Bloom

I have been working on this for some time already, actually ever since the day I got the sketch book (Yes, this  is my very first drawing/sketch/thang I drew in it.) from Kisa!

It has pretty much been an on and off thing, when I feel like drawing I add a couple of flowers abit at a time so yeah.. This is probably the longest I took to complete a drawing/sketch/wachamecalit!

I suppose I am pretty proud of it, I don't think I have drawn this many flowers before..

The flowers are mostly hybrids (There's something about me unable to draw flowers EXACTLY-PATHETICALLY.. And besides, you use more creative juice this way!), created in my mind (Ooh, mind.. What a mysterious word..)..

To name a few there are daisy hybrids, peony not so hybrid (It is somewhat like the one I made in Alan Dunn's flower course.), spider lily not so hybrid as well, some sort of berry hybrid, babies's breath not so hybrid, cosmos not so hybrid, rose hybrid (I am quite proud of this one, for the first time ever it does not look like some kind of cabbage..), poppy hybrid and a ginger flower hybrid.

I kinda forced myself to not go OUTSIDE for inspiration, so it was kinda like a test to see how many flowers are stuck in my head and obviously.. Not many! I think I need to spend more time smelling roses, eh?

I have no idea why but I love drawing daisies (And cosmos!), I love flowers with numerous (Ooh, big word. I don't even recall what it means but I just felt like using it, so yeah.. Plop it right there.) petals!

It was my first time drawing (And in a LOOONG time, without my inky pens since I forgot to lug them to the Comic Fiesta!) the other flowers/berries (I officially love drawing berries, they create a some what nice touch!) and excluding leaves.. 

Excuse the fact that some flowers are drawn in a lighter shade than others, I kinda lost the first pencil I was drawing with..

-Karen Cuppy Cake

Comic Fiesta

Last week was pretty interesting, well to me at least.
A lot of impromptu stuff, like sleeping over in two female human's houses and going to... Three shopping malls, huh.

So ANYHOO, it started on Thursday when we went down to KL.
Oh right, just before we left the house I found a toad in my favorite pair of silver fluff ball ballet flats the "hard way", as in I put my foot into the shoe and felt err... Something, something.. Lumpy, cold, rough and it MOVED! Strange, I thought toads were wettish but it wasn't.. Well, thanks for not wetting my shoe Mr/Ms toad and also thanks for not wanting to budge when I went frantically throwing my shoe on the floor.. Hmm, I wonder if you are still in there.

Naw, doesn't that little toad look pweety?

Was texting Bloo (My best friends are my entertainment during car journeys, send some random message to four of them and one of them is bound to reply right?) in the car and she is somehow spontaneously going to babysit Kisa (Just in case you were a wondering.. Yes, it's my job giving people weird nicknames!) since she was home alone and since I was so close by I decided to join the babysitting club.

 It was the first time all three of us have met. 

Well, I guess that's one of the draw backs from not going to school.. You don't meet your best friends everyday (Unless you consider a skype group video call "Meeting up".) and the chances when you meet one of them the other isn't there.

After some girly hugging, screaming and Christmas present exchanging.. 

I have never gotten such awesome presents before for Christmas, well.. Usually family members give you things you don't really like and in my case they usually give me extremely boring books or well, I guess you get it! I still wonder what's the point of giving someone a present just for the sake of GIVING.

Kisa got me this FABULOUS sketch book (Just when I needed a new one too, perfect timing!) that had a giraffe on it and it actually had "Giraffe" printed on it in a humongous black glossy font!

Being the weird person I am, I started going a little too happy!

The sketch book was my favorite type, brown paper bag colored (I love covers that are draw-able! I started doodling with Bloo's sharpies as soon as I got my hands on them to brighten the cover up!) cover, plain white pages (I have a THANG about drawing on those "exam papers", the lines are rather annoying.. And the fact that are called "exam papers".), metal ring binded and a very personalized cover (Something about being UN-vertically challenged and my favorite animal has always been a giraffe!)!

And Bloo got me a.. Momiji doll! 

The name.. Um.. arh.. Aaa... Has some special meaning to me and I plan to be very secretive about the meaning so HAH.

And a hand written letter (That had more puffy stickers than words! Eeek.)! How on earth could she have remembered I loved receiving those?! I doubt I have mentioned that I liked them in a LOOONG LOOOOOOOOONG time.. 

And please don't be too surprised when I say those were the best presents I have ever gotten in my entire life (Excluding Mommy-Papa presents, of course. It's illegal to compare those to others.) not just because they were given to me by two people who can make me die of laughter from a single word but the fact that they were very.. Meaningful, I suppose..

The rest of the evening went by rather quickly.. 

Eating chocolate chip cookies, listening some-language-that-isn't-English rock (I am somehow attracted to listening to anything that isn't English, maybe after this it would be Egyptian rap!), Bloo annoying me by putting on kapoop (Yes, I got rid of the bug.), meeting Alfred the duck, Kisa playing the piano, Bloo TRYING to play the piano, Bloo's crazy exercise class, Desperate house daughters meeting over pizza, yes, I cam up with that!, making Kisa chock on coke, it rhymes!, meeting Kisa's sisters, dancing with Kisa and well, other suches. 

The next day Bloo and I went shopping for her "Cosplay outfit", costume in simpler forms I guess!

We ended up at a tiny place in Sri hartamas, a couple of blocks away from ICCA and little did I know that little shop was JAM PACKED with people!

It was crazy, let me tell you that!

The manager and the store assistant going nuts looking for costumes, the customers waiting impatiently and surfing through the many catalogs, the air conditioning was on low so it was rather suffocating and I.. Had a splitting headache for the first time in a rather long time, it was rather torturous I might say, I thought my eyeballs were about to fall off at one point!

It was pretty fun trying out the costumes, especially the gothic and frilly corset long dressy ones even though they were all humongous on me!

It's funny how they only have them in one size..

Bloo settled with a super cute bloo, I mean BLUE "Japanese school girl" outfit and extremely high white platform boots! 

Spent the rest of the afternoon till evening sleeping, the only thing I remember was how lovely it was to hit the bed after I staggered out of the car and pulled out my boots and waking up to see Bloo staring at me as though I was dead and had suddenly woken up! Hmm, that sounded creepier than I remembered it, oh well. I felt much better though, with the headache gone and the scorching hot afternoon sun gone as well! 

Bloo's Mom's (Mai gawdt, there are loads of "'s"!) friend, Jane took us for a "Girls night out" in 1U not long after I awoke from my slumber!

Had simple noodles for dinner than off I went shopping with Bloo, for the first time ever in our three or so year long friendship!

That's kinda what happens when you live like.. Maybe, 500 kilometers or so, maybe further away from your pals.

