Meg's Pastry Studio - 1st Q orders

The first quarter of 2014 has already gone by, so I thought I'd do an update on some of my cake orders. Forgot to take photos for some, whereas some photos turned out bad due to poor lighting or I was in a rush.

Rainbow and ombre cakes continue to be my main and most popular orders. My focus is still quality over quantity. As far as possible, I would avoid taking more than two orders per delivery date. On one occasion, I even rejected a second order as I wished to concentrate on the first one.

Indeed each and every cake was painstakingly crafted (with quality ingredients) and there were times when I discarded completed layers of cake or even full cakes (yes, once) because they were not up to standard. Interestingly, most people who approached me preferred cakes with less sugar, moist sponge-based cake (instead of pound cake/butter cake texture) and chantilly cream (instead of buttercream). These factors were challenges to me initially. Sugar is a key ingredient and helps to create tender cakes. Moist sponge-based cake - I don't use sponge-gel or emulsifiers to create the very fluffy and tender sponge cake like those sold commercially. So I had to work on the method and bake the cake layer by layer. Chantilly cream - melts easily in our humid weather, had to work quickly.

I guess this is the direction I'm heading and that's why I don't do fondant cakes in the first place. With each cake, I gained more experience and I'm truly grateful to everyone who placed their orders with me.

This was my biggest cake to-date. A 9" by 9" square sponge with 7 rainbow layers! Decorated with marshmallows, ribbons and a customised banner. The marshmallow and ribbon concept was requested by the birthday girl and this was what I proposed and designed eventually.

What a great contrast right? The exterior of the cake looked simple but rainbow layers were hidden inside. Ordered by a sweet wife specially for her husband who loves lychee.

Created for my yoga class, with logo of the school.

First order that requested for cream cheese frosting instead of buttercream or chantilly cream. Glad that it turned out ok, but still lots of room for improvement.

 

Created for friend's daughter who's same age as my son. In fact, this is the same design as my son's birthday cake. They saw it and liked it. I like this cake too, love how the rainbow layers were "exposed" and also fruits were sandwiched between layers of cake to create a different texture.

Ordered by an ex-neighbour cum schoolmate. We found each other through FB. Created for her mum, we used to go each other's house many years back. It was good to see her parents again after so many years!

Love the ombre shades which flowed from yellow to dark pink. Lychee seemed to be a very popular choice of flavour? Anyway, I need more practice on writing characters and wordings on top of cake.

My smallest cake to-date, 4.5" round, suitable for 2 to 4 persons. I love creating small cakes, they look so cute and sweet!

Noticed there is no chocolate cake? Haha. Coz I'm not exactly a big fan of chocolate or chocolate cake. But I know many people do, so I guess it's time for me to explore more flavours :p In fact, I have so many recipes for test bakes like patterned roll cakes, decorated chiffon cakes etc etc. Well, just have to take things one step at a time!

That's all for now. Mother's Day upcoming in May and certainly look forward to more cake orders :) I do hope more people will place cupcake orders leh, coz I have so many pretty cupcake cases!