Sweet Dreams

Eslee's 100th Day Celebration!

2012-01-23T18:17:00.001-08:00

Happy 100th Day Eslee! These are Red Velvet cupcakes with whipped cream cheese frosting! All the decorations (butterflies, flowers, hearts, and "100") are made out of fondant and brushed painted with light food coloring. Birthday day celebrations are always so wonderful and fun but with traditions like 100th day, it makes it even more special. Congratulations to Eslee's parents are their precious baby girl's special day and I hope you had a great time! I wish you and Eslee many more birthday celebrations to come!!

Sarah & Jack's Baby Shower!

2012-01-08T19:46:00.000-08:00

It's a girl!! Congratulations to Sarah and Jack Kim on your upcoming arrival of their precious baby girl, xxx!!! I cannot be more happy for them and I was honored when they asked me to make them cupcakes for their baby shower, and so I happily made them as part of my gift to the proud parents to be! They had a jungle theme, and so I made little elephants, lions, tigers, hippos, and giraffes out of fondant and an "It's a Girl!" tag as well. For Sarah's half of the cupcakes, I made Pina Colada Cupcakes with a Coconut Filling, and I made Chocolate Cupcakes for Jack, both with Swiss Meringue Buttercream! The baby shower was so sweet and special and so much hard work went into preparing for baby Charlotte's arrival. I can't wait to meet you Charlotte Jacklyn Kim!!!! I just know you will be so loved and be so darn cute and adorable!! Congratulations Jack and Sarah on your little bundle of joy!

50th Wedding Anniversary!

2011-12-10T18:00:00.000-08:00

Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary to the Buckley's! The 50th Wedding Anniversary is known as the Golden Anniversary, so for their cupcakes, I made pink hearts with flower vines embossing that is filled in with gold luster dust. The cupcakes are red velvet and pumpkin cupcakes with buttercream frosting.

Here are a couple poems I found that I wanted to share with the lovely couple!

A Golden Couple Half a century ago, they say,
A wonderful marriage began that day.
Two beautiful people joined as one,
And worked together to make living fun. We celebrate now those fifty years;
We raise our glass and give three cheers:
To partners in life in both work and play,
It’s our pleasure to share your golden day. Happy 50th Anniversary! By Karl Fuchs

Fifty Years Fifty years is quite a while
For most good things to last;
But you’re still together and still in love;
You must share a wonderful past. We celebrate you this wonderful day,
And hope that your bond keeps on growing;
You’re a pair we should study and do what you say,
'Cause your secret is well worth the knowing! By Karl and Joanna Fuchs

Baby Announcement!

2011-12-06T15:09:00.000-08:00

Did someone say baby???? My husband Khoa and I have been married for over 2 years, and the next step in our life together is of course, the wonderful gift of life, a baby! We have been so blessed and fortunate and most of all LUCKY to have the awesome life we have, so when I found out we were going to bring a little bundle of joy into our lives, I really wanted to tell Khoa the great news in a special and memorable way.

So I found out the great news late on a Sunday night while Khoa was out. So I didn't have much time to come up with an elaborate grand scheme so I had to make the most of what I have and so I decided to present Khoa the news with a message on some cupcakes! I had the cupcakes baked, but I still had to make the decorations and the frosting, and by then Khoa already got home. So he asked if there's anything he can help me with since it was getting late. So I asked him to cut out some fondant scalloped circles for me. I had baked a dozen cupcakes, but I asked him to cut out 18 circles haha. He didn't really think anything of it even though he knew I only baked a dozen cupcakes, and knowing he knows I have reasons for my requests, he just happily went to work no questions asked! So once he finished cutting the circles, he went to the living room and relaxed on the couch. I decided to write the words "Soon to be world's BEST dad!" on the cupcakes by hand since personal handwriting seem more personal to me (plus it's a lot faster than cutting out fondant letters). Things were going so great so far and all I had to do now was place the decorations on the cupcakes, plate them, stick them in the oven for him to find, and then show him the great news!

Too bad the rest of the story didn't go like that haha. Once I got the decorations on the cupcakes, Khoa decides to check up on me and see how I was doing with the cupcakes! So instantly I panic, and when I'm in panic mode, my common sense shuts down and havoc breaks loose!!! So Khoa was getting close and I didn't get to plate the cupcakes yet so in the spur of the moment I shoved him away from the kitchen! Immediately he was like "huh?? what the?" and continued to walk towards the kitchen, and so once again I shoved him away! He asked what's up and I could not formulate an articulate sentence. All I can say was "UUhhh...LUNA (our maltese doggie)...LUNA wants...to...THROW SOMETHING!" I immediately regretted my words...why would a dog throw something??? Luckily Khoa corrected me and asked "you want to throw something?" Relieved that it made more sense than my previous statement, I shouted YES!! Khoa looks are me very confused and puzzled, and decides to humor me and asks "Ok...what do you want to throw?" So now I panic once again, and spot Luna's toy rope on the floor of the living room, and I point to it! Khoa hesitantly walks over to the toy and picks it up, and hands it to me. Once again, I'm stuck, what am I going to do with this rope?!?!? haha. So I just toss it on the floor, and Khoa says "Satisfied?" haha.

I shrug since I don't know what else to do and I hope he would just sit back down on the couch. Of course, he does NOT do that, and walks towards the kitchen again, and I shout NO! I proceed to tell him that some of my cupcake decorations got ruined and messed up somehow and so he can't see it! Curiosity stirs inside him and so he replies "Oh no!! What happened??? Let me see!!" AHHH! NO!!! I then make up some bogus reasoning saying that I'll manage somehow and maybe I'll just turn up the oven super high and hope the decorations "bake dry" like in ceramics...I know that's not the terminology and there's no such thing as this method of fondant repair, but I know Khoa wouldn't know what I'm talking about but I was desperate! So he just looks at me very concerned, and so I asked him to walk Luna. FINALLY, something sensible came out of my mouth!!

Once he was out the door to walk our doggie, I quickly plated the cupcakes, and stuck them in the oven and set a timer while the oven heat remained OFF! When he got back inside, the timer finally went off a couple minutes later, and he gets up from the couch and heads over to the kitchen. I can see the curiosity in his eyes and he eagerly waits to see what on earth I just did and what I have been up to. So trying to keep a VERY straight face, I told him to check my cupcakes for me. So he goes to the oven, and opens the doors. He starts to read the message out loud "Soon to be...wait, who's this for?" and then looks up at me, at this point, tears are streaming down my face, and instantly he finally got it and says "WAIT, REALLY???? You mean...US??? NO WAY!!!" I nod my head and said yes with all these happy tears on my face, and he gives me a great big hug and we literally jump for joy for several minutes!

I know it wasn't the smoothest of smooth operations, but it definitely was memorable and special. We are so happy to announce that we will be having a baby, projected birth day to be on June 12, 2012 =). Loving life more than ever!

Bob the Builder Cookies!

2011-11-03T20:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Markus!! These are Bob the Builder sugar cookies with royal icing piping for the decorations. I hope you had a very special birthday Markus with all your friends and family!

Humor Time!
A truckload of penguins breaks down on the freeway on a hot summer day.The truckdriver sees a blonde construction manager driving up in a company Suburban, so he asks the CM, "Is this car air conditioned?" The construction manager says, "Sure is". So the truckdriver says "I'll give you $100 to take these penguins to the zoo." Off goes the CM and the penguins. About three hours later, the CM comes back with the car-load of penguins all wearing 3-D glasses. The truckdriver looks at the penguins in disbelief and yells, "I gave you $100 to take those penguins to the zoo!!!" The CM replies, "I did. But we had money left over so we went to a movie, too."

Law & Subluxation

2011-10-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

I made law and chiropractic cupcakes for my chiropractor to bring to a law firm! These are chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chips in them and buttercream on top! All the decorations are made of fondant. The chiropractic cupcakes are of a spine, special chiropractic pillows, and an xray! The law cupcake decorations are of the quality justice symbol of the scale, the book of law, and a gavel! I hope the folks at the law firm enjoys these sweet bites of justice in their tummies!