Our first stop was strangely Daiso (Since we couldn't find a decently priced hair stuff shop!) to get Bloo some fluffy hair scrunchies to complete her outfit (And some ribbons to tie around our wrists and neck but we soon found out they had adhesive at the back so we returned them! Bloo was having a look at the ribbons while walking about and she suddenly went "KAREN! There's glue at the back!", oh whoopsies.), some pinky nail polish (To make stuff even cuter.) and then some random walking around and taking pictures with the lovely Christmas deco!

Above: 

We just realized we could share clothes so we walked around 1U in each other's pajamas!  

I spent the rest of the night painting my finger nails "Barbie doll" (I don't believe it is actually called that though..) pink and Bloo spent HER night splattering her fingers with baby bloo, I mean BLUE and pink, it was a fabulous piece of modern art I might say.. And yakking and telling more grandmother stories.

Not all that weirdly, Bloo's alarm (That video up there.) didn't work the next morning or maybe it just wasn't irritating enough.. I guess I take THAT back, the alarm is VERRRYYY irritating..

CF (Comic Fiesta) only started at 9am but.. Oh dear here we go again, Bloo's Mom's friend wanted to take us out for breakfast at Levain (An old bungalow that was turned into a bakery/cafe thing.) and we had to be there SUPER early to avoid the crowd, like 8AM type of early.. Not too easy for two people who are rather used to waking up at noon.

Breakfast was rather.. filling, super filling I mean EXPLODING!

Had a set that conceived of scrabbled eggs, bacon, salad, sausages, ham, toast and butter and after that some chocolate cake to stuff you up even more!

Above:

Bloo, I mean BLUE people outside Levain. Bloo in her cosplay outfit! (I did a bit of hair tying in the car on the way to CF!)

YAY! Comic Fiesta at last! 

The first thing that greeted us once we entered the convention centre (It was held @ KLCC) was the CROOOWWDD!

I think this was the very first time I have seen SO many people jam packed into an area!

Met up with Zed Dabaliewee at the ticketing hall. Yes, there was an entire hall just to get tickets and the whole hall was packed with people looking for their friends and cosplayers putting their finishing touches on! 

We each received a "Survival kit" (Or so it is named!) and it contains some mints (They strangely tasted very good despite the fact that it had brown dots on them..), a bar of chocolate, hand sanitizer and some.. Malay magazines!  

Just as we thought the queuing for the tickets was bad, we had to queue from the OUTSIDE (As in from the park!) to get into the hall and by the time we got in we were all hot, sticky and sweaty! 

And.. So was everyone else so it was quite, stinky! We were all squashed inside the hall so it wasn't a very pleasant experience I might say.. 

Met Kisa and her sisters at their booth and decided to drag Kisa away to walk about a little!

I think there were about a hundred booths there but it was a pity that most of them sold the same things!

Badges, mugs, posters (I didn't find posters of any manga/anime I knew, sob.), very cute cloth hats (Too bad they were about RM50 each..), key chains, hmm... Well, stuff like that!

I think the cosplayers were the most interesting "thing" there (Next to the live bands that sang in Japanese!), it seems like they pose for a living because they do it SO well and the details on their costumes!

Maybe I will pass next year..

-Karen Comic Cake

How to: Edible paint

Oh hey! Another tutorial, didn't see this one coming! 

Yesterday I was simply browsing (Quite aimlessly I must say, in search for something interesting and surprisingly found that "something interesting"!) through one of the homeschooling group on FaceBook that I had joined and there was just this one post that caught my eye "Homemade cornstarch paint" it said.

(This was where the link directed to: Homemade cornstarch paint. I officially absolutely love this blog!)

So yeah, I kinda tried making my own paint today!

Usually I never start on these kinda projects, kinda like the time when I wanted to try out Alan Dunn's Cold porcelain but never actually did it for some unknown reason.. But the instructions were SO simple and the list of ingredients was SO short that I simply had to!

And since the ingredients were only water and cornstarch that would make it edible, right? (Can't wait to try my edible paint on a cake!)

If you haven't viewed her blog yet this is basically what you need to make your own paint-

1 Cup of water

1 Tablespoon of Corn starch

A tiny saucepan/pot to cook your paint in, hmm.. That sounds somewhat funny!

Food coloring

1st stop (Step, stop.. Same thing right? Just a different alphabet in the middle and a completely different meaning! .. But at least it rhymes!):

Fill ye cuppa with H2O (I guess you could use boiled, then cooled water if you are going to paint on a cake or just plain tap water if you aren't going to eat it!) to thy brim.

Pour ye liquid into ye miniature pot.

2nd Stomp:

Plonk in a tablespoon of  corn starch and mix all the lumps out or you are going to be in BIIIIGGG trouble.

I had to make this twice because I actually FAILED on my first try!

I didn't mix the corn flour in and once it boiled my "paint" had little jelly like lumps in them!  

3rd Storm:

Plop the pot onto the stove, put thy fire on medium and stir like no tomorrow so the corn flour, starch err... Same thing! Doesn't settle and form the very un-wonderful lumps!

Stir, stir, your neighbor may think your mad but CONTINUE, stir, stir, your neighbor may officially think you're possessed but CONTINUE, stir, stir!

Hmm, don't you think that would make one wonderful song? 

4th Store:

If your neighbor hasn't taken you to the nut house, you may continue stirring till some scary bubbles start forming!

The scary bubbles is a sign that the paint shows when it's well, PAINT.

5th Star:

Put the fire off and the scary bubbles will go away, if you don't they would probably over flow and you would have to mop up the whole kitchen and trust me, the "paint" is quite sticky and icky.

You should end up with a thicker liquid from what you started with.

Congratulations, you have made P-A-I-N-T!

Now, whip up, I mean OUT some food coloring!

I just kinda realized I don't own "liquid food coloring"!

So if you don't own liquid food coloring you may want to whip out some tooth picks as well to kinda transfer the gel food coloring from the container to the paint.

And.. I kinda just realized I don't own a paint pallete so I used my gem chocolate/candy melts/gum paste/royal icing instead!  

And.. I don't own proper "paint brushes", all of mine are kinda.. Used for dusting gum paste flowers!

Oh gosh, this is hilarious..

So sob, sob, I had to sacrifice a couple of paint brushes for my edible paint "test drive"!

The results from my five minute test drive!

Err... Not exactly my favorite "paint", I would 100% still buy my favorite acrylic paint for art projects and as for cakes.. I guess I am stuck with my SK edible paint or food coloring!

It was a bit too.. Transparent and jelly like, I would rather paint with food coloring, somehow but I guess if you aren't painting details it's completely fine! 

In other words.. Just make a whole tub full for little kids to splatter about! 

Had LOADS, about say.. 1/2 Cup or so of leftover paint!

Chucked it into the fridge, I wonder how long it would last? Will keep you updated!

