90th Birthday Cake - click to enlarge
This blog should have gone up six month ago in January, but as usual with all the fuss we forgot to take a picture and I just last night received a picture from Enid.
Our thoughts became an action, we should do it more often and be surprised at the outcome.
This cake was made for a very special friend, I met aunty Ollie about 15 years ago, we belonged to the same church in Bothasig. The difference between the picture and the now aunty Ollie is that her hair is just a bit more whiter than on the picture, otherwise still strong and agile of mind.
She never had any children of the own, but the example she led by is absolutely amazing. She actually has more children than any mother who gave birth themselves, with her there is no sibling rivalry, because each and every person who comes into contact with her has a special experience.
Whenever she visits the congregation because Enid always fetches her from the home in Somerset West and takes care of her for the weekend. I always have to check whether I am dressed appropriately, because I can be a bit outrageous at times and Ollie will pull me up very smartly telling me that is not the way to dress to the house of the lord, but I think she finds me refreshing reminding her of herself when she was a bit younger with her high heeled shoes.
The day before her birthday, David and I decided to do a cake for her and take it through Somerset West. We arrived at the home after 8 o’clock that night and the look on her face was priceless - she regaled us with stories from her youth. She actually didn’t want us to leave that night, but what an experience we had. Her memory is amazing.
Sometimes we do things because the thought comes into our minds but I am convinced that the urges that we have is the direct result of the hand of the lord.
Confirmation Cake (Click to enlarge)
This cake was made for a young man by the name of Michael.
I made was a plain chocolate cake - with coke - yes coca cola! - the cool drink.
I would have preferred to make the picture with Michael in the background but I didn’t want to push the issue.
Maybe in future I should guide people in what I sometimes think is best on the picture.
The church will probably have me up for using their logo, but I am proud to be New Apostolic and a child of God and show our logo.
I met Michael’s mom Chanell a couple of days ago, and what a lovely girl, but she’s actually not a girl she is a woman with the soul of a young girl. I connected with her immediately. It is very strange in life the people that we meet and it sometimes seems that we have the same chromosomes and connect. “Chrome zones” I don’t even know whether a word like that actually exists.
Chanell was very pleased with the cake and she sent me such a lovely SMS which said the following:
“Aunty Bev, in the rhythm of life, we sometimes find ourselves out of tune but as long as there are special people like you to provide the melody. The music plays on forever. Thank you for using your talent to make Michael’s days special. Chanell.” - Now what do you think of that?
The cake was given to Chanell as a gift from her very bestest friend Chantell.
And that was the story of Michael’s confirmation cake - what a lovely story which left me with a lovely feeling. That is why I had to do this blog before going to bed and attending confirmation service tomorrow morning.
Jamaican scene with flag (click to enlarge)
This cake was made for Thokozile’s 11th birthday. I made her the little cupcakes with a picture on it for 30 of her classmates and the next week I made this cake for her big bash.
She decided to have a Jamaican party. Everyone had to wear Jamaican outfits - her mom even had the venue decorated Jamaican style. Dave downloaded an image of a Jamaican beach scene from Google and inserted the flag - how cool.
Thoko also wanted a little bell to draw the kids attention to all the happenings of the day. She was so excited that she became very ill on the day of her party, but soon recovered during the afternoon. Tamara, her mom, really went to a tremendous lot of trouble to make this birthday a success. Whatever she does, she do properly or not at all - Thokozile is a very, very lucky girl - most parents don’t usually go to so much trouble.
Icing details : A twin colour cake - a ribbon of yellow icing surrounded the picture and green icing was placed on the sides.
This kind of cake cost Tamara R250.00
Jemel's Cake (click to enlarge)
This cake was made for Jemel, my friend Dawn’s niece.
And, as you know how it goes: “Please make me a cake - oh, any cake”.
I would ask “What kind of cake would you like?”
“Oh, anything, just to put some candles on.”
Most irritating. Dawn is my friend and we know that sometimes friends can be impossible - especially this one. But we still go to the ends of the earth for them.
To start with, the quality of the pictures I received from her were so awful because they were taken with a cell phone or cheap compact camera with bad lighting. But, I don’t always have a choice and Dave went ahead ahead and printed one of the pictures anyway. Dave had to do a bit of Photoshopping on the picture to brighten it up a bit.
Off I go to make the cake.
Because the cake is quite large, I triple the ingredients and pray to God that it must not be a flop. It is the same every time I bake a cake. When the cake was done, I thought I would leave it in the oven for two minutes (with the oven switched off) and of course, I forgot about the cake because it was already nearly 09h00 and I start work at 9.30 AM. The cake didn’t rise the way it should have but I was not going to dump the cake because it was still quite moist, but the height not to my satisfaction.
Anyway, Friday night comes, and I have my mother with me for the weekend. I make her comfortable and off I go to do the icing.
