Black Chanel Handbag Cake ordered by Mr Yong

 10" x 8" chocolate cake with buttercream frosting, covered with fondant and decorated with gumpaste flowers.

Black Chanel Handbag Cake ordered by Cousin Alang Zarina

 

Wow! 2nd Chanel handbag cake in one week! Remember the white version that I made for Kaklang's surprise party a few days ago? She loved it so much, she ordered a black version to thank her colleagues for holding her a surprise birthday celebration at the office.

Since this handbag cake is black, I informed her in advance that I could only find silver chains for the handle, therefore the logo will be silver too. The original black bag comes with gold chains and logo. For the base, Kaklang requested for choc moist cake. Since it was a short notice order, I decided to used storebought gumpaste flowers instead of handmade like I did for the white version.

 

Rolling out the black fondant was a whole new experience for me. White was straightforward and easy, took slightly over 3 hours to finish decorating it. I took close to 6 hours to decorate the black version. Before this I've only done small black pieces of fondant, never a whole batch. Wow, it was quite a challenge, I think I grew a bit of arm muscle rolling it out. Used up a whole bottle of black colouring too! It's alright, next time I'll know what to expect. The other challenge was to make sure not to get black stains on the white covered board. I did it in a different style this time, to give it a slightly different twist.

Sent an MMS of the cake to Kaklang after it was completed. I'm happy she loved this one too. She replied that this time it'd be her friends who won't want the cake cut! Thank you for the order Kaklang, hope you had a great party at work!

White Chanel Handbag Cake for Glam Cousin Alang Zarina

Ahhhh... My dream cake... I've always wanted to do this cake but, no one ever orders it. So when my niece Zulaikha gave a tip that her Maklang adores Chanel, the Chanel Handbag Cake quickly came to mind. 50 is a huge milestone birthday, so the occasion is just right! Yayyyyy!

 My glam cousin Alang Zarina (or Kaklang as I call her) turned 50 yesterday. She doesn't look her age I tell you, you wouldn't believe she has grown up sons! As we were growing up, my two younger sisters and I would often get clothes and accessories from Kaklang. She had always been the stylish one in the family, and we kinda looked up to her as our fashion idol.

This time I wanted to do a different type of cake, so I tried a new recipe, Banana Yoghurt Cake. It's moist and light but firm enough to be the base for this fondant cake. I remembered that in Giuliana and Bill, they had a banana wedding cake, filled with peanut butter. Thought it would taste nice with my Banana Yoghurt Cake, and it did!

I planned to bake the cake on Friday evening, but was exhausted after a long day of decorating the Dora and Carriage cakes back to back. Luckily the party was set the next day in the evening after Maghrib at my Aunts' Maktam and Indok's house, our usual family gathering haunt. It was Saturday, so I had a whole day to do it slowly. Baked two 10" x 8" cakes at noon, left them on the rack to cool while I went hunting for the accessories at the nearby shops. The cakes were cooled by the time I got home. With bibik's help, finished decorating the cake in a jiffy. I enjoyed every moment decorating it, had dreamed of doing it since I first laid eyes on it a couple of years ago.

When the cake was brought out, the look on my cousin's face was priceless. Kaklang was so funny, after a few rounds of singing the birthday song, she still wouldn't cut the cake. "Sayangnya nak potong!", she said. Everyone said I should've done a mock cake instead, so she could keep it forever! Then came several rounds of group photos with the birthday girl and her cake, rasa macam orang kahwin pulak... After an hour of taking pictures and staring at her cake, Kaklang finally cut it. We thought we'd never get to taste the cake... haha! I am very happy that Kaklang love her glam cake, I enjoyed making it too. Happy birthday Kaklang, you have lived a large chunk of life, and I have enjoyed being around you for the chunk that I have known you out of your 50 years!

Here's the birthday girl (with her black Chanel handbag), with my mom and my three sporting aunts. From left, Makcik, Indok, Mak, Kaklang and Maktam. All of them orang kuat in the Manaf Clan and main figures in my life (there are others too, missing in the picture). Without them there wouldn't be surprise parties, monthly family feasts and outings. Now that we have all grown up, they've turned their attentions to our little ones. Spoiling them with treats and gifts, as they had done when we were young! How I envy the children now... ;p