Saturday, December 25, 2010

Year 2010

I guess it isn't too early to post about my most probably favorite year in my entire life, 2010!

Well first of all here is my current FaceBook status:  2010.Was.AWESOME! Why? I got from just THAT girl to the person I have never dreamed of becoming. Who knew it could all happen in one year?


The person that would never dream of becoming in year 2009 would be a cake artist. 
I never knew I could reach that high... But amazingly, I did.
It does feel rather awesome thinking about it now... 
In year 2009 and part of year 2010 all I wanted was just to fit in... Yeah, why did I want to? 
I guess it just felt important at that time, now I DON'T care at ALL! 
I don't find it important (At all! Well... I do have SOME very close friends that accept me the way I am and I like that fact that they like the real ME not some fake outer shell that I tried putting on a few years back which of course didn't work!) to fit in with the well, cool and boring people who are my age that are always bored ( I found the 'cool' people and me that was trying to fit in boring and I was bored when I tried being someone that I can't.)?  


I kinda like being different this days.. Somehow! I feel unique and special not awkward and different. 
I am glad I finally managed to break out of that 'mold' and find myself again this year. 
Not only did I just find myself but I also managed to find my passion and/or the 'thing' that I am supposed to be doing in life. 
Instead of just describing my self as a un-schooler (Long story!) I feel more comfortable calling my self a cake artist... It's amazing! I looked back at my cakes that I made earlier this year and compared to the one that I just finished making and delivering today!
Check out my latest cake: Tiger Lily Cake 


On my cake decorating path this year I stumbled upon other arts that I felt passionate about like paper craft, polymer clay-ing and almost every other type! 
I love art, art is beautiful... 
I managed to survive and conquer the Wilton courses 1, 2, 3 and 4, The 5 days Squire's Kitchen intensive diploma (Man! That was some CRAZY cuckoo 5 days! I would have gone mad and insane if it were 6!), 2 3 day long CupcakeKarens cupcake booths these cake-y events? (I am horrible at finding good words for sentences!) year! 


I plan to conquer more the next...  


I kinda shocked? amazed? dazzled? (One of those type of words!) myself when I see how far I have gone within a year... 


Just this afternoon I was using my laptop in my caking room and my tiger lilies were behind me. 
Every time I turned and looked at my tiger lilies, I keep thinking to myself if I really DID make them... It just didn't seem possible, but it was and it was there right in front of me. 
I shed a happy and a proud tear... It was an amazing thought. 
I guess nothing is impossible even when you have lost your self, it is possible to find your self again and this time, stronger.. 


Haha! I feel so wise all of a sudden!! Yeesh... 


Well all I wanted to say was... 


Year 2010 was a life changing year for me! 
I hope the next year would be just as awesome as this one, or I will just make it be! 


AND


Merry Christmas and a Hair-pee new year!








~Karen Cuppy Cake



Thursday, December 23, 2010

Tiger lily cake






I finally got my tiger lilies like 90% (I forgot to make a bud to go along with my half opened and 2 fully bloomed tiger lilies! Hope it dries well tonight so I can dust it tomorrow!) ready before I need to assemble my cake tomorrow...

Remember the foliage that I was making yesterday?
Well I am happy they dried 70% bone hard in Malaysian weather by 9 AM today!
I prayed REALLY hard that it would not rain that night (It is monsoon season at it has been raining at least once a day! And gum paste don't like humidity and rain! And it so happens that I live in one of those countries that humidity and rain is the highest?)!
Whew... Thank you rain god! I shall offer you some cake later today! Haha!

This tiny 5" (Diameter?) x7" (Height) cake is not going to be any normal fondant covered mini cake...
It is going to be to be covered with butter cream (NoOoo! I hate washing up after crumb coating and icing a butter cream covered cake because of the buttery grease... Bleah.) and iced like my Train Cake!
But this one is going to be Van Gogh icing style on the top AND around it!
I just finished icing it and it looks FABULOUS!
Imagine yellow, orange and red icing swirls all round the cake!
I made the icing colors like so to match the very berry orange-y tiger lilies!

And my favorite of favorite butter cream (Royal icing works as well.) border, the SNAIL trail all round the bottom of the cake!
I really have no idea why I LOVE the snail trail border so much...
Maybe because piped shells are too common and that I find snail trails (Or a bead border, which ever you like to call it! I like snail trail... Sounds grosser and more interesting, doesn't it?) neater, elegant and pretty..!