-Karen Kookingpaint Kake

Beheaders

I just realized since our move to Port Dickson I have been leaning (Tower of pizza! Yuuumm.. Aish, this random hunger moments are horrible!) toward the "Arts and craft" side more rather than being well, The "Cupcake girl".. Oh well, the name's quite stuck and I don't mind, it would be pretty strange to be "Karen Arts & Craft" anyways!

Oh right, I recently dug up a dusty pack of "Air drying clay" or "Cold porcelain" that was lying around somewhere and decided to turn them into Christmas charms!

This was my little pet project since mid November, I would occasionally make one and forget about it (Or am just too busy with other stuff, like sticking my nose into a book or camping.. And more camping.) for sometime then start again, that sort of thang.

They are roughly about as tall as an average piping tip (Just finished re-watching Smurfs and somehow the "Three apples high" thang just got to me!), I don't exactly bother measuring them but they all end up being the same size for some reason, HAH! 

I have absolutely no idea why I wanted to "behead" them, the idea just came around and.. It got stuck! I guess it makes them more unique in it's own kinda creepy way but I don't mind anyhow.

This project was pretty much inspired by a (Also air dried clay/Cold porcelain.) charm bracelet I received from my Aunt when I was about.. 10 or so, I LOVED it lots but I kept losing the charms (I remember having an angel, mermaid and a.. Chili, that had a face.. I can't seem to remember the rest one way or another..) for some reason.. I would take it out from the bracelet and put it on a key chain, then my necklace.. And the list goes on and on until I lose it that is!

So yeah, the charms on that bracelet look (Except the "beheading" part!) pretty much like the ones I made, only I think I secretly like (Speaking of like, my favorites are the reindeer and snowman! Am not exactly a fan of favoritism but they are just SO cute! Goggled/goldfished eye face*) mine more!

Anyhoo,

MERRY EARLY CHRISTMAS!

-Kristmas Kuppy Kake

Floowazetch

No, I did not just slam my head on the key board to type out the title, that bird just looks like a Floo.. Floowa-, err.. Drat, what was it called again?

Oh right, Floowazetch.

It was one of those rather, sad to say but dull evenings in our place at Gentings and I happened to have brought (I usually forget it, somehow.) my trusty travelling kit along, it contains a trusty blob of green play-doh which I secretly, ahem, stole (Harsh word, so I think Im'ma change it to "borrow".), basic sculpting tools (Am into making random play-doh faces recently, very good for long journeys since they can never actually be complete, well mine aren't..) , complete Fruits basket anime collection (Accidentally, maybe purposely left behind by Bloo.), 2 random books from my "Horrible" (Science, History, Geography. Best "Text" books, EVA.) collection, Set of colorful inky pens, scritchy scratchy sketch (For some reason I am still wondering why "sketch" has a "k" instead of a "c".. Somehow doesn't sound English. Hm.) book, a new tube of black acrylic paint and a fine paint brush  = Best kit ever for random moments of boredom.. Says a person who doesn't own an "Ipod touche" (No, incase you were wondering, that wasn't a typo of any sort.) or one of those electronic wachamacallits, funny how people rely on those so much for entertainment.

So ANYHOO, I whipped (Ooooh, ahh... Chocolate whipped cream = Yuuuuuum. Oops, random hunger thoughts.) out my, actually random sketch pad I found lying around and my colorful pensies and thought, and thought.. Strangely I didn't have ANY inspiration in my that day so I did something called a "Inspiration finder technique thingmajig"!

First you whip (Oooooh, ahhhh.. Whip cream on chocolate mooooose! Oopsies.) out your trusty YELLOW inky pen, do random squiggles.

Then decide what they look like and use the other inky pens.

First the random squiggles looked like a candle stick (Pretty much why the legs look like that.) so that where I started but it soon started looking like a bird so that where my 30 minute or about there-ish sketch ended. 

-Colorful Curdy Cake

Gingerbread man workshop

Well I have to say this workshop (My 2nd workshop that consists of little kiddeos, the first would be the cupcake one from the previous "baking camp".) was rather.. Ill-prepared, well to me since I hadn't even finished clearing up from the last one, as in put the cupcake trays back into the cupboard type of clearing up!

Since this was my second time round I knew what to err.. Put in front of the kids? Fondant was a bit messy and too much instructions, apparently instructions and kids don't mix to well, heh, how could I have known?!
I used to LOVE instructions when I was err "their" age, maybe that's because I went to school and didn't know how to think for myself..

So ANYHOO (Still love that word, HAH!), preparing for the gingerbread man workshop wasn't as tedious as the fondant cupcake one since all I had to do was prepare the royal icing, both stiff and run-out consistency for outlining and flooding and LOADS of sprinkles!!
In case you were wondering the baking of the gingerbread man cookies were done by a homeschooling Dad, the cupcakes from the previous one were too!

Decided there weren't enough sprinkles so the entire day before the workshop me and Bloo, did quite alot of "plunging" with my tiny stars, flowers, hearts and circle plungers!
Whew, I never want to see those babies again! Something about me being a "Human machine" that I don't exactly enjoy, freehand is more mai thaang!

I am starting to think my oven is a little too small since it can only fit in like, 10 cookies at a time and it takes ages since each kid has about five cookies!

"Dear Santa,
Please upgrade my oven, make it twice as big and three times as chic!"

After my little swinging on my private hammock @ the deck break, I decided it was time to start icing them cookies since there was a horde of VERY eager little girls in my cake studio, looking at their cookies and going "Is it time to put the icing and sprinkles on yet?!".

Okay, I over exaggerated about the "horde" part, there were only three, I mean four little girls that were in my cake studio practically drooling so I had to save them from dehydration.
Since there was another batch of cookies still in the oven, I stared a private mini cookie "master class" with them and unknowingly the room started to fill up and soon I could barely move and the floor was COATED with royal icing, sprinkles and cookie crumbs!

Above: Me (Oh yes, paraded around with my rather wilty Laurel wreath the entire day! Whootwhoot!) and my "cookie master class"! Thanks for taking the photo Bloo!

So after not being able to stand the crowded-ness and the messiness I had to herd all the little lambs outside to the "Cookie-a-making" table and that's probably when the trouble started..

My hands, actually HAND (I should seriously consider being omnihanded, omnivores eat everything so omnihanded is err... Person who can use both hands! After some googling, actually a second of googling a person who can use both hands are called.. Ambidextrous. Hmf, what a long word, I am sticking to omnihanded, HAH!) was starting to get excruciatingly painful from all that outlining of cookies! And.. No one else was able to help since all their lines turned out broken and wiggly.. Oh well, if there's ever another cookie workshop for little kids who bake 5 cookies each I shall omit the outlining or perhaps invent an outlining machine to do the job!

