Mr. Fluffy's Bakery (Ni Hao Kai-Lan)

My niece turned 1 and after doing a couple Kai-Lan themed cakes and decorations, I wanted to create something unique and different but especially cute for her 1st birthday.  I love the show and one of my favorite characters is Mr. Fluffy and his adorably cute bakery so I designed her cake to look just like his bakery.  I think it turned out really cute!

I had scoured the Internet and watched online videos of the show trying to find a really good picture of his home to duplicate and failed.  There were a lot of photos of the toy but none of the home as seen on the show.  As I was telling my brother about it, my 4 year old jumps in and says she has a picture as she runs into her room and comes back out with a Kai-Lan book and there was Mr. Fluffy and his bakery right inside that book - it was perfect!  My little hero!

My two kids picked out which of Mr. Fluffy's cakes I got to replicate for the decorations along the side of the cake and since we were in the midst of a heat wave and with the party being outdoors at a park, I kept everything pretty flat and two-dimensional to be safe.

The house was built and carved out of 2, 6 inch rounds and an 8 inch round for the roof.  Everything is covered and decorated in MMF including the handmade, giant chocolate chips sitting on the roof.  I'm so sorry for not having pictures of the step by step process - it was such a busy and stressful week that the camera and I just did not find each other but hopefully all of these "after" photos will help paint the picture....a 360 view around the cake.

Included below are the table center pieces made by my cousin - The lollipop flowers are so adorable and too cute!

And my sister-in-law decorated this large box to hold the birthday envelopes.  The characters were hand cut out of construction paper and glued together!  So creative and perfect - they don't look like cutouts at all!

Emily had a beautiful birthday filled with tons of family and friends, lots of delicious food and beautiful decorations made by her artsy and crafty Aunties and Mommy =)  Happy 1st Birthday Emily!

Kai-Lan and Thomas Cake Toppers

Modeling Chocolate Cake toppers ordered for a joint birthday for a little boy and a girl.

Kai-Lan is approximately 3.5 inches tall and made out of modeling chocolate.  I used RKT to shape her head and help with not making it too heavy for her tiny body and she has a 6 inch popsicle stick that runs from the middle of her head and down 3 inches past her feet to stick into the cake.  The birthday girl's favorite episode was the one about a trip to China so I made Kai-Lan in a red and yellow Chinese outfit dusted in red luster dust to look silky.  I love the little yellow knots on the front of her shirt....she turned out so cute!

I've made Kai-Lan a few times before and you can see them here with some additional instructions:  Kai-Lan

Thomas the Train was 5 inches long and about 3 inches tall.  He turned out about an inch bigger than what I had originally planned and it was also the very first time I have ever made a train like this.  I started his body out with a RKT rectangle and built up the modeling chocolate layer by layer by layer until I got his shape down perfectly.

He got a dusting of blue luster dust around his body and pearl luster dust around his face to give him a little more pop!  I loved how he turned out....beep beep!

The mother used these to top a sheet cake with.  She said that one of the kids tried to grab Kai-Lan as soon as they saw the cake and got the side of the frosting smashed - it's so nice to hear or see how the children react but what a scare to have one of them actually reach out for it!

Photo courtesy of Tania L.

Workshop: How to Make a Kai-Lan Cake Topper

I'll be teaching my 1st class/workshop on how to make a Kai-Lan cake topper out of modeling chocolate.

When: 9:00-11:00 am on Sat, March 19th, 2011

Where: Aliso Viejo, CA (exact address will be provided with RSVP)

Cost: $45 includes all supplies - all you need to bring is a box to bring her home in.

How to sign up:

1) through Facebook, it's posted as an event under www.facebook.com/sugarsweetcakesandtreats

(http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=188344201198610)

2) by emailing me at: sugarsweetcakesandtreats@gmail.com

Space is limited - RSVP due Thursday, March 11th.

Kai-Lan Beach Themed Cake Decorations

Decorations for a beach themed cake.  I made Kai-Lan and Yeye out of modeling chocolate and everything else is made out of MMF:  Rintoo (Tiger), Hoho (Monkey with sunglasses), Tolee (Koala bear that thinks he's a panda), a Hula Duck, Mr. Sun and his little, tickle-me Sun Fuzzies, Seashells, Starfish, and an assortment of Flowers.

Kai-Lan stands at almost 2.5 inches tall and Yeye is about 4 inches tall.