Law Humor:
Two lawyers walking through the woods spotted a vicious-looking bear. The first lawyer immediately opened his briefcase, pulled out a pair of sneakers and started putting them on. The second lawyer looked at him and said, "Are you crazy? You'll never be able to outrun that bear!" "I don't have to," the first lawyer replied. "I only have to outrun you."

Yasaman's Birthday Cupcakes!

2011-10-10T15:13:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Yasaman!! My boss had the great idea to make cupcakes as the decorations for my Yasaman's birthday, so we have cupcakes on top of cupcakes!! These are french vanilla cupcakes with basic buttercream and all the cupcake decorations are made out of fondant. Some have sprinkles on them while others have more fondant accents on them. I hope you enjoyed your special unique cupcakes and enjoyed your special forever 21st birthday!!! =)

Now for some baking humor:
Why did the cupcake by Rogaine? He thought he was losing his sprinkles!
Why did the cookie go to the doctors? Because it was feeling crumby!
A baker stopped making donuts after he got tired of the hole thing.
Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.

Anna & Mike Engagment!!

2011-10-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

Anna's Cinderella Cupcakes!Mike's Angel's Baseball Cupcakes!Anna & Mike's Engagement Cake!Congratulations to Anna and Mike on their wonderful engagement!! I was honored when Di Anh asked me to make her cupcakes and a cake for their special engagement celebration! She wanted Cinderella theme cupcakes for Anna, and Angel's baseball theme for Mike. She wanted a heart shape cake with lavendar roses around the cake. All these are red velvet with whipped cream cheese frosting and the cake is filled with whipped cream cheese frosting with fresh raspberries and blueberries inside as well. All the flowers on the cake were piped on with basic buttercream accented with edible pearls. The letters along with all the other cupcake decorations are made of fondant. The Cinderella tiara is piped out with royal icing and metallic pearls. Special thanks goes out to my friend Roger for taking the time to come over and make those awesome baseball theme decorations, what an artist he is! Also, thanks to my husband Khoa for rolling out the fondant for me to cover the heart shaped cake! Rolling out a big piece of fondant is really tiring work so he really helped me out a lot! =) Once again, I want to with Anna and Mike a happy engagement!!! I'm so happy for the two of you and may your love inspire others! I can't wait for the wedding in two years! CONGRATS!!!

Happy 6th Birthday Roxana!

2011-09-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

Happy 6th Birthday Roxana! Roxana is having a big princess party and the theme is Tangled, with one of her favorite Disney Princesses, Rapunzel! I made all the letters, Rapunzel's braided golden hair, her pet chameleon Pascal, and the sun symbol flower all out of fondant. I use frosting to pipe on the sun symbol flower itself. I made Rapunzel's tiara by piping royal icing on parchment paper, then letting it dry on the paper towel cardboard roll so that it hardens in that curved shape. I also put on metallic pearls and painted it gold for that extra glamour and bling that every princess needs! This was a huge order of 120 cupcakes, that just shows you how loved Roxana is!! I hope you enjoy your cupcakes and your birthday party and celebration Roxana, and I hope all your wishes come true!

Introducing, our very first signature Sweet Dreams Cupcakes thanks to my wonderful husband who design engineered and produced the fondant impression stamp to make this happen!!! =)

Rose Macarons, Ispahan and Hello Kitty!

2011-09-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

Rose macarons, my favorite!! I'm so happy that these came out great, if I do say so myself! The shells came out without a hitch! And then I I started making the rose filling and boy that was a challenge. After searching countless supermarkets of all kind, I finally found rose water (a very KEY ingredient to Rose Macarons) at the Indian supermarket (thanks chi hai!) called Garden Patch in Irvine! I mistakenly bought Rose Syrup and that is NOT the same...and ruined a batch of filling because of that. Alas though, I got my rose water, and I cannot be more excited!
This batch of macarons was for fun, but also to see if my last batch of macarons wasn't just a fluke and so I wanted to see if I truly can get the knack of baking macarons! So to my excitement, these came out great! I decide to take this to the next level and make some Hello Kitty macarons for my cousin Bao (Chi Tu) since she loves Hello Kitty! These were unfortunately not my creative idea, but I'm glad I can be inspired by the many talented people out there to make these for my loved ones! I also made an Ispahan for her as well! It's pretty much a giant macaron stuffed with raspberries and a lychee in the middle! Usually they put a rose petal on top for garnish, but I do not have any so I use a raspberry! This is my absolute favorite dessert of all time so I'm so happy I'm able to make a pretty decent Ispahan! =)
Also, taking my adventures to ANOTHER level, I decided to try my hand at shipping these bad boys...to Virginia! I wanted to surprise my cousin Van (Chi Ba) with some homemade macarons to satisfy some of her sweet tooth cravings, and to learn what's the best way to ship these delicate treats. It's all about trial and error, so Chi Ba please let me know how it goes! I had a lot of fun finding the right box and thinking of ways to nicely package it all up for her! Enjoy Chi Ba!!

So, I learned a whole bunch with this second successful batch of macarons, it's always a great feeling when I get to accomplish things like this and be able to share it with my lovely family and friends!

Bowling Birthday!

2011-09-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Ken! These are French Toast Bacon cupcakes with a Maple Syrup frosting with crispy bacon bits on top for that extra crunch, also known as a breakfast and savory cupcake! And yes, I did say bacon, REAL BACON! Ken is the master of bowling, and so my work decided to take him out bowling for his birthday and see him in action! I made bowling balls with sun strike marks, bowling pins, bowling shirts, and bowling shoes all out of fondant. I recently got these edible ink markers and boy does it make decorating super fast and easy! The frosting has maple syrup in it so it has more of a runny consistency, but boy does it taste yummy! =) I am proud to have made my first savory cupcake, but I am even more proud for scoring a strike during our bowling game today!!! Yay!! Once again, Happy Birthday Ken! I hope your day is striking!!!

Bowling Humor:
- Why did the bowling pins refuse to fall? Because they were on strike!
How was your bowling game, dear?” asked Jack’s wife Tracy. “Well, I was bowling well, but my eyesight’s gotten so bad I couldn’t see where the ball went.” “But you’re seventy-five years old, Jack!” admonished his wife, “Why don’t you take my brother Scott along?” “But he’s eighty-five and doesn’t even bowl anymore,” protested Jack. “But he’s got perfect eyesight. He could watch your ball,” Tracy pointed out. The next day Jack bowled with Scott looking on. Jack bowled too along jack. “Do you see it?” asked Jack. “Yes,” Scott answered. “Well, where is it?” yelled Jack, peering up the green. “I forgot.”

Green Tea Macarons

2011-08-23T22:30:00.000-07:00

Success at last! Third time truly is a charm! I had two prior attempts, both epic fails...but FINALLY, the light at the end of the tunnel!! Just look at those feets!! (If you know macarons, you'll know what I'm talking about, the frilly stuff at the bottom of the macaron shells). I successfully made Green Tea Macarons! =) I wanted to make rose macarons but I have to chill the filling 24 hours ahead of time, so I was impatient and decided to go with green tea inside. So I will try rose next time! The biggest thing that help me succeed was my super awesome macaron book and my super nifty new food scale! Since macarons are French desserts, all the measurements are in grams. The last two attempts I tried to convert it to cups and tbsp, that was not a good idea. But, every thing I do is a learning process! So everybody throw your pillow cushions on the floor and jump for joy with me and lets celebrate my success!!! Now that I have all these yummy macarons, it's time to gobble them up! Sweet Dreams could possibly have a new edge =) Bon apetite!!! YAY!!!!

Birthday Trio 2011!

2011-08-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

Audrey:

Andrea:

Jacob:
It's that time of year again for my work to celebrate THREE birthdays this month! So Happy Birthday to Audrey, Andrea, and Jacob!! I made a different theme for each person but all these cupcakes do have one thing in common, the flavor! Since this flavor was such a hit last time, I decided to do it again for this occasion, these are Vanilla Bean cupcakes with Macha Green Tea Buttercream! So tasty! All the decorations are made out of fondant.