Now, I think “What colour?” - because Jemel is wearing a silver and black dress, I decide to do silver icing which in fact is very drab but the icing got mixed and I think “What the hell?” and off I go to do the icing piping.
Now, to decide what the contrasting colour should be - and I decide to do the picture with a black border. It actually looked very morbid and when I took it to my mother and David for inspection they both said that it was awful.
Oh dear - off I go and remove all the black icing from the cake. I also needed to reprint the picture and place the new picture over the old picture. The new iced border was now done in green as you can see in the photograph. Because I placed one picture over another, the next morning it was quite bubbly, serves me right! I should have removed the old picture in the first place, but by eleven on Friday evening I really was in no mood to do so.
On Saturday morning Dawn collected the cake and was quite impressed with the attempted masterpiece, but because I was unhappy with the quality, I decided not to charge. Usually I would have dumped the whole cake.
The cake was quite a hit at the party. I received a thank you letter saying “You made an 18 year old girl’s eyes shine”. So maybe it wasn’t too bad after all.
Baby Madison Grace(Click To Enlarge)
This is a picture cake made for my friend Norma’s first Granddaughter born two weeks ago. Isn’t she a little darling with little hands behind the head, she has obviously inherited the trait from one of her parents or grandparents.
Norma wanted pretty pale pink icing but to create it bit difficult because butter is quite yellow and spoils the real desired shade - but it didn’t turn out badly.
The picture was emailed to Dave and he touched it up a bit in Photoshop, but it was a fairly good picture with high resolution which makes it a lot easier to work with.
The picture itself was ringed with white icing, giving a two-toned effect.
Aerial and Tinkerbell (Click to enlarge)
This cake was make for my niece’s daughter Salma. Salma is a very special little girl, she was born prematurely and needed quite a bit of care and attention. Now she acts as if she is 30 years of age and not just three. When I phoned her mum to inquire what Salma would like for a birthday cake, she thought for a little while, um’d and ah’ed, and then she decided on Arial and Tinkerbell.
Dave then downloaded the pics from the Internet, blended the two pictures together in Photoshop and then softened the background. I has to ask the mother to email me the text to be placed on the cake. Once I had received it, Dave could add the text to the picture and print it out on edible paper. This paper actually tastes like nougat.
I baked the cake on Friday evening and iced before the weather heated up. Saturday was the hottest day we have experienced for a long time and I was concerned that at temperatures of over 35°, the icing might melt because in contains butter. However my fears were groundless and we were able to transport the cake from Bothasig to the Strand without incident. The child was ecstatic.
Loretta (click To Enlarge)
This cake was made for my friend Loretta’s Daughter’s 21st birthday, Loretta supplied me with a picture as seen below.
loretta And Daughter (Click To Enlarge)
It was not a very good picture and dear old Dave had to use Photoshop to remove the mother which was very difficult. People don’t realize the difficulties - Dave had to spend a good hour in Photoshop to remove the mother on the left hand side as well as her hand on her daughters left arm. Then the picture had to be made more vibrant and contrast had to be increased in order to print properly on the edible paper. One would think this is a Photoshop course and not some blog on the cake.
I made my usual chocolate cake and because the colour scheme was green and turquoise I decided to use green with some blue edging which does not look too bad.
I am actually very privelidged to have her as a friend - Loretta phones me every year on my birthday. We have known each other for over 40 years (Goodness me, am I that old already? ) I feel guilty that I don’t take the time to be with her more I don’t even know her daughters name. Isn’t that terrible of me? I am a very unsociable person.
25th Wedding Anniversary Cake (Click to Enlarge.)
This cake was made for dear friends Evelyn and Tony’s wedding anniversary. Because they were emigrating I thought it was important to do something special for them. The cake was made last year, and this year they find themselves in Sydney Australia. It was a rich fruit cake surrounded by cup cakes piped with butter icing encased in edible printed 25’s, The picture on top was the couple on their wedding day printed on edible paper as well.
Had it been an order the price would be R625.00
Toko's 11th Birthday(Click To Enlarge.)
These little cup cakes was ordered by Nduthu Toko’s grandmother made as a surprise for Toko’s 11th birthday. A school picture was given to me and David scanned it and printed the picture on edible paper. Nduthu and Michelle delivered the cake before school, and you can quite imagine all the ooh’s and aah’s by both the children and teachers, she was a very special girl because she also received the new DVD by Beyonce. It is very important to have a good clear picture as you can see on the previous cup cakes on my blog.
Spider man For Mathew (Click Picture To Enlarge)
Mr Spider man was made for my Nephew Mathew. He has the most expressive face I have ever seen. The expression on his face was absolutely priceless when he saw Spiderman. My son Mark and his wife Bianca really went to town to make his day special, there were balloons and party packs for every child present, and all the old aunts were there to make his day even more special. His dad organized a braai for everyone towards evening because his mom had to work all day. Tina phoned the next day to thank everyone for all their efforts.
I matched the butter icing with the colour in the edible picture.
Price of cake R250.00
