Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a(n early) Happy New Year!

It's been a BUSY year for me, with crying babies and countless diaper changes.  Many milestones to remember and cherish.  Just like each one of the cake created, each told a different story to remember and cherish.
Thank you for making us a part of your special occasion!  Have a blessed New Year...

Best wishes from the Sugar Penguin Household :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Sugar Penguin Cakery wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and all the best wishes for the New Year!
Thank you for all your supports throughout the year.

Looking forward to making more cakes, cupcakes, doing more workshops, and new friends!

CLOSED FOR HOLIDAY!

It's time for me to rest and concentrate on my turkey!
We thank you for your patronage, your wonderful comments, and encouraging words throughout the year.  Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

(we are fully booked until the end of January 2012)

Merry Christmas from all the Sugar Penguins!

Angry Birds Redux

There's something about these birds that you just can't say goodbye to.  The more you play the game, the more you get addicted to it.  I managed to wean myself off completely, finally, but they pull me back in as I have to revisit them as I got to do yet another Angry Birds cake.  When do you have the time, you asked, as my days are always filled with things to do (and clean)?  I worked on these little guys at night, after the boys are all asleep, where there's peace and quiet in the world... :)

My grown-up-so-fast Robert was so sad as he had to say goodbye to the Angry Birds cake, as the customer picked it up.  He shed a little tear and said, "No, Mommy, don't..."  It broke my heart a little, but hey, his birthday is coming up in January, so he is bound to get an Angry Birds cake!

Here's another version of my Angry Birds cake:

Sugar Penguin Cakery's Day of Fun

Last Saturday, I was privileged to be able to teach 3 fabulous and talented girls for the very FIRST Sugar Penguin's workshop.  We had a fun afternoon making little of "presents" with bows, Christmas trees, and of course the figurine that started it all, the penguins!  We covered the basics of covering cake, going over essential tools of cake decorating, learning the basics of cake decorating, and figure modelling.  All the students came home with their own versions of the model

Here is what they said about the workshop:
"Thank you so much Ivone for such a wonderful time. Learned lots of new/neat tips and I can't wait to attend your second class!"


And here are the pictures from the workshop:

 If you are interested in the workshop, please contact me at ivone@sugarpenguin.com
We are currently working on a new material for the upcoming workshop on Nov.19th.

my first little sugar people!

I have problems when it comes to making little sugar people. Not only they are hard to make, I don't know how to make them to have "characters." I don't want them to end up creepy looking or just plain weird.  For the longest time I tried to avoid in making little sugar people (and Hello Kitty for that reason). But a couple weeks ago, I answered a challenge from the biggest ambassador and supporter of Sugar Penguin Cakery, my good friend, WP.  He wanted to make a cake for his special person in his life and he wanted to have a classroom scene as she is going to teach in kindergarten later. Immediately I was thinking of A as the teacher, reading a book during circle time to her students.  WP wanted me to include A's gray bunny in the classroom too, so I added the little gray bunny to the classroom scene.  Oh did I mention that WP had to take the cake on a flight, all the way to Ottawa?  I had to secure and "glued" everything!  The only snag was that the "chalkboard" was a little too tall for the cake box which posed an issue of WP to carry it all the way to Ottawa.  My husband, came up with genius idea of making an opening on top of the chalkboard and added a covered "dome" using one of the hot wheels' packaging... and voila!  All is good!
The design that I had in my head was the classroom scene, during circle time, then added a little desk for A, with of course, a red apple, a chalkboard, books, and crayons.  My oldest son was the one who got so excited with the tiny crayons.  I still didn't know what to do at that point for the all around design until I dropped my son off at his preschool.  I saw lots of art works did by the students and posted on the board.  It gave me an inspirations of making tiny arts to wrap around the cake.  Then I wrote WP's name and A's name as part of the students' art works!  I hope they could see that part.
My work was paid off until A left a wonderful message the next day on my cake page and there's this candid picture of A had a BIG smile on her face as she saw the cake for the first time.  Priceless.
Finally, WP, I know you don't really read blogs since you have tight day to day schedule, just wanted to let you know that you are appreciated and I am grateful.  You always encourage and provide me with challenges that allowed to push myself to be a better cake artist.  Thank you, my dear friend!

more details of the cake:

 

my baby's FIRST birthday!

