13

YES! It was a success even though I didn't get a 3 tier topsy turvy.. I guess that will have to wait for next year, huh?

Yesterday I thought all hope was lost for the cake when.. My so called topsy turvy cake turn out HORRIBLE!
It had torn fondant and it was bumpy! It was a MESS! (It was one of those type of disasters where I felt like giving up cake decorating because.. because.. I just couldn't do such a 'simple' thing.) 
I am the worst cake carver in world currently, hope it changes before I turn 14.  

So... I dumped (Not really, they are still sitting in my kitchen.) the other tiers and worked with the top most tier, it was a 8 inch round butter cake.
(I am SO sticking to mini cakes, love 'em!)
First it was 're-straightening' it again, it was a topsy turvy remember?
I stabbed the cake a couple of times as well because I felt so frustrated, yes I do stuff like that some times.
(I love caking. It doesn't mind me stabbing it to pieces then making it pretty again..)

And... I was out of butter cream, FABULOUS!
Grr... (Pretty sure I turned into cupcake monster.)

I am glad everything turned out smoothly after re-crumb coating and re-fondanting (The topsy turvy tiers were already fondanted but I peeled it off because they were faintingly UGLY.), if it didn't... I would pretty much be died from the cupcake monster taking over my body, that sorta thing..

Since I had already sketched everything out, I completed it within an hour or so..
Color was going to be the most important 'thing' (I ain't no goodie explainer..) on my cake, I am glad it turned out REALLY colorful!

Now.. It's time for the Purple Masquerade party! Woo hoo!

~K
 

Masquerade masks

 It's been a week since I last posted! I have been somewhat rather busy these few days with.. Stuff that I don't really recall but I remember them being rather important..!

Anyway back to the masquerade topic, I decided to have a fancy dress/masquerade 13th birthday party about a week ago and decided to make my own mask after hours of watching YouTube tutorials and doing research (Which makes me re-call my early caking hood days.. Sob! Happy tears*), I LOVE doing research on art (And cake decorating, see? ART!), I find it kinda fun somehow.. and well you see, I am a perfectionist (Only when I am Karen Cuppy Cake the artist, I am really the messiest person in the world.) so I do research until I am 100% sure it will turn out at least 90% of my standards!

I never really liked 'Short cuts' when I do a cake or art project because it takes away all the fun parts!
So instead of buying a plastic mask I made my own out of aluminium foil, news paper, papier mache glue AKA flour+water that is mixed into a pancake like consistency and paint! (Planning to make a 'How to" papier mache mask tutorial on my blog soon! Making a tutorial while working on your project makes it a whole lot more fun!)

I thought my mask turned out fabulous even though it was my first time making a mask from scratch!

 Like it? I LOVE it!
And of course... I was inspired by Lady Gaga and her Dance in the dark mask!

Raiding (Don't worry I paid for all the things I bought..! the craft store in PJ old town was awesome!
Twas' like heaven, to me.
It was jammed pack with so much Ribbons, lace, sequins, paint, glue etc it was difficult to move, you kinda have to walk side ways at some parts because there are too many things bulging out from the walls of that tiny shop house!
It was pretty darn hard deciding what I wanted to put on my mask besides those I HAD to get like the gold chain, black paint and findings!

My heaven turned into hell for a second because...
(Yay! I am in a plaaaay!... Ooh! It rhymes!)

Me: Um.. S'cuse me, where can I get findings?

Shop keeper: Ahhh... Miss ah, wat you toking about? Puzzled look* I don't ting we got ahh.. what ah?.. fiaandings here la.

Me: Okay... I might be spending a long time here* It is like that you know.. ring? to hold things together? (I don't explain things very well. Since I haven't used a 'finding' before in my entire life it made it harder to describe!)

S.K: You tlay to look in that drawah, maybe god.

Me: Mouth wide open* THERE ARE LIKE A HUNDRED DRAWERS UNDER YOUR CASHIER!!

S.K: I veli busy la, you juss tlay to fian okay?! If no have that mean no have oready.

