Memories of 2014

The end of 2014 arriving in a few hours time marks 7 months of Kekx Kreations' journey as an official custom cake business. 

Since our launch in May, during these 7 months, Kexk Kreations has created 26 cakes, 398 cupcakes and dozens of cake toppers! Thanks to our customers for all your different requests, giving us so many opportunities to experiment with different genres of cakes and techniques, bringing our skills to a new level everytime.

There were many firsts and milestones achieved during this time and I would like to recap some of these special memories with you.

Participation in Wedding Expos

Very honoured to be invited by Sweet Little Bundles to partner with her to participate in a series of wedding expos for the first time. During the 4 expos we did, I created different dummy wedding cakes to match the various themes of her lolly buffet setups. It was so satisfying to see my cake creation being in the center stage of such beautiful lolly set up. There were lots of opportunity for creativity and I am thankful for the experience earned during the process.

Discovery of Edible Lace icing

After reading about this very beautiful and interesting icing call Sugar Veil, I decided to order a packet of it to experiment. Edible lace icing is useless without a mould so of course I had to purchase a mat of silicon mould as well. Quite a big investment as both don't come cheap but the results are beautiful and delicate pieces of edible icing that can be wrapped around cakes or cut up and put onto cupcakes, creating an elegant and vintage inspired cakes & cupcakes. Very suitable for ladies cakes and wedding cakes. I even use them on swiss rolls! 

First Tower and Castle Cake

I blogged about the making of this cake here and I still remembered standing in Bunnings' plumbing section checking out the various sizes of PVC pipes, thinking of how to create those fake towers. So thankful for Bunnings :) 

Creative Use of Edible Icing Images

Edible Icing Images are so useful to re-create logos and fonts that are difficult to replicate by freehand. Saves you lots of trouble but I use it sparingly and as an add-on to enhance my handmade creations rather that simply using it to cover my cakes.  

The Dragon was made of foam and the plaque was an edible icing image.

Creative Use of Styrofoam Balls & Rice Bubbles in Toppers

Rather than using a whole chunk of fondant, I find styrofoam balls very useful when I have to create big toppers that have round bodies. Besides being perfectly round, they give volume without the weight and they tend to dry faster. Unfortunately, the topper created is not edible, which might not be a bad thing actually, since too much sugar is not too good for you ;p

An alternative is the use of rice bubbles (rice krispies) to form more odd shapes and still make it edible. This cake here below has a head of foam and a body of rice krispies.

Baptism bear made of foam balls

Hoot made of rice krispies

First Gravity Defying Cake

I made this cake for my son's 12th birthday as it was something I really wanted to try. I reckon it won't be a very popular cake to order as there is not much cake to eat but it did earn the birthday boy a lot of envious wows from his church mates :) 

First Three-tier Wedding Cake

I've made an engagement cake and a wedding cake before, including demo cakes for expos. But this one is special because this is my first 3-tier wedding cake and my biggest to date. The base is 12" and the 2nd tier is 9", followed by a 6" top tier. All the gumpaste flowers are handmade. I fell in love with this one colour cake as I was making it. So glad the bride loved it :)

The Tallest Cake Topper

This Little Prince standing on a golden globe cake topper was the biggest I had ever made. It made the cake so outstanding. And I love the story of the Little Prince too :)

The Most Personalised Cake

This cake is so personalised I have no idea what to name it. So I call it Lisa's Mom Cake. It was for Lisa's mother who was turning 70. She is Danish but had lived half her life in Singapore, so daughter asked for a cake that reflected this and included are her 3 black cats who had been with the family for a long time. One had long, medium and short tail respectively and wore red, green and blue collars. This cake is one of its kind, just like dear Lisa's Mom :)

Singapore flag on this side....

And Denmark flag on this side.

First Baby Shower Cake

I don't really have an idea what a baby shower is but all the baby shower cakes looked so fun and adorable. Very happy I finally had a chance to make one in December. I had so much fun making the baby shoes for this cake and I love the colour scheme. I'm pretty happy with my handwritten plaque too! 

