Birthday cakes for 1st birthday

My baby is celebrating his first birthday next month, and I'm the most excited person!

Basically my hubby just leaves everything to me. So, I'm packing my own party favours, ordering cakes for hte 2 days of celebration, and arranging for entertainment on 2nd day where there'll be many kids.

There's alot of stuff to share when it comes to all things pertaining to birthday celebrations. I'll just start with the birthday cakes. These are the bakers worth considering in order of "greatness", and money aside:

1. Christy - www.cforcupcakes.com
One of her specialties is making a part of the cake rotate (check out her vids) although I rather the music is more modern. She'll share her story behind each cake, which makes it meaningful and "intelligent" - thought went into the design so its more personal, and not just another design.

Her fondant craft is very good, and you can see lots of effort went into the process of designing and making the fondant cakes. Designs are one of the most original.

I especially like the Journey to One cake for the thought that went behind it, the journey to baby's 1 year birthday is peppered with many fears and joys for first time parents.

For the Journey to One cake for 20+ pax, she quoted $258.

2. Cheryl Shuen - www.cherylshuen.com
She is pretty recognised in this fondant cakes arena. Her website has loads of designs she made, which are pretty, colourful and well crafted. After searching through so many bakers' fondant cakes, I realise there can be a big gap in terms of fondant craft skill. Cheryl and Christy are 2 of the best, in my opinion.

Cheryl does both fondant and fresh cream cakes, although the latter is more limited in terms of design. She has a shop in Joo Chiat and you should make an appointment with her on Mon-Thurs 10am-7pm for a discussion. Dont try going there unannounced - like what I did - because both trips were unfruitful.

I do have a feeling that she's very busy - she takes 1 day to reply to your emails.

Cheryl's cakes are one of the most expensive. Based on her website, a fondant cake for 20 pax starts from $300. Further customisation like making a pair of cartoon characters cost another $150! *gasp* Her cupcakes are also very expensive. Sometimes I imagine I can have a whole pack of chicken rice for the price of 1 cupcake!

3. Bee Leng - http://bees-cake.blogspot.com
Bee Leng's craft is not too bad, but I'm more impressed by the 2-in-1 cake which has her fondant cake on the upper tier and cupcakes with similar theme on the lower tier.

She's very slow in replying however. I had to wait about 2 days for each reply.

She charges $80 per kg of fondant cake, with additional charges for customised figurines. Her mini size cupcake is between $1.40 to $8 depending on design.

4. Pine Garden - www.pgcake.com
Welcome to the fresh cream & budget baker at a humble neighbourhood location of AMK Ave 10. When I first went to Pine Garden, I noted there's a steady stream of people ordering birthday cakes. It was only afterward that I realise it's because PG offers tasty cream cakes and not-too-bad designs at affordable prices. For the first day of celebration, i ordered a 2kg, 2-tier Sesame St theme cake and it was $36 per kg plus a $28 additional charge for design.

Given that the cakes tastes good (unlike fondant cakes that are butter cream), this is value for money if you do not need a win-hands-down design.


That's all that I would recommend actually. There are a whole host of other bakers but I found they are either too expensive for the quality of their design or they skill is not up to mark. There are mummies who show a picture of a design they want (like castle design - veyr popular with girls) and ask a neighbourhood bakery to bake it. Of course the price is cheaper but I can see the difference in skill.

Aside from my research, I found myself musing over how expensive a children's cake can be nowadays....My hubby totally disagreed with my wanting to order Christy's cake, he says it's too expensive. But there are mummies who would spend that money.

I'm still exploring options for the 2nd day cake so will update if i find any other gems.