Me: Jeez... Fine fine. Opens tiny drawers one at a time and getting very annoyed*

S.K: Pulls out a file with hundreds of different clasps, FINDINGS and other whacha-ma-callits! You see if here god oh not... (She must have noticed the smoke coming out of my ears... Hmm.)

Me: YAY!* Back to heaven...

Enjoyed my mini play about Malaysian shop keepers that don't know the names of their goods? Winks*

Everything went smoothly after that... Completed the mask in 7 hours from papier mache-ing to the final details..

Right now I am working on my second mask, Yup! I am hooked :)

~K

Over-piping

Yay yay yay! It is complete even though I wanted to dump it in the bin at the beginning because it look SO horrible!

Oops.. I am getting way to hyper! I am talking about my latest cake topper for my birthday cake!

 I love the way it turn out SO much! It looks so.. so.. EYE CATCHING!
I was inspired by the broad way theater sign boards from some movie which I forgot the name... and of course GRAFFITI! I have always loved seeing graffiti, I think it is really really interesting type of art not vandalism... Maybe it is vandalism if you draw horrible graffiti but the good ones are really mind SCRABBLING!.. Err.. I mean BOGGLING!

 I got the idea of 'Over Piping' from David Cakin' Crazy and his gang! I found the over-piping effect SUPAH cool! it takes piping to a whole new dimension!

It took me a good 1 hour or so from the start (Making the royal icing!) to the finish!
I think I went crazy mixing colors today! You have no idea how many times I had to wash that same 2 #2 tips and change piping bags!
Oh, I did not save the earth much today with all that disposable piping bags I used today! 

Right right.. I forgot to speak about the part where I wanted to dump the thing in the bin!
I spilled YELLOW Wilton gel food coloring on the 'K'! !@#%*!
So... After stomping around my caking room for a good 5 minutes or so I decided it could be fixed since I was too lazy to roll out another piece of gum paste anyway...
I painted the 'K' yellow and the black base yellow too (Now it looks kinda brown-ish...) and since the rest of the letters were still white I went ahead to paint them random gel food colors I found in my tool box!

Above: The last time I did KCC's Graffiti!

I have loved writing and piping too (Since like.. 5 minutes ago!) in (Ehem!) Karen Cuppy Cake graffiti style ever since.. ever since.. Camp @ KKBC!
We got a challenge to write our name in the most creative (Oh! I love it when I get asked to use my creativity!) way you can think off!
So in a second my mind was going: COLORS, SWIRLS etc etc!
My 'name' turned out awesome and well I stuck to that way of writing ever since!

~K

Inspiration

Last night I lay tossing and turning in bed at mid night-ish being bombarded (Ah hah! I spelled it correctly with out Blogger's amazing 'Spell Check'! ) billions of random thoughts..
I was rather stuck with one 'question' my mind threw at me..

"Who was my idol and my inspiration?"
I never really thought about this question before mainly because I didn't find the need for one...

I went through all the 'cake-y' celebrities and people that I found 'Idol Worthy'.. None made it!
Not even Eddie Spence and Margaret Braun, even though their pieces of art (I can't even call them cakes!) FABULOUSO they didn't really make me who I am today.
Although I am really GREAT (Yet!)..!

Soon after that I realized that THAT person was no other than, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta.
Yes, it is lady Gaga.


I assume you are wondering how that (Ehem.. Excuse me for a while please Gaga. That's if you ever read my blog!) crazy women that wore a meat dress ( You have no idea how many people ask me "Why on earth do you listen to Lady Gaga?!" Not saying anymore I can't insult Lady Gaga on my blog to that extend.. To those who said those words and more to me it HURTS! And it kind of proofs you don't know talent from non, eh? ) inspires me..


There are a land of o' plenty of reasons why she inspires me but these are the main ones that I keep in mind all the time...

• To not regret being unique, there are plenty of 'ordinary' people and only a few have the opportunity to see the gift they were born with (A.K.A Born this way! I have been listening to it over, over, over and over again ever since it came out yesterday!) so don't just dump it away in the bin just to fit in with the crowd.