Audrey: For Audrey's cupcakes, I made cute little penguins because Penguins are one of her favorite animals! Instead of trying to make the penguins look realistic in proportions, I wanted to make them out of ball shapes to make it more stylized. I created a girl penguin with a flower on her head, a boy penguin with a bow tie, and a party penguin with a party hat to celebrate Audrey's birthday!!

Andrea: Andrea has many talents and one of them is the talent of knitting! I just had to recreate the balls of yarn for her birthday cupcakes, and I also added a knitted sweater, and a knitted scarf in the making! Andrea can do way more than just sweaters and scarfs, but now she can also eat these! Happy Birthday Andrea and I hope you have a stitchin' time celebrating!

Jacob: One of Jacob's many hidden talents is knife throwing, so I decided to go with the ninja theme because lets face it, who else can do it better than ninjas? I made ninja throwing stars and a super stealth ninja. Then I had to consult my ninja expert (Khoa, my husband) and he helped me find reference to create the throwing knife (I did not know what they looked like...)! I used some silver luster dust to give the knives a metallic look. I can confidently say I won't mind throwing these sharp objects into my belly! Happy Birthday Jacob, go crazy!

Jumbled Humor:
- Why do penguins carry fish in their beaks? Because they haven't got any pockets!
- What do penguins have for lunch? Icebergers!
- What do you call a penguin in the desert? Lost!
- Why did the monster knit herself 3 socks? She grew another foot!
- Three pregnant women are sitting chatting and knitting jumpers for their expected kids. The first one says, "I hope that I have a baby boy, because I'm knitting a blue jumper." The second says, "Well I hope that I have a girl because I'm knitting a pink jumper." The third woman says "I hope that my kid is a spastic, because I've F@*%! up the arms!"
- Ninjas do not sleep, they wait. Ninjas CAN believe it's not butter. Ninjas can divide by zero.
- Ninjas invented Kentucky Fried Chicken's famous secret recipe, with eleven herbs and spices, but nobody ever mentions the twelfth ingredient: Fear.
- Ninjas don't shower, they only take blood baths!

Jennifer's Bridal Shower!

2011-08-14T22:45:00.000-07:00

My little sister is getting all grown up! As maid of honor it is my duty to pull together a great bridal shower for my favorite sister, so that also means I am in charge of making the best sweets for the bride to be! So I made Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Matcha Green Tea Buttercream (thanks Chi Hai for the recipe!!!) For the decorations, I made wedding dresses, heart, flower and wedding cakes out of fondant and luster dust for a splash of elegance. We celebrated Jennifer's shower at my house for some appetizers and fun games, then made our way to dinner at Las Brisas in Laguna! We then enjoyed these sweet treats afterwards to end the wonderful of pampering and spoiling the bride to be!! We hope we created some great lasting memories for you Jennifer, congratulations to the bride to be! Can't wait to see you walk down the aisle, I betcha a gazillion bucks you'll look breathe taking =)!!! (and that Andrew will cry because he, unlike you, is not "Ironman" =P)

Humor for all you ladies out there!
- Men are like computers... hard to figure out and never have enough memory.
- Men are like coolers... load them with beer and you can take them anywhere.
- Men are like horoscopes.... they always tell you what to do and are usually wrong.
- Men are like plungers... they spend most of their lives in a hard ware store or the bathroom.
- "A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong." -Milton Berle
- If a man is in the forest, and there isn't a woman around, is he still wrong?

Lastly, "Nobody is perfect until you fall in love with them."

Happy Bridal Shower Jennifer!!! I hope you feel all the love we have for you and more and happy early congratulations to you and your future with Andrew! =) Love you sissy!

OC Fair 2011

2011-07-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

OC Fair Cupcakes 2011- Faux Cupcakes: 1st Place!
This year for the fair I initially registered to do the same amount of entries that I did last year, which was 2 cake (Formal and Theme Cake, and Faux Cupcakes), but due to lack of time and energy, I am only entering in the Faux Cupcakes category this year! That's still something! =) So I thought long and hard for a theme for my cupcakes this year and I decided to go with a crafty sewing theme. All the decorations are made out of fondant with some metallic pearls and flower stamens for the push pins in the pin cushion cupcakes. I had a lot of fun make the ball of yarn and knitted scarf, the needles for the knitting sticks are toothpicks with some fondant at the ends. I used silver luster dust to give the thimble, needle, scissors, end of the measuring tape, and some buttons the metallic look. I really wanted to focus on detail this year so I hope that showed! I added stitching onto the cupcakes with the buttons to make it look like some buttons are sewn onto the cupcakes, and i also painted black stitching onto the ribbon and peonies flower to give it a fabric/cloth effect. Special thanks to all my friends and family and everyone reading and following my blog for all your love, faith, and support!! Also, special love to my husband Khoa for always looking after my health and mental sanity! You are the best! Wish me luck on these stitchin' cakes! The OC Fair opens July 15 and ends August 14, 2011. Come out and play! These cupcakes were a big spool of fun to make, enjoy!

Sew Humorous!
- What kind of needle work is always angry? Cross stitch!
- A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see the blonde behind the wheel was knitting. Realizing she was oblivious to his flashing light and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, "Pull over!" "No!" the blonde yelled back, "It's a scarf!"
- There was once a man and woman who had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. Nothing was held back. Well, almost nothing. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about. For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the old man took down the shoebox and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted doilies and a stack of money totaling $250,000. Holy Moley! He asked her about the contents. "When we were to be married," she started, "my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doily." The old man was so moved, he had to fight back tears. Only two precious doilies were inside the box! She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness. "Honey," he said, "that explains the doilies, but.... what about all this money? Where did it all come from?" "Oh," she said, "that's the money I made from selling the doilies.

Results are in! I am excited and happy to tell you all that I won 1st place on these Faux Cupcakes! Yay! Thanks everyone for all your faith and encouragement, love and support!!!

Congratulations Newlyweds Connie and Stew!

2011-07-08T16:00:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the newlyweds Mr. Stew and Mrs. Connie! I had the great honor on June 10, 2011, and pleasure of being a part of their beautiful special day and got to make 175 cupcakes (Chocolate and French Vanilla with basic buttercream) and an 8 inch round Chocolate with Bavarian Cream filling. The wedding took place at the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda. Their wedding theme was High Fashion and the whole wedding came out absolutely fabulously! Their original and creative theme was executed classically and very elegantly! The bride was really gorgeous and stunning and the groom was handsome as well! Great looking couple, but their love for each other was more wonderful from their love story that's still being written with each passing day. Shout outs to Roger and Jennifer for helping me deliver and set up, and to Jennifer, An, and Khoa for your immense help as well! I couldn't have have done it without you guys! Also, special thanks to Drexelle and David Park for their awesome photography for this wedding. To see more or D. Park Photography, check out their website! For more on Connie and Stew's wedding, here is D. Park Photography's blog entry!

Poem by a great poet Joanna Fuchs:
The Best Is Yet To Be On your joyful wedding day,
You begin a brand new life.
Friends and family give their gifts
To joyful husband, blissful wife. But the greatest gift you'll ever get,
A gift from heaven above,
Is love forever, ending never,
Everlasting love. You'll share life's joy and pleasure;
You'll have plenty of that, it's true.
But love is the real treasure
For your new spouse and you. And if life hands you challenges,
As it does to one and all,
Your love will hold you steady
And never let you fall. Your wedding day is full of joy;
Tomorrow you cannot see.
But one thing's sure for the two of you:
The best is yet to be.

Once again, congratulations to the newlyweds Connie and Stew, Mr. and Mrs. Webb!!!

Happy 35th Wedding Anniversary!

