Birthday Cake - The Mermaid's World : December 2007

5.The waving mermaid

4. The closer view again

3. The closer view

2. The front view

1. The mermaid cake

This birthday cake was made for a little girl in Botswana, who wanted a mermaid for her 4th birthday. It was a challenge to meet the little angel's imaginations & expectations ! Well, I tried to be a little girl and think from her point of view and i could see the star-fish, colured sea-shells, rocks, reefs of different hue, marine plants, octopus and a lovely mermaid, sitting on a rock and resting her hand on it. A brave attempt to fulfil a girl's fantasy of the little mermaid in her world, using fondant and marzipan.

Four-tier Wedding Cake - Rose Bouquet : December 2007

5. The display at marriage hall

4. The final cake arrangement

3. The top layer view

2. The top layer cake

1.The preparation at home

This four layer wedding cake was made for a Bostwana couple, who adore rose bouquet on a white cake. The rose bouquet has blossom flowers and a ivy creeper. The sides of the cakes are covered with scrolls and patchwork of small rose flowers.

Three-tier Wedding Cake - An African Theme : November 2007

This cake was made using the sugarcraft, modelling, painting and icing techniques. It was my first experiment to make a wedding cake using an African Theme, as this is what was expected of me to do. The wedding couple from Botswana love the traditional wedding cake and I tried to use my imagination, after having lived here for 10 years. The masks, the quills, the woven pottery, the giraffe and zebra skins are an important theme and I tried to make them using fondant and marzipan, from what ever i know till now. Everything was edible.

Three-tier Wedding Cake : November 2007

The wedding cake made in 9 hours on special request from a person, who i could not refuse. It was made for a lovely Bostwana Couple.

Five-Tier Wedding Cake - Indian Bridal Theme 2: November 2007

I was happy with my experiment of fusion of art.The wedding was at Gaborone International Conference Centre, Grand Palm Hotel.

Five-Tier Wedding Cake - Indian Bridal Theme 1: November 2007

It involved making 65 roses, over 250 little blossom flowers & 35 leaves

The preparation started at Francistown and the six cakes were taken in a car for 460 kms for the marriage in Gaborone. The classical multi-layered cake was blended with the indian theme of marriage to give it an ethnical indian appeal. I spent three long nights to make the preparation for the cake and the last night was spent in giving finishing touches to the cake. The drapes and the cake itself, luckily, remained intact during the journey.

Sugarcraft inspirations from a bonsai bloom

The flowers bloomed after 15 years on a bonsai plant (species still unknown to me) here in Botswana in November 2007. I manged to capture few shots digitally but what awes me is it's pure sheer pristine beauty ! My camera could not capture it's perfection enough ! The edges kept on blurring even with very high resolution..such is Nature's perfection.

It has become again my source of inspiration for sugarcraft !

Birthday Cake : November 2007

The birthday cake was made of chocolate and decorated with sugarcraft flowers of myriad types e.g. orchids, roses etc.

My experiment with flora:Tiger Lily

With examinations over and festive mood in the air, it's creativity time again. Made this tiger lily with roses and ivy creeper and little blossom flowers. Soon will post the 'how series' on how I made the different flowers and foliage by drawing inspiration and understanding from different books and online information available.

Two-tier wedding reception cake: October 2007

At this time of the year , Botswana blooms with lilies of different hues and you can draw inspiration from them. Made this reception cake with lilies for recently married young vibrant couple of NIIT, Botswana.

Between life's duty and creativity !

The month of October was busy with my MBA examinations.

Bridal Affair: Soni's Cake 5 -Two tier cake with orchids

I made this yellow cake with orchids to add colour to jesty and upwardly mobile young generation. Well ! lot of youngsters came to the stall and wanted me to make similar cakes with bright and bold colours ! I was happy with the experiment !

Bridal Affair: Soni's Cake 4 + Three-tier wedding cake with roses

A plain and simple three-tier wedding cake with a rose posy was much liked for its sheer elegance. Some visitors commented that too many flowers of different varieties spoil the elegance of simplicity. I could not agree more !

