A Thank You

My little one, JP, was born prematurely, at about 35.5 weeks. Although he was almost full term, he still need to be monitored closely. In the special care nursery, he learned how to feed and a gavage tube had to be inserted in his nose to his tummy. JP was in the hospital for about two weeks. During that time, he was looked after by these amazing and wonderful special care nurses. They had made the supposedly tough time for me to be very easy. Though they might not be able to see this blog entry, but I want to thank each one of them... and I hope I did not miss (or misspelled) anyone, and if I do, I apologize... (in random orders) To nurses : Sheena, Patti T., Patti, Tatyana, Barb, Annie, Ruby, Cindy, Leanne, Adelle, Lynn, ... my BIG thank you!


Here are the cupcakes that I made for them:

Sweet Little Baby

My sister-in-law, TH, asked me if I would be able to create some cupcakes for her colleagues as announcement of her newborn. Baby AK was born earlier than her due date, at about 31 weeks, in August. She was in the Special Care Nursery, just like my little JP, for about a month. I am happy to report though, that both baby AK and my little JP are happy and healthy.

My sister-in-law is the girliest girl I've ever known, quite the opposite of me. Therefore, I just knew what to make for her! What could be better than pink and white polka dots cupcakes liners with some sweetly designs little cupcakes to announce the birth of her sweet little AK!

Expansion (and Signing Off)

Our homes just expanded by "two feet" on Saturday! It took us by surprise as we didn't expect the little one would come to this world so soon!

So, in a nutshell here's what happened....

Backpain was just driving me crazy for the past week and massage didn't really help since they can't do too much on the last stage of pregnancy. My due date is about 5 weeks away on Thursday night. My husband and I were just finished catching up on a busy day of TV premieres.. I know, we're TV freaks. RJ, our little one was up around 1-ish and refused to go back to sleep. Oh joy. He finally fell asleep at about 2:30 am and my husband moved him to his own bed. As I was watching him being moved, something felt gushing and I knew it was the water broke/leaked. Sure enough, it was a ruptured membrane.

We quickly went to the hospital and I was admitted right away. Then...., the waiting game started....

The whole Friday was a total waste, no action, we're just waiting and waiting, and waiting for some more. Good thing my dearest hubby bought me the last book of the Millenium Trilogy. That kept me occupied for a while. Late morning Saturday, closer to noon, I started to feel some cramping. I was still laughing and texting my friends at about 1 pm. I would never expect it to be that soon for the contractions to intensify.

By the time I was moved back to the labor room, I have dilated by 8cm. Doctor came on time and man was it was so quick, 5 minutes, he was out! i was in awe. that's it?! i thought.. my hubby was not even there yet! We called this little one, JP.

But the drama did not end there... Since JP was early, the placenta didn't want to pass out. We tried so many things, oxytocin on placenta, on four, and standing up and nothing... They tried and they have no other choice but to send me to the OR to get the uterus cleaned up. They had me on a total anastetic.. and when I woke up, it was all done. YAY!

Without further ado, here's my little JP, still inside the incubator in this picture, about a day old :)

A Heartfelt Letter

A while back, a co-worker (and a dear friend) of mine, S.A., requested us to make a cake with a specific topper for his friend who is going to go to an expedition, to climb Mt. Logan. Everywhere she goes, she would bring her "friend" Pepe along. She sent me this heartfelt email that just touched your heart and brought a big smile on your face.
Here's what she wrote and some pictures of Pepe and the cake:

Thank you very much for the lovely - and delicious! - cake which was a huge surprise to me. And it was a surprise in several ways...

It is awesome to have good friends and share fun, adventures good and difficult times with them. You get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses the more you share together! One of my dear weaknesses is Pepe - my great travelling companion, the little stuffed sheep that has been with me all over the place. Our last big adventure was the expedition to Mt. Logan - Canada's highest mountain. On the eve of our departure we had a little gathering and my (our) friends came with a surprise box.

I was speechless to see the miniature Pepe crowning the cake with the summit of Logan jutting out of the ice-blue icing, just like it does from the glacier in reality. The attention to detail was fantastic - down to the backpack strap, the jacket zipper and the ice axe. It was simply perfect, and this, I learned later, after just showing you a picture of Pepe and telling you about our expedition! Definitely the work of an artist!