I can't believe that my little JP is turning one!  One year ago, he gave us quite a surprise by showing up early, about 5 weeks before his actual due date.  He had to stay in the NICU for about 16 days until he was strong and able to feed without assistance of the gavage tube.  I still remember how small he was when he was born, how I was a wreck when I had to say goodbye to him after I was being discharge from the hospital, that we couldn't take him home yet.  But now he is grown to be a healthy and smart boy who brighten our days with his smiles, his quirks, and babbles.

I'm dreaming of a themed birthday party, how everything was custom-made and beautiful.  But my lack of imagination and being on EI, only allow me to do so much.  After hours and hours of poring through internet, I found inspirations!  The theme that I came up with, I have to admit, this is not my original idea, I blatantly copied it from these talented ladies at Dulce Sobremesa and Style Me Gorgeous.  I don't know how to do graphic design, so I turned to my little "haven" that I like to visit almost on, at least, weekly basis, called Michaels.

I LOVE the simplicity of this blue elephant with the red balloon.  I turned to my trustee inspiration, Martha Stewart.  I purchased some felt stickers with elephant in it (I love you, Martha Stewart!), a couple punches, one is the elephant punch, and a balloon punch!  With a little imagination and a few countless hours after the boys were all asleep, e voila, all done!

It was such a blessed day too, after a whole week of rain and gloomy gray days, we finally had some sunshine today.  We enjoyed the good food, the great weather, and of course, the company of our close friends.  Thank you so much everyone for coming and the wonderful gifts for our little James.....

Helloooooo Kitty!

Oh Hello Kitty, you are so hard to make!  I took a challenge to make Hello Kitty figurines and hoped for the best.  One wrong placement of the eyes or nose, it's no longer Hello Kitty, it's more like "Hello Katty" (quoted from Bonnae).  First night of making Hello Kitty, I almost die with frustrations.  I took a full day break and strategized of how I am going to tackle this character.  I rarely took a commission doing existing characters since they are the hardest to make and if you don't do it right, it's horrible.  I did tackle that achilles heels of mine and I am pretty darn happy with the result.  You don't look so bad, Miss Hello Kitty!  Then I got another call from the hubby (who ordered the cake for her lovely wife, aka my buddy, FC) and requested another small cake with another small cake for a surprise cake.  Oh.  Help.  Me.  Lord.  I couldn't say no to him as they are super nice friends of ours who always so generous and kind.  

And so I did it.....  Here are the two cakes:

The above cake is a 4" personal cake.  The cake is a double chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream.  

This is the second cake for the surprise celebration:

Happy Birthday to my dear friend, FC!

                                                    

Black and White

I love the most basic colors in the world, black and white.  Nothing more versatile than black.  You can pair black with ANYTHING.  I don't know how many black items that I have in my wardrobe.  

This month, it's been black and white themed month, well so far.  It's quite striking when they are paired together, beautiful bold contrast.  I've been very privileged to be a part of one of my maternity doctor's wedding.  She picked the elegant, black and white color as her theme color.  It's such a beautiful venue that she picked as her intimate celebration, overlooking a lake.  

It was such a gorgeous day too, perfect for wedding.  

The following week, I made a black and white cake for my husband's close friend's wife's birthday.  The husband requested for an elegant and chic cake.  Very appropriate for his wife, who is very elegant and chic.  I did a lot of handcut fondant, using my x-acto knife.  It was challenging at first, but the looks are lovely.  I wished I took a better pictures of these cakes, though.  