Oh yes, another highlight of the day.. How on earth could I have forgotten this?! The kiddeos called me "Auntie teacher" (Or just plain teacher or... Just plain Auntie Karen...), I nearly fainted. Enough said.

I guess it was a pretty fun class overall, enjoyed it tons except for the part that my right hand was about to fall off and getting called "Wierd names"!

If only I weren't the "Aunty Karen teacher" but one of the participants! I mean... Look at the amount of sprinkles and the bags of colorful icing-a-flooding (And the amount of hyper-on-sugar kiddeos!)! What kind of human would you be if THESSSEEE don't make you happy?!

Lots of pink heart sprinkles,
Auntie Teacher Karen

Laurel wreath

Apparently that's what it's called, nearly wanted to name this post "Head wreath" but thank goodness for Google, what would I do without it?!

ANYHOO (I just realized I love beginning my sentences with "A" words, strange.), borrowed this very old (Printed in 1993, considered ancient.) flower arranging book (I just wanted to know what the arrangements were like "then", trust me when I saw I could do better with my eyes closed, just stick flowers and foliage EVERYWHERE! Mai gawdt. Your very handy translator when reading KCC's blog: Mai gawdt= My god.) without flipping through much, I have no idea why.. My brain just works funny sometimes, I just can't control it.

So one lazy sunny afternoon when Basil was over I was simple leafing through the book again and something caught my eye...

WREATHS!

I have always wanted to make one, I don't know why but I OFFICIALLY love anything that's got to do with flowers! I just realized how girly I am, oh well *Flip toss hair*.

And it was SO simple, all you need are flowers and foliage and wire, LOTS!

The moment I put the book down off we went flowers-a-hunting, armed with our plant cutter thang, wicker basket and mosquito repellent armor! HAH! 

After possibly pruning the entire neighborhood of weeds, dumping them into pails of water, measuring our head with rather long wire, cutting, twisting LOADS of that tiny leafy plant around, adding random flowers and foliage AKA weeds but just to make it sound fancier.... 

VIOLA! ((Nearly typed in violin..)-

Our "Head, I mean Laurel wreaths"!

Hmm... Hopping around like a fairy princess was definitely fun!

It would be fun having a tea party with our teddy bears next time round... And making little wreaths for them!

-Karrot Korn Kapsicum   

P.S Mommy's version

Chocolate cup

Today, actually 2 days ago but I think it's less confusing if I put it as "today..

Was one of those boring, correction, lazy days at home and I am not sure how or why (I don't have good memory and as stated above, it happened two days ago not today.) but I somehow started watching some chocolate-y videos and got inspired to play with chocolate.

So the actual today's (We went to watch Puss in Booties yesterday and was only back at nightfall and I'm somehow not very-good-a-working at night, something that's got to do with the yellow lighting in my cake studio, cough. Studio.. Don't you think it somehow sounds posher than "room"?) afternoon (Spent the morning washing camping ground sheets, airing tents and muck out the royal icing, left over gingerbread cookies, parchment paper, flour from cake studio, kill ants and shoo away snail that's stuck to the wall of my cake room, god knows how it got in the room, only too bad because the rooms splattered with chocolate bits now and the ants are back, sob!) I went frantically looking for some balloons in my cake room (Long story short on why there SHOULD be balloons in my cake room, I mean studio- I had actually planned to do this balloon chocolate thing, only in royal icing for the cake competition but it failed, so I failed twice with this balloon thing, why don't I ever learn?! More on the fail soon..), finally found them when I remembered I hid them in my tool box NOT in my tool drawer or cupboards, yeesh.. Nearly wanted to do something else today, like maybe more laundry or OH! Completely forgot about that new black acrylic paint I bought after the movie! I'll play with that tomorrow... And hopefully I can find that brush I need for this particular project I mentally planned somewhere... 

Oh yes, the chocolate! No, it didn't magically appear, got them a while back at a bake sail sale when Mommy bought some Candy melt molds and decided to give them a try, since the molds were HUMONGOUS we soon got sick of THIS particular chocolate compound! 

Melted the chocolate the "Bain Marie" (Fancy word for a large bowl filled with hot water and a smaller bowl in a big bowl filled with whatever you want to melt, in my case, CHOCOLATE.) way since I live in a house that has everything except a microwave, sob.

Made a parchment paper cone but it was a bit of a mess because the melted chocolate seeped out from the top and the side, literally everywhere! Must be out of practice.. Haven't made a parchment cone since one of the Wilton courses, didn't need to till now! Well I actually don't HAVE to make one now but since the "pros" in the video were using a parchment paper "cornet" I think that's what it's called..

So after two failed cornets I ended up with my big fat plastic piping bag which I cut into well, cornet size!  

I just realized how much the bottom looks like "Bok choy", hahahaha! This is pretty darn hilarious! Well, at least to me..

So a mini tutorial for a failed chocolate cup-

First, you blow up the balloon, twist the end and hair clip it.

Then, get a bowl the the balloon fits snugly into and place the hair clippy part into the bowl, the balloon shouldn't be flying all over the place and if it does.. Have fun splattering your work space with chocolate, make sure you lick it all up or the chocolate monster will come after you!  

Next, pour your melted chocolate on the balloon, it should look like a splat or... A bok choy, I wonder if that helped anyone..

After having loads of fun pouring, grab your piping bag that's filled with melted chocolate and start piping circles, don't squash too hard or you will end up with a strange looking lump which is pretty hard to clean up after.

Remember, this is chocolate NOT royal icing.

Leave a space and do some weird random squiggle like thangs. (No, that wasn't a spelling mistake my dear blogger, please REMOVE that annoying red line! NOW! I command you! NOW!)

Connect the not so random circles with the VERY random circles with some string work, not as easy as it seems.. 

Now, let it harden in a fridge preferably.

Come back to fridge to see that the balloon has collapsed by itself and quickly tie a knot. 

Come back again in ten minutes, pokes to feel that it has harden and use a pin to prick the top.

Watch to see your world crumble into a million pieces. 

You know what?!

How on MARSSS could these people have done it without greasing the balloon?! (Serves me right for speed reading, aish.)

Everything stuck to in and the balloon well... Became one chocolate coated thaaaaaang.

I took the first photo when I came back to the fridge to see that it self deflated.

It would have been quite awesome to see that it maintained the self deflated shape when I pricked it... Oh well, I didn't succeed again so I have to try, try again!

Oh yes, today I just learnt what an "Epic fail" meant! *Mumbles* After ALL those years of hearing "teenagers" go "What an epic faaaaaaaiiiiill!" 

Apparently, according to Urban Dictionary it means- Complete and total failure when SUCCESS should have been reasonably easy to attain.