Friends and people who later saw the pictures of the cake were quite envious of Pepe; but such is life. If they have good friends like I do, they can always come to you and have their own funny, crazy, tasty and unique cake done! I'm certainly not keeping it a secret, where they can find the awesome cake artist. Keep making people happy through your work and creativity! To turn ideas into sweet reality! That's truly awesome!

MATERNITY LEAVE FOR IVONE

If only all babies were really delivered by storks. Imagine!

It is time for Sugar Penguin Cakery to announce Ivone's maternity leave. Robert's baby brother is due at the end of October so Ivone will be leaving our full-time work place and taking a break from cakes as of September 1st to prepare for her second little one. Ivone and I will keep up with our blog/website to update you on baby news and cake news because it's never been just about cakes. It's about two ladies, total rookies at this cake stuff, and documenting our journey. There has been many ups and many downs since starting our cakery from February until now - all lessons to be learned. We are not exactly sure when we will take orders again but hopefully we won't stay away for too long. When Ivone and I sat down and listed our priorities before starting cakery, family was right up there. As you all know, we both have full-time jobs and do cakes during evenings and weekends so we don't want to spread ourselves too thin. Thank you in advance for your understanding and loyalty!

I will be heading back to BCIT in the fall to further my studies in marketing. I will be aiming to achieve the Marketing Communications Management Certificate while cakery is on hiatus. Talk about both of us keeping busy!

**NO ORDERS AS OF SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2010 UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE**

Sold out for all of AUGUST!

Sold out again for all of August!!!!

This month has been tough - the two weddings we just came off of were a LOT of work. Hand cut flowers all over the kitchen, staying up until the wee hours of the morning trying to finish all our orders, driving all around time doing deliveries...but one thing know is that the show must go on and we cannot disappoint! We didn't really have time to take good photos of Lighting McQueen which was delivered today or a wedding order for 150 cupcakes. =( But I assure you. Blood, sweat, tears...all there!

We just took on two more orders at the end of August and that's all our two pairs of hands can do.

A quick but sincere thank you to our husbands. Reza was up with Ivone carving out Lightning McQueen and Adrian ran to Superstore for me when I ran out of ingredients and helped me washed everything when I was done with my tools. Gold stars for both of you!

Two Weddings and a Traffic Jam

This passed weekend, we made not one, but two wedding cakes. Each of the wedding cake are not your typical wedding cake. One is nature-theme and the other one is an East-Indian theme with saree as the inspiration. One is very sweet, with delicate flowers and a hummingbird perched on one of the branch. The other one is quite the opposite, where the color is bold, and the detail is rich and intricate, done in painted and dusted in antique gold. It's a gruelling process, but the end results were gratifying. Though we had the most amazing time making those wedding cakes and delivering them..., a traffic jam almost ruined our day. Let's not get into that and let's keep the happy thought for these wedding cakes! :)

Congratulations to the two brides and grooms!

Here's the detail of the hummingbird

And lastly, here's the intricate wedding cake:

Sold Out Until August 14th, 2010

Ivone and I are so fortunate but we are completely booked from now until August 14th, 2010.

Thank you so much for your inquiries and thinking of Sugar Penguin Cakery! It is an honour to be a part of anyone's special celebration. We will also take on as much as we can but we must not sacrafice our signature quality, freshness, and attention to every detail.

With wedding season in high gear and so many summer babies to celebrate, we have taken on three weddings and three birthdays in a span of 4 weeks. Can't wait to share the photos!

Please remember we need a min. of 2 weeks notice for orders as we need time to design, prep, and make your custom order.

Congrats, Grad!

A dear friend of mine, A.P., just recently graduated from university. I met this wonderful young lady when she just started university, back in 2006. And just about two weeks ago, she graduated! Her sister asked me to make some cupcakes for her. She asked me if I also can incorporate some of her favorite things like the burberry handbag :) I was more than happy to do it! So here is the set!

These are a Few of My Favorites Things...

We made this cake for a Mother's birthday. A few of her favorites: her grandson, her TV, and knitting. We made the cake quite simple as we wanted to highlights the scene on the cake. We love every little details on this cake, from the TV, to the knitting basket full of yarns. Oh-we finally bought a sugarcraft gun, that enable us to create more details on our tiny figurines (like those yarns).

The other cake we made of someone's favorite things is a birthday cake for a boyfriend who loves his Manchester United soccer team and his dream guitar, the Gretsch.

It's been a crazy month, very tiring with our fulltime job and me being pregnant with our second child, but nothing bring more joy than the smiles and the joy from our clients after they saw the cake. To all of our clients, and those who have supported us, thank you....!