  

Oh, I just can't get enough with Black and White theme cake... I made this one back in March:

  

Beauty Shots

Oh, after waiting (not) so patiently, the beauty shots of the cake that I made for the Enchanted Forest photoshoot are done!  This dreamy photoshoot was done by Athalia's Photography.  This was one of the wonderful themed-projects that she does from time to time.  I was very flattered when she asked me earlier to  be involved in the project.  Unfortunately I had to turned down the earlier project due to my crazy busy household chores, looking after my 3.5 years old, a baby, and my husband.  At the end of July, she asked me to be involved in her latest project.  She gave me a picture of a bride, in the forest as an inspiration.  By God's grace, I was able to pull it off, though it was such a crazy weeks for me, 4 cakes in a span of 2 weeks.  
I was a little disappointed that I was not able to be there to see the photoshoot.  In the morning of the photoshoot, I handed the cake to her and I knew that it will be a great photoshoot.  I was wrong about that part, it was not great, it was AMAZING!  I was blown-away!
So, without further ado, here are the pictures of the cake.  Enjoy!
(For more pictures of the dreamy photoshoot, do stop by at her blog and her website).

 

all photos courtesy of Athalia's Photography

Cake Reference Books

Since I was little, my parents always teach me how you can enrich yourself by reading books. We created a little "library" at home and it was always fun to receive books from our parents. I read countless of fictions, from murder mystery like Agatha Christie's to classics like F. Scott Fitzgerald; from the Mallory Towers series to "Pride and Prejudice." Though I don't have the luxury of time to read these days, but I still have a small library, filled with Harry Potter books, Stieg Larsson's trilogy, and of course, my growing collections of cooking and baking books.

My first baking book, d from my darling friend in Dubai, called "Cupcakes!" (by Elinor Klivans). My first real cupcakes that I made was through this book. Sorry, Betty Crocker, not buying your products anymore... Thanks to her, that book unlocked my passion for baking!

I am a self-taught baker and every knowledge that I got was through trials and errors. There are a few books that I considered as my reference book like Michel Roux's "Eggs," Martha Stewart's "Baking Handbook" and the list go on. Martha Stewart was like a real teacher to me, showing how important in taking the time in creaming the butter, diligently put the eggs separately before putting them in the batter, and showed me the difference between a soft peak and a stiff peak in beating egg whites. Oh, how I love her! Michel Roux is also one of my hero, as he showed me lots of fool proofs recipes of all wonderful things made of eggs! I even learned how to make a perfect hard-boiled eggs... ah, merci Monsieur Roux! I recently acquired (the word I like to use) a few more in baking books, such as this one, a wonderful little volume from a beautiful bakery in San Fransisco called "Miette." I was so charmed by this book, from the layout, how the pages have scalloped (!) edges, and the double-chocolate cakes are super yummy!

I always on a lookout to find new baking and cake decorating books. While there are so many out there, not all books are created equal. I like Maisie Parrish's books for little character modelling, Debbie Brown for her amazing and creative cakes, and Alan Dunn for his brilliant sugar flowers. Gosh, all of them made it look so easy, but there are a lot of labor and love that you have to put into it. All of these books are a great step-by-step, very detailed instruction of how to sculpt and model.

Alright, off I go now to spend some gift certificate I received as a present from an online survey company. Totally made my day... now, the question is which ones to buy?

Busy, Busy, Busy

It has been a whirlwind of cake-making for these past few weeks. It started with the beautiful cherry blossoms-themed cake and ended with the Angry Birds birthday cake. Between taking care of the household chores, the kids, and the cakes, I was exhausted. BUT, on the other hand, I am very happy with all of them!

Cake (and cupcakes) ONE:

I love the simplicity of cherry blossoms that the bride picked for the theme. I cut more than 300 little flowers out of gumpaste, shaped, dusted them with edible petal dusts, and added dots on each one of them. The flowers stood out against the white background and some brown accents (ribbons and 'branches' out of chocolate fondant). The cupcakes and the cake were displayed on a beautiful acrylic stand (available for rent, contact me for detail). My husband and I had a great fun at wedding reception, thanks to our wonderful Mom-in-law, who let us had a 'date night' and attended the reception while she took care of the rambunctious little ones. It was a fun night, lots of laughter, great company, and yummy feast! Just wanted to give a shout-out to our friends, RY, HS and FW who helped me to arrange the cupcakes on the stand in such pressed time. You guys rock!!!

