Chocolate & caramel

In Nov 2018, Arun contacted me to make a cake for his daughter Drithi’s 1st birthday. As you can imagine the cake was very close to his heart. This was my first fondant cake and Arun was really thrilled with the outcome. Arun’s cousin Raman tasted and remembered the cake. In June 2023 when Raman was celebrating his daughter’s 1st birthday he contacted me to make the cake.

Chocolate as a crowd pleaser was an easy choice. The difficulty came when choosing the flavour combination

• Chocolate n caramel
• Chocolate n strawberry
• Chocolate n orange
• Chocolate n chocolate

The last combination won the day. Then came the theme. Cocomelon is Aditya’s favourite cartoon and so that too was an easy choice. Raman’s wife Akanksha and I saw eye to eye on what was important in a cake … not too sweet and minimum icing. And no fondant. The cake has to be the hero.

So here is what I turned out for them. A dark chocolate with a filling of chocolate buttercream and covered with chocolate ganache. The Cocomelon characters were edible prints and some elements were made with modelling chocolate.

Chocolate & Caramel

Vasanth loved bikes, especially Harley Davidsons.

But with the pressures of fatherhood and a corporate career, Vasanth had been more cautious and invested in a good car.

On his big day, his wife chose to surprise him by hiring a Harley for the day and ordered a ‘Harley’ cake

It was exciting to create the bike out of fondant. The guests were wowed by the realistic bike. The flavours of chocolate and caramel had the guests asking for more cake.

Chocolate & Chocolate, laced with rum

Stephen was in for a surprise on his 21st birthday. His father was gifting him his dream bike - a KTM. The family chose to make the cake to the KTM theme. The small tier was a treaded bike wheel with KTM on the centre.

Stephen is a chocolate fiend and so it had to be a chocolate cake with a filling of chocolate buttercream. And because Stephen was going to be an ‘adult’, the cake was laced with Old Monk.

This was indeed a special cake.

Chocolate & Caramel

A chocolate cake with a filling of caramel/ The layers of cake are covered with dark chocolate ganache and the top face of each cake is covered with white ganache.

The two square tiers were placed at and angle to each other so that it is easy to cut proper slices from the cake. The top view of the cake appears like a star … an apt symbol for a milestone.

Chocolate & Orange (eggless)

For her mother’s 75 birthday a daughter ordered this special cake.

The cake was the fan favourite chocolate. Some homemade citrussy orange juice was poured over the sponge and the layers had a filling of ganache and finely chopped homemade crystallised orange peel.

The whole cake was decorated with little flowers made of white modelling chocolate, while the leaves were made with dark modelling chocolate. Touches of gold added to the richness of the cake

Pineapple & Cream (eggless)

For her father-in-law’s 80th birthday, a friend wanted something really special. Her father-in-law loved pineapple and cream pastries and so deciding the flavour of the cake was rather simple.

This 3 tier cake had a filling of fresh, stewed pineapple and the cake was decorated with cascading pineapple flowers. These were made by dehydrating thin slices of pineapple

Chocolate

This chocolate tiered cake was made for a 12 year old in 2019. She loved ballet and acrobatics and so both needed to be present on the cake.

The orange and pink icing frills at the base of each cake layer represents her ballet tutu and the fondant ballet pumps were the perfect topper.

The cake was a super hit and I won a customer for life cause the birthday girl declared that in future I had to make all her cakes.

Chocolate & Chocolate

A 1.2 kg Chocolate cake with a filling of chocolate buttercream. Chocolate has to be the most universally loved flavour.

The speciality is the burnt buttercream used to embellish the cake. The caramalisation gives it a deeper flavour and the dark speckles in the icing is visually attractive.

A vanilla cake with a filling of freshly made strawberry compote. It was covered in whipped cream icing, with flowers done with a palette knife.

Chocolate & Chocolate

Our little Crocodile Dundee loved gems too and so the side of the cake was covered in gems. The cake had a fun fact about crocodiles on it.

The birthday boy got a crocodile cake for School and a similar one for the party at home

Date & Walnut cake

This date and walnut bundt cake was ordered by a mother for her daughter's birthday. The daughter had a discerning palate and liked unusual flavours.

The drizzle of chocolate ganache and salted caramel added layers of flavour to a popular tea cake.

