This is a commission from December last year. I never had time to post it with all the Christmas madness and actually forgot all about this! I was browsing through photos from my old camera when I stumbled across it and it occurred to me that I hadn't shared it with you.
This birthday cake was for a little boy called Anush who was celebrating his very first birthday.
I disappeared from the blog for the last week, and so apologies for the silence! Our Masters cohort had our seminars last Friday, wherein we had to deliver a presentation on our research to not only our peers, but to all the other students and academics in the department as well. Not only did we have to deal with the usual fear of public speaking, but also the knowledge that our research could be torn apart by the academics during question time. Add to this the knowledge that we would be graded on our presentation as well as our ability to handle question time and we were all wrecks! My week was spent preparing and rehearsing and trying to get all my data analysed in time. It was the most busy and stressed and pressured I, and we as a collective group, have been for our whole degree.
It was exactly the time when I should have been saying no to commissions. Especially to commissions for occasions as important as a wedding.
I'm incredibly bad at saying, "no".
It was a good practise of the time management skills I've been perfecting throughout the last 7 years of University degrees.
My cousin Jessica is one of my most supportive family members when it comes to my baking adventures, as well as my most regular commissioner. A few of them have been for her son. You may remember the Baby Shower Cupcakes I made as a gift for her, or the Pirate Dreams cake for his first birthday. So when his Christening rolled around, she again asked me to make a cake for the occasion. I was more than happy to oblige.
But before we launch into the final product, there is a story of drama and tears. This cake almost didn't happen.
There are some things you never get too old to enjoy. The Cookie Monster is definitely pretty high up on that list. Be it nostalgia or just a love for the kooky blue guy, everyone seems to love him.
These cupcakes were a commission from my sister for her friend's birthday. My sister had been almost begging me for months to make these for her friend, but I kept saying it would depend on my research commitments as to whether I would have time. When my trapping schedule got delayed by a week, I found the time to fill the order, much to my sister's excitement.
There are a thousand versions of this guy in cupcake form. This is mine.
Cake commissions are one of my most loved and most hated things. I love making something inspired by the ideas of someone else, of taking a concept and running with it. But it's also terrifying. I'm the worst decision maker in the world and want to double-check every tiny aspect with the person, which is difficult as half the time the person wanting the cake doesn't even know what fondant is. I spend the whole time fretting about doing it wrong.
This cupcake tier was commissioned for a 21st birthday party. The brief was for fondant covered mudcake cupcakes, coloured hot pink and white with 21s and playboy bunnies.
This commission was a follow up from the last jungle cake I did. The gentleman ordering the cake was hosting a party for his son and decided he’d like a similarly themed tiered cake with a few changes. He also wanted a batch of cupcakes, but we’ll save that one for another post. This one is going to be fairly pic heavy, so if you’re on dial up you’re about to really dislike me.
After I did the charity cake for my boyfriend's work, I got a sudden spark of interest in purchasing some baked goods off of me. One of his co-workers had his son's birthday in two days and wanted to know if I could do it. Because I'm crazy and clearly am not busy enough, I said yes.
The brief was for a small cake for 5 or 6 people with jungle animals.
After I took part in RSPCA's Cupcake Day, I suddenly got a few people very [legitimately] interested in purchasing some cupcakes for themselves. Ever since I started getting more seriously into cake decorating, I have had a myriad of offers and requests about purchasing, but they always fell through for one reason or another.
So I find it amusing how, now when I am doing a Masters degree and barely have time to cook dinner every night, I suddenly have an influx of orders! The lady this one was for is a colleague of my boyfriend's — she was especially generous in both her donation and support for the RSPCA fundraiser, so I just wanted to find the time to make sure I could do this for her.
Cakecrumbs 