They each have 1 popsicle stick for support and to also stick into the cake with.  Their heads are made out of RKT (Rice Krispie Treats) since they were very large and needed to be light weight.  I covered the RKT directly with modeling chocolate:  Modeling chocolate is great at filling in all the groves and rivets from the cereal treats.  The tiny features such as Yeye's hair, eyeglasses, eyes and the Kai-Lan's apple printed bathing suit are made out of MMF (Marshmallow Fondant).

Each character was hand cut of of MMF and I used gel colors to paint in the white highlights in the eyes and on Hoho's (Monkey) sunglasses and the brown stripes on Rintoo (Tiger).  I have a tutorial on how to make these cutout characters here (Making Fondant Cutouts).

I loved making these - Ni Hao Kai-Lan is such a cute show and the characters are so adorable!

Xie Xie (thank you)!

Photo courtesy of Doris R.

Making Fondant Cutouts: Kai-Lan and Friends

There is so much to learn out there about cakes, so many different tools and techniques and from so many wonderful and talented people!  And although I'm still learning myself, I am all for sharing and helping others, so ask and you shall receive.  A request I get alot is how I make the Kai-Lan characters on 2 of my favorite cakes (pictures are posted on my Facebook Page).  So, here they are, detailed and complete with pictures so you too, can make them.

I use the web most of the time to find pictures of what I want to use but most of the time, I end up standing in front of the TV, camera in hand, and shoot away capturing any image that looks like something I would want to replicate. I then upload them and select the ones I want to use, insert them onto a sheet at the size I need (I use Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop) then print them out on regular paper. Here is one I used for this tutorial...

How to make Kai-Lan out of Fondant and/or Gumpaste:

Step 1 (Face/Body) - Trim out the paper to make a stencil, roll out the fondant to about 1/8” thick, dust the top of the fondant with some corn starch to keep the paper from sticking to it then lightly trace out the outline.

Remove the paper then, use a sharp blade to trim the face and body out, remove the excess fondant and lightly indent in some of the details such as the outline of the face and arms here.

Step 2 (Hair) – Roll out, very thinly…paper thin, black fondant, dust w/cornstarch, lay the stencil back over it, carve out the outline of the hair lightly, remove the paper, trim out the bangs 1st then trim the outline for the rest of the hair about ¼” larger than the actual outline. Brush the back with a little bit of water and carefully place the hair over the head area. Fold the black fondant down and over the sides of the cutout and trim off the excess (this way, you won’t have any of the beige showing on the sides).

For the strands of hair hanging over the ear, fold the extra piece along the sides underneath to almost create a tube and at the same time to give it some height then trim into shape: This will help raise the hair to the same level as the ears and you won’t get a weird dip below the ear.

Step 3 (Eyes) – the dreaded eyes! I love and hate this part. Love it since I don’t get those bulging eyes like you see in this picture on the left; hate it since you have 1 shot to get it right. I stack the 3 colors of the eyes one on top of each other (white, brown, black). Make each piece slightly smaller than the real eyes. I use piping tips of different sizes to cut these out then trim off the side’s straight to create ovals. Make 2 eyes at the same time so they look alike and lay them next to each other (see picture above on the left). With a rolling pin, gently and carefully with even pressure, roll the eyeballs flat (picture above on the right). If it doesn’t work and eyes get all wacky looking, you have to start all over again (the hate part). I don’t use any water between the layers to make them stick.

Step 4 (Assemble) – Roll out very thin snakes of fondant for the eyebrows and lashes or draw them in with an edible marker. I used fondant for the eyebrows, nose and mouth, then the marker for the lashes. Wet the back of each eye and carefully place on the face.  I then painted the highlights on the eyes with white gel color diluted with almond extract. Add the shirt. Use a small petal cutter for the red flowers in the hair but let them dry separately overnight so they get hard and sit flat. The following day, attach the flowers to her hair.

Repeat with the other characters…Tolee, Rintoo, Hoho, Dolphin, the Platypus…

Cut out various sized flowers; lay them over a piece of wrinkled foil to give it some shape and let everything dry overnight. I like to put everything in the oven with the pilot on overnight so that they dry faster and are also out of the way.

I made these to be raffled off at a Cake Club meeting complete with a sketch of what I was envisioning the cake to look like if the winner decided to make a Beach Themed Kai-Lan Cake.

Each piece was glued with piping gel to parchment paper then stacked in a box lined with tissue paper.

I realized until much later and only when I was going through the photo's that Tolee the Koala bear looked a little off...I had forgotten his eyebrows!  Poor little guy.

Let me know if you have any questions…I'm here to help!