Monday, October 17, 2011

Happy Birthday to my little girl

It has been a crazy busy week for me and it always happens when it's around my kids' birthday. Besides making a special fondant cake for the family celebration, I had to prepare cupcakes for her school celebration as well. Although it is a lot of work, but I gladly do it for them since it's my gift plus I love working with fondants! Lol! Besides, how many more years will they be thrilled over my homemade cakes? Not too many I guess. :P Anyway, this year my little one has requested for a Smurfette Cake for her birthday. At first I was kind of lost on how should I do it, but after some research and help from a couple of good friends, I manage to get this done:
I am sure many of you have come to know about Smurfs when you were young. It was again popularized recently with the phone / IPad App game and also the recent The Smurfs movie. However my girl got to love Smurffette was neither of those but was from the free toy she got from her McDonald Happy Meal. :P

I did not do a good job on the cake, so much to brush up on. I guess I did not give myself enough time for the buttercream to set before covering the cake up with fondant. So it wasn't as smooth as I hope it would be. :P Good thing its for my own girl, lol! Guess I need more practice! Comparing with last year's Tinkle Bell cake, which one do you think is better?
I took my friend's recommendation and used a chocolate bundt cake recipe plus a yellow buttermilk cake recipe from Martha Stewart. These cake are much more sturdy then the ones I used previously. But because the family has been so used to fluffy cakes, they were not too keen on these denser cakes. :P Conclusion? Its so hard to please everyone! (=_=")
For my girl's class celebration. I used just the yellow buttermilk cupcake recipe and top them off with Chocolate and Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Not forgetting to add a little fun by placing a princess or butterfly toy ring on each cupcake so the kids can keep them as a souvenir after enjoying the cupcake. :)
My daughter ended up enjoying the cupcake more then the Smurfette cake. Why? I guess she gets to have the ring to play with, whereas the smurf cake was merely for viewing and eating pleasure only. :P I too love the SM buttercream and yellow cake combo too, think I will use it again next time I'm baking for such occasions.
Her classmates love the cupcakes too! Saw them happily licking off the delicious buttercream and munching on the soft yellow cake, a satisfaction that is hard to describe. :) My little girl came to me today and gave me tender a hug and softly said. "Thank you mummy for making my birthday cakes." Priceless. :)

Another Mummy mission completed. :) Overall contented with the results, but could be better. :P Thanks folks for staying to read my post. Hopefully will get time to post up some kueh recipe soon. :) Till then, have a great week ahead! Cheers!

26 comments:

ann low said...

Bee, Happy belated Birthday to your girl. That's a pretty perfect fondant cake. I've never tried to make a fondant cake before... maybe next year :)

WendyinKK said...

Awwww.... I love the last part. So touching. Almost brought a tear to my eye.

I watched Smurfs back when I was.. hmmm... 6 or 7. Smurfette was my fav that time, and 2nd was Vanity. LOL.

Oh yes, not forgetting, Happy Belated Birthday to your dearie daughter.

Hankerie said...

Haha, such a cute Smurf fondant cake. I love the wording, do you use any special cutter for that?

Zoe said...

Happy Birthday to your girl! All these cakes are so pretty. The smurfette cake is definitely a hit!

Anonymous said...

i like your food pictures and want to invite you to try out tastingspot.com. it's for anyone that just wants another place to submit photos and share it will other foodies. It’s still in beta version, but would love for you to start adding some photos and help get it going.

Unknown said...

What a pretty smurf cake! I hope I will be able to make one too.

CaThY said...

pretty fondant cake & cuppies ;)

Swee San @ The Sweet Spot said...

aaww u did a good job with the fondant cake.. Happy belated birthday to your daughter.. :)

NEL, the batter baker said...

The cake is perfect!! So beautifully done. Good job on the smurfette :) So cute and pretty.
Did you make your own MMF or was it store bought?

lena said...

bee, this is a very professional fondant looking cake, very beautiful!! what do you mean by how many more years?? aarh, you will be baking till you are old, grey hair all over and still your kids will be thrilled with your bakes. It's their mummy who bakes that, they will love every bit of that!!