The single teal, sugarpaste flower added glamour.

Caramalised Pineapple & Cream

This is a pineapple and cream cake with a twist. It has a filling of fresh pineapple, stewed with spices and then caramelised. The deeper flavour of the pineapple with backnotes of spices was much appreciated.

Chocolate & Capeberry

This Capeberry cake was covered in a think layer of chocolate ganache and decorated with a few caperberries.

The unusual flavour combination with the visual appeal of the fresh berries was hugely appreciated.

Rum & Orange

Rum and Orange is a delicious combination as a pick me up 'beverage'. I decided to put these flavours together in a cake. Since I figured that both flavours paired well with chocolate, that would need to be the base flavour of my cake.

This special cake was made for the President of our networking organisation. He was being installed as President on his birthday. I poured some homemade citrussy OJ and a generous tot of the old faithful Old Monk on to the cake. The filling was a thin layer of ganache and liberally sprinkled homemade crystallized orange peel. The cake was decorated with flowers made with torched meringue buttercream and a few small rice paper sails.

I received so many rave reviews for the cake. Those who ate it appreciated the fact that the cake was light on icing and sugar but heavy on flavour and I earned many fans.

Strawberry/Pineapple & Cream

When the family cannot choose between Strawberries n Cream and Pineapple n Cream, you keep them all happy by making a half n half!!

This is an eggless vanilla cake with half the cake filled with strawberry compote and the other half filled with fresh pineapple stewed in spices.

Tiramissu or Blueberry

These are a few of her favourite things.

This 18 year old didn’t want a cake …. She said that was to formal. Cupcakes would be too childish and so dessert cups it was.

Her friends got a choice of two flavours Tiramissu or Blueberry.The birthday girl’s favourite things were depicted on lollipop prints.

Chocolate & Caramel

Young Nicholas, like a number of kids his age, loves his Playstation and so that was his choice for his birthday cake.

Nicholas and his friends also love chocolate and so this chocolate and caramel cake hit the right spot. This was a light, moist chocolate cake with a filling of caramel and a caramel drip down the sides. The edible print was designed by him.

Chocolate & Coffee

This friend was very specific about the cake that he wanted to order for a colleague. He sent me a pic of a tome that he wanted replicated on the cake, with the words ‘Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice’.

Priya was thrilled with her birthday cake. Being a coffee drinker who loves chocolate, the cake was perfect for her.

Strawberry & Cream

8 year old Aaditya is currently captivated by snow, in the warm climes of Bangalore.

His birthday was celebrated at Snow City and Strawberry and Cream was the flavour zeroed in on. This was a vanilla cake with a filling of homemade strawberry compote. The confection was covered with whipping cream that was ‘peaked’ to give a snow effect and a few fondant snowflakes completed the image.

Chocolate & Caramel

Baby Kai is a water baby and so for his 1st birthday his mother was keen on a swimming pool cake. Was pretty pleased with the water effect that I achieved and will all the elements of the swimming pool. But arranging the fondant tiles around the pool did test my patience

Chocolate cakes

Chocolate is the hands down favourite of children.

These two little boys also like spiders and so that had to be the theme of their birthday cakes.

And the third pic is a pic I took of day old garden spiders, in my garden. Only realised that it wasn’t a bit of fluff caught in the spider web when I took a pic and zoomed in. Each day the spiders seemed to grow by about 200% and in a week they had grown and scattered

Chocolate & more

13 Till I Die ! Such a thrilling coming of age in a child’s life … becoming a teen!

This teenager had just discovered the status of denims and so that was what he wanted for his birthday.This chocolate cake was covered with fondant that was given a denim finish.

Chocolate & Caramel

The days of the pandemic and zoom parties are behind us, we hope. But during the days of lockdown we needed scant excuses for a party. Louella’s daughters threw her a couple of surprise parties … one with family and one with friends.

The larger cakes went out to extended family and the size of the cake varied according to the size of the family.The family bags had cake, balloons, party hats, chips and coke.

The friends got the smaller cubes of cake with a bottle of coke and a packet of chips. So much fun was had by all, especially since Louella had absolutely no idea of what had been planned.

Vanilla & Strawberry

This little girl’s father told me that she loves dressing up, she loves pink and she loves fairies.

