Hansel & Gretel Exhibition

Hi all!

Apologies for the delay in updating this page, September was truly an INSANE month for me - the kitchen was on fire (figuratively, not literally) and cakes were being churned out daily!

Speaking of things being churned out, I took part in one of Kolkata's biggest and most popular exhibitions - Hansel and Gretel. It's a wonderful event that has loads of stalls that sell kid-related items - from packaging for birth announcement gifts, to kids fashion! So in the midst of all of that, The Peony Project put up its stall, selling cupcakes and cookies :)


I always get excited at the prospect of taking part in an exhibition. I love meeting old clients with whom I've only interacted with over the phone. It's like bumping into an old friend! I also really look forward to meeting new people and introducing them to The Peony Project way of doing cupcakes.

What I sort of dread, the day before and after the exhibition.  Making 300 or so cupcakes the day before and icing them is always a beautiful nightmare. And let's not forget all those aching muscles the day after the exhibition! Still, its nothing a few cups of coffee and some paracetamol can't fix!

Onto the exhibition:

Since H&G was a kid-oriented exhibition, I wanted my cupcakes to reflect a sense of fun and wonder. So I created these:

 

Fondant animals (Pink Elephant, Orange Lion, Bumblebees, Butterflies) and floral designs

The Fondant animals are pretty cute huh? I personally LOVED the bumblebees.

Too bad no one at the exhibition got to see them. They got completely smashed on the way there. That's nearly 2 days of work, completely ruined in 10 seconds.

Sigh.

Well, what can you do? I was just thankful the rest held up pretty well and so we had to make do with those. Still, every tragedy is always a learning excercise and what I learnt at that moment was this - Paranoia is Good.

Always be worried, always been paranoid that your stuff might get ruined and make provisions, make extras.

Thankfully my ganache covered cupcakes stayed safe and unsmashed!

 Ganache and sprinkle-covered cupcakes

The exhibition was an incredible amount of fun, getting to see the joy on everyone's faces when they bit into the cupcakes - priceless!

A big, big thank you to the organizers for inviting me to participate and an even bigger thank you to all those who came, saw and ate :)

Camera Reel Cake

One of my dear friends called me the other day and wanted a small cake that she and her friends wanted to gift to their photography teacher. It was their last class together and they felt a farewell gift would have been nice.

We brainstormed on photography-related cake designs and this is what we came up with:

Top: Camera Reel Bow. 

Bottom: (Left) Top of Victoria Memorial, (Right) Kolkata High Court 

A 2 layered, chocolate and vanilla cake, sandwiched and covered in dense, rich, dark chocolate gananche. 

I wanted a camera reel effect for the cake, so I created a fondant bow and painted it to look like the edges of a camera reel.

And of course, what good is a camera reel if it doesn't have images on it! And so, I created fondant panels on the side and painted each one with an image that reminded me of Kolkata. 

 Bottom: (Left) Durga Pujo Poster, (Right) Top of Victoria Memorial

Bottom: (Centre) Howrah Bridge

Bottom: (Left) Yellow Taxi, (Right) Hand-pulled cart

Again, this was so much fun for me because this was the first time I painted on cake, and now, my mind is swimming with possibilities and colours and design ideas!

(Someone, anyone, please order a painted cake soon!)

Note: The Peony Project kitchen will be closed from the 11th -16th of September as I'll be out of town. Baking activities will resume from the 17th onwards.

Do you know, you can now subscribe for these blog posts to have them delivered fresh to your inbox, the second they're published? All you have to do is fill in your email address in the 'Follow by Email' box on the right :)

Dome Cake with Flowers in Hues of Pink

Hi Cake-Lovers,

I love creating striking cakes. And for the longest time I've always felt that one pound cakes never have enough, well, cake in them to create a something cute and different. To me, tiny, flat cakes were done and dusted.

Now all that has changed! I present to you what's going to be my new favourite (yes, yet another favourite) cake to do - The Dome!