And that my lovely humans.. Was exactly what I did today was. *Audience applause*

-Karen Klumsy Kake

Octopusberries

Oh yes, I'm alive, half alive to be exact.
October.. I mean, Octopusberries has been a... Fairly crazy month, feel pretty drained (Drained as I just feel like hibernating kind of drained only I can't seem to fall asleep... Oh gushes! Am I suffering from insomnia, Doctor?!) right now.


It feels pretty strange to be blogging again, haven't blogged in a month (Excuse me, this post is picture less.).. And a couple of days, I don't know why but I just feel as though I have too many thoughts (Both good and bad I suppose, funny.. Had this strange feeling that writing down a happy thought about some people may well make them rather unhappy. Shrug*) clogged up in my head because I am too afraid to write down down just in case they hurt anyone, the last thing I would want to do is hurt someone just because of MY thoughts, so yeah.. Am on this blog or not to blog about kinda "thang" (Sorry, new favorite word.) so maybe I should start writing in a diary or something again and usually when I do, I abandon my blog, like I did with my previous one, and the one before that and the one before that, hahaha! And if I blog I abandon my diary, I'm such a horrible multi-tasker!

October (As in after the wedding cake competition, October.) at a glace-

1. Baked mint and basil chicken pie.

A so called invention of mine I suppose, just plucked mint and basil from our herb garden and threw it into the pie filling!
Somehow managed to lose my pie recipe (Haven't baked pie in a long time because I kinda put too much sugar in the filling the last time I made it! So that's why I didn't bother looking for the recipe all this while!), both the filling and the pastry, HEY! That rhymes!
And apparently a huge chuck off the middle of my recipe book as well, I don't recall doing any ripping... I think the poor batter splattered, gravy dripped, torn book is trying to say it needs replacing some time soon!
So I found a new pastry and filling recipe, decided to give it a go and of course, do what I do best..
NEVER FOLLOW THE RECIPE!
I just somehow enjoy seeing what turns out if I use white pepper instead of black, water instead of white wine, refrigerating the dough an hour less or just freezing it, adding strange ingredients (At least now you get how it became mint and basil pie!) into it instead of being a slave to the recipe...

Planned to make it a tutorial but I only got pictures till the end of making the filling, the putting-the-pastry-into-the-pie part was the part I was supposed to make a tutorial off, not the filling part because.. How WRONG can you get with chicken pie filling?!

Well until I make a proper tutorial (Found a picture of this typa pie somewhere and decided to give it a go!)- Roll out pastry, cut into 3 1/2"x 3 1/2" squares or however big you want your pies to be, I like mine small and cute!, scoop and put a blob of filling into the center, take all corners, one at a time and fold it into the center, you may need to pinch them together a bit to keep the pastry from flooping out or letting the filling ooze out while baking so absolutely NO holes, please!, roll out more dough, Cut out four leafs with some random leaf cutter, (This is pretty darn optional...) use a cocktail stick and make an indentation from one tip of the leaf to the other, use some pie glaze AKA egg yolk to stick them down on the lines, roll and cut out a flower, place in the middle, TADAH.

That was pretty much the funnest pie I ever made! ... Even though I still preferred my "old" (Funny.. Whenever I use ", I see little bunnies.. Must.be.seeing.things.) filling better but the new crust was better, Papa says at least the pastry is EDIBLE (I omitted the yogurt this time, I guess it made the pastry.. Crunchier?) this time... Well, I don't remember it being all THAT bad, sobas (KCC language for, sob! And I absolutarlee LOVE soba! Okay, moving on..).
Hmm, I think they are pretty perfect for Christmas! Nice, square little edible presents!
Too bad they were all munched up (Or the boys stole all the flowers and left the plain-usglyish pie alone..) by the time I whipped out the camera which was after I had ONE, yes just ONE pie!
Funny how when you get too little you always want it again... IWANTMOREPIES, too bad I'm too lazy. Hah.

Umm... What happened after that again? Karen Cuppy Cake = Person with a short term memory. Takes an hour to recall and goes AH-HAH!*

2. Cuppy cake camp-

Oh pooh, that went by with a blink of an eye... And all that's left in my head is a blur memory of..
Scratches head, pouts and thinks extra hard*

A huge, when I mean huge, I actually mean HUGE, crowd of human beings (We are a bunch of aliens, trust me.. You may not want to invade our house.) entered our house, a crowd so huge I could barely move around the house!
Thank goodness for cakeries. Cakeries = My own perfect world away from the chaotic house.. Which was soon packed with human beings too, NOOO!

Alright, I guessed I lied when I said this post was going to be picture less, I guess it's pretty hard telling a  "story" with out pictures...

ANYWAYS (Oh what can I do without that wonderful word?), early that morning I was up preparing for my tiny cupcake decorating session with a group of little kiddies and.. Ahem. I had some elves helping me, THANK GOODNESS!

Funny, after the ICCA competition I was planning to stay away from my cakery for about a month before I step foot in again but that month turned into 1/3 a month... Oh well, better than nothing! 

Was pretty excited since it was going to be my first time teaching KIDS!
It was pretty funny because they (Well most of them at least!) kept daydreaming and going "Mooooooommmmmiieeee..?", I guess I'm not too good with little kids, huh? Grr.
I taught them the first two figurines I well, self taught myself, a teddy bear and a bumble bee!

While I was teaching the "older" kids the "little-er" ones were busy making oat cookies which I then let them play with some fondant and cutters once they were baked and cooled!

Above:

Not my very first (Speaking about firsts... Look at my FIRST turntable! Yeah, that pink thing right there! Points and jumps around*) teddy (Can't find a picture of my very first one and I am too lazy to re-save it again from my FaceBook album so pooh, unlucky you.) but they all look about the same-ish anyways, the only different thing is probably the color of the bear.. And the clothes!

Made this cake just for fun (I think.. Can't really remember. Completely utter random memory that just popped up out of nowhere= Baked a "chocolate cake" one day with our well, used to be over and it turned out rather dry and crumbly and I made some very icing sugar grainy chocolate butter cream and iced the cake while it was still warm, took it to the dojo and called it a "chocolate brownie"! To my surprise it was all gone in barely 5 minutes! I make fabulous brownies, doncha think?!) and took it to my aikido dojo.

Below:

Bumble bees (Ahem, did I just lie again? Learnt how to make these from Mayen, one of my very favorite caking YouTube gurus! I was pretty fond of them since they were so easy to make, SUPER CUTE and I could basically paint any face I wanted on them! My favorite was the bumble bee with a pirate eye-patch!)! I just realize the cake had polka dots as well! I guess I really liked "piping tip" (I cut them out with the back of the piping tip!) polka dots then...

Above: The "After mess", didn't manage to take any pictures while teaching! If I did my camera would probably be coated with cornflour and fondant by the end of the session! 


