Monday, November 29, 2010

Finding Sophie

What do you do when your precious giraffe goes missing at a fair? You make a public announcement for it over the PA system like any loving owner would.

Still looking for Sophie? Find yours here at www.pupsikstudio.com.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Christmas with Sophie

Celebrate your child's Christmas with Sophie this year by entering this year's photo contest. Simply snap a Christmas-themed picture of your child with Sophie and send it to contest@sophie.sg with your name and a short caption. Get your friends to "Like" the picture on Sophie's facebook page and you are on your way to win a handful of prizes. Contest ends 24 Dec so don't wait!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Vera's 4th birthday at Abrakadoodle

Vera recently turned 4 year old. This year, we decided to do something special by holding her theme party at her favourite art school, Abrakadoodle.
Vera has been attending Abrakadoodle's art program for the past half year. There are currently 2 branches operating in Singapore - one at Cluny Court @ Bukit Timah and the other at the Playground@Bigsplash (aka former East Coast Big Splash). The school offers an art education program that is regarded to be one of the most popular creativity programs in the world. Its education curriculum was developed by artists and educators that exceeds US National Standards for Visual Arts Education.
Each offers at Abrakadoodle offers a unique experience that often begins with an introduction to a new artist and his technique. The class itself usually takes an hour with the last 15 mins allocated to "Gallery Time" when the kids will have a chance to explain to the class and parents what he/she has done. Having a relatively shy child (especially in front of strangers), I found this to be extremely beneficial in building up Vera's confidence as she learns to speak up in a classroom environment that includes adults. What I also love is the fact that the art work completed in each class is taken home in a frame which allows you to immediately display on your wall as a wonderful showcase of your child's art in different styles.
For Vera's party this year, we invited 15 of her friends to celebrate. It was a drop-off party which meant no adults allowed (good for poor parents needing a break). The kids were treated to two hours worth of fun and games which I cannot describe here because 1. What they were allowed to do in the name of creativity is beyond words and usually not allowed under normal circumstances. 2. Proprietary reasons.
What I am allowed to show you is the end product. Believe it or not, this wall of art was created by kids as young as 2yrs (Nadya's art above) through a series of art techniques employed by artists past and present.
As a party favour, each child brought home their own unique piece of art work which can be hung up at home immediately for all to admire.
For parents wanting to let your child have a taste of this wonderfully creative experience, you will be happy to know that Abrakadoodle is currently running a special promotion. Parents who "like" their page on Facebook will get to enjoy a 25% off trial class fee (usual price: $40). They are also waiving the $50 registration fee and giving a 5% off for camp fees for their Facebook fans.

Have fun and get colourfully creative!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

No-Bake 3D cake for less than S$50

Friends and family will know that I recently made a 3D dino cake for Vera's 4th birthday party a week ago. I am not one that bakes much given my crazy schedule and lack of ability to follow cooking instructions. Tell me to add 2 cups of flour with 5 eggs and I will be bound to somehow mess that up in the name of improvisation. How did I manage to make this 3D dino cake you may ask....well I will tell you my secret...Sara Lee!

Yes! my secret is Sara Lee! By gosh I did not even have to switch on the oven to "bake" this cake! I came upon the idea of using Sara Lee cake blocks. I read somewhere that you need a really dense cake to be able to construct a 3-D cake, least it will crumble in your hands and leave you in tears and desperation. I was not sure about being able to "produce" a dense cake so I came up with the idea of using Sara Lee's cakes. (post note...I might have thought about this idea from a friend who casually mentioned this before but I cannot be sure where the original inspiration for this came from. So I will not take 100% credit for coming up with this "Sara Lee" idea.)

Any way, from my own experience with Sara Lee (the plain favour is the densest and easiest to work with), you can easy construct what ever it is you want to make as if you were building with lego. It is really easy....and everyone loves Sara Lee cos it is tasty, rich yet light

For the dino, the first thing I constructed was the body which consisted mainly of 2 cake blocks with the corners rounded off. Then I cut 4 smaller stumps for the legs and begun working down the head and tail. The good thing about buying Sara Lee off the supermarket shelf is you can also mix and match favours for different parts of the cake.

After I was satisfied at what looks like a dinosaur, I began applying whipped cream. You can easily get whipped cream from any regular cake store and all that needs to be done is the whipping and adding of colours. In my case, I chose pink for my girl (what else?). It was fun slapping on the whipped cream which also acted as the "glue" to hold the blocks together. The key here is to have fun with the whipped cream and get a bit of texture out of it instead of trying to achieve a smooth flawless surface. It is a dino after all!

After applying the whipped cream, I decided that what I had originally intended to be the head of the dino looked more like the tail portion so I added a longer tapered portion to complete the body.
Now there it is...body, head tail, legs.....
I completed the finishing touches by cutting up triangular pieces of pink fondant (also available in any regular cake store) for the spikes on the back of the dino. The toe nails ,nostrails, name were also all made from fondant.
Then I sprinkled M&Ms (kids love these) around the base of the dino for some added colour and some chocolates for the dino eggs/poo. and viola! My 3D- dino cake is completed in less than an hour...And the best part is, I spent less than $50 for this cake. Compare this to the hefty $200-900 price tag you would have to cough out if you were to buy a professionally made 3D cake....of course, it may look nicer if you spend more but I think nothing beats letting your child know that you "made" this cake with love (they will probably better appreciate this effort when they are older).Hope you will give this easy no-bake method a try and let me know how it turns out! If this method works for you, it will be nice if you can link back to this tutorial post.

Have fun and be creative!xoxo
Su Ling