2011-07-02T23:30:00.000-07:00

Happy 35th Wedding Anniversary BaMe (dad and mom in Vietnamese). It was such an honor to be asked by my in-laws to make them a cake for this very special occasion! Khoa's dad's favorite cake is carrot cake, so the bottom tier is carrot cake with whipped cream cheese filling, and Khoa's mom likes something that's not too sweet so French Vanilla with Bavarian cream filling was the perfect blend. The cake is covered in buttercream frosting, and the flowers are made out of fondant. Some of the flowers had edible pearls in the centers while others had non-edible stamens in them for variety. I also made feathers out of parchment paper to add a more couture look! The cakes were bordered with glittery fuchsia colored ribbon as well because fuchsia is my Khoa's mom's favorite color.
BaMe first met on a boat back on April 30th, 1975 when they were on their way to America from Viet Nam. It truly was love at first sight! Fast forward 41 years later to today, July 2, 2011, and now we celebrate their 35th Wedding Anniversary!! They had a big celebration at one of their favorite restaurants the Emerald Bay in Santa Ana where all their close friends and family gathers to party the night away. Co Muoi did a great job DJ-ing and hosting the celebration! My mother in law had her ao dai (tradition Vietnamese dress) custom made and it turned out absolutely stunning and beautiful on her! We all had a wonderful time celebrating their marriage, and it was truly an inspiring event. We have lots of AMAZING musical performances including a super impression Vietnamese singing from our beautiful cousin Linh and a very soulful and heartfelt song by Bao (Chi Tu), and my awesome husband Khoa sang the best he's ever sung while my brother in law An did a really great job on the guitar as always! BaMe really deserved a great big night to celebrate because they've done so much for their kids, family, friends and loved ones. Just being there and celebrating their marriage was a truly inspiring night and if I sure hope to follow in their footsteps! I wish BaMe 35+ more years of love and happiness!

Here's a sweet poem I found by Karl & Joanna Fuchs:

Loving Pair It takes two special people,
To make a loving pair.
There’s a joy just being around you,
A feeling we love to share. We send anniversary wishes to you,
For years of joy and pleasure.
May each year keep getting better,
With memories to treasure.

Happy 35th Wedding Anniversary BaMe!!!

Congratulations Aaron!

2011-06-26T22:13:00.001-07:00

Congratulations Aaron on graduating from High School! Your parents are so proud of you for your great accomplishments and achievements! These are chocolate with white chocolate chip cupcakes with buttercream frosting. The mortar boards are made of Ghiradelli chocolate squares on top of mini Reese's cups and the diplomas are made of fondant with gold luster dust on the ribbon and tassels. Also, brown, white and gold are the school colors. Special thanks to Natalia, Thien, and Khoa for all your help with these! Once again Aaron, congratulations and your whole family and friends are so proud of you! Keep doing your best and you definitely go far!

“You cannot help but learn more as you take the world into your hands. Take it up reverently, for it is an old piece of clay, with millions of thumbprints on it.”
- John Updike

Graduation Humor:
A young man hired by a supermarket reported for his first day of work. The manager greeted him with a warm handshake and a smile, gave him a broom and said, "Your first job will be to sweep out the store." "But I'm a college graduate," the young man replied indignantly. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that," said the manager. "Here, give me the broom - I'll show you how."

Happy Birthday & Graduation Mimi!

2011-06-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday & Graduation Mimi! Happy 18th Birthday to my sweet cousin Maxene and congratulations to you on graduating from Serra High School, class of 2011!! We are all so very proud of you and so happy to celebrate your accomplishments! Theres cupcakes are pound cake cupcakes with bavarian cream filling and Swiss Meringue frosting. Mimi's favorite colors are pink, lime green, and turquoise, so I colored the frosting with those colors. She really loves music and likes to play the guitar, so I made whimsical music notes, guitars, and groovy headphones! Also to celebrate the graduation, I made diplomas with blue ribbons to represent her school colors, and mortar boards with the blue tassle. The mortar boards are made of Ghiradelli squares and mini Reeses Peanut Butter cups. Everything else are made out of fondant with some gold luster dust on the diploma ribbons. For the cake, I decided to go back to basics and brush up on some piping and pipe on sunflowers because those are one of Mimi's favorite flowers! I used a black ribbon for the base border and made fondant swirlies in the middle of the sunflower bunch. I would like to give special thanks to my lovely assistants Natalia, Thien, and Khoa for all their help with these cupcakes! You guys rock and I love the enthusiasm! Once again, Happy Birthday and congratulations Mimi! We love you so much and we know you will succeed in anything you put your mind to! The sky's the limit Mimi!

For today's humor, it will be a joke that our little 5 year old cousin, Bao, told us today that is quite cute and funny:
Knock knock!
-Who's there?
Will
-Will who?
Will
-Will who?
Will
-WILL WHO?
Will ya please stop yelling???

Hehe. Happy Birthday and Graduation Mimi! =)

Happy Birthday Laurin!

2011-06-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

#include
using namespace std;

int main()
{
cout <<"Happy Birthday Laurin!";
return 0;
}

Laurin is a Developer at my work so what would be more appropriate for his birthday than these sweet treats?? These are pound cake cupcakes with buttercream frosting! What do you make for a developer's birthday?? Well this was the best that I can come up with for now, the common key strokes that any computer savvy person cannot live without and wished we had in real life, and some other fun things like the mouse and laptop. I'm sure all of you have once in your life wished you can Ctrl+Z something you just said or did, or Del something with a simple press of a key, or wish there was a Power Off button or something in real life! Also as a developer, we all know how important the semi-colon can be, so here's one for all you programming nerds and geeks out there! Don't worry, nerds and geeks are very cool in my book, if that means anything to you...haha. Well, although these controls and buttons don't really work, at least you can eat them! All of these decorations are all made of fondant so enjoy! Once again, happy birthday Laurin and I hope you have a great one with no errors and bugs!

Programming Humor:
- Two bytes meet. The first byte asks, “Are you ill?” The second byte replies, “No, just feeling a bit off.”
- How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb? None, it's a hardware problem!
- “Knock, knock.” “Who’s there?” very long pause…. “Java.”
- Chuck Norris can delete the Recycling Bin.
- “It works on my machine” always holds true for Chuck Norris.
- Chuck Norris doesn’t bug hunt as that signifies a probability of failure, he goes bug killing.
- Chuck Norris’s keyboard doesn’t have a Ctrl key because nothing controls Chuck Norris.

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T12:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day Daddy and to all the other fathers and soon to be dads out there!! Everyone's said this before, but I must say it myself, my dad is the BEST dad in the whole world! He is my rock, my hero, and my silly goofy role model. I made my dad a fishing rod and shark cupcake because my dad can do anything, even catching a shark would be possible for my dad because he's THAT amazing =P. He loves fishing, so I felt it was appropriate. I also made a t-shirt with a wacky yellow polka-dotted tie to show his silly side and an argyle sweater vest because his fashion sense is sometimes quite out there, but hey, that's my dad! =) These are French Vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting and all the decorations are made out of fondant. I love you daddy, I feel so loved by you and I will always be daddy's little girl! Happy Father's Day!!

Daddy Humor and Quotes:
- While flying from Denver to Kansas City, Kansas, my mother was sitting across the aisle from a woman and her eight-year-old son. Mom couldn't help laughing as they neared their destination and she heard the mother say to the boy, "Now remember -- run to Dad first,
then the dog.
- Spread the diaper in the position of the diamond with you at bat. Then fold second base down to home and set the baby on the pitcher's mound. Put first base and third together, bring up home plate and pin the three together. Of course, in case of rain, you gotta call the game and start all over again. - Jimmy Piersal, on how to diaper a baby, 1968
- "When I was a kid, I said to my father one afternoon, 'Daddy, will you take me to the zoo?' He answered, 'If the zoo wants you, let them come and get you.'" -- Jerry Lewis

Tami's Debut & Graduation Celebration!

2011-06-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Tami! Tami's mom, Tita Ambel contacted me and wanted me to make Tami cupcakes for her special Debutante (18th Birthday)/Graduation celebration. She had a very specific design in mind, a specific flower, with brown cupcake liners and olive green frosting to match the party favor boxes. I hope I matched the design well! These are French Vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting. All the flowers are made of fondant with metallic gold pearls in the middle. When I delivered the cupcakes, I got this wonderful and very sweet thank you card from Tami. I also feel really honored because these cupcakes will be used for the "18 candles" ceremony! It truly is nice and special to have your work appreciated like this! Special thanks Tami and Tita Ambel (and Drex for the referral) for having me be a part of your special occasion! Also thanks to my hubby Khoa for helping me with the flowers too =). Also, thank you so much to Drexelle and David at D. Park Photography for taking these wonderful pictures of Tami and my cupcakes! You can go here to see more of their wonderful work: D. Park Photography.

