For my daughter E’s first birthday last year, I came up with the idea of making a mini bundt cake tower. For one whole year since then, I’d had this question niggling at the back of my head: What clever cake can I come up with next year?
In the end, her 2nd birthday came last week and I found myself doing the ultimate loser thing: I copied a design from Martha Stewart. Why? Because this cake is just the cutest darn thing I’ve ever laid my eyes on.
I mean, look at it! It has colourful lollipops stuck all over like little flowers, and even frilly grass creeping up from the sides. Forget about being original, man. This is one copy-cake I wanted to eat.
But mind you, mimicry is an art.
There was a lot of walking back and forth between kitchen and balcony – where there was direct daylight – before I could colour the buttercream the exact same shade of green as the original.
And I’m a little embarrassed to say that it took quite a few teaspoonfuls of green colouring to achieve it – so much so that I was afraid our guests who ate it would look into their toilet bowls the next morning and wonder if they had overdosed on vegetables.
There was also much fussing over the size and colours of the gummies that were to be skewered with satay sticks and stuck on the cake. I even went out especially to buy the right sized leaf piping tip so that my grass sheaves would look nothing short of perfect.
The verdict? When E’s de facto godmother C first saw the cake, she cried: “It’s just like the real thing!!” And my husband Z, no doubt inspired by the piped-in muzak we always hear in supermarkets, proudly declared to his friends that I am a “cover artiste”.
Me? For someone who has never bought a fake good in her life (never bought a branded good either), I’m totally pleased about my counterfeiting prowess. If I were a city, my name would be Zhen. Shenzhen.
hi zhen,
i see only one zhen in this cake: zhen ai.
awww… that brought a tear to my eye. zhen ai indeed!!
your kid is so cute! and the cake looks gorgeous.
was it a butter cake?
yup! a super soft butter cake spiked with orange zest. it tasted really good too! 🙂
Yeah, your cake makes me want to break out into a stirring rendition of “世上只有妈妈好!”.
Love, love the grass.
How are you going to top this one next year?
thank you, thank you!
i’m hoping this time next year martha stewart will produce another super-cute design.. :p
i love your cake! when i was pregnant, in the first trimester, i had craving for those exact gummies you skewered with satay sticks!
guess what, turns out i have gestational diabetes too!! 157! so no more gummies or any sort of cake for me until i pop. watta bummer!
oh, happy belated birthday, en en!!!
thank you auntie clarac 🙂
The cake is mighty adorable, but your daughter’s a show-stealer lah! Hen ke ai! Happy birthday to your lil one 🙂
heehee… xie xie auntie!
i can’t stop looking at this photo and comparing it to the one taken when she turned one. how time flies! 🙂
the cake is absolutely adorable and little en en is stunning.. i could eat them both up.. superbly gorgeous, and i am sure it tasted even better than it looks…
Love K
heehee thanks kat! and yes, please email me your wedding cake photo at tepial@gmail.com. happy wedding!
Ah Zhen ! 好樣的!haha ! What a beautiful cake ! Am sure it tastes as good too!
Happy Birthday to dear EN EN !!! She is so adorable 🙂
thank you auntie daph! 🙂
How lovely! cute and kitschy cake…with a cuter daughter to boot!
well done….. =)
hope everything’s coming along well with Junior 2 still taking up residence in your tummy!
thanks babe! everything is fine. two months to go and i cannot wait! first thing i wanna do is eat at the most expensive buffet in town. this pregnant diet of 6 small bites a day is driving me crazy!
Six small bites a day?? That’s not a diet, that’s a torture regime.
Christmas is a-coming, you gotta practice making Martha’s Yuletide cakes and desserts!
tell me bout it! you won’t believe the number of cakes i’ve had to pass on in the office these few weeks. this christmas is NO FUN!
happy birthday to en en! ha, she looks like she’s ready to attack the cake in the picture. Can’t blame her… and can imagine Z is probably saying “don’t move, stay still…” behind the camera.
@#%%^*… Your georgeous cake and En En make me want to put my son up for adoption… or in exchange for a daughter!!!
*Sob*.
hahahaha… this really made me LOL! am sure your son isn’t that bad la 🙂