Here is the cake that I made for her. The pink and gold tuile borders brought to mind the little tutus that fairies always wear in the fairy tale books. The rice paper sails were her wings. And the pic of little Chitrangada’s total wonder when the cake box was opened told me all I needed to know … mission accomplished!!

Chocolate & Strawberry

A lawyer friend was excited about celebrating his mother’s milestone birthday. He spent a while searching for the image of a cake that he felt reflected his mother. Here is the design reproduced.

The cake was a rich, moist chocolate cake with a filling of homemade strawberry coulis. The cake was covered in white fondant and the chocolate detailing was done with modelling chocolate.

Chocolate & Caramel

Chocolate and caramel is a match made in heaven … reminiscent of 5Star chocolates.

The pandemic threw up challenges, one being that we weren’t able to celebrate Dad’s 90th birthday. I figured out a workaround. I made 25 cubes of chocolate cake and distributed them to close family and friends.

The pandemic made Zoom calls popular. For a close friend’s birthday, her daughter’s got me to bake about 6 cakes of varying sizes, depending on family size. Chips and coke went out along with the cakes to a few friends and relatives and then we surprised her with a loud and boisterous Zoom call and had a ‘party call’. Much fun

During the strict lockdowns, I baked for about 4 different birthdays.

Pineapple & Cream

Serah being just a year old, her mother had the privilege of asking for her favourite cake and Pineapple and Cream it way. These cakes had a filling of whipping cream and pieces of stewed pineapple. An addition of a couple of star anise dropped into the pineapple stew so that it absorbed the flavours and added interesting tones to the cake.

Chocolate & Caramel Ombre

A friend wanted a special chocolate cake for her parents' Golden Jubilee. They are both chocoaholics and so the cake flavour was a given.

This was a chocolate cake with a caramel filling and decorated with ombre chocolate swirls. The gold foil and gold candles added bling to the cake and gave it grandeur befitting the event.

Fresh Fruit & Cream

These cakes are close, very close to my heart. Ajji (that is what I called her, though she was in no way related to me) loved life. She loved celebrations. Each year after her birthday she would look forward to her next birthday and start talking about it.

I baked the birthday cakes for this grand young lady for 6 consecutive years. Each year her grandson would contact me from Australia with very specific instructions for the cake he wanted for his precious Ajji. He was most particular that the cakes should have minimum icing and should be light on sugar.

one year it was strawberries and cream, another year it was pineapple and cream and then it was mango and cream. For her 100th birthday there was an eggless mango and cream cake that was cut at the temple. 4 orange cakes were cut at home for family and friends.

Chocolate & Caramel Ombre

These two chocolate cakes had ombre icing which gave them great visual appeal.

Chocolate & Caramel

This cake was made with love for my sister and brother in law. It was liberally laced with good ole Old Monk and was a big hit.

Carrot Cake

This tea cake is made with whole wheat flour. Chopped walnuts and raisins make it special. It is sweetened with jiggery and the sweetness of the carrots.

All in all it is a healthy cake that is a treat.

Strawberry Cake / Strawberry Coconut cake

Slices of strawberry baked into a vanilla cake or into a light coconut cake both make for a delightful tea cake.

Orange Cake

This tea cake is flavoured with the citrusy goodness of the pulp of fresh fruit. Undertones of spice lend an interesting flavour level to this cake

Chocolate & Strawberries

Strawberries typically conjure up an image of luxury. But this fruit is not particularly flavourful and is often even sour.But pair it with chocolate and voila you have a match made in heaven!

Mango & Cream

This seasonal ‘King of Fruits’ pairs beautifully with cream.

Layers of chiffon cake sandwich layers of whipped cream and chopped mango and then have different forms of decoration with more of the fresh fruit

Tiramissu Cake

This cake is an adaptation of the popular Italian dessert by the same name. The vanilla cake is drizzled with black coffee laced with Amaretto or dark rum. The cake is then filled with whipped Marscapone cream and the cake is covered with the same cram and finally ends with a dusting of cocoa.

Whisky Sour

I googled it. Whisky Sour, Google told me is a cocktail of Whisky and orange juice.I made a citrussy orange cake, by making a pulp with fresh oranges. Nothing like natural flavours. And then I put in a healthy tot of Whisky.