• Ignore rude comment, they aren't worth your time. They are just jealous you went further/are more unique than them. 

• Don't restrict your self. No, the sky isn't the limit. You could always go further... 

Oh, how I enjoy being 'wise'..! 


Remember my bow tutorial? The bow was inspired by Lady Gaga's hair bow! (I love my cakes being inspired by some part of Lady Gaga's clothes!) 

~K


P.S Here's Born This way-Lady Gaga

  

How to: (Rather) Fancy Gum Paste Bow In 10 Easy Peasy Nice And Cheesy Steps.

I am back! I am back! 

And this time making my very FIRST gum paste bow and my very first caking tutorial! 

It is pretty much just for fun, I snapped a couple of photos while I was making the the bow for my 13th birthday cake. 

Okay! Lets start!

First you will need...

A non-stick rolling pin

A pizza cutter

Some gum paste 

A cake icer

A orchid leaf veiner (Grease it with some vegetable shortening. Not too much!) 

1 kitchen towels (Cut into 6 strips, rolled up and sticky taped.)

Some icing sugar in a shaker

A non-stick mat

And...

You will need 4 templates!

Cut these out myself.

YOU Do the same, the length and width is written on the template, you could use the store bought ones if you feel rather lazy today, eh? 

Step 1: 

Roll out your gum paste.

The thinner the more realistic it is going to look.

Dust some icing sugar on the mat before you roll to prevent sticking. 

Step 2:

Cut out 4 strips of gum paste with your pizza cutter using template 'A' and 2 strips with template 'B'.

Step 3:

Place the strip of gum paste on the vainer.

Use your rolling pin to lightly roll on the gum paste.

Remove and repeat with the 5 other strips (Mwa hahaha!).

Step 4:

Take one end (Actually both.) and fold into a sort of an 'M' shape.

Repeat with the other end and the rest (I feel evil..).

Step 5:

Join the 2 'M's' together with some water and place the roll of paper in the.. the.. middle?

Step 6:

Dry for 5 hours or so. 

It should be bone hard and ready to assemble by then.

Step 7:

Oh right! I forgot!

To make a nice 'stitch-y' effect, use your cake icer to 'poke' the sides of the ribbon after you finish veining in.

You are wondering why I didn't use my embosser, eh?

Well I lost it and I found that the cake icer was a good replacement!

Tolja I liked creating my own tools!

Step 8:

Cut out 1 strip of template 'C'.

Repeat step 4.

Step 9:

Wrap around the 2 smaller bows.

Step 10: 

Cut out 2 strips on template 'D'.

Vein and 'poke'. 

Yippee! You are done!

This was my finished bow! 

~K

P.S Hope you liked my first tutorial! Comment on how you found it, please?

Castle Cake

It has been ages since I posted in here! Feeling so guilty... (I usually do if I don't post for more than 3 days or so.)

Maybe I shouldn't feel guilty because I have been SUPAH busy collecting 'Ang Paos'!

A SUPAH (I seem to like the word 'SUPAH' a lot today in this post, wait.. It isn't even a 'Real' word. Oh well!) Late GONG HEI FATT CHOI/HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR To All My Followers out there!

Anyway... Back (Oh right, we weren't even there yet!) to the cake!

It was a rather last minute-ly done cake, was busy with "See above"!

But I managed to bake and decorate this rather huge castle cake for my 7 year old brother in 2 days!

I am so proud... Of MYSELF!

This was going to be my 2nd "Carved/Sculpted" cake ever! 

I felt rather nervous 'Sculpting' the cake!

I wonder when I would be able to sculpt such beautiful cakes like Debra Brown... Hmm... (Whoops! Daydreaming again!)

The Castle Cake in pictures (And some words!) :

   

 Above: The 'Cutted' and 'Stacked' soon to be castle.

Below: Looks like a pile of scrap cake doesn't it?! (I am pretty sure mommy fainted when I 'carved' my pretty golden brown, perfectly domed butter cake!) It is the soon to be 'hill' below the castle.