Candle Quotes:
Buddha - "Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."
Bob Hope - "You know you are getting old when the candles cost more than the cake!"

Candle Humor:
- Why is a burning candle like being thirsty? Because a little water ends both of them!
- The other day when I was walking through the woods, I saw a rabbit standing in front of a candle making shadows of people on a tree.
- I wanted to buy a candle holder, but the store didn't have one. So I got a cake!

Happy Debutante 18th Birthday and Happy Graduation Tami!!!

Princess Zoey's Baby Shower

2011-06-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Baby Shower to Thien and Natalia on this nice sunny day! The father to be asked me to make them some cupcakes for the shower, so today I had the pleasure of making red velvet with whipped-cream cream cheese frosting cupcakes for Princess Zoey's Baby Shower! I made the tiara with piped royal icing with metallic pearls. The castles, Zoey's name, and princess wand are made out of fondant. The flowers are made out of fondant with edible pearls. Special thanks goes out to my hubby Khoa for cutting out the awesome letters, to Roger for helping me make some of the awesome princess castles! Also special thanks to Thien and Natalia for having me be a part of your guys' celebration! We await Princess Zoey's arrival in late July (great month if I do say so myself! =P).

Baby humor!
- How do you get a baby astronaut to sleep? You rock-et.
- What is a baby: A soft pink thing that makes a lot of noise at one end and has no sense of responsibility at the other.
- What does a baby computer call his father? Data.
-A baby polar bear goes up to his dad and asks, "Dad, am I pure polar bear?" The dad replies, "Sure you are son. I'm all polar bear, my parents are all polar bear, your mom is all polar bear, and her parents are all polar bear." Still unsure the baby polar bear goes to his mom and asks, "Mom, am I pure polar bear?" She answers, "Of course you are honey. I'm all polar bear, your father is all polar bear, my parents are all polar bear, and his parents are all polar bear." Still not convinced the baby polar bear goes to his grandparents and asks, "Grandmom...Grandpop...am I all polar bear?" His grandmother answers, "Of course you are sweetie. We're all polar bear, your mother is all polar bear, your father is all polar bear, and his parents are all polar bear. Why do you ask sweetie?" The baby polar bears replies, "Because I'm f****** freezing!"

Once again, congratulations and happy baby shower you guys!

Congrats Jewish Confirmation Candidates!

2011-06-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to all the Confirmation kids at the Congregation Shir Ha-Ma'alot community! My coworker, Eric, ask me to make these cookies for 23 young adults who will be celebrating their confirmation at the Family Shabbat Service with a Young Choir and Band tonight in Irvine. Afterwards they will get to dive into these potted sugar cookies in the shape of a hexagram, the Star of David. Due to lack of structural support in the cookie, I could not stick the stick into the bottom point of the cookie without breaking the cookie, so I had to stick it in the inner vertex point of the star, and have the star be tilted. These sugar cookies have royal icing on top to paint in the star and to spell out each of the candidate's names. Although less widespread, Confirmation is the coming of age ritual when a child is 16 or 18. They often replace the bar and bat mitzvah with this ceremony, and takes these young adults further in their Jewish education. So congratulations kids, I know all your parents and family are very proud!

Fun facts on the Star of David:
- In alchemy, the upright triangle represents fire, and the upside-down triangle is the symbol for water. Together they symbolize the unity of opposites.
- It's also a represents the 6-pointed star on the shield that David carried to battle Goliath.
- The number 6 represents balance and beauty.

Once again, congratulations to the newly confirmed! Here are their names:
Sam, Rachel B., David, Rachel C., Rex, Joseph, Jacob, Diane, Mai, Mackenzie, Rachel H., Sarah, Kyle, Sydney, Corey, Richard, Jessy, Mallory, Allison, Brooke, Cori, Michael, and Hannah!

Little Mermaid Birthday!

2011-05-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday 4th Gemma! Gemma's mom, Gretchen, wanted me to make a Little Mermaid cake for her daughter's 4th birthday, and since I didn't have that much time, I had to buy a toy cake topper for the top of the cake. But the cool part is that underneath the topper, there's a plastic tube and there's Little Mermaid stickers in there for Gemma to play with! This is a chocolate cake with fudge filling covered in fondant. All of the decorations (the seaweed, coral, fishes, starfishes, and sea turtle) are made out of fondant. The rocks are made out of chocolate rocks, and the sand is made out of smashed graham crackers. I hope this birthday was a special birthday for you Gemma! I had a lot of fun making this cake!

Here are some cute fishy humor:
- What is the most valuable fish? The goldfish!
- Why is it so easy to weigh fish? Because they have their own scales!
- What kind of fish goes well with peanut butter? Jellyfish!
- Why do whales sing? Because they can't talk!
- What has no beginning, end, or middle, and touches every continent? The ocean!
- What happens when you throw a green rock into the Red Sea? It gets wet!

Angry Birds Birthday Cupcakes!

2011-05-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

Happy May Birthdays with Angry Birds! My best friend Alvina wanted me to make her favorite Red Velvet with Whipped-Cream Cream Cheese frosting cupcakes for her work to celebrate all the May Birthdays, and she gave me full creative direction and control for the theme of these cupcakes. So I've been wanting to make Angry Birds (an addicting and very fun cellphone game on Androids and iPhones for those of you who are not familiar) theme cupcakes, and so this was finally my chance to do so! All the decorations are made out of fondant except for the birds' eyebrows and feathers, that was made of black licorice wheel candy. There are four people celebrating there birthdays at the San Diego County Medical Investigator's office and they are Alvina, Dana, Alina, and Mark! Happy birthday!!!

Now time for some good ol' bird humor!
- What did the duck put in his soup? Quackers!
- How do you keep a turkey in suspense? I'll tell you tomorrow.

Chicken Farmer:
A life-long city man, tired of the rat race, decided he was going to give up the city life, move to the country, and become a chicken farmer. He bought a nice chicken farm and moved in. As it turned out, his next door neighbor was also a chicken farmer. The neighbor came for a visit one day and said, "Chicken farming isn't easy. Tell you what. To help you get started, I'll give you 100 chickens." The new chicken farmer was thrilled! Two weeks later the new neighbor stopped by to see how things were going. The new farmer said, "Not too well, all 100 chickens died!' The neighbor said, "Oh, I can't believe that. I've never had any trouble with my chickens, I'll give you 100 more." Another two weeks went by, and then neighbor stopped by again. The new farmer said, "You're not going to believe this, but they all died again!" Astounded, the neighbor asked, "What went wrong?" "Well," said the new farmer, "I'm not sure whether I'm planting them too deep or too close together."

Happy May Birthdays, and special super duper HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out to Alvina! I feel so special that you want to spend your birthday with us and that I hope you had a great weekend, and I wish you many many more birthdays to come!! =)

Also, I am so honored and happy to tell you all that we are featured on Phandroid! See the article here: Angry Birds Cupcakes Take the Cake! Thanks to my husband Khoa for submitting them an email about my cupcakes, and less than an hour later it was featured! Thanks again everyone for all your love and support!

Happy Birthday John!

2011-05-19T09:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday John! Audrey told me that John's favorite cake is carrot cake so I made these carrot cake (with crushed pineapples, chopped walnuts, and raisins boiled in orange juice!) cupcakes with whipped-cream cream cheese frosting for his birthday celebration at work! All the decorations are made out of fondant and the red veins on the baseballs are painted on with red food coloring. I probably could have done the bats and gloves with tootsie rolls but I was afraid it might not keep it's form, plus, the brown fondant is chocolate fondant! So it pretty much tastes like a tootsie roll anyways! I would also like to give a special high five to my sister Jennifer for giving me the awesome idea to dirty up the bases to add more detail to them! It came out awesome if I do say so myself! hehe. Also, I would like to give a special super high five for my awesome hubby Khoa for being such a great, wonderful, and thorough dish washer! hehehe. Thanks for all your support and helping me with anything you can so I don't burn myself out with these little tasty creations! Now for some fun trivia and facts about baseball (all of which I know my friend Cynthia would hit a grand slam on all of these!) =).