Every time I turn around and look at my caking table filled (Yeah, it is a rather small table! But it is good enough for me!) with beautiful, flawless tiger lilies, foliage and butterflies (Oh and that one bud that one stinky bud that I forgot to make yesterday... Dry quicker!!) it just make me feel SO super happy that I completed THIS much within 1 and a half years (I started caking in July last year.)!

And the fact that I am teaching my self how to make flowers like the peony (Whoops! I forgot to blog about THAT flower.) and my latest tiger lilies by looking at images on Google (I LOVE Google! I could never do cakes like these if it wasn't around!) and browsing and borrowing gardening and flower arranging books from the library!
You have NO idea how much I LOVE doing cake research!
Doing cake research is no easy task (Especially when you can't find what you are looking for!) but I just seem to enjoy it.. Somehow!

I always need to have my lap top next to me with a close up shot of the flower that I am doing because I just LOVE details...
Looking at everything from the color of the pollen on the tip of the stamen to the veins on the petal TWICE so I can replicate it EXACTLY.
Replicating nature is AWESOME... I feel like god... Somehow! Haha!!
When I did my tiger lily research I was surprised on how many types of them there were!
It was pretty hard to choose one species of it because they are all so amazingly beautiful!

Since I started making sugar (Mainly out of gum paste.) flowers I seemed to look more closely and pay more attention to the plants, leaves and flowers (More on the flower side I guess..) when ever I get out of my caking room (Which is pretty close to never because all I need to keep me occupied for the whole day, and the next, and the day after THAT is some gum paste, and ALL my tools of course and my lap top with FaceBook on! Oh... I suppose I need food too!)!        

Before I log out, there is one thing I would LOVE to say...

I LOVE SUGAR CRAFT!
You made my life worth living...

~K
P.S
Sorry that there aren't any pictures of the not really finished cake yet!
I need it to be a hopefully still a surprise (After describing the cake in this post! I hope I didn't describe it too well...) for the birthday girl!
Check back here tomorrow night for the picture of the 100% done cake!


Pictures of the cake ABOVE!!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Caking..

Today was one of those LoOoooOoong caking days...

For the past 3 days or so I have been working (Maybe 40% out of 60% out or on FaceBook! So I guess they weren't very long and hard working days!) on a tiger lily cake (I mean the decoration, haven't reached the cake yet!)... At snails pace... I assume have been rather lazy these days!



Anyways... These are my tiger lilies!
They are on my dresser, I had to keep them away from humidity (The weather has been SO super horrible to me and my gum paste creations lately! It has been raining everyday with no end! Cries*) and my caking room doesn't have an air conditioner so I will have to keep it in my bedroom for a couple of nights until the cake is done! Sob sob..!

I just completed the 3 flowers and most of the leaves (Haven't even made them into a branch yet!) today...

And baked the Christmas order's cakes today too!

More cake-y posts tomorrow!

~K

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Butterfly!

Finally! I have got time to post pictures of this gum paste butterfly I made yesterday!

It was my first time making gum paste butterflies (Ok fine! ButterFLY!), I really REALLY wanted to make them since I got my Alan Dunn's Celebration Cakes on Thursday!
His butterflies seem to catch my eye more than the flowers! Maybe because there are SO many in that book, not to mention that he puts in nuts and vegetables in this book... Which is just plain... WEIRD! (Who would want vegetables on their CAKE?! Maybe if you are a farmer or something then it is alright... But for sprays?!)

So anyway... I had the time and cake (One with those flower-y-ish sprays on the top. I figured out that SOME butterflies (I will continue making more today! They are SUPER fun to make since they are not realistic-ish.. So I just took out all my pearl/luster dust from the drawer and plan to use them ALL today to make these butterflies really colorful! I used coral, ruby, avocado and brown for this butterfly. )  to make these yesterday after I finished making the parts (Petals etc) of the spray..

I found them 'funner' then flowers somehow... Maybe because I could paint/dust them as I wished!

Here are the end results of my very FIRST gum paste butterfly!
~K

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Port Dickson 15/12-19/12 2010

*Opens the door-Unloads luggage-Puts lap top on-Logs in to FaceBook/Skype/MSN/Blogger/CakeCentral.
*Gets flooded with FB mails, chats and notifications! (Yippee! I lurve getting flooded with them after a weekend away from my precious lap top!)
*Posts her usual 'I-am-back!' status...

