A cake for a Virtuoso!

When my friend, Priya, asked me to design a cake for her daughter who was entering her teenage years, I knew it had to blow her socks off. Those of us who spend time with teenagers, know that it is harder and harder to impress them these days! I knew that the birthday girl was very skilled in the fine arts...dancing and music are her life loves and her equally talented mom encourages her along the way while indulging in her own art form via her vegetarian fusion blog, Priya Now Serving.

So, perhaps, while Priya was expecting a tiered confection with musical notes, I was dreaming of creating a life size version of a violin. After studying many images online, this is what transpired...




Happy Birthday, Samyuktha!!! I hope your teenage years rock :)!

Once again, this would not have been possible without the help of my amazing husband. So, thank you, dear Uday for your patience and expertise!

We love our schools!

Latest cake for a Chancellor Street Co-op parent who won a custom birthday cake for the school's Fall auction. At Maliha Creations, we love to support our local schools, teachers, and students!

Looking for a bakery in Charlottesville, VA? Contact us today!

Thankful for Abundance...

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving. As we move into December and the weather cools down considerably, I thought it would be fun to warm up with a snapshot of our Thanksgiving dessert table.
A Maliha Creations dessert table is of course, not complete without a cake. Simple and elegant and does not compete with the other desserts on the table.
Chocolate covered apples from Co Co. Sala in Washington DC.
Chipotle chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache frosting, topped with a chocolate leaf brushed with edible gold.
Fresh fruit to balance the sugar, and add a new dimension of color. Also, check out the turkeys on the champagne glass. The signature cocktail was a pomegranate and cardamom spiked champagne!
In the back on lollipop sticks are apple pies and pumpkin pies...affectionately known as pie pops. In the front we have pumpkin whoopie pies filled with ginger buttercream...YUM!

The entire display!

Princess Tea Party - Part 2

Today, I would like to share with you some of the details from Sahana's princess tea party. If you have not yet seen Part 1, check it out here.!
Each little princess needed her own seat...

Only the finest tea scones and pastries for these princesses...
Sahana's princess cake, complete with gumpaste tiara and her first initial...

A marshmallow topiary allowed me to add more pink and a simple, yet lovely way...

Cupcakes with princess themed wrappers add another touch of pink...

Each princess had her own teacup which made the perfect favor when filled with a cupcake at the end of the party. Tea pot cookies were ready with frosting and sprinkles for each princess to adorn.
And, lastly, a sparkly flowered chandelier finished the room...


Thanks for looking!

Airplane Birthday

So as I get back to blogging, my goal is to share some useful cake tips, party ideas and cake troubleshooting!

I thought I would start with my son's 2nd birthday. My little man is obsessed with airplanes, so with that theme, and a cake airplane in mind, the party ideas took off ;)! With inspiration from Amy Atlas, I was able to figure out how to suspend the cake in mid-air!

A cake table with the airplane cake was the main attraction. Large paper lanterns are an inexpensive and whimsical way to frame the cake table.



The plane...


Simple touches like airplane jello jigglers, airplane cutout sugar cookies, and a dash of blue food coloring to ordinary rice krispies, added to the theme in a simply fun way.



Happy Birthday, to my favorite little man!

back to blogging???

So, when I started this whole blogging thing, I promised myself I would not be a blogger whose posts would be about apologizing about not blogging...and here I am doing just that. I did want to start blogging again, since I have been working on so many fun things! So, here I am am...I have some dessert tables to share with you, hopefully some tips and advice, and of course, lots of cakes. Stay tuned and I promise (hope!) to be a better blogger in 2011!

Giving....

Every year Maliha Creations is honored to be asked to contribute to local schools, charitable events and silent auctions. To date, Maliha Creations has given away dozens of cakes and gift certificates for custom cakes to schools like Chancellor Street and Johnson Elementary, all the way to organizations like Potentials Foundation, American Cancer Society, and the March of Dimes.

I will continue to participate and donate to local schools and organizations with free custom cakes, but I also wanted to tell you about a donation that will be a little bit different. This year, the Hospice of the Piedmont has asked Maliha Creations to provide an auction item for their 30th Anniversary Gala on Friday, April 23, 2010 at the Ash Lawn-Highland Hilltop Pavilion. So get your tickets and bid on "A Day in the life of a Custom Cake Designer." In this unique opportunity you will get the chance to spend a few hours with me learning how to frost and fill a cake, make it structurally sound, cover it with fondant, and decorate it. The winner of this auction prize will leave with a finished cake that he or she created!

So check out their website and learn more about this wonderful organization, and buy your tickets today at the Gala Website!

A sailor gets his due...

This cake was created for a gentleman who was retiring from the U.S. Navy after twenty years of service. His fiancé, Rolonda, was in charge of the surprise and worked with me to make a cake to honor his achievements. We decided to go with a HUGE sailor hat...and decorated it with different Navy sayings that Joe and his buddies used. The cake was double chocolate with Amaretto-mocha buttercream. The entire cake is edible...from the brim, to the anchor.

After the event, I received this lovely note from Rolonda.

Anita,

I know, I know...it's been a whole month since the retirement party, and I haven't had a chance to write you to tell you how wonderful your cake was at the retirement party! We plan to send you pictures as soon as we get them downloaded.

The sailor hat cake was a huge success!! Everyone took pictures! Since the party was held in local location, we ended up sharing your masterpiece with everyone who requested a piece of the cake. Although the cake was supposed to feed 50, I think that we ended up feeding over 75 people (and that's not including seconds!). We had a couple of chefs who told me that they could tell that this cake was made from scratch and were very impressed with the cake (taste and design). They had thirds! :)

As for Joe, he was so surprised! He couldn't believe the cake. Since he ended up driving us to Virginia Beach, he knew that there was a cake in the back. He said that he didn't know that it was that great! He just couldn't stop looking at the cake. It was so unique that he wouldn't let us cut it until he had enough pictures. We are really appreciative of the time and care you took to make his retirement cake. It was definitely memorable!

Thank you so much!

With all my regard,
Rolonda


Thank you, Rolonda, for choosing me to create Joe's cake. But mostly, THANK YOU, Joe, for your service to our country.