Saturday, March 21, 2009

What Lies Beneath

Remember the blushing bride I told you about in my previous post? She's a petite, gentle and soft spoken lass; wonderful in every sense of the word. Her husband is a very lucky man......or so he thinks! Haha....underneath that demure exterior lies a brilliantly naughty mind! I'll tell you why.....

I'm not sure how or when it started but it's a Chinese custom for girlfriends of the bride, (normally lead by the Maid of Honour or bridesmaids) to set up a series of tasks/door games for the groom and his entourage before they are allowed into the bride's home. The tasks are meant for the groom to prove his worth & love for his soon to be wife. But of course, his buddies are most welcomed to prove their chivalry as well. Some of the common tasks that I've heard of are declaration of love via poem recitals, acts of humiliation (wearing diapers and panties) and downing unpalatable concoctions and gross stuff like bugs (eeek!); but rest assured all are done in good fun...and of course some cash. After all, you gotta pay the 'toll' if you wanna use the highway :)

Now back to the bride's light bulb moment. She asked if it was possible for me to make some '4 seasons' cupcakes as part of the door games. Cupcakes with 4 flavours; sweet, spicy, bitter and sour representing the various stages in life that a couple would go through in life. The cakes should look harmless but what's inside....is for the unsuspecting men to find out.


harmless enough eh?
but you know what they say; looks can be deceiving.....

4 seasons cupcakes revealed

I enjoyed making these cuppies so much, there was hardly any guilt! It's pure evil...Muahahahahahahah...

p/s: I'll post up pics of the victims and their ordeal as soon as I can.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

For the Blushing Bride

Time flies. It really does. My hometown friend, Lilian, whom I've known since I was a preteen, got hitched last weekend. It was the most beautiful wedding I've ever had the privilege of attending. More on that in my next post. But for now, I shall write a little bit about her hen night. 

Well, I wasn't there but I was given the task of creating a set of cuppies to spice up the night. The bride to be, maid of honour & I fired off emails to discuss about designs. We all had the same idea; 'NAUGHTY'. But the question was, how naughty is naughty? The bride to be is indeed a blushing one. I sent her some pictures of erm....naked male anatomy and she was close to being horrified. Lol...she was more horrified at the idea of having to gobble it down and knowing her girl friends, they'd probably get her to EAT it. Erm if you know what I mean......

But we still want to maintain that naughty element, so the best way to go about it is to get those bulges & mounds covered up. After all, less is more :D 

After another round of consideration I figured sexy bikini bods is the best way to go about it. And hence.............


the first of the bikini series
(i realised that in real life, the design of this bikini top would lead to a wardrobe malfunction...lol)

pretty tight eh?

broad shoulders and a six pack to boot...yummyyyyy....

yes, I went a little overboard with the grey speedos

a closer look at my favourites

Now that you've seen em tight buns, killer cleavages and power bulges, let's take a look at the rejected ones. Try not to laugh okayyy...

my very first attempt and I failed miserably,
it looks like a peanut with g-string...lol

and i call this the reality buns, check out the cellulite!

From what I gather, the bride to be and her girlfriends were fascinated with the cuppies and they chowed it down with much gusto, bulge and all. I couldn't be happier :)

Monday, March 2, 2009

Of Trolls and Tank Engines

Here's a story about a pudgy looking fairy mistaken as a troll and Thomas the tank engine and his friends.

It all started about 3 weeks back, when I got a message on Facebook from a lady by the name of Wan, who got my contact from Sling, who was one of the recipients of the Valentine cuppies ordered by Jasmine, an ex-schoolmate of mine. Still with me? Lol...anyways....she asked if I could bake some cuppies for her kids' birthday. I was excited! This order was solely based on word of mouth. This nice & trusting lady hasn't even tasted my cuppies, yet she is putting her faith in me. Oh did my skirt fly or what. And then came the biggest challenge of all; her initial idea was a princess theme for her daughter and Thomas the tank engine for her son. And the wind that blew my skirt ever so fiercely died abruptly. Whoa! But I was determined to take up the challenge and I agreed almost instantly.