Hmm... What happened after this remains blurry...
I remember being err, very hungry? Okay, I'm always hungry but I was actually REALLY hungry, smelling disgusting (I personally can't stand the smell of fondant, gum paste, polymer clay, play-doh and cold porcelain but I DO enjoy playing with it so I have to put up with the smell I suppose..) fondant makes me... Hungry, hmm... That sounded strange indeed, oh well.. You are reading a strange person's blog, if you didn't already know.


Anyhoo (New favorite made up-ish word! I was getting a bit sick of "anyways" so I made up a new word for it!), I went back into the extremely bustling house, full of chitterchatter and SPAGHETTI!
Everyone brought a single ingredient for the spaghetti, so it was basically.. Stone soup (I'm sure you've heard the story, right?) spaghetti! And it tasted.. Pretty good!
It was indeed strange to see a HUMONGOUS pot of bolognese (Wow! Apparently bolognese isn't a "proper" word..) sauce and spaghetti and what was even stranger was that I couldn't even have a second helping!


After some slouching on my favorite couch it was time to hit the.. No, not hay (I wish!)! BEACH.

And.. Doing some tents-a-pitching for tonight's a-camping.

Okay, I feel kinda mean not being able to continue because I can't exactly remember, ahem.. *Excusesexcuses*
Anyhoo, another camp, actually another two, I mean 1 and a half (In the middle of one right now.) just passed.. And my brain didn't have much memory left so I had to start deleting!

Okie, a quickie about the "one" camp not the "half" one, I wonder if anyone who reads this got that..
It was our 2nd camping trip and this time instead of the beach we went to the highlands, Genting highlands, I mean "Gunung Ulu Kali" to be exact.
If I were to describe it in a SUPER quickie, all I would write down would probably be.. "COLD!", Or shiveringish or... Something like that!

I give up with this post, it's horrible not being able to mention any names (Because I don't want to.) and it's getting hard recalling things since I have been dragging this post for such a long time.. And not to mention it's already December!

- Karen Kannot blog Kake
But I shall post it anyway since I wrote a jumble lot of words!

ICCA Annual Wedding Cake Competition 2011/Ebony

Before I say anything more may I laugh my head off at that "Hot Dogs" sign in the back ground? Hahahhaha!

Wonderful, have I kept you waiting for long? Well I hope I did cause the longer you wait the more you want to read it or maybe.. You would have totally forgotten about it...

Didn't exactly feel like posting much because there were so many pictures to upload and the size or something of the pictures I take with my "new" camera is apparently HUGE so it takes YEARS (As in one picture takes 10 minutes, so by the time everything finishes loading someone would be bugging to use the laptop or I placed the pictures in the wrong order again... Or.. Something like that! Innocent-please-don't-kill-me grin*)

So ANYWAYS, without further adoo (Hmm... Is "Adoo" even a word? I think it's "a due" after all.. Funny how I hear that all the time in "Speeches" and I don't know what's the word they are using..) and if you haven't met/seen her already, Ebony.

If you were wondering how I got her name well.. It was a pretty hard, brian brain cracking task but somehow or brother rather this line from Snow white popped out in my head "Her face as white as snow and her hair as black as Ebony", or... Something like that, can't exactly remember but YAY, I got another one of those things-that-are-black names, I use so many of those names (I think I should make an "Anti black piping or fondant" cake soon or my heads gonna explode..) for my cakes that I can't think of anymore! 

I don't know, there isn't much to write about this year on the competition (I knooow, I didn't write about the competition at ALL last year but trust me I was SO happy I was in tears but this year I was SO UNhappy I was in tears, sometimes I wonder why I cry all the time, yeesh, I'm utterly disappointed in myself.) and I don't exactly feel (As in I REALLY want to but well.. That person would probably not stumble across my blog or anything but err... I am horrible at making up excuses, aren't I?) like bashing people because, ONE it wouldn't make any difference since the whole event is already over, all I can do is just praaaaay that IT won't happen again next year or.. Or.. There WILL be WAR, and I don't want a few "certain people" to think I'm a "monster"... Of some sort. 

ANYWAYS (I can complain ALL day but I have.to.control.control.restrict.control.my.temper. Don't lose my temper so-sso quickly, bobeepbobeepbobeepbobeepbobeep AH! Bobeep- Oops, got carried away...) let me tell you the FULL (Did a pretty brief one when I posted her on my FaceBook wall.) story behind Lady Ebony.. From top to toe! That.. Strangely sounds like those "Top to toe" body wash stuff.. Hah, stinky random things that pop into my mind..

1.

The main "Rosey ruby" bouquet, have been doing pink roses too much, needed a change (And I wanted the flowers to "POP" from the monochrome-ish cake and pink doesn't really "POP" all that much!) so the roses went RED and boy, I am officially sick of red roses and the HUMONGOUS pile of petal dust that is needed for a SINGLE rose, it's seriously CRAZY! 

I had never made an actual bouquet before, you know.. Those that have OTHER things besides the flower and their "Proper" leaf so I relied on Alan Dunn a lot for well... Inspiration on how to put the whole bouquet together?

The bouquet is made out of life size red roses, I-forgot-the-name berries (This was pretty much everyone that saw my bouquet's favorite touch, I think it's mine too! But I somehow like the poppy seed heads just as much since I made them by myself AKA without Alan's books! Try spotting them!), ornamental grass, simple rose leafs or any random green leaf, poppy seed heads, random long leaf/grass thingy AKA my "Trafulla tree" (Oh dear.. I haven't watered it in AGES! Is it still alive?! Press panic button*), I-forgot-the-name seed pods. 

I REALLY dislike my flower arranging, should have done more research.. Frowny face*   

2.

Apologizes for "Monochroming" it, it just looks SO beautiful like this! Well... To me, apparently not everyone enjoys monochrome stuff like I do.

I absolutely LOVE this tier, actually all my "lace" tiers, apparently it's my "strong point" and I find it very unique because well, I invented it? 

I started doing this when I realized how beautiful those damask stencils looked and.. How expensive they were, I couldn't afford to buy them so I decided to kinda.. Pipe them?

But as USUAL, I am a horrible copycat so somehow or rather, I discovered this "lace" technique and I am pretty pleased with this first attempt (That took like 1 lazy week to complete!) and look forward to seeing some lace on my next few cakes!

Oh yes, forgot to mention that I used the so called "Eye lid technique", you know.. Poke random holes in fondant while it is still dry and pipe around it, the holes were the centers of my fantasy lacy flowers and meet my old friend, "Fish net extension work"! 

I know, it's pretty short! Had to do it on the spot, had NO idea I could travel with it but apparently Alan says it's possible (Pipe, dry, travel with it upside down.. How risky is THAT?! Oh well, there's always the "Pipe on the spot" option if it doesn't work out!)! Well, there's always next time!

