Kaiser's Birthday Cake from Baking District on 14 Dec 2016

2016 is almost over and besides celebrating Christmas, December is extremely important as my eldest son, Kaiser’s birthday falls on 14 Dec.  He has been looking forward to this important day ever since his little brother, Rayes celebrated his birthday in Oct this year.

For this year, Kaiser requested for a different theme for his birthday cake… no longer Thomas and Friends anymore but this time round, it is Captain America theme birthday cake.  Captain America is his latest hero and thank goodness for that because for the last few years, he only wanted Thomas and Friends theme birthday cake.

The lucky boy got a cake sponsorship from Baking District this year and he got his dream come true.  

His favourite idol, Captain America!

Thanks so much Baking District for kindly sponsoring a birthday cake for Kaiser!  Baking District is run by a culinary student, Natalie, who is a self taught baker for the last 5 years.  

Not many people can run a business and study at the same time, yet Natalie is able to do so at a young age.

Baking District is on social media with IG handle @bakingdistrictzxc and www.facebook.com/bakingdistrict96 where you can view some of her masterpieces.  She can bake and customize cakes, cookies, brownies and many more yummy baked stuff so if you want to make any enquiries or orders, please text her at 9171 9014 (no calls please).

Natalie was extremely sweet that she drew a picture of the cake which she wanted to bake for , together with the Captain America fondant figurine and emailed me to see if I like it before she proceed further.  My heart was filled with so much gratefulness when I saw the picture and I knew that Kaiser would love it.

Kaiser’s first reaction when he saw the figurine was, “Hey, that’s me as Captain America!”  he was so happy when he saw the cake that he jumped up and down saying that the figurine looked just like him… lol.

When the kids saw the cake with the Captain America fondant figurine topping, all of them grasped out with excitement.

Kaiser and his friends

Me trying to light the candles

Singing birthday song for Kaiser

Kaiser making his birthday wishes

Kaiser blowing out his candles

The chocolate cake tasted awesome, with an amazingly soft sponge and smooth buttercream.  The sweetness was just nice too.  Seriously, you would go for a second helping if you tried the cake.

When I asked the kids if the cake was good, one of them said, "No, it was excellent!"  Hahaha... so cute right?  

Afterwhich, Kaiser said the cake was amazing while the other two friends said it was fantastic and nice.  Kids nowadays are so good in their English that they can use all the 'chim' words to describe the cake.  I was so impressed by all of them.

If you have any celebrations coming up, please kindly support Natalie in her baking business by ordering your next cake or baked stuff from her.  Remember to text her at 9171 9014 (no calls please) for enquiries or orders.

Thanks Natalie for making Kaiser happy on his birthday this year!

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Buttercream Floral Decorated Cake from Nanatang

Awesome thanks to Nanatang for gifting me a buttercream floral decorated cake to make my day happy!  Nanatang was founded by Ms Serena Tang who has a keen interest and passion for baking cakes.

 I could nott wait to open up the cake box to take a look at the cake as I had never seen a floral designed cake before. Yes... don't call me mountain tortoise ok?

 Ain't the cake beautiful?  I fell in love with it at the first look.

Can't help but keep looking at the cake!  Seriously, I can't bear to cut and eat this!

 If anyone would like to order cakes from Nanatang, please check out the details below:

Verdict: The sponge was extremely soft and moist with that yummy chocolatey taste.  My two boys enjoyed the cake very much too!

Those who are keen to learn how to do cake decorating, check out the details below: 

- This is nanatang's first ever collaboration with Clare from @DolceCake_official who is a certified Korean Buttercream Floral Decorator.

- Clare will flying all the way from Korea to teach 4 different decorating classes!

- Classes are open to anyone and everyone, with or without cake decorating background

- all information are on nanatang.com/workshops.

- To sign-up or to enquire: contact nana at 91998928 or email nanatangthebaker@gmail.com

- quote "elaineheng" to get additional 5% off for any cake decorating classes!

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Rayes's Birthday Cake from Corine and Cake

Words can't express how much gratitude I felt by the sponsorship of Rayes's 3 year old birthday cake by Corine and Cake.

