Celebrating Mom's 50th Birthday.

Since my trip to Singapore; I have been occupied with planning and cake preparations for Mom's birthday get-together last Saturday. Her birthday is coming up on the 21st...but we picked a date convenient for everyone. I would call it a HUGE pARTY~ but..mom kept saying it was just a small family gathering and a couple of friends. I guess mom's from the older Chinese generation where each family had 8-10 kids! 60-over relatives and close friends of Mom came by to feast and celebrate Mom's big 5-0. Relatives came from Far and wide! Some even drove interstate to make it to her birthday dinner~ You can tell my mommy's very like-able *grin* She's the last amongst her siblings to turn 50! The family's favorite baby~

It still hard for me to think she's almost half a century old! Mom's still very young at heart. Months before I came home; she requested in advance a *HUge+CUTE cake...with lotsa colours and cute animals~*faints*. My mom collects soft toys, wears cute pyjamas to bed and enjoys watching Disney cartoons over and over again! It's hard to believe she's 50! I had quite a challenge with her cake; I had to create a design I knew she would love without going over the top with the "kiddy-ness" of it all. I didn't exactly want the guests to think that I was completely insane to bake a child's cake for my mom!
Here's what I came up with...Mom was born in the year of the monkey(Chinese calendar); hence the fondant cartoon Monkey Queen and banana slices sandwiched with coffee+walnut sponge layers as cake. I covered the cake with white chocolate ganache and made truffle balls covered in coconut to frame the cake board. The bits and pieces (ribbons+flowers) were molded from fondant, and the tree trunk was made from stacked cupcakes held together with a couple of dowels.
I have been stressing tons over my mom's cake for the past couple of days...*It HAD to be nice*....mom and dad would be telling the world " My Daughter made it!!"; so......yea, I couldn't exactly risk having it turn out tasting bad. LOL
Luckily for me...everyone was impressed with the way it looked...which helped soothe me a little~ I got many pats on the back and kind comments from aunts, uncles and cousins! They all wanted to be photographed with the cake! LOL..some even thought the accessories were store bought! Haha.. I admit...I was a tiny bit proud of myself. *cheeky grin* Most of the guests thought the cake was delicious...there wasn't much to go around, but I divided it into tiny squares to allow everyone to have a small portion. A couple of ladies thought I could have done better with a less sugar; but *shrug* can't please everyone I guess.Mom had a long buffet spread and a chocolate fountain up paired up with fruits, berries and marshmallow skewers! Everyone stuffed themselves silly with delicious food...made heaps of noise and finished the night with glasses of Mom's precious red wines. You can tell from the happy faces; the party was a success!