There are so many other fond memories of other cakes but I cannot mention them all. As much as each cake is unique and special to my customers, each creation is unique and special to me too. Each request is different and each experience in creating the cake is unique. I thank my God every time for blessing me with the skills to create something beautiful for others to enjoy. As I enjoy my craft, I am grateful for all the support and trust I receive from each and everyone of my fans and customers. And thanks for all the wonderful feedback when you enjoyed and liked the cakes I made. I'm looking forward to 2015 with anticipation of the future cakes I will be making. Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR :)

LOVE,

KEKX KREATIONS

Visit and like us on Facebook. (www.facebook.com/KekxKreations) 

Cat In The Hat Cake

Two months ago, I joined the very first cake competition of my life. Previously, all I'd done was to submit some photos of the cakes I've done but nothing like a real cake decoration competition where I've to submit an actual cake. Yes, that's a personal milestone for me and a first for Kekx Kreations!

The theme of the competition, organised by local Jamieson Way Community Centre in Point Cook, was Children's Story Book. I googled (my favourite source of inspiration) "Children's Story Book" and guess which famous story book came up? One of the most popular book which most kids and adults would know was Dr Suess' "Cat in the Hat". Personally I love Dr Suess' books. Some of them, like "Green Eggs & Ham" sounded like nursery rhymes and I had so much joy reciting them to my sons like a song. The characters are hideous and so out of the world but at the same time, so adorable and funny. Cat in the Hat is particularly annoying in the story but yet we all can't forget the character. 

My attempt to recreate this crazy cat was inspired by a page in the story book "The Cat In The Hat Comes Back", a sequel to the first book. In the book, there was a scene whereby Cat was sitting under a shower inside a bathtub, eating a cake and holding an umbrella between his knees to protect the cake from the water spray, much to the disbelief (& dismay) of the little kids! Well, we don't expect anything less crazy from our Cat with the red/white hat right?


  
There was a similar cake made by Planet Cakes, but besides that, no one else (at least from the photos online) has attempted to recreate this scene in cake. Honestly, it was a challenge for me and I wondered if I could pull it off. But that's the main reason why I joined the competition, to test myself and see how far is my limit. Of course, winning will be nice....;p. Whatever, I'll figure it out along the way and in God I trust!

The Cat figurine was made days earlier and it was a pure stroke of luck that I decided to use a Cabury brunch bar as its body and covered it in black fondant. I was going to try and use the brunch bar as the core for another cat figurine order. It was too skinny for THAT cat but perfect for THIS cat! God has wonderful ways to help me :)

The head took the longest to shape and most difficult to get right. It was important to get that cheeky look on the face. The arms, gloves, fork and cake were also made separately and left to dry for a few days. The umbrella was a styroform ball sawed in half and balanced on a floral wire. When they had all sufficiently hardened, I joined them together holding my breath. As with all sugar figurines, they are heavy and fragile. 

Two days before the cake was due for submission, I still had no idea how to make the shower. I was contemplating between making a wall out of cardboard and a standalone pipe. Neither of which I had any idea how to make it stand. At the last minute, I tried to insert 3 floral wires, twisted together, into a white  drinking straw. 1/3 of the wires were exposed at the top, I bent them at an angle and covered them with gumpaste and attached a gum paste shower head. The straw was wrapped in fondant too and left to dry lying down.

When the day came for the assembly of the cake, I was pretty excited. The bathtub itself was a chocolate cake. Shaping and covering the bathtub was the easiest part really. The really challenge was now transferring all of Cat into the "tub" and getting him and the shower pipe to sit properly. 

By miracle and the grace of God, they all came together. I would prefer Cat to sit a bit straighter but I am already so glad everything was holding in place. At the last minute, I tried inserting some fishing wire (which I happen to have for making jewellery) into the shower head to make it look like water coming out. It worked! Was it a brilliant spark of genius or pure luck? Either way, I'm blessed!

The 15 minute journey to bring the cake to the community centre was a killer and threatened to shorten my life. I decided to hold the cake so that in case anything were to drop off during the journey, I could still catch it and minimise the damage. Every road hump was terrifying and every change of speed sent shivers down my back. I was holding the precious cargo that felt to me like a bomb. Cat survived intact and I felt myself breathing only when I finally put the cake down. Then I got worried when they said they will move the cake to the hall the next morning for everyone to view after the judging was over. I prayed that night for the safe movement of the cake and the huge relief I felt when I entered the Community Centre and saw Cat sitting there, still in the hat, the shower pipe still standing.