Of course icing would have killed this cake, so I decorated it with just a little chocolate ganache.The cake in the background is the virgin version (!!) for the kids

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Flourless Chocolate Cake, with a dusting of cocoa. I needed to tick this off my bucket list. Made this for dad’s 93rd birthday. A super chocolate hit for my chocaholic father.

Can you imagine a cake without flour? Well here is this rich dessert with absolutely no flour. Lots of chocolate and eggs to hold the structure … and a few other ingredients.

Christmas cake

A delicious, rich, moist, fruit cake, with 4+ kgs of rum soaked fruit to 1 kg of maida.Cake is available, through the year, on 1 kg and ½ kg loaves. The cakes have a long shelf life and are despatched, primarily through Speed Post, across India and overseas to the UK and US.

Packaged in Christmas colours of red, green or gold, these cakes are wrapped and decorated so that they are ready to gift…. to a loved one or a business partner

Christmas Pudding

A flambeed Christmas pudding would be the showstopper at your Christmas party. This steamed dessert has the essential flavours of a Christmas cake but it is more dense and the method of cooking differs.

The dancing blue flames of the flambee, warms up the pudding that can then be enjoyed with a Rum or Brandy sauce.A perfect end to a festive meal.

Baklava

Boxes of Baklava were sent out by a proud father when his precious daughter, his first born, got married. The marriage took place during the pandemic and so a large reception was out of the question.

The father wanted something special, something that was not too sweet to go out on this happy occasion. Baklava ticked those boxes. Needless to say this Middle Eastern confection with a generous layer of dryfruit sandwiched between flaky, buttery phyllo pastry was a huge hit.

Care Basket

This specially curated Care Basket containing, cakes and cookies and a doll was specially commissioned from overseas for a young woman and her two little daughters after they had just faced a tragedy.

Eclairs

Eclairs are my Specialty

Featherlight choux pastry shells filled with a delicious whipped cream blended with whipping cream. And the top of the eclairs are dipped in chocolate

‘A dream treat’, ‘best in the world’ is how some of my éclair fans describe this confection.

Quiche – Veg and Non-Veg

I have a league of loyal customers for my quiches!

I make my quiches with a delicate flavoursome pastry that I blind bake. The fillings could be a combination of chicken, mushroom, spring onions, coloured peppers, blanched spinach, corn, bacon …. And anything else you might desire. And the filling is bound with a generous topping of cheese and cream.

Chicken Tart – chockfull of chook!

A short crust pastry crust with a delicious chicken filling makes for a substantial snack for hungry teens or a high tea.

The golden trellis dresses up the tart well

Colourful eats for a Colour-Filled afternoon

A friend called to order snacks for an afternoon of painting that she was planning with friends. The discussion started with discussing typical children party snacks … just for laughs.

Finally we settled on a Vegetarian quiche. The homemade pizza sauce had many exciting flavours - beetroot and roasted bringal to name a few. Red and green peppers in a bed of cheese made for a colourful pizza

• Chicken n Mushroom quiche : a thin flavoured quiche crust, with a generous helping of chicken n mushroom and spring onions, covered with a sauce of egg and cream made for a delicious quiche. Here again the red and green peppers made it colourful
• A tropical dessert. A coconut cake for the base topped with a mousse of coconut milk and dairy whipping cream. The colour came through in the form of chopped malgoa mangoes and strawberries and mint…. Contrasting and vivid colours

Brookies

This treat was popularised by the Masterchef competitions … but my version is a little different.

The bottom layer is chocolate brownie and it is topped with a layer of chocolate chip batter. Makes for an interesting treat

Chocolate Strawberry Tart

To indulge your love of chocolate and strawberries in a different form. This is a chocolate tart with a filling of strawberry compote.

This tart went out for Valentines Day and so had a heart done with whipping cream

Royal Icing Cookies

These customised royal icing cookies were hand carried to Australia. There were ordered for two themes – Tropical and Hawaiian.

Strawberry Linzer Torte

A special snack for a special occasion.

A rich tart base with crushed nuts. A filling of strawberry compote with a dash of balsamic vinegar to give it a deeper flavour. The trellis topping with a dusting of icing sugar gives it a nice finishing touch.

