39% Off on Birthday Shoes

Have you fond of shoes?

The Linda Murphy shoes special edition was 39% off on 25^th January on her 39^th natal day.

     

      Yes, it’s a cake, a Maritoni Melange Velvet Cake for the wonderful and thoughtful daughter Linda Murphy.


        Grace and Conor specially requested a purple shoe cake for their Mum, no further details were given. Linda knew she definitely will have a cake with a purple motif, but little did she expect that it’s a shoe cake as we hid the cake in our bedroom just a minute before they called in yesterday.

The different flavours are vividly captured.

        The birthday card was the précis of what went on when the cake was presented to the Murphys in Kenneigh, West Cork.

    

                          


         







                                      The percentage symbol turned out to be facing the other way around as I took them out during the travel. Anyway, no one noticed it until I posted the photos.                                  
        
           There’s more fun in Maritoni cakes!

Conor's Ambulance Cake

 Conor's Ambulance Cake

       

         Conor's ambulance cake with a flashing light. The top           

and bottom layers of the ambulance cake were Maritoni  Velvet   

Deluxe cakes and the middle layer was Maritoni Velvet Delight          

cake;  whereas the road was a Maritoni White Velvet cake. All the           

letters and numbers were carefully handmade to suit the space          

provided. The happy birthday candles were Conor's choice which        

he bought himself.            

                

       Children are fascinated with birthday cakes. They usually want their cakes to look as real as  can be as the characters in Disneyland or anything of their interest.  Our grandchildren, Grace and Conor are two of those children who are allured with Disney characters. Grace is into Disney princesses and Conor is into tractors, fire engines and the like. 

         Since I have found myself re-born in baking, particularly in fondant cakes, I have fun time with Grace (7 years old) and Conor (4 years old) decorating cakes as our bonding moments. I let them explore their creativity in making cake toppers and how they'd decorate a particular cake. Doing stuff with them is absolutely heaven! 

The first glance of the ambulance cake 

            In November 2013, Conor had chosen his 4th birthday cake ( for 4th January 2014) to  be an ambulance cake with a flashing light! Most of the time that they called in Barryland, Crossmahon for a hug and a chat, he'd sit with  me and pick his ambulance design in the Internet (to be this and that), of course not to forget about the flashing light, which was his Ganggang (Grandad) Tony's assignment.

         'Twas a bit of a challenge to me as at the time I only had the regular rolling pin, a knife and a piece of fondant tool! (I'm just a year living here yet.) But as what it is said, 'When there's a will, there's a way.' With Conor's trust in me to make his ambulance cake, I was equipped with excitement, resourcefulness and love. It was a great honour indeed! (Now I have most of what I need, thanks God.)

The happy Grandad Tony

            Conor's ambulance cake turned out to be fabulous and he adored it; hence Maritoni Cakes' kick off . Thanks to Linda Murphy for filling me up with so much encouragement. 

      

                   And mind you, because of Conor's ambulance cake with the flashing light, Grace has been looking forward (this early yet) for her Sofia the First castle cake for her 8th birthday in June. 

          (And we have a secret as well for their Mammy Linda's birthday cake, 25th January and their Daddy Pat in April .  ^-^) 

Re-Born in Cakes

A Maritoni White Velvet cake:
2014 mini cakes have shiny patches; 14 is a 'batik' inspired.

          Baking was one of my childhood interests. I learned to bake in the early 80s with my Mum in Cotabato City, Philippines. However, icing the cakes, particularly cooked icing wasn't my cup of tea.
          Decades passed without baking. I was hooked up in my career, not only in the mere world of teaching, but in all other extra curricular activities, to name campus journalism, badminton, girl scouting, folk dancing, arts and crafts (drawing, painting and cut outs in papers and styrofoam as learning devices and decorations), crocheting, sewing and designing curtains and other stuff.

          In 2007 teaching brought me to Thailand and no trace of baking was noted in my palms.

When the birthday girl got her car.