Corine used to be an editor by profession and after realising that baking is her ultimate passion, she quit her job to go into baking full time.  She and her team of bakers bake birthday cakes for Celebrities and Social Media Personalities like Zoe Tay, Zhu Hou Ren, Hong Hui Fang and Bong Qiu Qiu's daughter, Meridith first month celebration.  Even though me and Rayes are not considered celebrities, Corine and her team actually baked a birthday cake for Rayes's birthday celebration.  Thank you so much!

Corine was very sweet and promptly emailed me some designs of Mickey Mouse birthday cakes after I told her that Rayes like Mickey Mouse.  After receiving her email, I asked Rayes to choose his favorite design and yes,  this was the cake design which Rayes chose for himself.  Really cute!

I love how cheery the cake looks!

As the school had a few cases of HFMD, I was the only one allowed to go into the school to help him celebrate his birthday.

Rayes was extremely happy to see the Mickey Mouse cake on the table in exactly the same design he chose a few weeks ago.

So suitable for kids!

 Pardon his small little eyes as he just woke up from his afternoon nap in school.

Grinning happily

Corine was very kind to ask me if I wanted buttercream cake or fondant cake and even explained to me the difference between the two.

Besides that, she also let me choose the flavour of the cake sponge and due to popular demand by the two boys, Rayes and Kaiser, chocolate strawberry was chosen.

Rayes's friends waiting to sing the birthday song for him

Rayes was looking forward to the birthday celebration and he was dressed for the occasion too... In Mickey Mouse attire no less... lol.

I struggled to bring the cake in together with the goodie bags for the children as my helper couldn't enter the school.  Luckily, the teachers helped me to settle the children and got them to sit around the table.

As I was the camera woman, the teacher helped me to light the candles on the cake while I got ready to snap some photos.

Lighting the candles

 It happened to be Children's Day Celebration in the morning that day, hence all the students including the teachers were in their party clothes.

 After the chilren sang the birthday song, Rayes blew the candles out.

 

Just look at how happy Rayes was after he blew the candles out.

 One of the teachers volunteered to take over the camera so that I could have some photos with my two darling boys.

Yes, we finally got to cut the cake so that all the children and teachers can get to eat it.

 And of course, Rayes got to eat the first slice of cake with that Mickey Mouse design.

Mummy, I can't bear to eat the cake!

 All the children enjoyed eating the cake from Corine and Cake that they asked for a second helping.

Enjoying their own slices of cakes

 I love the cake from Corine and Cake as it was very yummy yet it wasn't extremely sweet.  The sponge was flavourful and moist.  The design was very beautifully executed, while taking into consideration what Rayes wanted.  The buttercream held up very well without any signs of melting even though I collected the cake at around 230pm and I was stuck in a traffic jam for about 30 mins.  After I reached home, the teacher texted me to ask me to come in around 345pm instead as the children had a later nap time that day due to Children's Day celebration in the morning.  By the time I set up the table and cake, it was close to 4pm.  The whole time, I didn't put the cake into my fridge as I didn't have a space inside.  The cake still looked awesome after close to 2 hours without any refrigeration.

On top of that, Corine and Cakes are different from the rest due to the following:

Baked from scratch vs Factory cakes

All the cakes are baked from scratch by the production team using quality ingredients. They don’t buy wholesale cakes mass produced by factory.

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Fresh ingredients vs Readymade canned food

Nothing can be equal to the natural, fresh ingredients. They do not believe in flavouring essence and canned food. They make berries compote with berries and baked lemon cakes with fresh lemon.

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Natural dairy products vs Hydrogenated fats

They don’t compromise on health. The dairy products used in our cakes are 100% pure.The cost is double with non-dairy products but they do not use products that contain hydrogenated fats, synthetic flavour, stabilizer and other unrecognizable chemicals, eg. Margarine, fresh cream/ topping cream.

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Meringue Buttercream vs Shortening/ gelatine

Their frosting holds up well in Singapore’s hot and humid weather. They only use Swiss Meringue and Italian Meringue Buttercream for our frosting. No shortening or gelatine is added to stabilize it. The result is a light and fluffy Buttercream that is lower in fat and less sweet.

If you are looking for cakes for celebrations or special occasions, do give Corine and Cakes a try.  Corine and her team of bakers bake from their hearts and what you get are delicious and healthy cakes with touches of something extra... sincerity and kindness.

Thanks again Corine and Cakes for everything!  You made a 3 year old boy's dream come true with a Mickey Mouse design chocolate birthday cake.

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