It is amazing how much I miss my 'Online' life when I have been away for only the weekend without it!
I had a pretty tiring weekend in my 2 nd or soon to be 1st home in Port Dickson.
I haven't been there for quite some time already (I have been busy with cakes and stuff I suppose. Check out my previous posts.) and I missed being there every weekend a lot!

Day 1:

Ugh... I have forgotten lots of details that happened on the first day.. Noooooo! I guess YOU will just have to live with that! Haha!

We (Lots of family members... Too many (Maybe I am just too lazy!) to list out now!) departed from KL after some brunch...
I had a good 1 hour + journey to PD because I FINALLY (I didn't wait THAT long but it DID feel that long... I am sorry if I am getting you confused because I usually do get people confused... Anyway...) got my 3 new cake decora... wait... 2 caking books (Alan Dunn's brand new book! Alan Dunn's Celebration Cakes, this one I have been waiting for ages because I ordered it before the title was released! And Maisie Parrish's Fun & Original Children's Cakes and Maureen Carlson's Fairies, Gnomes & Trolls: Create a Fantasy World in Polymer Clay (I plan to use the polymer figure sculpting techniques on sugar.)!
The journey to PD zoomed by extremely quickly thanks to my 3 new books that I got from Amazon.com .
I am super happy and pleased with them!

One moment we reached the house and before I knew it I was at our nice calm and relaxing beach... Ahh!
And before I knew it (Again!) we were setting a couple of fishing nets in the (Rather cold that afternoon, it was a nice cloudy day but not so nice if you are in the sea because it is freezing-ish.) sea.
This time around we had a canoe!
I had an AWESOME time canoeing with Caryn!
The waves made it even more fun because it makes the canoe go up and down, and of course you get splashed all over when you go 'down' a big wave!
There was a bit of a panic-y moment when we found out we were too far off shore after being so carried away with going up and down the waves!
To make us row faster... (Don't laugh! Its going to be silly..!) We pretended we needed to get out of a shark infested part of the sea and if we don't we were going to get eaten alive and probably crash into some jagged rocks!
It worked though!

The day ended pretty well with some home cooked stew and dishes...
Yum yum!

Day 2:

I guess 'Day 2' was kinda the same like the first day...
We spent most of our time there at sea...
I felt exactly like I was in one of those Enid Blyton adventure story books but a bit more on the negative side because I had to drag my stinky brother Eu Fai like 500 meters off shore to check the nets!
And another 500 meters back...
I think I had fun dragging Eu Fai back... Kinda...
Caryn came back with me so Eu Fai held on to both our life jackets (We went pretty deep, well any depth over my height is deeeeep!) and we pulled him all the way back to shore...
Some how... I felt like a performing dolphin... I don't know why but I just did!
And the fact that no matter how much we swam we were still at the exact same spot!
It was

After that afternoon at sea I don't think I ever want to go 'netting' again!
I said THAT the last time but I still went again anyway... Oh well.

Me and Caryn dug for clams (AKA lala) once we finished rolling along the shore looking like a pair of washed up... washed up... err... just name the silly-est washed up sea creature you can think of!

It started pouring once we got home...
I had a well deserved rest (I think...) and went for a nice cycle once the rain stopped.
Unfortunately Ghost (Thats what I named my white (Not so white anymore!) colored bike!) had a rather flat tire so I had to ride Cats eye (A silver bike that has another one of my silly names.).

I love cycling after a storm or just a drizzle!
It is so relaxing...
The nice crisp sea air blowing through your hair...
The little rain droplets that fall on you when you zoom past a tall tree...
The awesome feeling like you are flying when you go through my self-discovered-extremely-windy-secret-passage-no-matter-what-time-of-the-day...
The wonderful thoughts that come in your head while you are cycling that make you grin to your self...

It is just a magically awesome-ish feeling that is pretty hard to explain...

Day 3:

We spent the whole day at the pool today since we had ENOUGH of the beach!
It started with a splash and we had a water fight for the whole 5 hours straight!
Yeah... thats what we did that day!
It was some time since I had THAT much fun in the pool...

Laughing...
Splashing...
Kicking...
Fighting...
Scratching...
Pinching...
Punching...

I felt like one of my brothers!
I think 'Day 3' was discover your silly old self day!
It was fun...
And worth all the scratches, cuts, bruises that I got from acting all silly that day!
It was one of those days were you think you are the only person in the world, doing what ever you wish, anytime you wished!
I am pretty sure we got MANY stares... But who cares!
Me and Caryn did a who-could-do-the-longest-scream competition too!
After that few hours I nearly DIED of exhaustion!

