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!





 



                                                                          



Caelum's Confirmation Cake - A Handpainted Cake

                                                                                  It's Caelum's Confirmation and here's a lovely present from the Murphys (Linda, Pat, Grace and Conor) to celebrate and welcome him to the Christian community as his baptism has been sealed at the Sacrament of Confirmation.    

Caelum is an avid fan of Totten-ham Hotspur Football Club; hence the design of his confir-mation cake.               

I was told that he loves chocolate cakes, so there's a Maritoni Moist Dark Chocolate Cake (the field and the altar) with milk chocolate butter cheese frosting. The cake was covered with white fondant which I hand painted green to depict a grassy football field.

I had so much fun doing the cake, especially the painting moment, and it's so flattering to hear that they love not only the design, but the cake itself - so moist and yummy!

             

As shown in the pictures, the hands and the shirt were messed up with the colour of the ball as it was still wet when I laid it between the hands; moreover, the ball kept on rolling. 

Truly there's more than fun in Maritoni Cakes as they are baked with love, cakes with love, cakes that you will love!