Leor's Thomas the Tank Engine Cake

   "Why is Thomas number 3?" asked the birthday boy after his 3rd birthday party.

       Leor is an avid fan of Thomas the Engine Tank. He knows a lot about Thomas the Engine Tank;  hence, the theme of the party.

    When I heard about the birthday party, I wish to make his birthday cake. However, someone promised him a cake. Tough luck!

    Five days before the party, I got a phone call placing the cake order... hurrah!

   The sculpted Thomas the Engine Tank birthday cake had surpassed the expectation of the birthday boy, his parents and everyone in the party.   The pride and joy that Leor wore on his face as he spotted the cake that I was carrying as I approached the party venue was worth the hard work. It was priceless to see the birthday boy (and the parents themselves) filled with gladness.

    Thanks a million Digna for making Maritoni Cakes a part of Leor's 3rd birthday celebration.

Edee Bag - A Birthday Sale

A lovely lady deserved to be surrounded by friends on her natal day; hence, a party was organised not by herself but her friends - that's how she's loved!                                                     The £24 Birthday Sale Edee bag chocolate cake was specially made for Edee. It was Maritoni Cakes first sculpted handbag. And because not one knew how the cake was designed, a deep cake box was made to thrill everyone in the party.  Mind you, she was lifted on her seat when the box was lowered next to her to reveal her birthday cake!

    

Lala Loopsy Cake

Happy 60

It's Gloria's mum's 60th birthday - a big celebration indeed! Thinking of the birthday cake is first and foremost (I'd say so).  A cake for a big day should be something memorable. We then asked about her mum's fave activities, pets or anything that makes her day - milking the cows on the farm and she tends to her farm chores in her wellie; her two loyal companions (dogs) never let her go out of their sight. 

This sculpted cow cake is a Maritoni velvet cake with a creamy white chocolate butter cheese frosting. It was covered with a Maritoni homemade fondant, hence the sweetness and the texture were controlled.

The dogs and the wellie were made out of the fondant - not a single pinch of  Tylo powder or any other powder was added into the fondant. 

 

The dogs, the wellie and the field were handpainted.  The letters and the numbers were hand cut and splattered with pink to create tiny flowers. Finally everything was glossed  in the Maritoni way.

"They love the cake!!! Thanks very much." - a text from Gloria sometime later.

It's an honour to make a cake for a very special day.

Maritoni Cakes in Bandon Show 2014

It's a great honour for Maritoni Cakes to be acknowledged in the Bandon Show 2014. The motive was not about winning, 
but simply 
to participate,
to showcase
handpainted sculpted fondant cakes.







   









    
This bottle cake was supposedly a wine bottle cake for a very good friend  of us, Dondon Parohinog. However, the entry cakes should only be small cakes; no specific measurement was given as the show had just included the class this year. This handpainted Farmville Home Brew 2014 bottle cake was a Maritoni white velvet cake with a creamy white chocolate butter cheese frosting.      

The chicken teapot cake was a Maritoni moist milk chocolate cake with milk chocolate butter cheese frosting. Whereas, the barn cake was a Maritoni moist dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate butter cheese frosting.  

Little did we know that people thought the cakes were ornamental display.  As we were retrieving the cakes after five o'clock in the afternoon, some asked me if they could take photos of the cakes. So instead of keeping the cakes in the box to take them home, we put them again on the
cake stand. And of course to taste is to believe, so we asked some people around us which of the three cakes would they want us to cut - the dark chocolate cake was the chosen one. For the cake itself to pass people's taste buds (other than the design) is a delight! 

Proud hubby cutting one of the cakes which were baked with love, cakes with love and cakes everyone will love.

The 43rd Liverpool Fan's Football Cake - A Handpainted Cake

It's Pat's 43rd birthday and three little birds whispered to me that he's an avid fan of the Liverpool Football Club; hence he's got the Liverpool Football cake, instead of an iPhone cake as per ordered by the thoughtful daughter, Grace and son, Conor few months ago.



In fact Grace and Conor helped each other in baking their dad's moist dark chocolate cake.

And they were surprised when the cake arrived; it wasn't exactly what they expected to be. Grace and Conor chose the design of their dad's surprised birthday cake - a square white covered cake with the Liverpool insignia. However, to make it more interesting (rather more challenging to me), I cut the top of their cake and formed it half of a soccer ball with the Liverpool insignia on it. The insignia was handpainted and all the letters were hand cut. Pat of course didn't know about it 'til he was called to come out to see his cake.

And because Conor was amused of the cake, he took photos of the insignia himself and set one as the phone's screensaver. 

And of course the two little darlings blew the candles with their dad.

Cutting the cake was fun time!

Territorial cutting?  One actually planned to make a tunnel.

And to be fair, both had to cut the cake.

The cake...

baked with love...

Gracie the Hen Cake - a Handpainted Easter Cake

        Happy Easter! 

 

         During this time of the year, Christians are excited to celebrate the resurrection of Christ Jesus which is coupled with the long-lived tradition of Easter bunny and eggs. On Easter Sunday morning, children get up to find some presents - chocolate, candies and other stuff left in the house by the Easter Bunny.

 

        So why did I make a hen cake instead of a bunny cake?

        There was a Roman belief that all life comes from eggs and I agree to it; hence eggs are considered by the Christians as 'the seed of life' which symbolises the resurrection of  Jesus Christ - a new life. Likewise I am living a new life in a faraway country, further away from home, away from teaching at the moment, yet closer to the cake world - my childhood dream.

        Sailing  closer to that cake world, I set a goal to make a chicken cake to promote our free- range eggs used in our baking; hence featuring Gracie the Hen, one of the three chicks (Snow White and  Conor the Rooster are the two others) which have survived from hatching in our homemade incubator in August 2013.

Gracie the Hen



Fresh organic eggs 

This breed lays green eggs which have darker golden yellow egg yolks.


Whilst making Gracie the Hen cake, I rushed to the chicken run with a camera to capture the hen in several angles as my basis in making the head and the tail, most importantly in painting the hen cake. I was so slow to start the cake. I was physically in my baking spot, but my head was in my garden - to finish my personal layout garden. However, when my hand started to tickle my brushes, I couldn't stop anymore as the cake seemed to be real! 

Gracie the Hen Cake was a moist milk chocolate cake with milk chocolate marshmallow butter cheese frosting. 




      Easter Sunday last year was a rainy day, yet full of fun for all of us as we hid and searched chocolate eggs everywhere in the house. To make a difference for Grace and Conor's Easter celebration this year, I made two mini moist white chocolate bunny  cakes and egg cakes for them to paint.
 






Creatively and beautifully they painted their cakes with the colour of their choice. 
 



Painting their  mini bunny cakes



Grace's painted mini cakes.

                                           
                                                  




    

Done!

                                                                                         
          It was a happy Easter Sunday indeed!