FAQ
Why Happy Bakes?
Because we sell what we will eat. What we sell are just how homemade food should be – without excessive chemicals, preservatives and made with fresh and good ingredients.
We sell things that we would like to buy as consumers. Our items may take more time to produce, but we want you to be able to personalise your gifts of cookies, cake pops and what-nots, and carry a message to your loved ones to add that extra touch, which may not be found in big-scale commercial bakeries.
What is fondant and why use fondant?
Fondant is a type of icing that is used to cover cakes and it is primarily made of icing sugar. Traditionally, fondant is used mainly only for wedding cakes but today, they are used on cakes for all occasions.
Fondant is popular with bakers because it gives a very smooth and beautiful finish for the cakes and it is versatile enough to be used in making many cake decorations e.g. flowers and figurines.
Fondant by itself is a more expensive ingredient and fondant cakes are usually more time consuming to make, so fondant cakes anywhere will usually be priced higher than normal cream cakes. However, other than looking nice, fondant also helps to seal in a cake’s moisture and flavour, which is especially important for cakes which have to be on display for a long time.
How to store cakes, cookies, cupcakes and cake pops?
- Cakes:
For buttercream cakes, keep the cakes refrigerated and take the cake out about 15mins before the time of consumption.
[Why do some other shops say their buttercream cakes do not need to be refrigerated? The answer lies in the buttercream. At Happy Bakes, we choose to use meringue buttercream made with 100% butter. This buttercream tastes better and lighter, but it cannot withstand hours and hours without refrigeration on our little sunny island.
Decorator's buttercream which is able to withstand hours without refrigeration is highly likely to contain either 1) shortening, 2) margarine, 3) lots of icing sugar or 4) combination of all. We will only use decorator's buttercream only if the customer requests for it or if absolutely necessary for decoration.]
For fondant cakes, DO NOT refrigerate. Refrigeration will result in condensation on the cake, which will destroy the look of the cake and also cause the fondant to “sweat” and turn gluey when taken out of the fridge.
Fondant cakes are best kept in a cool (e.g. airconditioned) place or room temperature. Do take note that our weather is very humid (especially when it rains) and humidity can result in the fondant “sweaty” and eventually “gluey”. In addition, royal icing which is used for decoration on fondant cakes is also sensitive to humidity.
Now, if you have read this far and are beginning to think that fondant cakes sound rather scary, they are not. It’s just that our local weather is too warm, humid and “cake-unfriendly” at many times. When planning what type of cake to have for your event, just be aware of the environment they will be in and everything will be perfectly alright.
- Cookies:
All our cookies can be kept at room temperature in an airtight box. Since the fondant and royal icing used on each cookie is not a large amount, they are unlikely to melt and turn gluey.
- Cupcakes:
Cupcakes with buttercream are best refrigerated and taken out 15-20 minutes before consumption.
Cupcakes with fondant decorations are best stored at room temperature in an airtight container. If refrigeration is necessary, it is suggested to remove the fondant figurines first before refrigerating the cupcakes in an airtight container.
- Cake Pops and cake balls:
These are best kept in cool (e.g. airconditioned) places or at room temperature. If you want to refrigerate them, do so with the individually wrapper still intact. The hardened chocolate shell will be a very nice contrast in texture compared to the soft cake inside.
Why can’t cake pops be bigger and what designs can they be made into?
Cake pops are meant to be cute “cake lollipops” and are perched on sticks. They are made with cake into balls the size of golf ball. If made too big, they will easily break and lose their balance. They can be made into many different designs. However, since even making plain cake pops are pretty time-consuming, we try to balance the amount of decorations for each cake pop, so that we do not have to pass the additional charges to our customers.
To satisfy your cake pops craving, we have made cake balls which are slightly bigger. These can be personalised and made into more shapes without having to worry about them losing their balance off sticks. Some shapes may look bigger than the others, but each ball actually contains the same amount of cake. You may also be surprised to know that the amount of cake each ball is made of, is half a cupcake!
How do I decide what to order for my party?
Decide on a budget. If you have a theme for your event, let us know the colours and other details that you have in mind. Do consider the number of people that you are serving, the environment (outdoors or indoors) and the profile of your guests (e.g. mainly for children).
If you want to send us some pictures to tell us what you think, feel free to do so. There are all sorts of themes and ideas around. We might not have done it before, but that doesn’t mean we will not be able to do it.
How long in advance do I need to place order?
If you have decided on what you want, it is recommended to place order early as it all depends on our schedule. At certain festive periods, our schedule might be packed. We try to slot in as many orders as we can do but there are times we may have to disappoint you if we are full and bursting at the seams. Generally, please allow at least a week’s notice.
We do not like to impose unnecessary charges to customers, but we have received so many last minute orders and we do not encourage unless absolutely required. Therefore, orders with 3 days’ notice or less are considered urgent orders and a surcharge of 20% will apply.
Why do I have to pay in advance?
We trust our customers but there are black sheep who betray our trust. So advance payment is to ensure that we give our time only to those who genuinely want to order.
How do I contact you?
As our jobs are not deskbound, our hands might be busy playing with flour and butter in the kitchen. Hence, emails are preferred, so that we can reply you as soon as we are able to. Sms are fine too. Though at times, we might not be able to reply immediately, be assured we stick to what we indicate on this website – that we reply within 3 working days.
Of course, at times direct calls are more effective, but please be kind to us and do not call at insane hours (believe it or not, we do receive calls in the wee hours of the morning, so we have to explicitly remind). We know you are excited and eager to order but we are human and need our rest too.
Are there discounts for bulk orders?
When you order in bulk, be assured that we will give you a better price as far as we can.
However, due to the nature of most of our products, which require a great deal of time and effort to decorate and prepare, we appreciate that you could contact us early so that there is ample time for discussion and preparation. Be it 15 cookies or 100 cake pops, be assured that each and every item is carefully decorated and packed.
Great! Now my questions are answered, I can proceed to order now!
