Thank You to My Air Jordan XI 11 Bred Cake Supporters!

I just want to take a moment to thank all my cake supporters! Quite a few of you have shown a lot of interests and positive support for my unique bakery creations, especially the recent Air Jordan 11 Bred shoe cake that I baked. I want you to know that your support is giving me great confidence, as I am a young baker in Houston who is working hard to have a bakery of my own in the near future. For now, all the things you see in my blog is from my own kitchen, but hopefully soon, I will have my own bakery. This is why I would love for you to give me all the support / feedback if possible!!! Please send me any feedback you got via email or twitter!

And to give back to my supporters, I would like to "treat" them when I do open my bakery in the near future. Please simply email me at whiskthis@gmail.com or follow me on twitter @whiskthis. I will keep you guys in contact!

With utmost appreciation,

-Sandia

Sandia Horng

Website: http://whiskthis.blogspot.com

Email: whiskthis@gmail.com

Twitter: @WhiskThis

Air Jordan 11 Retro "Bred" Grooms Cake!

All of my posts have been very exciting to me so far but this post is simply very cool! Why? Because lots and lots of Jordan sneaker fans know of this shoe! I have not been a sneakerhead (meaning a crazy sneaker fanatic) but my fiance Gabe has been getting in to sneakers for however long now and he has told me so much about this one.

As you can tell by the title of this post, the cake I made this time is a Air Jordan 11 Retro "Bred" Grooms Cake! Belinda wanted to surprise her now husband Mike with an awesome Grooms Cake for their wedding and came up with this idea. She said that this was Mike's absolute favorite sneaker! We talked about several concepts but in the end she gave me full trust on the whole design. So I made an Air Jordan sneaker shoe box along with the shoe to display in front of the box.

Originally I was thinking of making an OG shoe box (meaning original shoe box) to go with the whole concept to give it an "old school" original look. Then I changed the shoe box to the ones that will be released with the Air Jordan 11 "Concords" later this year (December 23rd to be exact) because I absolutely love the design of that box!! To keep the original look of the box, I simply only changed the colors that were blue to red so it'll match the colors of the Jordan 11 Bred shoe. I tried to make the edible shoe to look as close as possible to the actual live shoe from the sculpting to the detailing of the laces, stitches, patent leather shine, and the carbon fiber plating. I gotta say, it was a challenge!!

Here's a photo of the real Air Jordan 11 "Bred" sneaker (top left) next to my edible creation.

Working on some last details. You can kind of see the edible carbon fiber plating in this photo.

Here's some photos of when I just finished!

After making the shoe box cake and the Jordan 11 Bred shoe, I made the cake board white so that the overall "look" will bring out the shoe and the shoe box. Instead of just the plain smooth white board, I carved waves on it to give the board some texture.

This was one of the most fun and enjoying cakes that I've ever made. Even my Fiance Gabe didn't want to let the cake go. He said he would have saved it and not eaten it haha. After seeing how much my fiance loves this cake, it gave me the idea of making him one for our wedding.. We'll see.. =)

Look at that "patent leather" shine... its beautiful haha.

Overall I was satisfied and humbled by the outcome of my creation especially this being my first shoe cake ever! Most importantly, many thanks to Belinda and her very sweet surprise idea to her now husband Mike Medina, I was able to get my hands in making this incredible cake! Thank you guys for letting my creation be part of y'alls very special day! =)

Baby Shower Cake & Cinnamoroll Cake!

Hi everyoneee! This years holiday has been quite busy and I finally got a breather to sit down and post up a couple of cute and unique cakes that I made. =D

The first one here is a baby shower cake for Yanh who's having a baby girl!! Ann and Thien were the party planners for Yanh's shower and Ann contacted me for a cake. I felt honored and happily accepted the request. Ann had a cake design in mind already and wanted me to make a similar cake to one she picked out from pink cake box. She loved the topper and wanted to change the ribbon color from pink and black to pink and gold.

I wanted to customize the girl figure to look as close to Yanh as possible. I made a head band because 90% of the time that I see her, she's wearing a headband hehe. Her husband spoils her with Louboutin heels and since she was pregnant, he suggested she wore flat shoes for safety therefor, I made black Louboutin flats haha... If you look at the second picture where it shows the rear of the cake, you'll see the head band I made coming out of the hair and the red sole of the Louboutin flats. Little shopping bags were made of stores that I know Yanh would shop at. To add a little bit of her husband in there, I added one bag of his favorite place.. "Heroes Collectables" haha... Last but not least, even the message of the cake, "Welcome to the Spotlight Lara!" is an inside joke! (Message of the cake was well thought of by Ann!) =) Everything on the cake top was custom made by hand. The flavor of the cake was vanilla cake with vanilla butter cream.

Next here we have a Cinnamoroll Cake! I'm not sure if you know of this character, but if you're a fan of Sanrio characters like Hello Kitty, Keroppi, Melody... etc., you'll know Cinnamoroll! Derrick contacted me in making his girlfriend Yvonne a birthday cake and showed me an example of this cake. He gave me the go on making a 3D figure of Cinnamoroll instead of the 2D. I didn't want to stop there so I added two more of his buddies so he wouldnt look lonely. =) The flavor of the cake is carrot cake with cream cheese butter cream. A couple of days later, Derrick informed me that Yvonne thought the figures were too cute to be eaten and I informed him on how to save the figures. Hmm... I wonder if Yvonne saved them afterall...

