Favorite Cakes from 2012

2012 has been a "practice" year for us when it comes to cake designing. It was a year of firsts on our cake journey and we're proud of it. My sister Izza and I are self taught bakers and cake and cupcake artists and 2012 was indeed a fun year for us. We're still learning and we've been enjoying taking classes and practicing and doing cake projects of our own. Every little project and orders coming from clients have been really exciting and our passion for making cakes just grows and grows every single day.


At first we were not at all confident with our skills but eventually, we got the hang of it when we got out of our comfort zone and challenged ourselves more when it comes to cake decorating and sugar art. Some of the designs featured here are not originally ours, more info on that below.


From the many cakes we've done this year, here's our top 10 favourites starting with number 10:

10. 3-Tier Blue Wedding Cake
This was our very first wedding cake and our very first 3-tier cake. The budget was too tight for this cake but it turned out better than expected. The first 2-tiers are actually styro (which I actually hate to cover and work with because it's sometimes a bit wonky and the surface not smooth). The hardest part with this was the design. Originally, the stencil should be in royal icing. As I've no experience with it, I decided to try anyway. Well, for a beginner and working on a round cake, it didn't work. It. was. a. mess. Good thing we had Sugarveil available and I used that on the stencil instead. Had to do it on a silicone mat and place the design piece by piece on the cake. phew!

9. Tiffany Square Box Cake
This was a challenge that I willingly accepted. My first square cake! As you may have noticed, all our cakes have sharp-edges. Yes, we do exclusively Australian Style cake decorating. We use ganache instead of buttercream to fill and cover our cakes. It's a smoother finish and less sweet and it hardens like a rock so covering is easier. Square cakes though are a challenge to ganache because of the edges and sides. But oh man! When I got it right I was overjoyed and smiling from ear to ear! Hah hah!

After the ganache, everything was a breeze to do. It was an awesome day! Though, I wouldn't be looking forward to several square cakes in the future. They're waaaay too labor-intensive.

8. Curious George Cake
This cake turned out really well in my opinion but it's not the design in particular that made this cake memorable... It was the work behind it. The cake was refrigerated and ganached and left overnight in an air conditioned room BUT... mother nature was really bitchy the next day and our AC acted up, our ganache started getting soft and melty. Uh oh! Not the bestest of days. We covered it up with fondant anyway because the client needed it asap.
BIGGEST. MISTAKE. WE'VE. EVER. MADE. EVER.
The fondant started sweating and tearing and chocolate started seeping through some of the gaps. IT WAS HELL I TELL YA!
Good thing we were able to save it at the nick of time with a lot of buffing and improvising and strategically placing the ribbons at the right places and I was able to make the gumpaste decorations way way ahead. Client was happy and I love Curious George's expression on his face like he knows something about the cake that you don't.

7. Bloody Stitched Skin Cake
Ahhhhh Halloween... One of the best and my most favourite time of the year. The time where we can be as gross and bloody and as nerdy as you like and no one judges you.
I've been planning this cake project for months after I saw THIS I was soooo inspired and my inner gruesome-slasher-fangirl self was itching to try this one out. It didn't turn out as natural as the original because of the Australian edges but nonetheless it was too bloody and disgusting to eat that I LOVED IT!

It was never eaten though I'd like to see someone try, it was part of our Halloween store display together with the other gore cakes and cupcakes.

6. Dr. Seuss's The Lorax Cake
I loved The Lorax. Both the movie and book. This was for my sister's friend's daughter Yulia and she had a Lorax themed birthday party. The whole cake was particularly my sister's work and I love the details that she made with the barbaloots, the swamee swans and the singing fishes. It was a labor of love and this cake was just awesome. :)
Together with other desserts like sugar cookies and cake pops and decorated cupcakes, this cake was specially designed for her. You can check out the whole dessert table HERE


Top Five cakes coming up soon. :)