I think I collapsed right away once we reached home!

When we woke up I found myself actually reading those Pokemon stuff (Like the evolving stuff and all...) with Christopher...
Pointing at the Pokemons we liked, going I trained this one to level __ last time you know!, You couldn't find it?! I found it in ___! Tsk tsk!.... 
Which was... Weird... But enjoyable!

That day was like a trip to the past!
Breath taking-ly amazing!

Day 4:

Not much of a forth day... We left after lunch.
It was a slow and rather squashy drive back to KL...
Yawns*
2 hours or so of watching the sky, palm trees, rubber trees, more sky, cars, small towns, more trees roll by...

~K

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

15/12/10

What a boooorrringggg title... I got the I-cannot-name-the-post disease again!

Today is/was one of those lazy afternoon days! I LOVE those days!
I woke up at noon so there is nothing much to say about my morning unless you want to know what I was dreaming about! Even I don't remember what I am dreaming about so you may need a dream reader machine... Ok! I was getting a bit carried away with that 'dream' chit chat!

I spent my afternoon doing research on a Xmas eve birthday cake!
I really wanted to make this cake PERFECT because.. well.. it is for one of my favorite 'persons'!
And that she loves Tiger lilies and I have always WANTED to make gum paste lilies!
And now I have the chance to make it so I have to give it my BESTEST shot!
So I just spent maybe an hour or two google-ing and looking through my Alan Dunn Sugar Craft Flower Arranging and Pattern book by Tricia Guild (I got this one from the Big Bad Wolf book sale for RM20! And it is SO awesomeee!)!
Tricia Guild Pattern: Using Pattern to Create Sophisticated, Show-stopping Interiors
Alan Dunn's Sugarcraft Flower Arranging

Went to our Petaling Jaya community library after finishing of my cake research (Did I ever tell you how much I LOVE doing it?!)...
To do some more! Haha!

The library is like a home to me! I wished I had a library like THAT at home though...!
I visit EVERY floor of it and actually KNOW what and where everything is!
Yeah, I do visit and explore it THAT much!

As usual after getting the books I need (I am SO greedy! I take almost all the books on that particular subject!) on all 3 floors of the library, it would be a pile of books that I need to go at least 2 rounds to carry them all to my private conner away from the rest of the people... 
Peace and quiet...

I had a look at LOTS of polymer clay sculpturing and 'real-life' flower arranging books today (Like I always do! But more, MUCH more this time!) and try to put them into my cake decorating ideas!
Found many interesting techniques that I am pretty sure have NEVER been taught in the sugar art schools today!
It was like finding treasure!
That people have not touched since... *Looks at the date of when the last person borrowed it
1989! Gasps*

I pretty sure it is because of all the research and books that I have read that I picked up cake decorating rather quickly!

Now that I think about it... I used (At a first glance of me lots of people my age still do.) to be called the nerd-y or geek-y one because I just LOVE books (I would never get anywhere without them!) and maybe just plain act like so.
I learnt how to ignore (At one time I actually did STOP reading just because of THAT! How SILLY of me..) those comments about me and just be... ME!
So now I can say HAHA (I am getting evil, Aren't I?) to you horrible people (That are stuck doing things that are 'cool' but NOT get anywhere in life.) and just get on with being me, myself, I, Karen Leong Jian Yi.

Now... To get my new batch of caking books! (If you are reading this, a BIG HUGE THANK YOU to you Auntie Julie for lugging them all the way from U.S to Malaysia!)  

~K

159!

Thank you....
For making ME feel so ultra HAPPY and JOYFUL yesterday!
It was the very FIRST time I got 159 views on my blog for a day!
Thank YOU, you and YOU for viewing my blog yesterday!

I was SO (Jeez! Just tried playing with the text and colors with my blog posting thingy and I am getting all jumbled up already! Hahaha!) super-de-duper happy yesterday that I actually started going a silly dance a twirl around my caking room!

I get pleased so easily! And its a good thing because I cant be dull or upset for long right?

I really wished that I had a new cake creation to share with all of you AWESOME people today!
But unfortunately I have none... Sob sob!

There is nothing really exciting on my 'To-Do' list today...
It is on of those lazy days lounging around in the library!
Hooray!

~K

P.S
Thank you Blogger! I just discovered how fun it is to type with different fondants.. err... I mean FONTS.. Yeah fonts... (I really DID type out fondant FYI! It just comes naturally after typing 'F' 'O' and 'N' out!) and colors today!

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