OHOH, another thing! I wonder if anyone noticed the random "collar" of piped flowers on top of the lace work, I was too lazy to pipe a "proper" collar and some how the royal icing run out I was working with would somehow soften (Ahem, short story: I wanted to do a RI lace fan at the base of the cake board, gave up after making the fan for the 2 1/2 time, it was SUPER time consuming and it always, sob, melted. Sigh, the cake would have look beautiful with it.. I guess Ebony REALLY didn't like fans, sheesh, what a fussy lady.) overnight, even with a dehumidifier...

Oh yes also take note that all of the piping for this cake was done FREEHAND.. Simply because I'm too lazy to stencil stuff out and go over it AGAIN with the icing, such a timesa wasting thing to do! 

Well, I'm glad I'm gifted with being able to just "Eye ball" things.. 

3.

(I just realized you could see a couple of "fishnet drop strings" that didn't make it!)

Second try at "lacing things up", my ABSOLUTE favoritest tier/cake board (But leaning to the cake board side, wait. I think this whole thing is "One piece" so, never mind!), EVER.

The "cake" (Everything is styrofoam.) was made up of freehand over piped fantasy flowers and leafs but somehow my favorite part of that "tier" is the lace boarder on top of all the flowers.

The lace boarder was pretty much inspired by Raven Madison, a fictional character from one of my favorite books, Vampire Kisses with fictional clothes, so I'd just have to imagine how her lovely lacy gothic (I simply LOVE gothic stuff, mainly because well... It's different and all that LACE! I would like to own a wardrobe full of gothic dresses and the other one full of my usual... Colorful clothes..) dresses look like and that's how I see the lace trimming on her dresses...

It was a pretty last minute decision to have that random "Drop strings", I just like the fact that it is "Dripping' with black lace..

Now, the cake board, I still can't believe the cake board (Oh right, speaking about the cake board I think/HOPE you have realized that is was completely FLAT, I decided to well.. Not have a usual FLAT cake board so I cut a random sized round styrofoam into half and filled the rest with royal icing.. And BOY it was HEAVY! I made like.. 3 1/2 batches of the Wilton RI to fill it up THEN put a sheet of fondant over it since I am HORRIBLE at icing cakes with RI and butter cream.. Yes, I still haven't mastered it, how embarrassing is THAT?!) is my favorite part of the ENTIRE cake!   

I was just doing some "table cloth" envisioning and decided that it would be a "Wiggly and squiggly" out line since... I can't really pipe a perfect circle free hand and all round a 20" board!

And a "Boarder" outside the outline just to make stuff more interesting, I can't (Know your weaknesses, you REAAAALLY do NOT want to mess up if you are piping black on white... Be adventurous only when you KNOW you can ERASE!) pipe perfect "Drop strings" on FLAT surfaces and put another boarder on that boarder to complete the look and another boarder "Outside" the "Table cloth". 

Anyone still following?      

I would like to say it's henna inspired but it really.. Isn't anymore, but that was what started it but somehow I guess it isn't all THAT Indianish, It has been Karen Cuppy Cakeyfied! 

Oh yes, the circles holding the "Table cloth" together, I'd like to say it's inspired by that "Chantilly lace" but it really, ACTUALLY, isn't..?

You know how I've been into Korean pop this days, well, their clothes, are simply eye catching and I noticed  this black net shirt in "oneee" of the music videos I was watching one fine day on replay/repeat and only THEN did I realized how nice it would be to use THOSE "circles" instead of those "lines" that I used for the baby blue lace tier!

Only later that day when I was surfing CakeCentral I saw a post on "Chantilly lace".. Strange, eh?

Well, what else can I say? I SUPER lurrrrve this cake board!! 

4.

Jeez, I just realized I didn't have a "Solo" picture of my..-  

Oh wait, I DO!

Oh well, you would have to endure the super blurness since it wasn't taking with my "Super duper" camera! 

I think this tier was indeed, SUPER fun! I love playing with colors and since I had that SK-sent-me-suitcase full of food coloring.. This is what I came up with, it was inspired by one of my "Colorfulish" ink pen drawings and a stained glass cake I saw on CakeCentral and as usual, it didn't turn out looking like it at ALL! Another cake, Karen Cuppy Cakeyfied!

It was all just random piping, joining them together and when you are too lazy to do the "blobs" just pipe some "Spider webs"!  

5.

Okay, lets start with the "Fantasy hydrangeas". I used the "tooth pick" method to make them paper thin, almost transparent, the same method I used for my very first flowers, they were "so-called" daisies and they happen to be my Dad's favorite flowers.

He wanted me to make those flowers for the previous wedcakecomp (Read about it here: ICCA Annual Wedding Cake Competition 2010) but I refused because I thought they were well... Primitive? And he was pretty upset so this year, TADAH, you get a whole tier to yourself Papa! Wide grin* 

Oh yes, I used a simple Wilton (I think..) blossom plunger for them, made them into "Hydrangeas" by cutting out a petal then "Veining and squashing" them with a toothpick!

I really love that little "Cascading" (?) effect down the cake and in white and grey, beautiful!

Okay, moving on to the very..- Oh wait, There is another tier (The grey and black mosaic tier/s with hand painted Patchwork cutter gum paste butterflies around it, placed in "Hidden Mickey" shape! I wonder if any one spotted that "Hidden Mickey"...) , can't believe I REALLY forgot to take any photos of that tier (It's the tier just above the black lacey one, with the rose in the center, it has some foliage but it isn't all that visible in the photo.).. Anyways, that particular tier was inspired by the base of THIS cake (I think they called it the wedding of the century or something so, let me rephrase that.. THIS Wedding of the century cake, the only thing that REALLY caught my eye was the base, no offense! I had never seen the tiers being placed like that, ever. So as usual, I love unique stuff!): 

I think you are probably wondering why the tier below it AKA the Black lace tier isn't a "Hidden Mickey" as well it simply because.. It it... Grew.. Fungus... ARRRGGGHHHH (Read about it here, you may have to scroll down a little though..:Bothers )! And how could I have known that all the cakey shops I went to did have anymore (No, not a single one..) 6" round styrofoam dummies?! Yeah, I kinda dumped the whole thing, I don't.. Think very well when I get angry...

Whew, I guess I'm done doing the entire list on "Inspiration" for Ebony?

Erh, where should I start? 

I think the night before would be good.. What a SUPER crazy day, I mean night it was! Actually the past few days were as well, no time to eat or.. Drink because time would fly by so fast and before I knew it, it was night fall already and I was "Hey! I only had a slice of bread and butter and a cup of water for breakfast! No wonder I'm starving..". I'm pretty glad that'd over, funny how when you're working you can't feel how hungry you are, only when you stop... You can practically feel your stomach juices eating into you but there's still SO much to do! Funny how those few days relate SO much to this quote (Or whatever you call those stuff..) I saw somewhere. "I am most productive at the last minute"

Well, I REALLY didn't enjoy the last few days. It was basically "Wake up, work, work some more, and more then sleep"..