My cake was the smallest amongst all the entries but I was pretty proud of what I had made. This cake is not the kind of cake that people would order for a party cos there's really very little cake to eat. To me, it is a work of art and is one of the most realistic 3D cake I had sculpted. I think it is as good as the one made by the professionals Planet Cakes. 

In the end, I did not win the competition. The winner was an awesome looking cake of the theme "Jack & The Beanstalk", with a tower of beanstalk defying gravity and going into the clouds. Well done by the creator! Nevertheless, I enjoyed the experience and the challenge. Despite the shivers and anxiety, I am glad I did it! 

Before I sign off, I would like to thank all my customers, without your orders and support I would not have an opportunity to practice what I love and improve my skills. Your appreciation of my creations and hard work is an affirmation to me that my time & skills are valued. Thank you too to all my fans on Facebook that liked my creations and are following my caking journey, you have encouraged and inspired me. And finally thanks to all my friends who came down to support me and put in a vote for my cake that day! 

I love it that my cakes creations can bring happy memories, joy and smiles to your faces!

The Making of Frozen Castle Cake

One day when I was inside a steamy swimming pool building, waiting for my children while they have lessons, I received an enquiry to make a cake based on the latest Disney production, Frozen. Wow, I knew it was a hot favourite theme for cakes and parties, so I'm really proud to be able to get a part of this action. But when I saw the picture that was sent to me of what the birthday girl wanted, I froze.

It was a castle cake with 5 huge towers. Based on the number of people it was to serve, we decided that only the base of the castle would be real cake and the rest of the towers would be dummy. However I have no idea how to make them....Thus began my quest to learn how to make fake castle towers. I had to learn real quick too, for depending on what the construction material was gonna be and how complex it was to make it, I have to give a quote.

Thank God for a Facebook group for cake decorators! I posted the photo online to see what other decorators would use and I got a variety of answers from styrofoam, to PVC pipes to krispy treats etc. After several rounds of research, here are what my towers were made of: 2x 90mm PVC pipes, 2x Pringles potato chips tubes and a 2 litre SOLO plastic soda bottle.

The PVC pipes were washed and sawed to the correct height with the help of hubby. I chopped up 2 Pringles bottles and the SOLO plastic bottle easily with a pen knife and scissors. 

Each of these towers were wrapped in white fondant. I then use the cobblestone impression mat all around. They were then individually hand-painted with a tint of blue edible ink diluted with vodka. To make it look like they have been frozen crystal solid, I brushed randomly, making sure not to cover evenly and to leave traces of white all over. The overall effect was awesome! I enjoyed painting it so much, but I had to stop myself, reminding myself that less is more.

When the day came for the actual cake to be decorated, I was really looking forward. It was a chocolate mud cake inside and I had baked it nice and tall. By then, I had decided to deviate from the picture the customer showed me, to add in my own design elements and to make it even better than the original. I decided to add in a flight of steps leading to the main tower. 

To make the steps, I cut off a wedge of the cake, about 1/3 of the way. Starting from the bottom step, the wedge of cake was subdivided and reattached with chocolate ganache. After that, I basically cover it the same way as the tower, imprint with cobblestone print and paint.

Lastly add the cut-out fondant snowflakes and pipe drips of icing hanging from the towers to simulate snow fall. I also purchased some really cool frosty lollies that looked like ice balls to place around the castle. The cake board was scattered with dessicated coconut to make is look like snow.

The final cake castle was really heavy but I was so proud to deliver it. :)

The Perfect Spatula

There's something I have always been curious about when watching cooking shows on TV or YouTube. Many bakers who show how to make cakes don't scrape their bowls very clean. They leave like 10% of their cake batter inside the mixing bowl, on the mixing spoon or on the mixing hook. I'm thinking, maybe it's because it's on TV, so there's no time to waste scraping the bowl really clean. Maybe at home, they're like me, spending a good few minutes getting every ounce of batter into the baking tin. Or am I the only one who's so stingy about cake batter?

I don't know about you, but I think ALL cake batter should be baked into a cake and not washed down the sink! Ok, it's impossible to get ALL, but almost. That's why, I believe, a good spatula is very important for a cake baker. You want 99% of your effort to turn into that cake and be eaten right? 

