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

Squigglies

Cheewiz, haven't blogged in almost a month I think and there are TONS of pictures in my camera, spent the entire evening downloading and editing my favorites, yeesh, who knew it was so tiring?

*Mumblessmulfle Especially with this stupoid  (I don't know why, I seem addicted to the world "Polaroid", adding the "Oid" to everything, hahaha!) cough and mossie's toes hovering around me.  

Anyways (This vord never leafs my aid. Let's hope you can make some cents out of that.), long story short:

Went for a wedding (Was looking forward to it very much because.. Eh.. Well I don't get to dress up in well a dress much and of course take some pictures of the sparkly chandeliers, too bad it turned out to be a "outdoor" wedding, heh.) and it was boring-ish (As usual, I come up with the crazyest stuff when I'm bored, I'm pretty pleased with this one though..) so we went out to the "other" side of the deck and let the boys loose.

Decided to whip out my camera again and take photos of the lovely nighty Putrajaya landscape, too bad they turned out super blur, actually super good because I played with the camera a little more and discovered a different way of taking "pictures (I am not sure if you consider them pictures..).

Kinda forgot how I did but I remember my hands shaking a lot so the pictures were just whatever I was taking a photo of and some colored lines so I decided to go ahead and shake/move the camera even more and this is what I got:

   

Above:

My personal favorite, it reminds me of Han's favorite nickname for himself "Fire blaze"  (When he first said that Papa was like "What?! Fireplace?!". Chee, can't stop laughing my head of!), so I'll just call this beautiful work of art (Pats myself on back*) "Fire Blaze".

This was probably made by moving the camera from side to side.

Below:

Another favorite of mine, can't decide between the one up there and this one.. 

A tsunami of colors, can't think of a name of it but it's basically a rainbow tsunami! 

Love the little "Stitch marks" effect..

Made by moving the camera in circles, hahaha! 

Fai gave me that idea, I wonder how many people stared as I was taking "pictures" this way..

Above:

"China town" (I have a wild imagination, I hope the "names" make sense, I wonder if I'm the only human that sees them this way.. I hope not though.). It just reminds me of all the lanterns and colorful stuff (Basically Chinese new year stuff, I suppose.) you see all around China town, as far as the eye can see...

I think I used the "round&round" technique for this too.

Below:

"Galaxy" (Try looking more to the middle, the swirly part not the "S" stuff.). Or maybe this looks more like a "Aurora", well.. You choose! 

I'm not sure how I took this one, I thinking I was just basically throwing the camera around... 

Above:

"Ghost caterpillar" (Oh, that sounds silly.. I need to drink more creative juice. Hmm... It reminds me of something a Mom would name a piece of kabloob-random-splatter-painting artwork her child did..).

Throwing the camera around technique again me finks...

Below:

"Slinky"! I have no idea why but it just plain reminds me of that toy...

Technique: Vigorously move your camera up and down. 

-Camerarrrr Clumsy cake

Starf ofa compaleetalee ran doom

You shall only read this post once you have figured out what the title says, no cheating. HAH.

I think you are probably rather bored or... maybe mad, when I start apologizing when I haven't blogged in ages...

Lots happened... I am not sure if you consider it a lot because I get over excited over little things (I enjoy being over excited over little things, if you wait for really BIG things to happen your life may get rather dull waiting for them so I rather get over excited over little things cause lots of little things happen and it makes me... Well, happy! Even though some people may call it as mad, ahh... Oh well.)  so yeah, lots of things happened!

Here's the list of what I can remember:
1. I got a beautiful Canon EOS DSLR for no reason. I have always wanted one since I took a few billion pictures with one that wasn't mine and every picture turned out supah clear, oo la la.

2. I had a beautiful (I think I need to stop using this word but that seems to be the only word that can describe them! Isn't it a very good excuse for not wrecking my brain for a different word since I am err... Drugging it with a overdose of kapoop.) platter of my favorite sizzling steak for dinner (One of my favorite typas dinners in the world, I don't mind having it for lunch too actually but somehow it seems to be a dinner thing, doncha think so? I don't think I mind having it every day, I can never get bored of red meat. I am guessing you know why I am not vegetarian, I like my meat, HAH.), for no particular reason.
Referring to "1. and 2.": It's always nice when you wish for something just for fun, forget it then get it.. So wish but not too hard (On that day we went down to KL for some ship wreck thing in Museum Negara... SO.SO.SO boring.. There wasn't even an ACTUAL ship wreck, only bits, by bits I REALLY mean bits, like you can COUNT bits, of porcelain china that we POLISHED and CUT, I would have rather gone into a china shop... BUT.BUT.BUT, I found a REALLY, I am pretty sure you don't want me to repeat my words trice again, with full stops in the middle, beautiful piece which is kinda the inspiration for my entry's cake topper, WHOOT! Oh right, where was I supposed to be..? Right, right.. Praying too hard. The boys wanted pizza for dinner and they we jumping like mad in the car and going "PIZZAPIZZAPIZZAPIZZAPIZZA!!", their harmony sounded beautiful... And as still as a night sky... If you were deaf and perhaps blind too because they weren't all that still... Oh wait, I fast forwarded too much. Papa said what do you human beings want to eat inside Sungai Wang?! you know the boys reply, mine was: I don't want to eat INSIDE Sungai Wang, perhaps.. Outside.. Across the road.. In a "Ship.. Wreck".. Sneaky grin*)  because even if you don't get it you probably won't mind and if you do... MWA.HA.HA.HA