Our Latest Toy

We finally bought our printer that prints using edible ink. With this tool, possibility of creations are just endless!
We got a request to make a Ferrari-themed cake for gentleman's birthday. I can't tell you how much fun we had during the cake-making process. Bonnae did an amazing job on the tyre threads that go around the two tiers. It was so meticulously done, it's ridiculous! As for the birthday, message, we did it in the Ferrari font to just match the whole Ferrari-themed cake. Then we added two little race-cars!

Busy, Busy, Busy

We had a busy May! From Mother's Day cake for our regular customer, J.W., to our latest customer who is a big fan of Ferrari.

Here's JW's Mother's Day cake:

I love this subtle color tone and we kept this design very, very simple.

Crazy About the Daleks

I have to blame my husband for my obsession with the Doctor and I am sure he doesn't mind. Doctor Who is one of of the old British series that got a makeover, new casts, but the rests are about the same, the TARDIS, sonic screwdriver, even the nemesis, the one and only DALEKS.

For his birthday, I decided to be a little ambitious and had a little Dalek in mind... Unfortunately the week didn't turn out as planned, I overbooked myself and I had no choice but to 'simplify' the Dalek. The word 'simplify' was actually a little understatement. I hope I didn't make into the Cake Wrecks website for butchering the Dalek. I ran through several 'obstacles' as I was making this cake, the dimension was wrong for one, then I caught my little one munching happily on the not-yet decorated cake. Oh boy.

I imagined myself being Davros when I crafted my version of the Dalek (cue in wicked laugh). I literally was covered in in gold lustre dusts as I have to brush the surface of the Dalek with gold. Once, it's all covered, I had to attach the laser gun, the toilet plunger lookalike thing, and also his eye. One strange looking Dalek, I thought. Nevertheless, the cake was done on time, I was not 100% happy BUT my hubby was very, very happy with the cake. YAY! The rests of the family didn't know what or who Dalek is, so when they saw the cake, they thought it was a toy! O...kayyyyy......

Here's the picture of the Dalek, the real Dalek and my butchered version of the Dalek. To all Doctor Who fans out there, I am very sorry... and one last word of 'wisdom' "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE"

TIME TO GO HIGH CLASS - JUICY STYLE!

We made a very JUICY cake for a lovely birthday girl named Jessica. Her mom celebrated her birthday with a pink/black themed birthday party and we loved making this cake! The colors went so well together - very JUICY for sure!

We designed a 2-tiered cake inspired by Juicy's signature stripes and fine polka dots. No Sugar Penguin cake would be complete without a signature bear and of course, a Juicy handbag to go with her. The flip flops are just a must! Jessica kept the handbag as a keepsake. Fondant figurines keep very well as long as they are NOT in an air-tight container, you can keep it in a box (not air-tight, as the fondant will melt) or even outside!

Many asked for seconds and the cake just melted in your mouth. Just the way we like it and happy ending all around. =)

WE DO!!!

Ivone and I have received two wedding inquiries so far and we couldn't be more pleased! (Again, thank you to those who refer us. You know who you are and you have our utmost gratitude!)

It's definitely in our stars to expand to weddings!

Ivone and I started making cakes together about 3 months ago. Whenever we take any order and we get that special story to inspire our design, we know where our skills are. If we don't feel like we can make you an AMAZING cake for your celebration, we just don't take the order.
Simple as that. We can't take a chance on customer satisfaction so we don't.

Ivone and I are both married. (Not to each other but it sure feels like it sometimes! hahahaha!) Ivone used to manage a bridal salon and have worked with many brides ranging from relaxed to irrational. I am an event planner/marketer during the day. We both planned our own weddings. We know the importance of the wedding cake. It plays a big role in reinforcing the theme and colors of the wedding. It's something that people look forward to and it's there to form a fond memory when the happy couple cut it together in front of photographers and guests.

Also, because we're starting out, we can be very competitive in terms of pricing too. When I was getting married, I wished I knew a vendor like Sugar Penguin Cakery. I needed something simple and elegant...I needed to stay within budget...and I needed to please my mother-in-law. For those who have not heard the story, ask me and I'll gladly tell. =) I digress!

So do we make wedding cakes? WE DO!

SPRING - TIME TO FRESHEN UP!

We got a call from a wonderful customer two weeks ago who asked if we could make him a cake on short notice in celebration of his girlfriend's birthday. You can just tell by the way he talks about her that he really cares about her. How could Sugar Penguin NOT help?