And so the exhange of ideas began. At first, I suggested a knight/prince theme for the birthday boy, so that it would compliment the princess theme for the birthday girl. But Wan mentioned that her little boy absolutely adores Thomas; something that I truly understand because my toddler niece loves, loves, LOVES Mickey and Dibo the Gift Dragon. So Thomas it is and that's that.

So now for the birthday girl, (who's a preteen) Wan suggested Hannah Montana, Winx or Totally Spies. All I could think of was edible images of Miley Cyrus. Hmm, that's kinda ok. Then I explored the next theme; Winx, which are fairies. Now this I can work with. I mean I couldn't really construct the characters exactly but I can make some cutesy looking fairies in a garden; a fairy garden theme! I pitched the idea to Wan and she agreed. Now all there's to do is to get my hands dirty :)

I started with the fairies first. Thanks to wonderful people who shared their ideas on Flickr, I had a rough idea how I wanted my fairy to look like. Nothing incredible, but something that's still recognisable and adorably cute. So ladies and gentleman, this is my 1st born :)  


Yea, she's.....pudgy (i know Nick....) Hence, the troll....

 with wings! I still think she's cute.

And this is troll/fairy version 1.1. Much leaner, but still rather 'meaty'.

check out that cute dimple :)

I was quite happy with my fairy, she has wings & a flower like dress. Yeah....she fits the bill. I made another 3 before realising that they were actually melting! The weather was very very humid and my poor fairies didn't stand a chance. I left them to dry on a tray lined wth parchment paper and their bum got stuck, I couldn't remove them without leaving my finger prints behind (ack!) or risking tearing the skirt. There was no way I could have saved them. I had to admit defeat. What a nightmare! Not only that, the toadstools that I made earlier were also unusable, there were about 20 of them. I felt like cr*p. Things were not going my way; I decided to call it a night and start afresh the next day.

Thankfully the next day was a whole lot better. I was on a toadstool marathon followed by fairies. The weather was still pretty humid, so I had to confine the figurines in my bedroom, with windows and door closed and left the fan running the whole time. Such was my predicament....Luckily I managed to finish the fairy garden figurines without too much drama after that. 

But that didn't mean I could breathe easier. Dear Thomas was up next and at that point I started to second guess myself. What on earth did I get myself into? But this was of course, panic talking; given that I only had a couple of days left before the party. My idea was to make a few miniature trains and the rest are just 2D toppers with different facial expressions of the characters. And again, thanks to the world wide web, my task was made easier. The next hurdle was of course, to draw the faces onto the sugar paste. I had a few options; edible marker pen, paint brush or Wilton's ready to use icing tube. Either ways, they're not easy. I tried using the marker pen 1st but it was not practical as the pen tend to sink into the sugar paste, leaving behind unsightly dents. Maybe I applied too much pressure while drawing. So method one was out the door. I hesitated with the 2nd method but I had to try anyway. I was pleasantly surprised when it worked! Of course the first few lines were visibly crooked and they got thicker as I tried to cover the imperfections but I got the hang of it after a while. Method 3 was left unexplored, thank goodness!


Thomas and his expressive friends...I dunno their names...lol

and here's Thomas, the simplified version

I felt such a huge relief when figurines for both themes were completed. I was constantly checking if they dried properly and thank goodness they did. I shudder at the thought of the stress I'd have to go through should things go awry.

Everything went well on baking day, or so I thought. There I was getting all my tools ready for decorating when I realised that I didn't have the tip (Wilton's no. 233) for piping grass! Fortunately Ryan (my then colleague and now colleague cum housemate) was out and he was able to get it for me. Phew.....I am happy to report that everything was smooth sailing after that.

I think this post is getting longer and looongeeerrrr....lol. So here are some pics to wrap it up :)


Oh hai!

Wan commented that her little boy loves these Thomas cuppies so much that he kept asking them back from the guests....lol!

my little fairies

in a fairy garden

I am happy to report that Wan was very happy with the cuppies, 
and that the birthday party was a blast. 
Mission accomplished!