Lamingtons

An Australian pastry that consists of a cube of vanilla sponge coated with chocolate and dredged with coconut. A delightful blend of three varied flavours.

I put a twist on it by introducing a filling of salted caramel in the vanilla sponge.

Banoffee Pie

A delicious, but rather rich dish that perfectly rounds off a grand dinner.

A layer of crushed biscuits, followed by a layer of caramalised bananas and a layer of dulce du leche and finally topped with airy whipping cream that gives it a fairylike appearance. The flavours of the crushed cookes and caramalized bananas and toffee, finally topped of with cream, make this sinfully delicious dessert every so popular

Chocolate & Cherry Cheesecake

Cherries were in season. They were made into a cherry compote that was used to flavour a layer of the cheesecake.

This cheesecake had an ombre effect of sorts. Chocolate – cherry – plain. And the flavours blended well together.

Fruit Triffle

A light summery dessert was the request.

This fruit triffle was the answer. It had a layer of vanilla cake, cubes of jelly and a layer of fresh fruit. The fruit had a drizzle of passionfruit juice to add an interesting twist of flavour. The request was for a light summery dessert.

It was served with a side of whipped cream for those who wanted to indulge.

Mini Mango Pavlovas

A unique, individual serving dessert was what I was asked for. These snow-white pavlovas with cubed mango met the brief. The sprig of mint added charming visual appeal.

Oreo Cheesecake

Oreo cookies have a wonderful deep chocolate flavour. These crushed cookies form a delicious base for a cheesecake.

The chopped strawberries were served as a side for those who wanted to combine the flavours

Orange Cake

A delicious tea cake with the goodness of home made orange pulp and light undertones of spice.

Lamingtons

An Australian pastry with a twist of caramel to add to the deliciousness. Vanilla cake with a layer of salted caramel, enrobed with chocolate and dusted with coconut.

Chocolate Eclairs

Light choux pastry....filled with a delicious blend of whipped cream n creme patisserie....

Marble Cake

A butter-based chocolate n vanilla swirled tea cake. The cake will have no icing

Quiche

Enjoy it as a snack or with a bowl of soup for dinner.

Veg - mushroom and corn Non-Veg - chicken n mushroom

Vanilla Pound Cake

A delicious tea cake that would be perfect with your cuppa

Chocolate Cake

These heart shaped cakes went out on this special day of love. Some went to spouses and a couple went to children from their parents. The cakes were decorated with hand piped roses

Chocolate & Strawberry

This cake was extra special cause this couple has waited for a decade to welcome their precious bundle of joy. The father and his sister in law planned the baby shower as a surprise for the mum to be. The touching message was given by the father to be.

Boondi Cake

An entrepreneurial friend ordered these cakes for his key customers.

Vanilla cake was lightly soaked with cardamom flavoured sugar syrup. The cakes had a filling and topping of boondi. The orange-yellow of the boondi contrasted perfectly with the snow white whipping cream. A sprinkling of dried rose petals and a touch of gold foil gave it a feeling of richness.

Chocolate cake

This cake was ordered by a father as a surprise for his little daughter. She loves chocolate and pink is her favourite colour. The cake was covered with milk chocolate ganache and pink lace flower petals decorated the sides of the cake.

Blueberry & Lemon Cupcakes

This cupcake bouquet was commissioned as one of the welcome gifts for the grooms party that was coming in for the couple’s engagement.

Chocolate & Caramel

June loves music and she and her guitar are in demand at every party. Her bridesmaids wanted her guitar to feature on her bridal shower cake and it was given pride of place. The base of the cake has a frill of edible lace, representing her wedding gown and a veil encrusted with pearls is made of rice paper.

Chocolate & Caramel

Mr. Cactus is baby Ahana's favourite toy and so it had to be brought with her when the family travelled from overseas

Her grandparents would not be with her for her first birthday and so they chose to celebrate her turning 10 months.

Mr. Cactus was made with modelling chocolate and was planted in a chocolate cake. The cake was a huge hit with baby Ahana as well as the adults.

Chocolate & Caramel

A doting father wanted to surprise his princess with a chocolate cake. This tall chocolate cake had 2 layers of caramel and one layer of hazlenut filling.

To appeal to the little girl I put handmade edible flower petals along the side of the cake.