The last time we made a cake for this customer, we had a bear (him) serenading a bunny (her) with her dog, Otis. This time, we have a beautiful bunny wearing a flowy, soft blue dress taking in a moment to enjoy the fresh air with plush grass and blooming flowers.

We hope you had a very happy birthday and we hope you enjoy your chocolate cake with oreo icing.

We experimented and altered our cake recipe a bit and the result - even moooooore moist than before. For those who have tasted our cakes, the feedback has already been very positive (if you were honest, and we hope you were because we can handle the truth!) but there's always room for improvement!

WWW.SUGARPENGUIN.COM

You can now see everything you want to know about Sugar Penguin at http://www.sugarpenguin.com/!

Visit us for new updates, new cakes, new photos, new ideas, thoughts of the day, and what we're working on today and tomorrow.

We were thinking of design your good ol' regular website but what we do - making cakes - has been such a journey and we want to share our story with you!

Each time we create a cake, it takes about 5-6 hours for EACH order. We pour so much love into it because this is what we enjoy and we wouldn't deliver something that wasn't good enough for our own loved ones. We know you love photos. We know you love to see the detail. We know you want to know the story behind the design. So this blog was the perfect solution, along with full photo albums on our FB page.

So much easier now to tell your friends about us - just tell them to go to sugarpenguin.com. =)

Busy Bees

April and May is going to be CRAZY for Sugar Penguin - but great to see so many families getting together with birthdays, and of course, MOTHER'S DAY to celebrate! Thank you to those who are helping us spread the word!

They say those who are the most busy gets the most done. I sure hope that's true! There are times when Ivone and I look at each other across the table...it's midnight on a Friday night, after a 15-hour work day, with our make-up all runny, mascara under our eyes, corn starch in our hair, and we simultaneously say, "I'm done." HAHAHAHA! But each cake is so rewarding to work on and we cannot wait to put these orders together.

Stay tuned for photos! If you're thinking of putting in an order, two weeks notice is good. That will give us enough time to plan our design and make it ROCK!

Oreo??? YOU GOT IT!

NEW ICING FLAVOR THANKS TO FELICIA!

Sugar Penguin is so excited to be a part of Felicia's get-together tomorrow for her little girl's classmates and we are GOING TO THE SPA! We never post photos until the customer has seen their creations first so you will all have to wait...

But she asked for Oreo icing...THAT SOUNDS YUMMY!!!!!

So we did it and we're going to add it on to our regular menu. It's just too DELICIOUS to not share it with everyone. Try it on your next cake order!

The Picnic

More challenge this week! This week's challenge is to create a cake based on the gingerbread dolls. When it comes to gingerbread, what comes to mind is pretty much Christmas and the gingerbread houses. We came up with the idea of the gingerbread dolls having a picnic. Then it comes easily from there: bread baskets, some french breads, croissants, cupcakes, and some apples!

We were so giggly during the making of the cake! I hope you'll like them as much as we do! The best part of this cake though, was when I saw the eyes of the birthday girl lit up with excitement as she saw her surprise birthday cake from her parents. Oh such joy!

Challenge Week

Let me begin with how thankful I am for this dear friend, W.P. He has been the most supportive of me and my cake adventure. I am thankful and grateful for his supports and his encouragement.
He challenged me by asking me of making a cake for his friend, who likes to play piano. W told me that he'd like to include a few of her favorite things in the cake: her daily starbucks coffee, her love for Louis Vuitton bags, and her favorite flowers, daffodils. At first, I was just about to settle for an upright piano, since in construction, I know that it should be easier than a grand piano. But of course, W requested for a black grand piano. I was flipping through all of my sources, trying to figure out how am I going to make this grand piano. Then I stumbled into this lady who did this UNBELIEVABLY AMAZING CAKE (I'll post later all about her).
To make the piano, I have to cut several gumpaste pieces for the base, the cover, the keys, and the feet. Then you have to wait for all the gumpaste dry out. At the end, the piano was too heavy to be just supported by three piano feet. I opted for a support in the middle as I didn't want it to collapse. Bonnae did an AMAZING job with the piano keys. She plays the piano, so making those keys came quite easily for her, though it was not easy as she had to painstakingly score each and every key, making sure they are even as believable as a real piano.
At the end we're happy with the piano, I think it looks quite amazing. I am proud of that cake. Thanks W., for giving us a chance and challenge us in making this cake and being a part of the celebration.