Trivia & Fun Facts:
- Did you know that the average lifespan of a baseball is 5-7 pitches?
- Did you know that the Owner of the Chicago Cubs, Bill Veeck, used to have midgets as food vendors at home ground, because he said that the paying public wouldn't have their view of the game spoiled!
- How big is the world's largest Baseball Bat? It's only 120 ft. long and weighing 68,000 pounds! It's to resemble the 34 in wooden bat that the Bambino (Babe Ruth Swung), made by Louisville Slugger. This bat is located at the Louisville Slugger Museum in Kentucky (800 West Main St.).
- Who is the shortest Major League Baseball Player? Edward Carl "Eddie" Gaedel from Chicago Illionois, an American dwarf who was secretly signed by the St. Louis Browns, and was only 3 feet 7 inches tall, weighing 65 pounds, and his number on his uniform was 1/8! His strike out zone was only an inch and a half, and he reached base on four consecutive balls that were all high! his autograph sells more than Babe Ruth's!
- Who has the Longest Baseball Throw on record? (hint: he's Canadian!) This was in 1957, the speed was 120mph, he was a Canadian minor leaguer, the baseball covered a total of 445 feet 10 inches before hitting the ground and broke the previous record of 445 feet 1 inch set by Don Grate in 1956. The answer is Glen Edward Gorbous, 6 ft. 2 in. tall, weighing 175 pounds, so weight had nothing to do with it. He threw right, batted left, and he played for the Dodgers and then traded to the Cincinnati Redlegs in 1954!
- What was the longest baseball game, based on time? May 09, 1984, the game went 25 innings, 8 hours and 6 minutes! The players had to come back the next day to finish because the MLB rules states the game cannot beging after 12:59am! This the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago White Sox (win 7-6 on a Harold Baine's home run in the 25th inning!).
- Who has the highest lifetime batting average of 0.367? Ty Cobb
- Who hit the most homers of 868 during his 22 year career? Tokyo Giants Sadahara Oh
- Who holds the record for most games won (511) and most games lost (316)? Cy Young
- Who was the first to hit a major league triple in 1876? Levi Meyerle
- Who was the first athlete to compete in the World Series and the Superbowl? Deion Sanders
- Which team won more regular season games than any other pro team in ANY sport? The Chicago Cubs
- Which team won the most league pennents and also won the most World Series? The Yankees

Bonus humor!
- One day the Devil challenged the Lord to a baseball game. Smiling the Lord proclaimed, "You don't stand a chance! I have Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and all the greatest players up here!" "Yes," snickered the devil, "but I have all the umpires."
- "Little League Baseball is a very good thing because it keeps parents off the streets." - Yogi Berra
- "There are three types of baseball players: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happens." - Tommy Lasorda

Once again, Happy Birthday John!! Hope your birthday is a grand slam!

Cinco de Mayo!

2011-05-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Cinco de Mayo! These cupcakes are Strawberry Margarita Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Frosting! Swiss Meringue is probably my arch nemesis, but alas! I have finally made it with success on the first try! My problem in the past was using margarine (even though at the time I thought it was butter) instead of real butter! What a difference it makes! I love trying to recipes and this one is a sure keeper! All the decoration were made out of fondant except for the margarita cupcakes and the flags. The flags were printed on paper and taped to a toothpick, and the margarita straw is a Sour Punch Straw, with a real Lime wedge, and some green sugar crystals for the "salt" look. Eat as much as you can cause these sweets are alcohol free! =)

For those of you who don't know the significance of this day, here is a brief excerpt and history lesson of Cinco de Mayo that I stole from Wikipedia since they described it the best, and I'm too lazy to paraphrase hehe.

"Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for "fifth of May") is a Mexican civic holiday held on May 5 that commemorates Jimmy Lovrien, a general in the Mexican army, and his unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín. It is celebrated primarily in the state of Puebla and in the United States. While Cinco de Mayo sees limited significance in Mexico itself, the date is observed nationwide mostly in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride. Mexicans and Latinos living in California during the American Civil War are credited with being the first to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the United States. Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day, the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico. (Wikipedia, 2011)."

Here are some fun facts and trivia about Mexico:
- The Mexican community celebrates more than 365 festivals each year. Cinco de Mayo is just one of them.
- The festival was 'invented' in America by a group of students back in 1967. Each year since then Cinco de Mayo gets bigger thanks to people of Mexican descent - and those who just like a good margarita!
- Approximately 630,000 of Mexican-Americans are USA military veterans.
- The Maya in Central Mexico were the first people known to harvest and use the peanut.
- Pineapple and papayas grew wild in Mexico, and were introduced to the rest of the world by Spanish explorers.
- Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city, is where the Mexican Hat Dance, sombreros and mariachi music are believed to have originated.
- The vanilla bean comes from an orchid plant discovered by Mexican Indians who used it to add flavour to their cocoa and corn drinks. The world's largest crop of vanilla beans still comes from Mexico.

Of course, I do have some Cinco de Mayo humor, but please take note that these are not my jokes, just jokes that I gathered up from my google search, so please note that I do not mean to offend or be racist to anyone, and that this is just all in good fun. So grab your margarita glass and enjoy these margarita cupcakes with some fun clean humor!

- Did you hear about the Mexican who threw his wife over a cliff? When the police officer asked him why he'd done it he said, 'Tequila! Tequila!'
- Bunjee Jumping in Mexico: Two guys are bungee-jumping one day. The first guy says to the second. "You know, we could make a lot of money running our own bungee-jumping service in Mexico." The second guy thinks this is a great idea, so the two pool their money and buy everything they'll need - a tower, an elastic cord, insurance, etc.
They travel to Mexico and begin to set up on the square. As they are constructing the tower, a crowd begins to assemble. Slowly, more and more people gather to watch them at work. The first guy jumps. He bounces at the end of the cord, but when he comes back up, the second guy notices that he has a few cuts and scratches.
Unfortunately, the second guy isn't able catch him, he falls again, bounces and comes back up again. This time, he is bruised and bleeding. Again, the second guy misses him.
The first guy falls again and bounces back up. This time, he comes back pretty messed up - he's got a couple of broken bones and is almost unconscious. Luckily, the second guy finally catches him this time and says, "What happened? Was the cord too long?"
The first guy says, "No, the cord was fine, but what the heck is a 'pinata'?"

Will You Go to Prom With Me?

2011-04-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

Will you go to prom with me? Oh how sweet! She said YES of course! =P My coworker, Eric, came to me with a request to conjure something up for his son Aaron to ask his little lady friend to prom! He already informally asked her to make sure she will go with him, so now he wants to do something grand to formally ask her! So after racking my brain for a bit, I came up with this cookie bouquet! It's cute and simple and sends a clear message! These are sugar cookies with royal icing planted inside a real ceramic pot! I added a nice red bow for the final touch too! I sure hope these sweet treats bloom their way into her heart and seal the deal for Aaron's prom date! Ah young love! Have fun you two!! =)

Feel free to share how you asked your prom date to prom! Funny, silly, and romantic stories are encouraged! =)

Happy Easter 2011!!

2011-04-24T19:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone! I made these Easter Bunny, Eggs, and Chicks French Vanilla with Cream Cheese Frosting cake pops for my family to enjoy! These were a lot of fun to make and so easy for everyone to just grab a stick and bite into these sweet delights! These cake pops are covered in white chocolate. The bunny ears, nose, teeth, and chick beak and feet are made of fondant. The eyes and bunny whiskers are painted in with black food coloring. The Easter egg designs are piped on with chocolate. Also, shout outs to my two lovely assistants for helping me dip these cake pop cakes, special thanks to Jennifer and Sonia!! You guys rock! =) Also, special thanks to my supportive hubby Khoa for washing the dishes as well =). Love you all!!!