Bridal Affair: Soni's Cake 3 - Three-tier wedding cake with arum lilies

This was my first endeavour to make arum lilies and try free hand drawing on the cake. Well, the visitors to the stall loved the cake but i still feel i need to practice more and make lilies again to give them the perfection they require !

Bridal Affair: Soni's Wedding Cake 2 - Three-tier cake with day lilies

I experimented for the first time with day liles that are very popular as part of the wedding cakes in Bostwana. I also tried the jacobian style and experimented with dust and clours !

Bridal Affair: Soni's Wedding Cake 1 - Three-tier heart of roses

All persons who visited the stall were happy with the way the wedding heart, full of roses was poised over the two -tiered cake. And they wanted to have it immediately..i had difficulty explaining the dummy part of the cake !

Bridal Affair 2007: The Display on 23 September 2007

The display of the cakes were done under ' Soni's Cakes' at the Marang Residency Hotel

Bridal Affair 2007: The Final Stages

On 26 September 2007, i was able to embellish the dummy cakes with various sugarcraft tools

and think of use of the clours and dusts for various sugar flowers that i wanted to decorate the

cakes with. I experimented for the firts time with jacobian style of decorating the cakes, make

lilies and different types of roses and orchids. I also tried to paint the cake just to get the feel.

Bridal Affair 2007: Preparation

I had just two weekends to prepare the dummy cakes as had to travel to South Africa for 10 days for MBA classes. I looked for support from my hubby and he grudingly agreed. He spent time in different hardware shops looking for styrofoam or thermocole. He could not get the thermocole of exact thickness, so his carpentary skills were under lens as he patiently used dinner plates of different sizes to make marks with colouring pens on the thermocole and used hacksaw blade to cut out different shapes. It was a sight to see him covered with granules & bits of thermocole, electrostatically charged covering his dress. And then my heavy managment books came handy, when we glued three pieces of 30 mm thick thermocole, put the books over them to press them & left them overnight to dry. I had decided to make six wedding cakes of different tiers, as you can see in the pic. One weekend was spent in sticking thermocloles to give shape to different designs which i had thought to display.The other weekend was spent in preparing sugar paste (also known as fondant) and covering the cut and well glued 16 thermocole dummy cakes, as i might call them, with the sugarpaste. On the last sunday, I ordered food from Nando's and spent the evening giving finishing touches to the dummy cakes....remove creases, smoothen them etc. Whew, it was hectic ! but confidence has grown within !

Fourth Wedding Exhibition: Bridal Affair 2007

National wedding exhibition known as Francistown Bridal Affair 2007 took place at Marang Residency Hotel on 23 September 2007. The exhibition was attended by well over 500 persons from all over Botswana. It show caused a range of products including wedding gowns, wedding gifts, decoration pieces, cakes and services as photography and event management. I took part in the exhibition and displayed sugarcraft wedding cakes as 'Soni's Cakes'. The response was overwhelming and one of the best remarks received from the organiser was' the cakes are lovely and we dont see such cakes in Gaborone' . I have been invited to attend the National Exhibition in Gaborone in 2008. As a beginner, I am really happy and want to share my joy with you all on how i made preparations for the exhibition and about my effort into it.
The comments and words of encouragement that i am getting through several e-mails has given me confidence and joy to take a step further in sugarcraft and my pages of a beginner's diary is getting filled with your wonderful supportive and encouraging words !

Three-tier engagement cake: August 07

Hi ! i made this cake for a family friend in Francistown, BOTSWANA on the occassion of their daughter's engagement ceremony in August, with 21 roses and filigree ring box at the top. Started my jouney a few months ago, by reading sugarcraft books and feel it can be done by anyone interested in the art form.
I welcome your comments to critique me..for continual improvement !

Two-tier anniversary cake: April 07

I experimented with orchids with little i know from reading sugarcraft books....but my dear friend was very happy on her wedding anniversary with this small gesture of love !

Two-tier anniversary cake: April 07

Made this cake for a close friend on their wedding anniversary. Glewed three inverted wine glasses on a cut glass and with a basket of roses on the top. My friend liked it and i felt very happy for my effort. Infact , journey of 5 kms to their house took almost 30 minutes !! But all was intact !