Polar Bear Cake!

Thu contacted me in regards of making a birthday cake for her friend Kim. She said Kim LOVES polar bears and wanted to surprise her friend with a polar bear cake! The flavor of the cake is Mocha like the one from my previous post. Each polar bear is handmade with gumpaste. The trees and presents are also made out of gumpaste and colored with edible powder dust. Some edible glitter is also put on there to give the cake a little sparkle. =)

Tiramisu and Mocha Cake eye candy

Hi Folks!!! I have some exciting news!! Gabe and I just got engaged last Sunday (Aug. 7th, 2011)!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! =) The way he did the proposal is very original and I was very surprised... I pretty much cried from the beginning till the end haha... Tears of JOY!!! Okay, back to the cake post!

My Fiance and my Stepmom's birthdays just passed up so here's a post of a couple of pictures of the two cakes that I made for them!

Gabe loves Tiramisu so every year for his birthday I will make one for him <3. Here's a picture of a new "look". The side is wrapped with cake, and each dark stripe tastes like chocolate cake. The inside is layered with a lady finger recipe of cake soaked in espresso and rum, and mascarpone cheese cream filling. The top is dusted with cocoa powder and fresh fruits.

Next, for my Stepmom's birthday I made a Mocha Cake that is flavored with espresso, dark cocoa, with a hint of hazelnut. Coffee butter cream is then topped with chocolate shavings, and chocolate covered coffee beans. She doesn't eat cakes very much but really enjoyed this one!

Dora the Explorer Cake!

This is probably in my opinion, one of the most cutest and out of the ordinary cakes that I've made. Julie requested a cake from me some time earlier, and had the idea of having a "3D Dora the Explorer cake" for her boyfriend's daughter Ava. Ava was turning four, and she loves Dora! I was very excited and while making her cake, I did some research and came across a picture of Dora flying in a yellow air balloon and thought "how cute would it be to surprise her with a cake out of the ordinary?"

Julie didn't have a preference as to what flavor the cake should be but insisted that it be a flavor that kids will love since it will be for a party of 20 kids. Immediately, I remembered my "Thing 1 Thing 2" Dr. Seuss cake and remembered that Ann gave me wonderful feed backs on the Strawberry cake with cream cheese butter cream.

Since it is an air balloon scene of Dora, I wanted the cake to look like she's gliding in the sky therefore I made green mountains on the side of the cake, and on the top I made some clouds with a banner that said "Happy Birthday Ava". On the balloon itself I originally wanted to write "Dora the Explorer" but instead I wanted to give it a more personal touch and wrote Ava's name instead. =) Dora's trusted monkey friend "Boots" is also on the cake and he is gliding in the air with his own pink balloon. Dora was hand-molded with gum paste and so was Boots.

When Julie and her boyfriend Kiet (I hope I spelled his name right) came to pick up the cake and absolutely loved the design. Later that same day, Julie said via text message, that Ava wouldn't let anyone cut in to the cake no matter how many times they tried haha... how cuteeee. =) Hmmm, I wonder if the cake was eventually served haha.

Baptism Christening Cake!

Angelia and Brandon had their youngest baby boy, Daven Christopher Nguyen, baptized this past Sunday and Gabe was summoned to be his God Father. Prior to the baptism, Gabe, myself and Brandon went to the baptism class for two weeks to get acquainted with the whole process. Later, I was asked by Brandon to kindly make a cake for the anointment. We arrived at the church at 9:30 AM sharp and the mass started at 10 AM. The whole ceremony was absolutely beautiful. Daven was such a great sport getting his whole body baptized! Lots and lots of family members were there to support and after the ceremony we all went to eat lunch and had some cake!

This cake design was designed whole heartily by me. I wanted Daven's cake to look beautiful and classy. The draping on the bottom tier is white which represents purity. I picked light blue as the second color because it is after all for a baby boy. The holy cross was carved by hand and detail was piped on it. I also made a name plate to specify the special occasion. Hope you enjoy the pictures! =)

Ferrari F430 Cake!

I gotta say that this cake was probably one of the most challenging cakes that I've ever made and not to mention, it's my first "car" cake so I was really excited when Melody came to me with this idea.

Melody wanted to surprise her boyfriend with a special and unique birthday cake. She contacted me with a design in mind which is to make a cake in the shape of a Ferrari F430. To top it off, this cake will be more special to her boyfriend Jeremy because it will be a replica of her boyfriend's car. Melody provided me a toy car model for the sculpting of the cake. Her boyfriend only eats cakes that are bittersweet and I had a perfect recipe that I know they'd love. The flavor of this cake was my very own dark chocolate cake, with whipped ganache. The cake had dutch cocoa powder which gave it a more special dark chocolate flavor. The ganache was flavored with my favorite rum and vanilla. I saved some of the carved left overs on the side and my boyfriend made several trips from his computer to the kitchen to take bites lol!