   
          There wasn't a single space at the back of my head to re-register baking until I met Grace and Conor Murphy who love themed cakes on their birthdays. So in October 2013, I found myself in sculpted car cake as my loving hubby gave me a silver Ford Focus as his birthday present to me. However, my car cake turned out to be a racing car!

Grace and Eoin cutting the Halloween butter vanilla cake

Trick-or-Treat came and the Halloween fondant cakes magnetised me to highlight the event in Barryland as Grace and Conor with Eoin and Alex would be scaring Barryland with their fabulous costumes.

        The proud Grace and Conor with the fire engine cake, a collaborative work.

       
           As newly re-born individual in cakes, the adventure has just begun for me and our grandchildren, Grace and Conor as they become my guest cake decorators on our cake bonding moments, it's a fun time learning, in fact. In our fire engine cake, their creativity has been nourished whilst   they made the cake toppers.

          Every priceless moment has been coupled with fondant cakes and sculpted cakes.  The themed cake is always linked to a person's interest or work.

A cake to welcome Baby Manuel

                  My children know that I can bake and I love baking, but I couldn't remember that I baked them any birthday cakes.

A Maritoni red velvet deluxe  laptop cake for our dear IT man, Reimark

        On 25th November 2013, I made a laptop cake to surprise my son. We rang him not only to greet him, but asked him to go online in fb to show him his birthday cake. Alas! He wished to cut the cake himself.

          A heaven cake was made to remember my late dad and my uncle on 12th December. It took me awhile to figure out how to decorate the cake. I browsed in the Internet any photo of a heaven cake, but there wasn't one that matched my wild imagination. Making the clouds and with the help of my pastry brush, the cake turned out to be simple, yet fabulous. Cutting the stars was a lot easier and I gave the credit to Ivy Hutt in England for the sets of fondant cutters packed with love to Barryland.

A Maritoni white velvet cake

         
          My dad was one of the pioneering jeepney drivers in Cotabato City, Philippines. So in honour of him, my hubby and I sculpted a jeepney cake on his first death anniversary, 22nd December, as our way of joining the rest of our family back home. My dad was once delivering soft drinks in retail shops in the city in late 70s and early 80s.
     
         The jeepney cake has become the driving force for me to engage into the cake's world.

A Philippine jeepney cake 

                       
             We hadn't finished the cake in a week's time as there was a couple of cakes in the house in the previous days. On the seventh day, Linda with Grace and Conor called in. Linda took a slice of the cake and to her surprise, the cake was as moist and tasty as it was on the day it was baked. There and then, she encouraged me more and more to go into the cake business.  Thanks to my dad in heaven!
                                                                         







     


               It's Christmas time!  It's a record breaking for me as I hadn't spent a single moment preparing for the family's Christmas dinner. All I did was baking and decorating cakes.

   

A Maritoni Melange Velvet cake

       
       In the last quarter of 2013, I had tried recipes that seem to be pleasing to me. I bumped to a red velvet cake in the Internet, but because I am used to customise whatever I do, (be it in lesson planning, cooking, gardening, baking and etc)  the laptop cake and the heaven cake, were distinctively tasteful. Hence, I came up with the Maritoni White Velvet, Maritoni Velvet Delight, and Maritoni Melange Velvet cakes. They're extra moist cakes that melts in the mouth!

A Maritoni Velvet Delight Cake

A Maritoni Velvet Delight

                The most exciting one I did was our New Year family cake. I was suppose to make the Murphys' house with their front drive and garden. However, I ran out of time due to the making of Santa Tony and Marie the Elf as unfortunately I didn't get any tylose powder that time. As quick as the wink of an eye, my flexibility had to work; hence built our house. The snowmen family were the Murphys and of course Grace and Conor picked the colours of the hats and scarfs.

A Maritoni Melange Velvet 

         Truly there's more fun in Maritoni cakes!

They're baked with love, cakes with love and cakes that you will surely love.

        A special credit is given to our son, Reimark for initiating Maritoni cakes blog. It's a website reviving me not only in cakes, but in writing, too.


