September 15, 2008

Till the dawn.

I am distracted by the calling of sparrows.
It made me think of sunrise.. of morning...
Wait! MORNING?!!! ...It's morning already!?!?! I scramble to wipe my purple hands clean of food colouring, I reach for my cellphone.. to my dismay; Yes it is morning.
*sigh* I'm running out of time! I grab at the tiny fondant shavings and begin kneading it into a tiny lump resembling a car.

It was 5 hours past the 12th of September. oh my.. it was over before I could wish myself a happy birthday. As I pulled up the blackout blinds of my work room; I begin to wonder when was the last time I made cakes till the sun rose. It must have been at least 3 years since. The evanescent morning mist greets me as I push open a window for some fresh air.
My fingers are still working; covered in everything sugary and sticky.. i look down at them; sigh* They've come a long way these 10 little stumps of mine.

I glance at the fruits of my labour. It's a miniature model of Spiderman's city I suppose. It's a little kitsch for a comic book replica, but I'm pretty pleased with how my version of New York at night looked. I couldn't have possibly done this exact piece in less than a day 4 years ago. Not without my airbrush....not without these seasoned stumps. I smile at the thought.
Does this mean I get to head to bed now?
Now that it looks 'almost' like a spiderman lives in it?
I wasn't sure.

I flicked at the light switch to help decide. It glows; like a city... in the dark ... ahhh i love it; i think of Leong and Em who stayed past 11pm to help assist me with my Spidey project. I have great friends. I couldn't have done it on my own.

Sigh* I recall the state of panic Em and I were at dinner time. We were expecting to turn up to Joshua's birthday party on Wednesday; but it was apparently the party on Saturday that the cake was needed. Lena and Em were both in shock when i voluntarily exclaimed, "No worries; I'll do it! I'll finish it by evening tomorrow!"
To be absolutely honest; I wasn't so sure about all that myself at that moment.
Well, it was definitely worth an attempt; I thought.
I didn't want to leave adorable Joshua cake-less on his birthday. I had to try; and I was going to do it well. It was the most important cake I had that week; and I had thought about it lots prior to the weekend; I was pretty confident in bringing it to life within a day.
As soon as the early morning sunshine began to warm the room up; I swiftly shut the blinds. It's time for air conditioning again...and come to think of it; it's time for me to head to bed for at least a couple hours of eye shut.
Surprisingly enough; I wasn't tired; I was awake, alert and very enthusiastic about completing this cake I had in front of me. All that was missing from this Spiderman masterpiece is the Spiderman itself!! I chuckled to myself... it was a 'slight' detail I had conveniently left out. As I spoon my darling mac book into my arms and head for the bedroom, I switched the magical lights on one more time; just to stare at the city's dazzling awesome-ness! I smile. *THE CAKE LIGHTS UP!* i whisper to myself.I rose at 9 that morning; I couldn't sleep anymore, the excitement of finally completing the finishing touches had been keeping me up and tossing about in bed. I pulled on a pair of shorts and headed straight for my waiting cake. Of course; the very first thing I did was.... switch the light on again. *laughs* it almost felt like a switch which excited butterflies in my stomach; which gave me a boost of enthusiasm every time I needed one. Leong was genius to have hidden the wires and battery so well. It looked amazing!Now all this city needed was a Super hero. I got to work.
6 hours later; I found myself struggling. Awesome city; but still not a superhero in sight. I toy-ed around the idea of buying a plastic spidey and placing him on one of the roof tops. Sis shot the idea down with "but that's CHEating!" She was so right. I put so much effort into this city and I'm going to finish this... and I'm going to make this spiderman out of sugar; he will have a web; and he will be painted, he will be proportionate and he will be an awesome spiderman! Pure perseverance paid off. My frustrated little stumps pushed and twirled over and over again till I was satisfied...and this time; spidey upside down-suspended from a building was perfect. It felt like the most rewarding finish of the day. I envisioned Em and Lena's sigh of relief in my mind. I was happy to have done everyone proud. The cake is complete.I can't say I feel the same about spiderman and his villain friends anymore. Extreme hatred for all things spiderman is close to what describes it. *grin* It was not easy; but as I watched Lena and Christine excitedly pick out tiny painful details of the city that afternoon, I couldn't help but blush. They had made my entire night worth every waking moment.