Cake TWO:

My darling niece, AK, turned one just a couple weeks ago. I felt an special attachment with her as my youngest son who is almost the same age as her and both of them born prematurely. Now who can resist of making cake for her?! AK's Mom aka my sister-in-law chose a very darling theme for her, sweet bumblebee. Everything was so adorable and so sweet. I made only the top cake since AK's super Mom made the cupcakes for her. I helped by putting icings on the cupcakes since we're so pressed for party time. I felt like I was in a Cupcake Wars! Chaotic and crazy, but we made it!

CAKE THREE:

I am an avid fan of photography. I love looking at pictures and quite amazed with some of the talents out there. One of the talented photographer that I admired is Athalia's Photography. I've been following her blog and secretly wished that she can take another wedding pictures of ours... ha ha.. But for now, I was just hoping that she would take a picture of my cake. She did offered Sugar Penguin to be involved with one of the many amazing photo projects. Unfortunately, I was way too busy with my two kids at that time. But I promised her that I would love to be involved later in one of the projects. Finally she emailed me and let me know about her latest project! I was pressed for time, but I managed to make lots of tiny sugar flowers. Again, I always think simple is best, so I came up with a very neutral, earthy cake. I started with gumpaste, cutting, shaping, forming, and dusting all of the tiny flowers. I can only do this after all of kids already sleeping. I was exhausted, but making these flowers were almost therapeutic.

This photo is courtesy of Athalia's Photography.

Finally, Cake FOUR:

Speaking of therapeutic, playing Angry Birds also therapeutic. Ever since we got our new ipad, we jumped into the bandwagon of playing Angry Birds. We've been obsessed, and it's not good. I've managed to wean myself out of it and so far, it has been not quite successful. Oy vey.

My dear friend, JK, was asking me if I can make an Angry Birds cakes for her son's 6th birthday. Of course, I said YES! Who could resist making those characters..?! Great thing, she gave me a sufficient notice for me to work on the characters modelling. I worked on the characters for about 2 nights, right after the 'tiny terrors' are all asleep. They're so adorable, I had such a hard time letting them go... haha.

So there, my end of July/first two weeks of August experience.... Hope all of you enjoy looking at these photos and my ramblings, of course... Until then, off I go to prep the sugar flowers for an upcoming wedding with B & W theme color, CAN'T WAIT!

Here's My Latest Obsession (not cake related)

I am glad that I took on my dear husband's recommendation on watching "Game of Thrones" on HBO. I was a couple episodes behind, but thank goodness for our hard working PVR, my husband was able to record the first three episodes aired. The first episode got me hooked! I watched the second, and the third (and felt and looked like a zombie - or the white walker for that matter - the next day) consequently and thirsted for more. It was THAT good.

So you asked what is this Game of Thrones business you asked? "A Game of Thrones," is a 700-plus-page novel by George R.R. Martin that's the shortest in his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. I am not familiar with his work prior watching this series. I am intrigued and so tempted to read the book. BUT, I decided to just enjoy the ride and follow the twist and turn whatever this series would take me. Sunday used to be just another Sunday, but my Sundays have changed ever since I watched the show. I've been looking forward to Sunday for the past 6 weeks.

The cast is strong and superb, for both the adults and the younger actors. Sean Bean was perfect as Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark, Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon, the beautiful Lena Heady as Queen Cersei, and the one who stole the show is the brilliant Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister. The young Maisie Williams is so amazing as the young Arya.

Be forewarned that the series are not for the faint of heart nor those, for lack of better word, sheepish. I assure you there are plenty of blood and there are still subjects that made me cringe. Plenty of bloodbath, plenty of nudity counts too. Oh dear.

HBO is doing a rerun after this Sunday's season's finale (**sad face**), go watch it! Since I have nothing to look forward to after that season's finale, I am going to get the book and start reading.

"Earth Laughs in Flowers"

Earth laughs in flowers. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"

I thought that quote is appropriate as we are in Spring where the earth is decorated with colorful blooms of vast array of colors and sizes. Those flowers brighten your day, make you smile.