I recently went on a hunt for a good spatula after some feedback from my husband, aka hygiene master. I had a silicon scraper with a plastic handle which was really flexible. Although the handle was a little weak, it cleaned the mixing bowl really well. However he claimed that the current spatula I'm using is not good as cake batter could get inside the gap where the handle was inserted into the scraper. It makes cleaning the spatula difficult. 

Based on this requirement, we found 2 new spatulas that were completely encased in silicone, ie one piece from General Trader in Werribee Plaza. One was bigger and the other was smaller, which was meant for children. I put it to the scrape test one day and here's my verdict: 

In terms of strength, the bigger one was sturdy and flexible. However, it did not scrape the bowl clean. Even after a few minutes of continuous scraping, there were still cake batter smudging around. Not happy. I realised this was due to the 'blades' being too blunt/thick. I anticipated this when I noticed the blades were like 1mm thick, but thought I would still give it a try to see how it goes.

As for the smaller one, it scrapes really clean as the silicone 'blades' were made really sharp. However, it was a bit too soft and the handle was too short. Then again I wouldn't fault them since this spatula was meant for kids. It would be good for scraping a teaspoon of batter into small cupcake cases. But for scraping bowls, forget it, unless you don't want to sleep for the rest of the night and have nothing to do.

I bought spatula #3 from Spotlight after my initial disappointment with #1. The blades of #3 is sharper and it is also one whole piece. Somehow I ended up with a green spatula again as there wasn't much choice. Verdict: It scrapes much cleaner although I wish the handle could be a little longer. So folks, if you happen to be getting a new spatula, look out for a silicone one that is one piece, one that has thin and sharp sides and a strong long handle. Happy scraping n baking!

Hello

Welcome to Kekx Kreations' official blog! For those who are new, Kekx Kreations is a cake decorating home business based in the western suburb of Werribee, Victoria, Australia. We make custom cakes & cupcakes for all occasions as well as handmade sugar decorations. Our main web page is in Facebook (www.facebook.com/kekxkreations) for now. Of course, I hope one day we will grow to the extend that it justifies us having a proper dot.com.

 
I'm the creative director aka cake decorator of Kekx Kreations, with the support of my lovely family. KEKX represents the initials of all of us. And it is pronounced as "CAKES"! So yeah, I think it's my destiny, although for the first 38 years of my life, I would never have imagined myself doing what I'm doing today!

My cake decoration journey began with a glimpse of my sister-in-law's fondant creations photos online in 2011. I was curious and I asked her to show me one day, via Facetime, how she did her craft. By then, I had tried quilting and was getting rather sick of knitting. I started with a small pack of RTR fondant and some liquid colouring and some cookie cutters. It was fun and I decided to try my luck covering a cake. In January 2012, I received my first 'order' from a lovely friend, who gave me the opportunity to make a cake for her son's birthday. It was CARS theme...yes, Lightning McQueen was my first sugar figurine :) Here's the pic.

2012: My first creation

The result was rather amateur, of course. Nevertheless the grandma, mom and boy were very impressed and their happiness gave me great satisfaction and motivation to carry on. I picked up a lot of my skills from reading scores of cake decoration books borrowed from the library and slowly, I also acquired more cake decoration tools to help me. My first investment was a set of gumpaste flower moulding tools which I still use today. My first rolling pin, I borrowed it from my son's PlayDough play set. (He kept reminding me it was on loan.) It was so small and so nimble for rolling small pieces of fondant, I almost wanted to buy PlayDough sets just for its roller! I used it all the time and didn't return him until recently when I bought a proper one. Thanks son! 

It has been more than 2 years since and today, I'm starting off as a small business as a home based cake decorator. After more than 70 cakes under my belt, I still find that I have lots more to learn. As I grow and develop in my skills and be blessed with opportunities to create wonderful memories for people through my cakes, I hope you will enjoy reading our stories as we share with you our projects, growth, learning, tips and tutorials here. Secretly, my childhood ambition was to be an author :p

2013: See the difference between now and then?
Well, just to encourage all aspiring cake decorators, if I can do it, you can too :)

I realised that writing wasn't really my talent but I love to express my thoughts in writing. I hope I will always find inspiration and time to write and share snippets of our cake decorating here to keep this blog fun and interesting for all our fans. So stay tuned and enjoy!