Ayu said...

Happy belated birthday to your little girl bee..Nice cupcakes & definitely nice smurfs cake you have there..sure remembered those cartoons characters as i grew up with them too..hehe

鲸鱼蓝蓝蓝 said...

你实在是太厉害了!!!!!!!!!
我一直不敢做翻糖
很怕一开始就是无底洞:$

Small Small Baker said...

Your smurfette is so cute! Very pro! Happy birthday to your girl. :)

ReeseKitchen said...

Happy belated Birthday to Arissa...:) Beautiful cake, showed Cheryl the cake and she said aunty Bee Bee really very clever horr....:) Yes of course i said..hehe!
I like to play with fondant too, but much much more to learn and practice.

Unknown said...

Very very very beautiful cake! Your daughter is so sweet as she didn't forget to thank the 幕后功臣. My sons? They never complain I am considered lucky ;P

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

Happy Belated Birthday to your daughter. For me , this cake look perfect , I don't think I can make a cake like this. By the way, your buttercream look nice, could you share recipe for me, I have been thinking to try make meringue buttercream. Thanks in advance .

Janine said...

Happy belated birthday to your little girl! I also found it so touching that your girl remembered to thank you, makes all the hard work worth it eh? :) I love the wording too, and think it's better than last year's!

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Thanks Ann. Hope you get to try fondant! It's actually quite fun to work with. :)

Thanks Wendy. :) yeah, I remember watching smurf around that age too, always on a Sunday morning, right after or during breakfast timing...

Thanks hankerie! I have a special cuter call funky character cuter which I bought in a bakery store in KL.

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Thanks Zoe. :) actually they kids love the cupcakes more....because of the yummy buttercream.

Hi Anonymous, kindly leave a name so I can address you properly next time. And thanks for the invitation, will check put the link when I get the chance.

Hi Fong, thanks for dropping by! I'm sure you can, jia you!

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Thanks Cathy!

Thanks Swee San, heehee, still have much to learn ya. :D

Thanks Eelin! Actually have been wanting to make the fondant myself, even got a good recipe! But just didn't have the time la. *sigh* hopefully the next birthday, heehee!

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Hahaha, thanks Lena! Your comments always brings a big smile! Actually the thought of myself all white and grey haired and still moulding fondant is a scary thought! Lol!

Thanks for your compliment Ayu! Heehee, it's actually good that both mother and child can enjoy a little cartoon fun together.

鲸鱼蓝蓝蓝, thank you thank you! Don't say that! You're such a good cook, I'm almost sure you do a great job on fondant cakes too!

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Thanks SSB!

Hey Reese, your cakes are already so pro and beautiful, I still have to learn some tricks from you! But again we are not into this bakery business, no worries la horr! So don't need so pressure la!

Heehee, thanks neyeeloh! Ya, lucky my girl didn't forget who did all these, hahaha. Else I sure very sad, lol!

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Thanks so much Sonia! It's the same buttercream recipe I used in my macarons. Check out this link : http://wendyinkk.blogspot.com/2010/05/swiss-meringue-buttercream.html

Thanks so much for your encouragement Janinie! Ok ok, will work harder and deliver a even better one next year. :D

Blessed Homemaker said...

Brought back some good childhood memories just looking at your cake!

Mona Gandhi said...

Hi,

I follow your blog to find interesting recipes and now motivated by you, i want to make a cake for my daughter's birthday next month !

Wanted to seek your advise - which cake should i use as a base ? i am planning to do a snow white theme cake but not sure how to do it. So just thought of asking you to guide me on this.

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Hi Mona,

Perhaps you can check out this:
http://honeybeesweets88.blogspot.com/2009/10/doing-impossible.html
or
http://honeybeesweets88.blogspot.com/2010/10/gift-from-mummy-part-ii.html

good luck!