The Dome comes in a one pound size. It's cute, petite and has everything you've loved in the bigger cakes!

This particular cake was requested for the birthday girl, by her two friends. The get-together was a small one and so a one pound cake was just perfect for the event.

I decided to have flowers in varying hues of purple and pink, together with a few white ones. All of these stood out beautifully against the rich, dark chocolate ganache.
 

Top View of the Dome Cake with flowers

Dome cake atop my brand new stand - available for rentals soon!

The only cause for complain was the never-ending rain. It made working with the fondant SO difficult. Sticky, goopy fondant is not fun, and definitely not pretty!

But it turns out the Dessert Gods were on my side and in the end, everything turned out fine :)

Not wanting to spoil the beauty of the cake by piping on it, I made a small edible plaque for the birthday message:

'Happy Birthday' Plaque on the cake

I love this cute cake, and I hope you do too! More pictures on our Facebook page.

Happy Rainy Thursday, everyone and be sure to carry an umbrella if you're heading out!

Lotus Cake

Hello Fellow Foodies,

I recently received a cake order, and like so many of my lovely clients, this lady left the cake design entirely up to me.

I really appreciate (and LOVE) it when I'm allowed to exercise my creativity and given artistic license!

Anyway, I decided to do a cake with a Lotus and a lotus bud, both on a leaf.

I started off with making the lotus petals - tinting the fondant with the right colour, cutting out the leaves, giving them some texture, allowing them to dry and then finally shading them.

 Fondant Lotus Petals

Next up, I shaped the bud, added petals to it and shaded it.

 

Fondant Lotus Bud

Finally I created the leaf that the lotus was going to rest on, and then assembled the entire thing on the cake.

 

 And the rest, my dears, was cake history! I'm quite happy with the way this turned out :)

Hope you guys liked it too. As always, you can see more on our Facebook page!

Very 1st Exhibition!

Hello All!

The Peony Project recently took part in it's very first exhibition - 'Le Souk', the all day (and night) bazaar that was held at Kolkata's trendiest nightspot 'Shisha Reincarnated'.

Yup, fashion and cupcakes at a bar. Does life get any better? 

It was so much fun having everyone try my cupcakes. It was even fun-ner to see them all gone!

I took a few photos of what I had there...apologies for the phone pictures! Bulky DSLR cameras are great for home photography - not so great at busy exhibitions :)

 

Fondant covered cupcakes on my precious cake stand

 Moist, Dark Chocolate Cupcakes!

Scores of Chewy Chocolate Cookies!

Funfetti Cupcakes

Funfetti cupcakes with my sign!

To everyone who came and tried the cupcakes - I'm glad we met! And may there always be enough cake to go around :)


As always, for more pictures and updates, do visit The Peony Project's Facebook Page!

*New Flavour Alert* - Carrot Cake

Hello Cake-lovers!

I believe there are three types of people in this world:
1) People who love carrot cake
2) People who don't love carrot cake because they haven't tried it yet
3) People who hate carrot cake because they've tried the completely wrong version of it.

I admit, I've always been a little put off by the thought of veggies being baked in a dessert BUT have one bite of this cake and I promise you - you will be a changed person :)

Which brings me to this:

It looks fairly simple and unassuming, yes?

It's not.

It's heaven in a little cupcake liner. Fruity, moist, dense yet oddly light, with a light spiciness that's complemented by the creaminess of my special lime cream cheese frosting.

The carrots lend the cake so much moistness that this cake tastes even better the next day. Utterly palette cleansing and it feels like home.

Oh, did I mention - it's made with olive oil. So, it's a well-balanced meal!

(Kinda.)

If you want to give this cake a shot, here's how you order.
For more pictures of my offerings visit The Peony Project's Facebook Page.

Hi!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to The Peony Project blog! We'll be updating this space with our latest offerings, news updates and tutorials.

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Cakely yours,

Mahima

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