A big love catch

Salam buat semua...so sorri dah lama tak update ...so busy actually "busy demam"...almost seminggu my engine stop and kena overhaul...and lost my voice too...komunikasi either dgn sign language or sms aje...masa sakitlah baru terasa betapa besarnya nikmat yg Allah berikan..Masa tulah juga terbayang...Allah hanya menarik nikmatnya selama seminggu..bagaimana dgn mereka yg bertahun2 terbaring tanpa mempunyai upaya..betapa sabarnya mereka and org yg menjaga. Pd mereka yg mempunyai ahli keluarga yg bernasib demikian especially pesakit yg dah berusia, semuga sabar melayani kerenah mereka...jgn dikasari atau dimarahi mereka and yg paling penting..layanlah dgn lembut dan penuh kasih sayang coz memang seksa bila tak boleh bangun and terpaksa terbaring mengharapkan bantuan dan belas kasihan org lain.


Maybe ada yg tertanya2 gambar apa yg dipaparkan diatas....hmm..basically cake kali ni is a very special cake...coz first time I cuba untuk mengukir kek...yup me and my experiment...and the idea dari buku yg baru I beli...party animal cakes. I love that book so much...semuanya menunjukkan step by step mcm mana nak ukir kek berbentuk binatang..semuanya cantik2 belaka.

Kek ini istimewa dibuat untuk Cik Andam Erin....hmm..note that..she is still a "Cik" eventhough she is a Mak Andam..infact the first time she called me up..I guess few months ago..lama dah..I was so suprise when she introduced herself..tetapi..eventhough she is still a Cik...she is not available...By the way, Cik andam Erin kita ni memang pandai mengandam...her solekan is so natural and sweet..tak percaya just go to her site di delimaandaman.fotopages.com...Ni bukan untuk tujuan promotion but memang solekannya cantik and dia memang gifted dlm persolekan and she is selfthought..Teringat masa I jadi pengantin...nak menangis dibuatnya..sampai sekarang i do not want to see my wedding album....ha..ha..ha..

Erin wanted a very special cake for her darling fiancee..and she was so excited about the birthday cake....all her request was email to me 2 months before the date and frankly speaking I was quite nervous too coz her expectation was so high...she sent me the photo of her fiancee...abang Piee..and she gave me all the infos about him...he loves fishing, he has a blue boat and he loves blue..she wanted me to do a fishing cake...cik abang Piee sedang memancing dlm bot biru dia...so I did everything that she requested..cik abang Piee fishing dlm bot bewarna biru..with a small red pail...and lots of fish..tapi kenapa ye cik abang Piee kita terperanjat???



As usual, I love to add humor in my cakes....when Erin told me she wanted a fishing theme cake...mulalah mcm2 idea dlm kepala I..At first I wanted to do a normal cake...with a boat on it and ...but I'm bored with that type of cake already...I just wanted to do something different..and the book came to me on time..I decided to challenge myself to carve a cake...Some people must be saying that I'm crazy...but my darling munchkin encouraged me to do that..infact he was busy searching high and low for the carving knife..and he is my recipe to artwork..So dgn penuh debaran I carved the cake. By the way, in order to carve a cake..sejukkan dulu cake dlm chiller so bila diukir ia tidak akan mudah pecah..and inilah hasilnya..



Let me put all of you still in questions....sepasang mata berbulu mata lentik mengalahkan Ziana Zain...milik siapa agaknya? siap bertopi and tersenyum manis lagi...Well, before I crafted this cake, I send a message to Erin asking her her humorous level...tak nak nanti becauce of my cake dia upset and tidak puas hati dgn I. Alhamdulillah she told me her humorous level is at the maximum level...senang kerja I...so this is the whole cake..



Yup..it's a cute pink whale..Why pink? It's Erin's favorite color...The whole presentation is about Shafie's big catch...Sebenarnya whale ini merupakan dari sebiji kek berukuran 9 in X 13 in and dipotong dua untuk mendapatkan ketinggian. I drafted the plan for the whale an carved the whale according to the plan..and let me tell u all..it wasn't that easy..especially to get the right shape...had to do it slowly coz if tersalah potong...habis semuanya...After coating with buttercream baru disalutkan dgn fondant...



Actually ekornya berasingan and solely from fondant and dicampurkan sedikit dgn CMC supaya keras dan kukuh...so senang untuk ditegakkan...by the way I used royal icing to lekatkan ekor pada cake board. As for the waves...bukan buttercream...semuanya fondant...before I wrap my cake board with the blue fondant , I letakkan few rolls of fondant underneath..so bila diletakkan fondant...bentukkan alunan ombak dgn jari..tapi susun biar ikut flow ombak, jgn ada yg melintang membujur..Bila dah dapat bentuk ombak yg dikehendaki, ambil royal icing and sapukan dihujung atas "ombak"..basahkan berus lukisan dgn sedikit air..make sure untuk lembab saja..then lakuakan sapuan tarikan pada royal icing...senangkan...bila kering ia akan jadi mcm ombak...



So untuk hiasan, I buatkan satu topi kecil dari fondant yg diletakkan bunga2 kecil. diatas whale ni i letakkan pancuran air yg seolah2 keluar darinya...pun senang juga nak buat...bulatkan fondant bentukkan seperti tear drop and lekatkan pada wire bunga...make sure jgn sama panjang supaya nampak jelas pancuran yg terbuka...by the way, pancuran tersebut disapu dgn pearl dust supaya nampak berkilat seperti air.

Berdebar juga bila hendak deliver cake ni..before hantar i sms erin "my cake presentation today tidak ada berkaitan dgn yg hidup or yg mati. If ada persamaan semuanya adalah secara kebetulan". Alhamdulillah..she was so happy with the cake..infact the whole family was so suprised with the cake..maybe they were expecting a normal cake...but i guess the word normal is not in my dictionary when it comes to novelty cakes. I just love to experiment and be different..baru challenging.




Maybe ada yg kata what a waste pd sisa kek yg dipotong...well, of course I also wanted to show the romantic side of Erin..so i buatkan five heart shape mini cake for Erin and semuanya adalah paduan warna pink and biru...warna kegemaran kedua merpati sejoli ni..And honestly, this the first time I buat mini cake. Before that I selalu wonder why people charge at least RM15 per piece for mini cake..Well sebab susah and rumit nak buat..coz of its size...Frankly speaking, in doing novelty cakes and fondant cakes memang rumit and bahan yg diperlukan untuk menghias pun agak mahal..tu belum cakap lagi masa yg hendak dimabil untuk construct the whole cake. Sometimes pelanngan tak faham and mereka kata mahal..but kerjanya memang rumit..tak macam kek buttercream which only takes shorter period untuk selesaikan..Bukan saja nak letak harga tinggi but memang itulah harganya...kalau tak percaya, cubalah buat mini cake or fondant cupcake..and i'm don't mean yg pakai cetak2 aje...memang rumit and ambil masa...



Well, to Erin and shafiee yg akan bakal melangsungkan perkahwinan mereka in July (Semua kek kahwin and hantarannya insyaAllah akan dibuat oleh I and she had booked the date somewhere in October and I was like...let's be serious..she was serious..hopefully umur i panjang)...buat homework banyak2 about alam rumahtangga...cuba cari peluang melalui pembacaan especially dlm mendirikan sebuah rumahtangga berlandaskan islam..insyaAllah jika semuanya dilakukan berlandaskan Islam, rumahtangga akan aman damai and diberkati InsyaAllah...