daunting tasks...what flavor and how should it look. My little hippie chick....never settles for the normal....it has got to be something outside the box and so she decided on Chocolate-Cherry (Moreallo) cake in the form of an abandoned bird cage! (yes!...she's very deep...this is what I meant by outside the box), covered with vines and flowers and bugs and bees. And so this is what I delivered...and she loved it. We were getting ready to cut the cake when one of her friends said," your mother is a good cook" (without even tasting the cake!! ...bless! :) ) and Anya proudly replied, " yes, my mum is the best cooker!!" haha. That said it all.....ask no more.

The kids loved the cake....coming back for seconds and thirds....( a bit concerning for me, for I did not know kids could eat that much cake) and the parents liked it too. The flavor was a bit hit, as the moreallo cherries cut back on the sweetness of the cake, and the cake itself had cocoa instead of chocolate...this one is a keeper.

Anya's Birthday Cupcakes

Saturday 3rd October was Anya's 7th Birthday. My little princess is 7 yrs old......time flies.....it feels like a few months ago we were celebrating her 3rd birthday and now its the 7th!.
She asked for cupcakes to share with her class mates at school, so I made 26 white chocolate cupcakes topped with Swiss butter cream. Of course the birthday girl got a special daisy on hers. I was running late with these cuppies as my second batch of batter gave up on me and I had to start all over again, so I was able to delivered them around 10am at school. The minute I stepped in.....the kids were all gasping and buzzing with excitement on seeing the cupcakes.....that was all I needed......NO WORDS JUST SMILES. Loved it.

Thank You

12th Spetember 09 will mark a special day in my dairy for two reasons....my loving brother Vijay's birthday and my very first opportunity to coordinate a stall...not just any stall...but the most anticipated, most sought after and the MOST SWEETEST stall of all (literally) the cake stall.

A week filled with loads of baking, wrapping paper and ribbons and cupcake cases and cookie cutter all over the house......we were in desperate mode the night before the Fair. My good friend Jin ...ever so reliable, dependable....every virtue one could expect in a real friend came to my rescue. Armed with both her kids and husband, she was at my door step at 8.30pm and we started wrapping, all the goodies. With everyone assigned a task...(yes, everyone...even the little ones) we were able to complete packing by 1am!!! Dawn of the fateful day...I was busy creaming 2 different icings for the 140 cupcakes I had made the night before. A quick stop over at the school at 8.30 for decorating the stall and I was back home to complete icing the cuppies. Finally managing to get to the school with all the goodies at 10.45....I was greeted by Jin and Felicia again....bless them. We started selling and my banker/cashier Jin ,was as expected SUPER efficient at managing the cash. At the end of the day we had collected $680.00 and managed to sell out every thing in the stall. Yeeeaaaaahhhhhhh!!! so happy with the results...specially because they will go directly towards the Computer Lab at the school.

I had to thank all the wonderful volunteers at my stall and this is my way of saying a big thank you to all the parent volunteers for helping out at the cake stall at Anya's school's Spring Fair. I baked close to 40 Custard Yoyo's and packed and labelled them and personally delivered them to the volunteers.

Thank you Jin, Felicia, Jaya, Deva, Dewi, Beena, Amanda, Prasad and Mica. With such fantastic support I look forward to next years Spring Fair.