You can see more details in our facebook page.

OUR NEW LOGO!

After many "how about this" and "how about that"...we are proud to debut our BRAND NEW LOGO!!!!

It is everything that we wanted. Soft, playful, CUTE, and appeals to all ages. This logo will be the new face of our company and hopefully you'll see it a lot more!

I am sure you guys have all seen the newest cake: bubble bath bear! This was not our own design but definitely good to challenge ourselves in new techniques - which as you know are endless!

What we are working on right now:

* New cupcake designs well-priced at $3 - $5 each that are great for any occasion!

* Mother's Day designs!

Brand Names Galore!

GUCCI...! Calvin Klein...! Giorgio Armani....! Prada....! Burberry...!

These brand names came to mind when we have our 'cake challenge' this week. We have to create a cake that would show how fond this brother is of the brand name fashion.
Bonnae and I brain-stormed and we came out with this concept for the cake: a bear wearing brand name t-shirt, in this case, Giorgio Armani, wear a trendy Prada sunglasses. Then we put some shopping bags. For the longest time, we can't come up with Calvin Klein, until my husband showed up with his CK tshirt!
Then we stacked some more tshirts for this trendy bear.
We kept the design fairly simply to showcase the fashionable bear.

Aunt Jo and Baby Thea!

Ivone and I created a cake to celebrate my sister (Jo) and niece's birthday. We had to come up with a scene that captured a special moment for an aunt and a niece. We thought it would be so sweet if we had Jo reading to Thea on a couch. The couch and the automan was to resemble the same one in Thea's home. It was our very first time making a couch and it's amazing what the anticipation of making edible furniture can do to two cake lovers! We were giddy for days just thinking about it!

As you can see, we pulled it off! We gave Thea a pigtail with a pink bow because her mommy always gives her the craziest hair! We had a purple throw draped over the chocolate automan in case the bears need to get cozy. Jo has always loved reading so we added more books around their "living room."

So much fun making this cake. I think it probably took Ivone and I about 5+ hours to make this cake. That's only decorating...baking time not included. It really is a labor of love. But so worth it!

The Dogs Did It....

We are so fortunate to know this wonderful young lady, C.T., in our company. She is brilliant and absolutely beautiful inside and outside. She was the first person to place an order as we start our venture. She encourages us and we value her input toward the business.
She just celebrated a birthday and her husband wanted to get a cake for her birthday party. The husband wanted to have their beloved dogs, Murray and Nugget to be on the cake.
It was not easy to design a cake with dogs on it and making sure that it's CT's birthday, and not the two doggies. For the longest time, I can't get my head on the designs of how the cake should look like. One of the afternoon, it just hit me... I can blame it on the dogs!
So, I came up with the design of a very lovely, pretty cake, with ribbons and flowers, then I'll put some paw prints and some 'dirts' all over the cake, as of they were stepping all over the cake! Brilliant!

Here's the picture of the 'boys' on the cake. The boys are made from gumpaste and the dirt are from the cocoa petal dusts. As for the details, I put dirty tennis ball and a dog bowl, filled with dog biscuits, also made of gumpaste.

What a weekend!

Bonnae and I were working on two cakes for this weekend... The cakes were made for special people in our lives and we were working hard to make these two to be one of those kick-ass cakes! One of the cake is a cake with a surprise element...., the other one is with one sweet scene....
We will post some pictures on Monday :) Stay tune!

Motherhood

This cake was a special request for Valentine's Day from a gentleman who liked to create a cake for his wife who is a new Mother! He wanted something sweet for his wife and his newborn baby. We came up with a Mommy bear holding her little bear cub, made out of sugarpaste/gumpaste. Designing this cake came so naturally for me, since I had my baby, two years ago. Motherhood was the most rewarding thing I have ever experienced in my life. I would not lie that it is a lot of work, with an occasional frustration in between, but I have to say, I have never experienced love like this before.

Here are the pictures of "Chee-Chee" (the Mom) and "Cob-Cob" (the baby bear)

One customer wrote...

Krystyna Holan wrote: "Thank you for the magical and delicious cake. You are truly talented. If I was not already married, I'd certainly ask you to make my wedding cake!!!! I wish you much success in your cake-making venture."

One customer wrote...

Thomas Dan Cybucki wrote: Thank you for creating and delivering the cake! It was beautiful and we loved it. You really came through on the dog, it was very detailed. Thank you so much!