Why was this cake one of the most challenging cakes? Well because as easy as the idea of making a car cake may seem, it's not! I had to make sure that I could get all the measurements as close to the model toy car as possible and to do so, I had my trusty ruler, pencil, paper, and calculator. I felt like I was designing a real car! Haha.. =P I had put lots of hours into this one! Later that evening, Melody sent me a text message saying that the cake was amazing and they enjoyed it very much! My hard work was lifted off of my shoulders after reading this text and I was overjoyed that they enjoyed it so much!

So here is the final product of the cake. I hope you viewers enjoy the overall design.

(A photo of Melody, Jeremy, and the cake!)

Calculator Birthday Cake!

Thu (pronounced "to") had requested a cake from me for her husband's 30th birthday! Her husband is an Accountant so she wanted a cake that defines his profession... a Calculator Cake!

The flavor of this cake is red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. I covered the cake with rolled fondant then added the keys. Each number and sign is piped by hand. The screen shows 7,22 which defines Thu's husband's real birthday. On the top right corner of the screen, I added the brand name "SHARP". The paper scroll is made out of rice crispies and then it is covered with fondant. The sides of it is accented to make it look like a real "paper scroll". The cake didn't feel complete till I added the No.2 pencil and the yellow folder that labels "Birthday Expense".

Thu absolutely loved the cake when she saw it. She loved the vibrant colors and she was surprised to see the details of the pencil and the folder.

Wedding cakes & Dr. Suess Cake!

Last weekend was probably the most busiest weekend for me. Phuong's wedding was this past Sunday and a referral client named Ann's twin babies were turning one years old the day before on Saturday.

Phuong is also a referral client from my good friend Linda (the one who I made the Tank Cake for) and she wanted a wedding cake that can serve up to 300 people. She specified on what she wanted in terms of the design of the cake. She dropped off the pink orchids and calla lilies and the rest were up to me to decorate. The flavor of the cake is a vanilla light sponge cake, and it is layered with butter cream and fresh strawberries. Her husband wanted a grooms cake that is carved out in the shape of a fleur de lis. Half of it was to be colored like The Saints team in football, and the other half was to be colored like the Hornets team in basketball. I am sad to say that I don't have pictures of the grooms cake but am trying to request a photo from her. She also wanted 100 pieces of French Macarons. The flavors that she picked were lemon, hazelnut, strawberry, and red velvet. Here are some pictures of her wedding cake:

On Saturday my friend Emily referred her friend Ann to me in regards of a birthday cake for Ann's twin babies who were turning one years old. Coincidentally my friend who's name is also Ann, was having a baby shower on that same day and she is expecting twins! I was notified yesterday that she had given birth to them already so Congratulations Ann and Tony!!! =)

Ann (Emily's friend) wanted a "Thing 1 Thing 2" cake from Dr. Seuss! Her cake was three-tiered and it serves 35 people. We both talked about the decoration of the cake and she liked the idea of Thing 1 and Thing 2 holding a Happy Birthday sign. She also requested that the cake had the number one on there. Her cake was a strawberry layered cake with cream cheese butter cream.

I have to say, my boyfriend was pretty proud of me when I was done with the cakes and macarons! =) He is a busy guy and he still put time aside to assist me when I needed help so thank you and I love you very mucho!!! Also, thank you Henry and Larry for helping me with the wedding cakes! You guys are my best muscle men! =)

R2D2 Cake and Bunny Baby Shower Cake!

Christi (Maxton's mother) said that Maxton absolutely loves Star Wars and his favorite character is R2D2! He also collects R2D2 figurines and have posters all over his room. After knowing this about Maxton, I knew that I had to make an R2D2 cake. At first I was going to make a carved out cake of R2D2 (like as if R2D2 was lying on the cake board) but then I thought that making R2D2 standing up would definitely make Maxton super happy when he sees it... and I knew that the extra work and effort put in to that cake will make it worth while. Christi wanted to see the cake as soon as I was done with it so I sent her a picture message of the finished product. When Gabe and I delivered the cake, Christi was overjoyed with the finished product and Maxton was very happy and surprised to see his cake! So here's the final product:

The flavor of the cake is yellow cake with chocolate icing.

Hang needed a baby shower cake for her co-worker who's having a baby girl! The top tier had to be sugarless due to a special request from her co-worker and they thought of having a baby bunny cake topper. The baby bunny is dressed up in a baby girl dress and she's also wearing a pink and white baby headband. Intricate piping work was done all around the cake. Hang was super excited when she saw the cake and loved the baby bunny!

More Macarons!

For the past weeks I've been having requests on french macarons so I've been developing new flavors! Red Velvet (red), Hazelnut (light brown), and Pistachio (green). They're all made with natural and fresh ingredients. You don't want to miss these new flavors! YUM =)

The Red Velvet is sandwiching cream cheese frosting.

The Hazelnut is sandwiching hazelnut chocolate.

And the Pistachio is sandwiching pistachio nut cream.