More Designer Isles by Mariah & Sham

When we met up with Yana, her sis and her then fiancee almost a year ago, I suggested creating something different, new and special for their wedding hantaran and wedding cake.

Instead of just doing up the cake for instance, I decided to create a Wedding Cake Designer Isle. And so with a serving size of 100 - 200pax, I suggested breaking up the servings into one cake centrepiece and the rest all pre-packed as favors, and aesthetically presented on our Isle.

Thing is, we love designing and creating favors - for which we were first known for - and we love gorgeous arrangements of anything beautiful. So we suggested this Isle idea to our many other enquirers, thinking we were doing good service...by being forthcoming and generous with new ideas during our non-obligatory discussions / consultations. Some politely declined cos they were understandably not ready for this, considering they've had budgets set aside for other wedding expenses...but some actually abandoned us and got other vendors to build up on this idea :(

It was heartbreaking...but in retrospect, we're all the wiser now. Moving on, we've taken it in our stride to accept all these as part and parcel of business, and hence to continue evolving.

Whatever it is, we're lucky to have many other great clients and fans who have kept us going

and encouraged us on to strive for the best.
In this light, we're grateful for Yana's and Akhbar's trust and loyalty.

So here's one specially decicated to you newly weds, and of course, sis Ezsra. :)

 

  

This Designer Isle featured our wedding cake centrepiece of fondant covered rich chocolate cake, with matching favors, decorative accents and bespoke monogram.

The 'two tiered' cake was actually made up of four layers of  real rich chocolate cake. We had to make it this high cos our groom is one tall young man! Doing up a 4 tiered cake however would make the cake look too 'overbearing', what with the motif design and all. So yup, we made it 2 tiered but 'tall' instead :)

                            

  And then we designed the favors to match our cake. Notice the rosette design on the favors and on the TOTALLY EDIBLE rosette icing.

 We didnt have any inspiration boards cos most of the time, our inspirations are conjured up in our imagination, some of it 'at last moments'. But we knew what colours we wanted to work on....so here, we married the two colours used by our newly weds. (Bride chose blue with dashes of pink for her Hantaran, and groom chose purple with gold for his Hantaran)

        

 And for the all-important harmonized look, we placed a matching bouquet of fresh flowers to balance the whole set-up.

And now, another special dedication to the newly weds.

Presenting the totally revolutionary Wedding Hantaran Designer Isle by Mariah & Sham....

All the gifts for exchange were presented on our Designer Isle. Bride chose a blue-pink colour scheme to present her gifts to her husband. After the solemnization ceremony, the gifts from both sides of the families would be exchanged, and the groom's gifts for his bride (purple gold!), which we designed to match, will be placed on this same Isle. Lucky for us, both Yana and Akhbar have got a keen eye for colours. The gifts they bought were all of the right tones and designs, making our work way much easier :)

 For Him gifts were all placed on our gorgeous slick white stands, as opposed to the more traditional 'dulangs' or trays.

 Notice the backdrop rosette motif which was reproduced in their Wedding Cake and Favors previously mentioned.

Loving the fresh peony in full bloom.

                    

 We designed this bespoke monogram for them to match their get-away car signage.

For once, featuring camera-shy Mum in action!

And so now, here's a look at the groom's gifts for his bride...

They chose romantic purple for this. And so to up the glam and grand factor, I decided to match the look with champaigne gold.

The groom was a bit apprehensive about handling fresh flowers...so we used faux ones instead.

Luckily, we had a whole year to scout around for the highest quality faux flowers, and we're delighted to have had worked them well.

Mariah's gorgeous frame in action...for the customary 'mas kahwin' cheque due to be slotted in, complementing the bride's gorgeous Tiffany bracelet.



Ok so that's all for now. A very big thank you to Haz Workz for all the help rendered, and of course, I'd personally like to thank mother-in-law for helping with everything else while I got busy with projects, work and house moving. And to Mum, great great job as always! And to my four cheeky kids...Universal Studios here we come!! So now, on to our next project. Stay tuned! :)

Collaborating with The Wedding Chateau

We were honoured, albeit slightly skeptical, when my friend Najihah messaged us, at the eleventh hour, to check if we could help take on some wedding cake orders from her.

We thought we had a lot on our hands, but we're glad to have eventually taken the orders. Cos for one, we learned to be more efficient, rising up to the occassion, so to speak. And especially for myself, working with Najihah brought back fond memories of us, back in Pharmacy School, doing our experiments in the lab :)

But best of all, we actually enjoyed working with TWC. True there were some discrepancies and miscommunication here and there, but we were lucky to have been given the trust and freedom to modify and improvise. But then again maybe Najihah had no choice but to be accommodating,  at least for friendship's sake! Heh.

So anyway, here are the pics...

Sorry our dearest photographer sidetracked just a little :)

So again, here are the cake pics...

We were extremely satisfied with our fondant this time round.
Our new preparation technique and top grade ingredients helped us achieve this flawless icing finish.

                                             


Mariah working on the final touches.

Striving to design a cake that would look rich and classy yet subtle and elegant, we decided, after much deliberation,  to use only ivory - one of the colours included in Najihah's colour palette - throughout...

This monotoned three tiered fondant cake would then be embellished with ivory filligree motifs, lustre pearl icing, ivory ribbon trimmings and white chrysanthemums, to elicit that rich yet subtle texture. It was to our horror then, when we found out, after setting everything up, that the bride had wanted a purple cake.

Fortunately, we managed to get over the initial panic, and just like many other times when we were setting up our own dessert isles and things didnt go quite as expected, we would start modifying and improvising.
Here, we added in our purple ribbon trimming, which luckily was a matching shade to TWC's decor, and accentuated the chrysanthemums with tiny bits of purple heather blooms to harmonize and balance the whole look.

Overall, we thought the colours worked well, but much more crucial would be whether the cake had fit right in to the decor. We hope it did.

Tiffany Blue

And then Najihah needed help to make a simple blue cake to match her blue themed dessert bar. But it being a last minute request, we unfortunately could not grab hold of a one-half inch matching blue ribbon, as requested. So there we went again, modifying and improvising. We trimmed each tier with our shorter half inch ribbon instead, and added in a running layer on top, deliberately leaving a slight gap in between. This way, the trimming had an added pattern / effect to it, yet still remained simple enough to complement our simple cake and TWC's gorgeous dessert bar.


Myself, straightening out the trimmings.
Najihah and Sarah setting up their dessert bar.



Sham, Sarah, Najihah and Mariah....
 of Mariah & Sham and The Wedding Chateau.
All looking rather tired here...

So thanks guys, for the opportunity and the trust. Looking forward to working together again. And perhaps, if we ever get overwhelmed with dessert isle projects, and you guys have gotten a new shop with a big kitchen, you all can help make our cakes too?! :)

Rush Hour

The December rush is not showing any signs of abating...

We promised not to take in any new orders...only to break that very promise again this week :)

We took over an order for a wedding cake from a friend. She came down with a bad flu and couldn't meet her order...so we decided to take in just this ONE more order...

Here's Pretty in Pink, dedicated to our dear friend....may you stay in the pink of health always.

And of course, a special thank you to our newfound client Zyla, for her trust and appreciation. Here's also to you and friends....