A summer carousel

The thing about being so near the equator is that we're perpetually in the sun's path, getting the full-scale blazing love. 

Which is why we don't fully appreciate, or even comprehend summer.

We're too busy trying to stay cool and not inflict tropical humidity wetness to the next person to even think about the summer concept.
> How do you stay cool?
> Best uses of beer

Summer fun? 

More like eternal furnace.

But with all the crazy extreme weather happening around the world, I am very grateful for this somewhat normal summer here in Singapore/Hong Kong. 

So dressed in my best summer singlet and breeziest summer shorts, I'd like to invite you to celebrate the summer sun with a dappy day out to the summer fair carousel, with the happiest little birthday girl!

More summer colors:
> Color me happy!
> A very hungry caterpillar
> A purple green birthday
> Poppin' dots cake pops
> Yellow and green, colors of world cup

Don't believe Wilton products that say 'easy to use' in the instruction manual. You usually need an engineer's degree to assemble their showpieces, after which you'll need to spend considerable time decorating them.

This carousel top took several hours to put together, starting with orange and purple fondant panels.

Red, green, blue, pink and yellow accents are hand-piped with stiff royal icing, make sure you have enough time for everything to dry so that it's all nice and sturdy when you put it on the cake. 

A cheery pop of yellow crowning the cake's top tier, 

as the ponies get a-galloping after their royal icing dries off.

20 little fingers eagerly inching closer to the cake, as the finishing touches go up.

Rainbow cake (recipe here): A perennial favorite with kids, and perfect for the summer carousel party!

I love theme parties, the crazy OCD in me just gets such a kick out of 

matching colors and patterns. The birthday girl's mom did a fantastic 

job getting these cute little buckets for giveaways, every 

child was a SUPER happy child by the end of the party.

> Eat kind for kids

Happy birthday, beautiful Ellie!

More happy birthdays:
> A busy day at the construction site
> Dinosaur roarrrr
> Rabbity cake pops

> 10 years young

> A Rilakkuma birthday

> Elmo cake pops

> Curious George, is that you?

Petite Pops goes to the zoo ... Ponies!

And so begins the Petite Pops animal series...

Animals are irresistable. Something about their half-suprised expressions and doe-eyed faces. Most at least. Some a little diabolical or deranged-looking. Or maybe it's their helplessness - endears them, makes people want to reach out and hug them.

I've had a couple of animal requests recently, and I'll start off with the latest - pretty ponies!

Happy birthday sweet Hannah!

This was for an adorable little 5-year old munchkin, who is in love with ponies. Her cheeky face lights up with an extra wide grin when ponies are in the room, and her mommy arranged for pretty pony cookies for school for her birthday.

I did some pony cake pops for her, and they kinda put a grin on her face too :)

These were done kinda on the fly, I didn't have very much time to test and try as I usually like to do.

I started out sculpting the entire pony from cake. But of course, their odd shape and uneven weight distribution slid them right off the pop stick. 7 mins was all it took before they came crashing down.

Change of plans: let's do the pony body out of cake, and the rest will be fondant and royal icing add ons.

That worked much better.

Have to say, ponies aren't the easiest to shape freehand. Have you tried drawing their manes or horsey heads??

I ended up combining molded die-cuts, and freehand shaping to create the right shapes and sizes to fit the little cake pop bodies.

Yellow hair... not a bad look...



They may not look like it here -
but these are actually the pony legs!



And of course we needed to dress them up in the sweetest pastel colours, fit for a pretty little birthday princess.

Pale yellow on baby pink mane, ash blue limbs, yellow on blue saddles.

All done.

These little babies made me smile too :)