 Above: Ta-dah! See, it worked out quite well eh?!The birthday boy and me spent ages making the grass with star tips! 

Below: The steps in on!

 Above and Below: I guess I had to take a break from 'sculpt-carving'.. The knights (Took the pictures before dusting them with sparkly dust! Looks shinier now!) were inspired by Debbie Brown's. Eu Fai (The birthday boy) designed his own flag, I heard it looked like the Swedish one.. Haha! 

Above: THE FINISHED PRODUCT!!

Below: Eu Fai and his castle.

~K

Rosey Posey

My latest cake creation!

 

The design of this cake is pretty much the same like my tiger lily cake.

Only different flowers this time.

Roses... I have always loved roses ever since I started my cake decorating adventure in mid 2009 (Gosh! It has been so LONG! I wish time would pass by slower...).

Roses and cakes (More on the traditional side though..) just seem to click together very well.. Mmm.

It has been a while since I made roses, the last time I made them was during my Squire's kitchen diploma (Took it like a month or 2 before the ICCA Annual Cake competition in October.)!

Since I REALLY REALLY wanted this batch (I assume this is the 5th time I made roses in my whole caking life.) of roses to look EXACTLY like the real ones, I actually READ (fine..) the FIRST half of the instructions     

in one of Alan Dunn's rose err... Page of the book?  

I find it a challenge reading his instructions sometimes, maybe because there are too many words and too few pictures? 

  I was finally able to make a perfect (Well to my standard, which has to be mistaken for real ones.) gum paste rose! 

YAHOO! (.com!)

The only part in rose making that NEVER went into my mind (Or maybe it is just the plain toughest part in rose making, for me.) was how to start off...

Making the bud...

AND I MANAGED TO FINALLY MAKE A PERFECT BUD! (On my first try! This time...)

Thank you Alan Dunn... Somehow, even though your instructions are horrible (Or maybe just boring or maybe it is just me..)! 

I guess if you look a picture of a rose and instructions 100000x a day you will be able to make it, eh? 

I took 2 days to complete this cake.

(Ehem.. 70% Of the days was spent on Cooking Mama on FaceBook! Yay! Finally! FaceBook has awesome games to play!)

Half way through the process of making the petals I realized that I DIDN'T have a rose vainer! (I know, imagine THAT!) 

So I invented my own..! 

It's top SECRET!

Plus it gives so much finer detail than store bought ones and it costs 2% off the price (Of the store bought ones.) so 'Tra la la' for me! 

The rose making went through quite 'Breeze-y-ly'!

Dusting the rose...

I ALWAYS find this part so BORING! 

Ugh... There are like a BILLION petals to dust all in the SAME way!

I dusted them with tangerine (CK) and shaded tree (Sugar art).

As for the leafs...

I created my own vainer and technique too!

I am a bit of a budget caker (Most of the time..).. I invent tools/techniques and save where I can! I am glad I don't have a huge wad of cash to spend when ever I want, where ever I want. If I did I wouldn't have created my FAVORITE tools and techniques in sugar..! Smiles*

The leafs were dusted with shaded green (Sugar art. My favorite green for leafs!) and kiko (Sugar art.) for the burnt effect you find in most rose leafs.

I am REALLY proud of my roses and foliage this time round!

The cake is just plain butter cake, iced with butter cream and a 'Border-ed' with a simple bead border.

The 'Texture' of the icing (Yes, I did it on purpose.) was inspired by the first picture you see inside Alan Dunn's The Wedding Cake Decorator's Bible: A Resource of Mix-and-Match Designs and Embellishments!

Hope you liked my latest cake!

Comments are more than welcome!

~K

P.S Here are some pictures of my 'past' roses!

Above: My rose bud (I don't have one of my fully bloomed one unfortunately..) from The Squire's kitchen diploma. 
Below: My roses from Wilton Course 3! (My 2nd try at roses! My 1st try is just too embarrassing to upload!)