Rilukkuma (リラックマ) Peanut Butter Cake

This is my second time making Rilukkuma-themed cake. The first one can be found in this post

The sugar model cake toppers were made 2 days in advance to ensure adequate time for it to dry. Cocktail sticks were inserted in each bear to serve as the bears' "spines." The eyes and mouths were diluted gel paste coloring, drawn with drawing brush. (Yes, I was very nervous when doing it.)

The cake itself is 2 lbs. peanut butter cake, Martha's recipe.

The 'spilt water' is made from blue fondant. I decided to leave the side of the cake naked because the color of the peanut butter buttercream itself, plus the vertical stoke by spatula, could resemble wooden bathtub. It turn out to be my lucky choice because I just realized after the cake is frosted that the cake was so soft, a bit too soft, and high ratio of peanut butter in the frosting made it melt too easily. It would be difficult to hold a shape for fondant covering.

Anyhow, everyone was so excited with the cuteness of the characters. More importantly, the cake itself was very delicious too! It was a true crowd pleasure. Thanks again to Martha's recipe -- always reliable.

To see my first Rilukkuma cake, please go to this post.

Updated on May 2012:

The cupcake version of this peanut butter cake are shown in this post. You can also click on the link on that page for the recipe. 

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

Though not a big fan of chocolate mint, I couldn't resist the color of its minty green frosting. Too cute. Thus, Chocolate Peppermint Cupcake was the first recipe I baked after I'd got the recipe book by Cupcake Carousel Bakery.

March of the {Royal} Swine Troop!

One of my BFF since childhood loves baking and making desserts, in fact it's been her life. She's been into it since at very young age. Almost every birthday celebration she's the one who baked. Everyone knew, without any actual agreement, that if she was invited, just left the cake issue on her. She would be the one responsible for it -- yet impressed us every time. Now she owns the phenomenal dessert cafes, with 4 branches in Bangkok and still growing.

Sadly, on the birthday of her who baked us decent cakes, we could only order some store bought cakes for her. So this year, as I'm climbing up my baking ladder, another friend of mine suggested I bake 'pig-theme' cake for the birthday gal.

At the beginning, I planned the theme would be a combination of piggy (her fav creature) + royalty (she's the dessert "princess"). Somehow at this point, I think it might be wonderful if I can personalize the cake to be more spoken -- to be hers, and hers only.

That further touch could be but her beloved famous dessert cafes. But the addition must harmonize with the main theme. Think.. think.. think.

Logo should be the most obvious element to stand for the brand. So I'd play around with it. The original one is ram head in scallop border. So I made a mimic one featuring a pig head in the same gesture ;)

 Let's see the work

The {mimic} logo and the heads

The crowns for little piggies

Here they come!

 

 The base cupcakes were Maple Walnut Cupcakes and Monkey Devil's Food Cupcakes (Devil's Food cake with bananas). You can see the recipe on my earlier posts.

• Maple Walnut Cupcakes
• Monkey Devil's Food Cupcake

Barbapapa Cake

March is the birth month of my hubby. After listing the cake themes I wanna try out, I ended up with Barbapapa. Why? Because the characters are so adorable. Besides, the free-form look of their shapes seem attainable for a first-timer fondant "cakerator" like me. Brilliant. I'd go for it.

Strawberry Cupcakes (with Recipes)

And so I did it again.... Strawberry Cupcakes from Spinkles Cupcakes Bakery.
But this time I only did one batch with lots of strawberries stirred in the batter as per request of strawbery-lovers. This earlier post shows the last time I baked it.

Above is how I puree strawberries for the buttercream with a knife. Such a labor work. I should consider getting a blender ;P

Strawberry Cupcakes

I live in tropical area. Winter is the season for strawberries. So I made some strawberry cupcakes as a 'test bake' for the upcoming Valentine's Day. The recipes are from the renowned Beverly Hills cupcakes bakery "Sprinkles Cupcakes".

Rilakkuma (リラックマ) Double Chocolate Cake

My nephew would turn 1 this month. I wanna to make a special cake for his very first birthday.

I chose Rilukkuma (リラックマ) as the theme. It is Japanese cartoon character. The name 'Rilukkuma' derives from Rilak (relax) + Kuma (bear) hence meaning bear in relaxing mood.

via (clockwise from top-left) : {1} {2} {3} {4}

For the cake, I went for chocolate cake with airy texture which would be a compliment to milk chocolate ganache. I used milk chocolate instead of my usual dark chocolate for the ganache to give light brown color to match the color of the bear. Also its sweeter and creamier taste should be more kid-friendly than dark chocolate ganache.

Then it's time to cover the cake. I decided to leave the texture unsmooth so that it looked like stuffed toy bear. At first I made a yellow circle from tinted white chocolate ganache at each of its ears but it was too runny. So I took it out and just left the ears plain brown. The white section at the nose was made from whipped cream. The eyes, nose and mouth was made from melted dark chocolate.

Now he's ready to wish the boy a very happy birthday!

Everyone especially the birthday boy's parents were so excited. Lol. They also enjoyed the double chocolate cake. Hope my nephew will be happy too when he grow up and see the picture of his first birthday.

I really love the vanilla moment a cake can bring to a special occasion :)

Great-grandfather was giving the boy a piece of cake.