For the Year of the Goat, we hunted down wonderful bakers who applied their skills and creativity to create unique, one-of-a-kind designs for Chinese New Year, for customers who want to prepare something out of the ordinary for their guests.

Here are nine of the best custom-designed cakes specially for Chinese New Year.

It’s that time of the year again

A time where we prepare our homes for the eventual onslaught of relatives from all over the world. A time where we stick red and pink flowers into every vase we have, paste cardboard cutouts of chubby pink-cheeked boys and girls with their hands clasped on every wall, door and glass surface we can find, and hang red and gold ang pao packets everywhere.

We buy the pomelos, mandarin oranges, pineapple tarts, peanut cookies, cashew nut cookies, cornflakes cookies…and lay it out nicely on the table.  And then we realise that the spread looks …well…exactly the same as last year, the year before, and the year before that.

Well that won’t do!  With nothing unique, what would we upload to Facebook and Instagram on CNY morning then? Well, how about a unique cake?

Here are nine of the best custom-designed cakes specially for Chinese New Year.

 

1. The Pink-Cheeked Boy and Girl

Evie Chan has been baking since she was a young girl, under the apprenticeship of her mum. Today her business focuses on interesting combination of flavours and icing, for example green tea and lychee, and healthy additive-free sponge cakes that children love (think sweet potato, pumpkin, purple carrot, and all those things that children would never consume in their natural form).

 

2. Boy and Girl in 3D

Why not go for a 3D cake? Lulu Goh from Love Sweet Endings used to be a Product Manager at Lenovo but left to pursue professional cake decorating. She even has a Squires Kitchen Professional Diploma in Cake Decorating, with an extensive repertoire of amazing fondant cakes and cupcakes for birthdays, weddings and special occasions.

 

3. Pretty Little Toppers

More boy and girl cupcakes! Yeeyan Siaw loves making CNY-themed cupcakes and is happy to work with you to create the design you want!

 

4. Lanterns and Other Hanging Ornaments

Another popular theme are mandarin oranges, lanterns, and cherry blossom flowers; things that you’d normally hang on the tree. Why just look at it when you can eat it?

Pleasance is the principal baker of Babysweet Cakes, started baking when she was 9, and now has built a reputation of baking using authentic ingredients only.  Her bestselling flavours are moist dark chocolate orange cake with Callebaut dark chocolate ganache; fresh orange cake, lemon vanilla zest cake (using vanilla bean infusion).  And this is the best – she tries not to replicate designs so that her customers truly get a unique, one-off design!

 

5. Animals

Another popular trend is to design around the ‘animal of the year’ (luckily, this design is also relevant for mummies whose babies who are born within the year – otherwise it would be a LONG time before it can be used again).

Jessica Lai-Ong loves CNY theme cupcakes, and puts tons of detail and variation into the cakes she bakes.

 

6. Mahjong Table

Mahjong has been a core part of Chinese New Year and has been instrumental in keeping families shouting with and at each other throughout the ages.  Some people even think it’s more core than say, visiting relatives, but there you go.

Valerie from Cakes by ValVal loves to do designs that are out of this world, or at the very least pretty challenging.  Ask her about her cakes that can convey a message when you cut it open!

 

7. Mahjong Pieces

Here’s another design by Anna Ng of Anna Cupcakery, complete with lots of ‘Fei’ (jokers, which can be used as any other card) and bags of money in case your Mahjong skills cannot make the cut.

 

8. The Lion / Dragon Head

How would CNY be complete without paying tribute to the lion / dragon dance?  One of the more challenging designs, the lion needs to be complete with bushy eyebrows, scary eyes, and a mouth that is so wide it can eat mandarin oranges, pomelos, cabbages (during recession years) and sometimes a whole man’s head.

Valyee Vijendran of Creamy Dreamy Cakes has been baking for the past 5 years and her specialty is unique and detail-filled cakes that almost resemble works of art.

 

9. Lion Heads in 3D

Here is Anna Ng’s take on the lion dance!

Most of the bakers above are active in the DIY Parties and Fun – Malaysia Group on Facebook, you can find them there!  In addition to these, we have an amazing range of bakers, caterers, party planners and decorators, so if you’re planning a special event, visit Recommend.my. Tell us what you need and we’ll get you up to 4 quotes and introductions from some of the best professionals in town. There’s no reason to go with random ‘pros’ you’re not sure will do a great job for you.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!