We just celebrated Mother's Day just last week. Since the day was nice, we did a luncheon/BBQ at our place. Steaks, crab cakes with lemon garlic aioli, risoles (Indonesian snack: chicken ragout-filled crepes, breaded, and deep fried!), and all the trimmings were served. And let's not forget the cake! I've been trying to make sugar flowers all week.. Boy, it was not easy to make sugar flowers! There were lots of steps to follow before I can actually make them. I have to prep the wires, the inside bulb, the gumpaste, and waited for them to dry first. Prepping the petals were another thing, I had to vein them, thin them, ruffle them to give them "movement," dust them with colors, and waited for them to be "semi-dry" before I can arrange them into flowers. The leaves were another thing, same process, but coloring them are hard!!! I supposed to glaze them with confectioners glaze to make them very realistic, but it was almost 2 am by the time I finish, so I said fuggetaboutit... hah! Oh, sugar flowers and uber-curious 3 years old son doesn't mix either, he decided to want to "just look" at them and cracked a few petals here and there... Oh well. What can you do, right?

I would love to learn more about making those sugar flowers, although I know it's a long and extensive process, but so rewarding at the end, specially when you see your design come to life with those flowers.

Updates! Updates!

Well, it has still been a roller-coaster rides for both Bonnae and myself, but I am delighted to announce that Bonnae gave birth to a beautiful baby girl! I was told it was a hard and complicated labor, but both I am happy to report that both are well and healthy. Congratulations, Bonnae!

In my household, my little JP has grown to be a healthy little baby, who has becoming quite an entertainment for all of us with all of his quirks and his toothless smiles. My now-grown RJ, my own little chatterbox and jukebox, likes to just follow what you're doing with constant questions of "Why?!" In the middle of that hustles and bustles, I managed to "sit down" and be in my own world of cake decorating. I learned through some books and online video tutorials of how to make sugar flowers after the boys are all asleep. I adore Jacqueline Butler works (Petalsweet Cakes), her flowers are amazing, very life-like and beautifully arranged!

Here's the ones that I did:

This cake was made for a good friend of mine, WP, for his special someone in his life. We made a cake for her last year, the one with the piano. This cake was inspired by one of my cake hero, Peggy Porschen.

Bonnae is Almost There...

As you all know, when Ivone and I first started Sugar Penguin Cakery, we were both working full-time, meeting up after work to make cakes up until 1:00 a.m. , and somehow deliver them to our faithful customers. We've both experienced a change of pace now as both of us are on maternity leave; Ivone gave birth to James back in September 2010 and I also began my maternity leave recently as I "nest". I am 38.5 weeks pregnant as of today so we are almost there!

My husband and I are very excited as we prepare to welcome our first child into the world. We have no idea what we're having so it'll be very exciting when our midwife yells, "It's a...!!!"

It's very unfortunate that we've had to turn down some orders recently. We received an inquiry for a wedding cake for 500 people! I can go into labour any minute now and with Ivone on her own, it's challenging and as always, if we can't offer our best, it's better not to take the project on.

Cakes will continue to be in our thoughts as both of our families continue to grow!

Thank you to all for your patience and inquiries while we continue our hiatus! We will continue to update you about our progress because Sugar Penguin Cakery was never just about cakes...but also you including us in our celebrations and we, in turn, building a relationship with you, getting to know you better and learning your story.

Tempus Fugit

Just few days ago, we celebrated our older son's 3rd birthday. I can't believe that he is three now! Seems like it was just yesterday that I gave birth to him. Not only he is three years old, but also a big brother to a 3.5 months old James. We decided to have a simple celebration with some of our friends. It was a perfect timing since my Mom from Indonesia was here for the celebration of her grandchild.


RK is so fond of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so it was no surprise that he requested that theme for his birthday cake. These days, I found it hard to just do anything at all with two demanding boys at home. Time was just not there when you're THAT busy. I simplified everything in the design. I even bought the plastic Mickey figurine for the topper. Yes, I cheated. I worked on the cake as soon as the boys were all asleep. I stayed up almost all night to get the cake ready for him. I was exhausted, BUT, when I saw how happy he was as he saw the cake in the morning, it was so well worth it. The best thing was that he came up to me and said, "Mommy, thank you for making me my birthday cake." Those words brought tears to my eyes.


Last year, he can't really express himself through sentences, today, he is completely grown up, and said all of those thing that would make you shed some tears of joy.


Happy Birthday, Baby... I love you...