Dec 13, 2008

The Seasons of Life

Tomorrow my 'baby' will be 18 years old. We are throwing a big party for Natasha today at my mom's place. She asked for a chocolate cake, decorated in a garden theme. I had too many ideas of what to do. But in the end, this was what I came up with. This cake marks her coming of age, almost out of teen-hood, and growing into a young woman.

It is a 3 tier cake. Bottom and centre tier is a rich chocolate cake that had orange peel and Cointreau added. Top tier is a rich fruit cake filled with dried cranberries and golden raisins and laced with roasted hazelnuts.

The decorations was to show all the things she loved as a child and as she grew up, she wanted designer bags and shoes, all the food she grew up loving to have. Her sister helped to draw the facial expressions in one of the fondant figurines. A little girl cuddling up with pillows and blanket.

It was covered in Chocolate Marshmellow fondant which I made and added Peppermint extract. And I also mixed it with Satin Ice's Chocolate Fondant which I bought a month ago. It was the most delicious fondant I have ever bought to use. I added Varlhorna chocolate powder and Varlhorna dark chocolate bars to make the sugar paste.

The baking of the cake, plus decorating took me a day's work. I started early at 9am yesterday. By 11am,the cakes are cooling. I made the fondant and the other decorations. In between periods, I rested and also cooked all the sambal(chilli) pastes to be used in the BBQ today.








The seasons of life, that is what this cake is..as it shows the seasons of her life, seen in the eyes of a doting mother.

Happy 18th Birthday, my dearest Natasha

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Natasha, may our Good Lord bless you and your family abundantly!
Gina, you r a wonderful mom!
and you made one very good looking cake.
God Bless us all,

Cookie said...

Dear Gina,

This cake not only marks your baby's birthday, but also 18 yrs of your motherhood!

I hope you both have a fantastic celebration!

Cheers,
cookie

Cookie said...

I more thing Gina, I am curious where you get the satin ice fondant, and after tasting, do u think it is worth splurging?

Gina Choong said...

cookie, i got it from Chong Trading at The Adelphi. Yes, its worth every cent I spent on it. Its not the first time I have used it. I first started using it in May this year for Mother's Day cake. This time round, I don't have enough to cover this cake, so I mix my own MMF with it.

Cookie said...

Hi Gina,

I went down to Chong Trading last Friday after work but it is already closed. Chey.

Surprised that the store close so early... looks like it is only catered to professional bakers.

Regards
Cookie