Lucky little baby Sophie got to celebrate her 1st birthday not once, but twice! Continuing the Chinese-themed birthday like her cakes from yesterday, I got to make 3-tiered birthday cake and more cupcakes for her Birthday Hongbao celebration!
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| Chinese 1st Birthday Hongbao Celebration Cake |
The top tier of the cake was strawberry cake, filled with fresh strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream. I decorated it to look like a cheongsam, with the collar and fancy button. To top the cake, I made a standing Chinese doll figurine out of fondant.
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| Qipao detail on the top tier |
If you look closely, you can see she is holding an ang pao with the Chinese character for "spring" written on it with edible gold marker! I really like how the figurine turned out. Different from the sitting Chinese doll figurine I made for Sophie's previous cake, but with the same hairdo.
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| Chinese doll fondant figurine holding a hongbao |
The middle tier is a chocolate rum and raisin cake, filled with rum buttercream. Lots of Bacardi rum was used in this cake and buttercream. Definitely an adult flavour!! It is decorated in yellow. To make it look more Chinois, I added a red "reverse L" border all around her name, hand-piped using royal icing.
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| lucky red & prosperous gold colours |
There are also a pair of Chinese knots on either side. I put these on at the venue because the tassels at the bottom are quite delicate. The final loops at the top were added with red royal icing to complete the look. I love how they turned out!
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| fondant Chinese knot |
The bottom tier is a vanilla butter cake, filled with vanilla bean Swiss meringue buttercream. It is a light and fragrant cake, a good alternative to the usual chocolate. There is a golden horse in the middle with Sophie's Chinese name, 偲俨, written on it with red royal icing. Why is it a horse when this Chinese New Year is ushering in the year of the goat? Well, because Sophie was born in the year of the horse! That's why. Hehe.
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| bottom tier |
On either side of the horse are some cherry blossom branches. I don't have a cherry blossom cutter, so I had to settle on using a daisy cutter, but I think they turned out alright. The branches are made out of dark chocolate fondant. That's the only type of fondant I'll eat, cuz it tastes like a tootsie roll!
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| Sophie's Chinese Name |
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| cherry blossom detail |
For ease of transportation, I assembled the cake at the party venue. Again, it was an outdoor venue and I was worried about how long the cake would stand without condensation forming or the fondant drooping. Fondant isn't meant for 35C, 99% humidity weather in the tropics, man. But it held out just fine. I wouldn't give it longer than an hour though, outdoors, in this type of weather. Fondant decorated cakes do best in a cool air-conditioned room.
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| 3-tiered birthday cake |
I love how this cake turned out! There were lots of guests already at the party when I started assembly, and they were quite interested in what I was doing, especially Sophie's grandma. It's tough to put together the final details under pressure, with lots of eyes on you, but I'm glad my hands managed to shake only a little and everything was put together smoothly.
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| Birthday Cupcakes |
In addition to the birthday cake, there were also lots of lime cupcakes with lime Swiss meringue buttercream frosting, and double Vanilla bean cupcakes, with vanilla bean Swiss meringue buttercream frosting. The cupcakes were topped with 3D Chinese coins, golden number 1s and longevity peach buns, brushed with a bit of shimmery pink lustre dust to make it look more realistic. The red square and the pink flowers on each cupcake tied the whole thing in nicely with the cake.
Wishing baby girl Sophie, a very happy 1st birthday!
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| Sophie's Birthday Hongbao Celebration Cake & Cupcakes |
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