**if any were wondering: Yes; the whole city was cake sculpted and covered in a sugar dough. The details were done in sugar and coloured with food colour too. There was a little plastic cupcake container cut in half used as the backing of the dome where the light source is; but everything else is edible. Of course; not the bulbs and the wires under the cake. *grin*

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW... this is so INCREDIBLE and Amazing job ...!!!
Tums up for you Siu Yin

Yenny

Anonymous said...

from your sketch it looks like you put your construction degree to good use.

keep it up, you're good at what u do.

Anonymous said...

hey! i was just wondering, is the WHOLE city edible? :P

Hany said...

WOW! ... just WOW! ^_^

grace said...

Your work is amazing. I just stumbled on your site and looked at your "edible artwork" section and I was speechless. uber-talented! xoxo

Anonymous said...

I've been reading your blog for a while. You are simply AMAZING & TALENTED, Su-Yin.

Mrgie

thanh7580 said...

This is definitely one of your best cakes. I may be biased as I love comic book heroes. The flashing light just tops it all off perfectly. Great job Su. Keep it up.

Family First said...

Fuyoh! Malaysia Boleh! Will have to wait till I get my first ever paid post job before I can start saving up to order one from you!

Carolina deWitte said...

Oh, where do you get the patience to do things like this? Even if I COULD do things like this, I would never have the patience to do all the fiddly details you managed to do. I would have thrown my arms up, and ran away screaming. It is awesome though. I hope the birthday boy appreciated it, and took a million photos.

~Ling~ said...

Cool! U r ever so creative! Enjoy coming here. By the way, M just curious how do you get the city all wired up in the cake?

Poorni Pillai said...

Amazing job! Very ingenious. If I had any suggestion, it would have been a couple of streelights- real little lights to make it a wee bit brighter :)

Anonymous said...

wow! wow! wow! this is superbly made! congrats Su, you are way beyond artistic!

Mallini said...

Here's an idea, next time, a fireplace cake, WITH A REAL FIRE!

Anonymous said...

You are just so amazing working on those sugar paste!

Btw, are you in KL? In Nov and Dec, I'll be celebrating my 2 daugther's birthday.

1 love princess, another love sesame street.

How much do you charge for cupcake or cake with that theme?

Let me know. zarasmama@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

another great cake~ as a personal spiderman fan, it looks great!

Chef C said...

Is there anything that you can't do??

Anonymous said...

Whoooahhh you are crazily awesome!!

Dee baker said...

SU!!!..that is truly amazing and one of a kind, would love to have the cake for my son's b'day, I'm sure both the kids and the adults will be truly surprise by the details of the cake and the light that goes with the cake!!...
where do you get all the ideas and inspirations eh?..oh man, you are awesome :)

Anonymous said...

FAN.TAS.TIC.

My plasticine skills are crap so I can forget about doing any of this haha!

Anonymous said...

That is just freaking awesome! :)

PG CakeCraft said...

hi, just visited ur blog and OMG! what a fantastic creation. i'm just lost for words to describe ur tenacity.

Vissi said...

WOW ... respect!

Anonymous said...

wow su, your cake is sooooo not going to be eaten. its sooo nice! am really glad that you are getting fantastic cake orders!
m

My Sweet & Saucy said...

Love all of your work!

Anonymous said...

OH MY GOD SU YIN.... Wonderful !!!!!! Absolutely WONDERFUL... I cannot find other words to describe this. .. you are so talented!!

0℃ said...

u are really talented in this, its totally lovely ...........................

Gia said...

you kick so much ass su!
missin you in sf, xoxo gia

Su-Yin -Décorateur said...

Thanks everyone!.. I don't think i've received so many comments before! haha
thank you all so much for leaving kind praises. I'm blushing at the thought! *giggle*

Jade: sorry but thats a trade secret darling *grin* hehe

miakoda: great idea :) thanks~

abuela: haha it will bURN!! nO!! haha

chef C: er... probably! haha

gianina: I MISS YOU SOO MUCH!!!! haha was just going to burn you a cd and send a couple things over to you! I just havnt found some free time to head to the post office! ahhh i must.. i will i promise! :)
XOXO

SIG said...

You are TOO amazing, Su-Yin! A most wonderful piece of artwork! COngratulate yourself. And did you say it was your birthday too? Belated Happy Birthday to you.

Anonymous said...

I stumbled upon your blog and discovered your amazing cupcakes.... your Gotham City cake is truly a piece of art.... wow...

Anonymous said...

This is AMAZING!
i have seriously never seen anything like it!!
i think i'm in love with your blog! and your work!!!

WOW, again, a biggggg thumbs up!!

Cheers,
Diana

Anonymous said...

Fantastic!!!!

Anonymous said...

Fantastic!!!