The night before the competition, at 12AM I still had SO much (As in calyxes to wire and put on the roses, oriental grasses and some other foliage to dust, ALL the foliage to glaze and some other stuff to touch up and stuff..) to do and I was practically doing them with my eyes closed because well... They wanted to rest?

Not long after my "Taxi drivers" (My family, I was working in my Uncle's apartment.. By myself... I am not exactly someone who enjoys being alone, am too used to having Stinky fly, Honey bear and Fluffy head around I suppose.. And at the same time I can't STAND having them around!) came to pick me up and I STILL wasn't done yet.. I suddenly burst out in tears, I am really not sure why... May it was because I missed them or maybe because I had enough of playing with that -bbblleeeppps- gum paste or maybe I was tired.. And hungry, even though there was a load of food in the fridge but it would waste 10 minutes of my PRECIOUS time eating, I vote all of the above!  

Mommy forced some food down my throat and Papa helped (No, he didn't help with anything else, I swearies.) me do some dusting and glazing while I made the calyxes, sob..

Soon Mommy left with the boys since they were tired and I stayed on with Papa till 2AM and.. We had to get up at.. 6AM, niceee.  

The next morning, I mean that same morning when I got up, I had that "Did I even SLEEP?!" feeling as I went up to get dressed and go on a panicy search for some sort of a cloth as a "prop", apparently it adds extra points, I find it stupid. So some one who had HUMONGOUS, beautiful props and a lousy cake would win as well? Ehh....?

I was pretty relieved (As in JUMPINGOVERTHEMOOOOOONWITHJOYYY type of relieved!!) when I went digging in my Aunt's closet and found a nice goldish, shinee shiny curtain!

A very sleep and kinda grumpy Papa drove us over to the apartment to pick up the cakes and OFF we went!

  One of the worst feelings in the world (I think) is probably driving with a cake, a cake you have worked on for an entire month.. I felt VERY sick during the journey to Sunway Giza, as in that vomitish feeling, the exact same feeling I had last year even though I kept asking myself "Whats there to be nervous about??!", one of those feelings when singing "Genie" doesn't help..

After some very sloooow and smooth driving, I practically had a heart attack when Papa went over a bump he didn't realized was there and all the cakes went "JUUUUUUMP"!

I think I death glared Papa to death.. Papa said he was glad I didn't have a craft knife near me or he would have been murdered. 

The first thing I did once the car was pared was to check on the oriental string work tier, WHEW! It was fine, only the of ALL parts the front part was crushed.. Niceeeee.

Carrying the boxes up was... Torturous because I felt like I was going to vomit on them or maybe trip on the steps because my legs felt like jelly...

It was pretty surprising being the first one to arrive, I was the 23rd last year, Ah.. I remember the number of my cake so clearly.

After placing all the boxes at the table, there was certainly NO time to unpack, ran to the toilet (Am glad I know Giza like the back of my palm, even though I don't look at my palm too much but err... Weird person who invented that saying..) and -CENSORED-! (I have a feeling that shouldn't have been written in my blog but err.. I don't have a diary anyways!)

I felt much better after that though (Better as in able to sing and dance Genie with a hop and a skip!), thankfully. 

Later it was all smearing RI everywhere, stacking Ebony up, fluffing the curtain, randomly placing gum paste rose petals on the curtain, florist taping the calyxes to the roses (Didn't have time to last night, too.. tired..), florist taping the berries, seed pod that wasn't the poppies (Who knew Poppy seed heads was the ingredient to make heroin?! I have drugs on my bouquet, hahaha!), arranging the sprays and piping the fish net!

Even though I was the first to arrive I was the last or third last to leave the "rink", it was pretty scary when the staff went "Five minutes mooorreee" and I wasn't even complete piping the fish net all round, my hands got SO shaky that my piping tip poked the already-piped-fishnet and a HUGE piece from of ALL places the FRONT (I know right... I swear the front part of the cake is jinxed.) dropped.

Another going-to-cry (I wish I was those "Kick the wall and then feel better" people..) part, I am not someone who works best under pressure even though I overheard that I piped pretty fast but I don't exactly consider myself a fast piper...    

Above: Rosalind judging my cake

After I was done (I guess you could call it that.. But I would have liked to get at least like.. 10? "Layers" of fishnet..) Nina (She was my "Best friend" or like Papa puts it, "Best fan". I used to arrive super early at ICCA Hartamas when I was taking my Wilton courses, Nina and I would chitchat for ages, she would usually bring some cupcakes and I would help her ice them.. Yeah, I miss those days.) whisked me off for "Coffee", also known as breakfast since she said I was feeling too jumpy!

Went for some pastry, I had my favorite mushroom and chicken pie, YUM.

It indeed made me feel less jumpy, met another contestant there, chitchatted some more... 

And when we went back to the "rink" the judges (Rosalind Chan, Lorraine Mckay, ALAN DUNN, Amy Beh and... I don't like that guy.) were already judging!

NOOOO! I wanted to see Rosalind judge my cake, at least Papa took photos...     

Above:

Lorraine (It was strange, I didn't expect her to look SO petite.. I had a tough time spotting her!) judging my cake.

Below:

Alan judging my cake!!

I absolutely loved how both the "International" judges took time to judge the cakes, Alan actually went around with a chair and his favorite beverage (I soon learnt it was since you can NEVER find him without it by his side!), COKE.

Alan (The rest started at cake #1 AKA mine, of ALL people HE had to start at the other end..) started at the far end from my cake and I had to wait, wait, wait some more, have lunch, wait some more, wait and FINALLY he judged my cake but in quite a hurry because he was already late for the "Opening ceremony".. Sigh.

Alright, my fingers and eyes feel tired so I'm going to say this,

Ebony got "Highly commendable" (On the last day I was pretty glad I was there first since I would hear their comments first! Can't exactly remember everything, only the "important ones".. First of all the one that has been ringing in my head until today is that my calyx was placed upside down! When Alan pointed it out I burst out laughing like there was no tomorrow! I must have been super sleepy when I was wiring them, bwahahaha! Rosalind says the colors apparently are pretty dull and wouldn't want to have it as a wedding cake, then she asked me if I would. In my head I was going "DUH" but I tried not to show it outside, who wouldn't want a GOTH wedding?! -Crickets chirping- I guess I'm the only oneeee! Alan said I should take flower arranging classes, I kinda figured that out.. Rosalind said it would be better if there weren't the "blobs" behind the oriental string work. Everyone LOVED the lace! Alan said he would like to see a cake with JUST lace and he loved my flowers! Cries happily* Yeah, that's all I remember.) and here are my favorite cakes: 

Loties of lurvies,

-Karen Cuppy Cake