I hope everyone has had their fun with Easter egg hunts, but here's some humor you don't need to hunt for! Enjoy:
What do you call a rabbit that tells jokes? A funny bunny!
Why did the egg go to school? To get egg-ucated!
How did the eggs leave the freeway? They went through the eggs-it!
How do bunnies stay in shape? They eggercise!
What kind of bean never grows in a garden? Jellybeans!
What do you call 10 rabbits marching backwards? A receding hareline!
What do rabbits have that nothing else in the world has? Baby rabbits!

Happy Easter and I hope everyone's enjoying this day with their loves ones and family!

Nikol's Baby Shower!

2011-04-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Baby Shower Nikol and congratulations in advance on your baby girl Ashley!! Lori asked me to make her sister some sugar cookies party favors for her sister's baby shower, so this is what I came up with! Thanks Chi Hai for the dough from scratch, it was a big time saver!! I made royal icing flow and first outlined my designs onto the cookies, and then watered down the icing a little more to fill in the design. I designed little tags for the favors and printed them on cardstock paper. I then put them in these treat bags, tied them up with a pretty sheer pink ribbon, and then you have cookie favors! This was a very fun and interesting experience with color flow and I feel the key is to have a steady hand! Other than that, it's quite simple!

Here's some cute little baby jokes for you:
What did the baby banana say to it's mother? "I don't peel good."
Why did the mother skunk take her baby to the doctors? Because it was out of odor!
What did the baby corn say to the mama corn? "Where's my popcorn?"
Why shouldn't you tell an Easter egg a joke? It might crack up!

Now for a a little story:
Two babies were sitting in their cribs, when one baby shouted to the other, "Are you a little girl or a little boy?"
"I don't know," replied the other baby giggling.
"What do you mean, you don't know?" said the first baby.
"I mean I don't know how to tell the difference," was the reply.
"Well, I do," said the first baby chuckling, "I'll climb into your crib and find out."
He carefully maneuvered himself into the other baby's crib, then quickly disappeared beneath the blankets.
After a couple of minutes, he resurfaced with a big grin on his face.
"You're a little girl, and I'm a little boy," he said proudly.
"You're ever so clever." cooed the baby girl, "but how can you tell?"
"It's quite easy really," replied the baby boy, "You've got pink socks and I've got blue ones!"

Babies are great little bundles of joy, congratulations to Nikol and her husband on their little baby girl, Ashley! Happy baby shower Nikol!!

Happy St. Patty's Day 2011!

2011-03-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

These are the same cupcakes as the Mardi Gras, I decided to make the same flavor for both since they are both fitting! Therefore, these are Bailey Irish Cream Cupcakes with Bailey Chocolate Ganache Filling and with Irish Cream buttercream. The buttercream came out a little too soft because the butter I was using was super soft. Note to self, only use sticks of butter rather than country crock's...Lesson learned!! Anyways, I hope everyone had a nice lucky day today and wore lots of green!!

What's your good luck charm? Mine would definitely have to be my wedding ring. My husband, Khoa, is the best thing that's ever happened to me and is it by luck or fate? I do not know, but either way, I am lucky to have in at my partner in crime, and he makes me feel like the luckiest gal ever! I want to give him a special shout out for always making last minute grocery store runs to get me eggs, or whatever else I was missing to complete my projects! Thanks Jennifer also for getting more sugar =P. You guys are always a great big help to me!! Thanks! Now, enjoy these fun facts and some cheeky humor below!

Fun Lucky Facts:
Ever heard of a Blarney? Well, the Blarney is a block of blue stone built into the battlements of Blarney Castle, Blarney, about five miles from Cork, Ireland. According to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with the gift of gab (since the word blarney means clever or flattering talk). The stone was set into a tower of the castle in 1446. Today, the castle is a popular tourist site in Ireland, attracting visitors from all over the world to kiss the stone and tour the castle and its gardens. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the highest number of leaves found on a clover is 14! A fun estimate suggests that for every one lucky four-leaf clover, there are about 10,000 regular three-leaf clovers! There are 19 US Presidents who proudly claim Irish heritage, one being our first President, George Washington.

Lucky Jokes:
What do you call a fake stone in Ireland? A sham rock! When is an Irish Potato not an Irish Potato? A French Fry! What does it mean when you find a horseshoe? Some poor horse is going barefoot! Have you ever heard of the 6-leaf clover? Me neither! Why can't you borrow money from a leprechaun? Because they're always a little short.

Have a sweet lucky day today everyone and I hope you all find your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

Mardi Gras Cupcakes

2011-03-08T23:57:00.000-08:00

Mardi Gras! These are Bailey Irish Cream Cupcakes with Baily Chocolate Ganache filling and Bailey buttercream! All the decorations are made of fondant, the balls on the jester's hat are metallic pearls, and the designs on the masks are painted with black food coloring. Also, I normally don't like to use non edible things for my decorations, but I couldn't resist using the feather for the first mask! I also gave the cake itself a Mardi Gras marbled look as well by coloring the batter purple and green and leaving some of the original batter color to make the 3 traditional Mardi Gras colors! Thanks Chi Hai for the suggestion! Anyways, these were definitely a challenge to make only because I had issues with the frosting, but alas, it's done! Enjoy these fun facts below about Mardi Gras!

Fun Facts:
Mardi Gras means "Fat Tuesday" and alludes to the over-indulgence of this day. The word "fat" may also be referred to the fattened ox that was paraded through town before being sacrificed at a mid-winter, pagan fertility celebration. Purple, green and gold are the traditional colors of Mardi Gras. Purple represents justice, green is faith, and gold symbolizes power! One of the most popular traditions of Mardi Gras is the King Cake, which is a coffee cake pastry with a plastic baby inside. Traditionally, whoever finds the baby in his or her piece of cake is said to have good fortune throughout the year and must provide the King Cake for next year's party.

Also, apparently the tradition of bead throwing didn't come about until the 1880s. One of the Krewes (an organization that puts on a parade or ball for the carnival season), originally dressed up as Santa Claus, and tossed out glass beads! It was a great hit and by the 1900s, beaded necklaces became the throw of Mardi Gras. Then around the 1970s, the glass beads got replaced with cheap plastic and aluminum beads, and earned the thrower a flash of flesh. The obsession with the flesh links back to the original celebration by the Romans. The Romans celebrated the Lupercalia festival in honor of the fertility and agriculture gods, and had Mardi-Gras like qualities that include drinking, feasting, and "pleasures of the flesh". Eventually, this holiday because adopted as a "last fling" of indulgence before the 40-day Lenten period of Penitence.

So next time you celebrate some with traditions, be curious and ask questions as to how they come about. It'll give you another perspective to the festivities and you'll be able to enjoy it like it's the first time! Learn something new everyday don't we? Happy Mardi Gras!

Happy Valentine's Day 2011!

2011-02-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a poem (not written by me but I wish it was) dedicated to my wonderful husband Khoa:

Valentine Treasures Valentine treasures are people who
have often crossed your mind,
family, friends and others, too,
who in your life have shined
the warmth of love or a spark of light
that makes you remember them;
no matter how long since you’ve actually met,
each one is a luminous gem,
who gleams and glows in your memory,
bringing special pleasures,
and that’s why this Valentine comes to you:
You’re one of those sparkling treasures! - Joanna Fuchs
These love cakes are red velvet with whipped-cream cream cheese frosting! These are made for Kenny for his girlfriend Chi, and for An for his girlfriend Linda! I hope you guys enjoy these along with your chocolate covered strawberries and I hope you guys have the sweetest day with each other! =) All the decorations are made of fondant with gold luster dust and edible pearls painted gold. I also wanted to say happy Happy Valentine's Day to my sweetie Khoa, I love you and thank you for making me feel special even when you don't have to! =)

So are you stuck on what to write on your valentine's card? Well here are some cheesy but witty quotes that you can use to help put a smile on your love's face! Enjoy!

- To the world, you might be one person, but to one person you might be the world.
- Love me and the world is mine.
- Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.
- The most beautiful view is the one I share with you.
- Love is friendship set on fire!
- Come live in my heart and pay no rent.
- Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly.
- Oh, if it be to choose and call thee mine, love, thou art every day my Valentine!
- Love is the master key which opens the gates of happiness.
- Love is the greatest refreshment in life.