3. I (I think I overuse this word too.) got myself addicted to another kapoop group (It's Dong Bang Shin Ki if you were wondering.), it happens to Machika's favorite, I (HAH! Again!) finally understand why...
One of the main reasons why I got into them (Minus their vocals, they make SHINee sound like babies.. Now, I just wait for a angry mob of Shawols to come murder me...) is because.. Because.. They remind me of my childhood (I think you are probably wondering why I speak so much about it, I just think it's important that I try to remember it because I was a pretty happy person, until I started school but I did enjoy my schooling years I suppose... During the weekends when there was NO school and it was just me and Mommy, shopping and librarying. Oh right, I ACTUALLY remember hearing those DBSK songs.. I have a good memory, for certain things... I can't even remember what I did last week, seriously.) in Singapore.
Poo, it took me half my life to realize I was a kapoop fan.
Now DBSK is broken into two separate groups, one which still carries the original name and the other well...
Decided to do some research on why they did after like... Half a dozen years.
Over exhaustion.. Low pay (I always thought the rolled in money..).. Now I feel guilty.. For supporting such.. Stuff....

4. After that scrumptious dinner we walked around Sungai Wang a bit and went into MPH (Still remember those kids that say it means "Mental problem hospital"..)...
The first thing that caught my eye was the "90%" off sign on one of the tables then...        
THIS BOOK (Playing with my new toy camera again..):

Me: HORSEHORSEHORSEHORSE! (Remember how I said that I get over excited over little things? Must be embarrassing taking me out of my cake room..) Hmm... And the cover is blackish... Worth a read... Picks book up and reads description*
"The story of Rain-Dream rider, born warrior and queen-to-be. 
Rain is a girl with a certain destiny, living in an ancient time of blood, raised on mare's milk, nurtured with the strength of a thousand Amazon sisters. A girl of power, stronger than fifty men, she rides her white horse as fierce as a demon.." 
Oh may I add... She's thirteen too.
WHO WOULDN'T BUY THIS BOOK?! (It was RM 10, they were moving out I think... Bought the only one that was in good condition, the rest looked quite bad.)
Well... I understand if you aren't horse crazy... Love how they talk about her, the horses and other animals but mainly my favorite animal in the world (Officially!)- Horses, I am still baffled by the fact that they have "Thousands of Amazon sisters" but not a single men.. They still have such a huge population.. Oh well, haven't even gotten to even the middle yet.
AND... (Exciting music playing*) They sold my favorite series, the most expensive was.. RM 6 and I got a novel from one of my favorite authors for RM 10!!
The books are usually priced at RM 50 ish... Scary right?

5 (I.Feel.So.Sleepy.So.I.Shall.Stop.Here.JEONGMAL MIANHAE.). Bla, Blah, Blargh... Papa says Fai should learn how to read and write already since he is going to be 8 next Febuary and I was appointed the teacher.
It's funny how all my childhood dreams (See? That's why it's very important to remember as much of your childhood as possible.) are pretty much coming true but not in the way that I thought it would be like..

1. I wanted to be a giraffe (It was my favorite animal.) when I was I am not sure how old, I think I am pretty much a human giraffe now (The first thing people say to me is usually something about my height... Around 90% do, I am pretty sure.), not that I mind, I enjoy towering over people very much, thank you.

2. Archaeologist... I was dinosaur obsessed, I remember loving my.. OH GAWD I forgot the name of my favorite dinosaur! The one that has... Has... Starts Googleing* Oh yaaa! Iguanodon! Loved it so much that when it's hand broke I plastered it with my Tweety bird plaster and would change it everyday, I wonder if Mommy got mad... Speaking of making Mommy mad.. I remember pouring half a bottle of talcum powder into my clothes drawer and adding water into it and stirring it with my hands to wash my clothes! Hahaha! That was fun... I should do it again some time. Well, this is one I haven't became yet I suppose...      

3. Builder and designer (At that age when I LOVED my Legos, paper dolls and Barbies.), I think you can consider building a few tier cake, building, right? And designing = Cake decorating.

4. Modelling, another one that I haven't done yet. Something that has got to do with the "human giraffe" thing, almost everyone says that I should take it up but I think there is more to modelling than height...
It takes some confidence and I don't exactly call myself all that pretty! Although.. I may pursue in it, one fine day..

5. TEACHER (Always wanted, still do, to become one, I just.. Simply enjoy teaching, hence the random tutorials on my blog. One of my biggest dreams right now is probably become a sugar teacher, travelling around the world, teaching, EATING, travelling.. What a beautiful life.)
I think teaching Fai is going quite well, on our second day and I made four sentences from the twelve words random spelling words (I would show him the word, ask him to try to pronounce it, write it down, make him memorize them then do a quick spelling test after... 5 Minutes, pretty surprised he got half of them right!) I thought him yesterday and today and he could read all four (Each sentence contains about.. Roughly 7ish words.) sentences WITHOUT my help, I would just say if it's correct or not.
At the end of the day (Oh right, I teach, make life sized English gum paste roses and listen to kapoop at the same time, it's quite fun since I enjoy multi tasking. Especially when your little brother sings random parts of the song with, say "THAT" part in in SHINee's Jap Replay sounds like "Bak kut teh", I fell off my chair laughing and nearly smashed a rose, says his favorite songs are Lucifer and Mirotic..) we started with spelling numbers and letting him construct his own VERY short sentences with the numbers he knows like: One green cat.
Don't ask.. You may not even want to hear about the sentences I constructed from the random words!
Well here is one in case you need a bit off a giggle: The ray has a big spot on it's nose.
And perhaps another: The lion has a leaf green comb.
HAHAHAHAHHAA I can't believe I am literally dying of laughter while typing this out!
Poor Fai, he has to put up with such a crazy teacher.

I think I bragged too much in this post, hope you lived up to this sentence.
-Krazy Karrot Kake