         

A Teapot for a Friend

Before it was glossed

      A friend is a priceless treasure. We may have loads of friends, but there's only one gem or two in the bushes.

    This teapot was sculpted for a good friend, Colette Quinn. I didn't get the chance to see her on Christmas day, neither on New Year's day; so to wish her a prosperous 2014 is to have a chat over a pot of tea.
   
      A text message was sent from hubby's phone to let her know that a teapot would be on the way to her place later that night. Alas! She's going out with some friends, so we called in earlier instead. Tony was carrying the teapot to her kitchen. When Colette grabbed the handle of it, we gasped and she was surprised. Reading between the lines, she got the message.

       It's a cake!

       Yes, it is! It's a Maritoni white velvet cake.


      Earlier that night, Linda with Grace and Conor called in and as Grace spotted the teapot on the table, she grabbed the handle   and I gasped as well telling her it's a cake. Linda reckoned it wasn't a cake as the gloss in it made it look like a real porcelain teapot.
 
      To have it mistakenly as a porcelain teapot for the third time made my day!

        I learned that the handle was finally broken when it was lifted by one of her young lads. And for the cake itself to pass their taste buds is another bonus.

       The teapot was actually inspired by the colour of 2014, radiant orchid and I accented it with pale and bright yellow and deep green. Pantone said, 'Radiant orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health'. In fact, my confidence has been enhanced.

       Later that night I read more about the colour of the year 2014 and to my surprise, I found out that to bring out the best of radiant orchid is to pair it with pale yellow, bright yellow, deep green and pink.  Didn't I pot the gold before I knew it?

        Truly there's so much fun in Maritoni cakes and I'm pretty sure of that!

A Maritoni White Velvet teapot cake: the gloss makes it look a real porcelain teapot.                 

When Smurfette takes Barbie to the party

A Maritoni white velvet cake

           Smurfette is the first female character from the Smurf. Some may have not known her, yet she's famous to the youngsters just as Barbie is. However, young and old know Barbie and a doll such as Barbie is always a lovely present to the little girls.
 

   Raimarie the Smurfette,
celebrating with us her birthday
 in Skype.                                

    After several Maritoni cakes, this Smurfette birthday cake was specifically requested by Raimarie.  We were wondering why, but we didn't ask.

         Then the realisation just filled in my bucket. Raimarie has been noted for doing some things before the rest of the family; to name a few - the first to play a number of musical instruments, the first winning badminton player, the first IT/programmer in the family, the first in the second generation to inherit the family's career, which is teaching. However, the later hasn't been her cup of tea, so another adventure has marked her as Smurfette. In her present hideout (again she's the first to live in Cebu City) she's the only rose among the thorns.
 
              Two years ago, the first great grandchild Claire was born to the family. Hence, there's a double birthday celebration on the second weekend of January. The Barbie cake was chosen by the Granny.  It was my first doll cake. Since I had only a spare cake, I had her sit. The foot rest was a velvet melange cake pop, but instead of coating it with chocolate, I covered it with yellow fondant.

A Maritoni white velvet cake

Claire

                                                                                       Smurfette was also my first character fondant cake topper. Since I hadn't bumped into any tutorial in the Internet, I just downloaded a Smurfette photo, and from there my adventure went on. At the time, I hadn't got any tylose powder yet, so it was a challenge as the legs easily deformed. The following day, my hubby and I found ourselves in Cork City hunting for tylose powder to beat the due date of Raimarie the Smurfette.

       

The Murphys

Grace and Conor with the O'Donnells

 












 
   
          In making the mushroom cottage cake, Grace and Conor Murphy were the guest cake decorators. It was their simple, yet priceless way of sending her their greetings. Conor made the blue flower and the leaves (his gentle reminder for Raimarie to stop calling him Baby Conor). Grace made the door, the fences, the butterflies and the rest of the flowers.  Its base was also a velvet melange cake pop covered with a fondant. Since the cottage turned out to be smaller than Smurfette, I set it on a hill made from a dummy cake.
   
              Creativity truly counts!