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!

2011-02-03T23:59:00.000-08:00

Happy Vietnamese (Tết) and Chinese New Years everyone! This Lunar New Year is going to be the lucky year of the rabbit, so everyone please go pet and adopt our cute cuddle long-eared critters now! Or...just don't eat them haha. So my office had this awesome New Years party and they totally went all out with decorations and food and really got into the spirit of things, and they asked me to make some cupcakes for this special occasion! So, I decided to make red velvet cupcakes with whipped-cream cream cheese frosting! I used some chocolate gold coins for money cupcakes, and the bunny rabbits, Asian boy and girl, flowers, oranges, and lanterns are made out of fondant. i also used metallic pearls for the center of the flowers and top of the firecrackers. I added some gold lucky luster dust for added shiny details as well. Biting into one of these sweets will definitely bring you good fortune... for your tummy at least! I want to give special thanks to my sweet loving hubby Khoa for helping me get to the supplies and ingredients for these cupcakes. I cannot have a happier new year without him! Thank you for always supporting me, loving me, and making my life wonderful!

Now some words of wisdom for your soul:

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.
Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.
Aspire to the principle, behave with virtue, abide by benevolence, immerse yourself in the arts.
A life with love is happy; a life for love is foolish.
A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
A conversation with a wise person is worth of ten years' study of books.
A diamond with a flaw is worth more than a pebble without imperfections.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
A bad word whispered will echo a hundred miles.
Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.

Now for some light-hearted Chinese Proverbs:

Passionate kiss like spider's web, soon lead to undoing of fly.
War doesn't determine who is right, war determines who is left.
Man who run in front of car get tired.
Man who run behind car get exhausted.
Man who drive like hell, bound to get there.
Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement.

Chúc mừng năm mới & Gong Xi Fa Cai/Gong Hey Fat Choy everyone!! =) I wish everyone good health, great happiness, and prosperity for this lucky year of the rabbit/cat!

Kristin's Birthday!

2011-01-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Kristin!! These are also banana cupcakes with banana pie cream filling topped with whipped-cream cream cheese frosting! (Thanks Chi Hai for the frosting recipe!) My tip got jammed while piping, so it just became a mess...but at least I know it tastes good!!! All the decorations are made out of fondant and lightly brushed with gold luster dust and added some edible pearls as well. Also, I wanted to give a shout out to my hubby Khoa for making the nice fancy text! Kristin is such a great person and a very good friend of mine and I'm always so happy to be able to create something for her to enjoy! Happy Birthday Kristin!!!

Chess Champion Birthday!

2011-01-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Octavio! It's my coworker's birthday today and my boss came up with this brilliant theme for the cupcakes! Octavio use to be a state chess champion when he was younger (now retired), so my boss suggested I make cupcakes with chess pieces on them! Awesome idea! I and a big advocate for surprises, so I must share with you this story related to these cupcakes. So whenever there's a work birthday, we always try to surprise the birthday star with something, and so this time around it ALMOST got ruined! My coworker pretty much emailed all of us about how these cupcakes were going to present on this day, and updated everyone saying he'll be coming in for these, INCLUDING the birthday boy!! I quickly emailed him back saying "Oh em gee cameron!...the cupcakes were a surprise for octavio!!" And he emails me back saying "Oh em gee jackie!!! I'm sorry!! I didn't know!! =(" So I went Michael, our a super stealth IT man, and he was able to delete the email to Octavio before he was able to read it since he hasn't come into the office yet, and the surprise was salvaged! woohoo!! What an eventful start to a typical Tuesday =P. Anyways, these banana are banana cream pudding filled banana cupcakes with white chocolate and dark cocoa molded chess pieces for the decorations. I also printed out the chess board myself and cut it up and put it together for the complete image! The frosting is basic buttercream frosting. Does this looks fun to play and yummy to eat??? I'm up for anyone who wants to challenge me to a game of chess, or race to eat the most cupcakes as well =P.

My husband Khoa always tell me how nerdy I am, and I feel these next lines of humor only prove him more correct, and I'm darn proud of it! =) Here's one for thought, can you buy a complete chess set at a pawn shop? What is the name of the only moving castle? A rook! Someone once said "I can see why she likes the game - 'the king is stationary, the queen has all the power'". hehehe. OK, last one. Three retired International chess grandmasters were playing chess in the park. The first grandmaster said, "it is windy today." The second grandmaster said, "no, it is Thursday today". The third grandmaster said, "me too, let's go back inside for a drink" hahaha! =) I hope these cupcakes were a checkmate to your sweet tooth! Happy Birthday Octavio, chess ya later!

Happy Birthday Mike!

2011-01-01T14:00:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year 2011 everybody!! Here's my first cake for the new year! Di Anh (Anna) requested that I make a red velvet cake with raspberry mousse filling for Mike's birthday so here it is! It's a baseball themed cake because he loves baseball! All the decorations are piped on with basic buttercream frosting as well. I made the baseball by making a huge cake ball by crumbling the red velvet cake with some frosting, formed it into a ball and then frosted it with some more frosting. I then finished it off by piping on the red stitching on the ball. I shall now leave you with a couple corny awesome baseball humor! So, what did the glove say to the ball? Catch ya later! Why was Chewbacca so good at baseball? He was "wookie" of the year! Enjoy and once again, Happy Birthday Mike!

Alvina the Medical Examiner Investigator!

2010-12-17T19:30:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Alvina Chow, the newest Medical Examiner for the county of San Diego! I am SOOOO proud of her for landing this career and am so excited she found some thing that truly makes her happy. I know she can do whatever she puts her mind to it, and she just proved me right, again! So watch out people of SD and more, Alvina's gonna make sure nothing gets by her and help solve crimes and innocent people safe! woohoo! So to celebrate, instead of making her usual red velvet with chocolate chips in it, I decided to mix it up and made chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate chips! =) The taped body, footprints, "Do Not Cross" tape, and blood splatter evidence are made of fondant and the blood splatter itself is made from red food coloring! Shout outs to my wonderful assistant, my sister Jennifer for painting the awesome wording for the yellow "Do Not Cross" tapes!

So Alvina, to prepare you for your new job, this "stories" is something you might wanna read. =) A police detective was investigating a homicide. As he questioned the on-scene officer, he learned the body was that of a young woman. The body was found with a bowl over her head and a spoon stuck in her back.The on-scene officer asked what the detective thought had happened to the woman.The detective responded, "I think it's obvious. A cereal killer got her!" Hehe. Ok, once again, CONGRATULATION Alvina!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies!

2010-12-16T09:11:00.000-08:00

At work this year we had a cookie exchange party, so I decided to make one of my favorite type of cookies from scratch for the 1st time ever! So here's how my experience went. With my first batch, right away I knew it wasn't that great because instead of smelling like cookies out of the oven, it smelled like flour. Also, when my hubby Khoa tasted them, his expression wasn't so enthusiastic, so I knew I had to try again. Second time around, I sough help and advice from Chi Hai, and boy was she a great help! This time around, I used her recipe for her chocolate chip and swapped it out for white chocolate chip and macadamia nuts instead. I chilled the drop dough before baking them this time too, and man, what a big difference!! My trusty cookie tasters (Khoa and Jennifer) confirmed this =P. Chi Hai also showed me some Martha Stewart cookie package designs, so I made the packages myself as well. It's always fun to turn little projects like a cookie exchange into a crafty one! These were so much fun to make, I learn a lot for my first cookie experience, and I'm so glad it turned out to be a success! Yay! Props to my sis Jennifer for properly showing me how the cookies should be spaced out (spared me from making 1 giant but still yummy cookie) and for Khoa's transparent expressions =P.

Alright, so those who read my blogs know what time it is! Time for some more awesome corny but wittily awesome jokes! =P Why did the cookie go to the doctors? Because it felt crummy! Why did the cookie cry? Because his mother was a wafer so long! How is a cookie like a computer? They both have chips! What kind of cookie makes you rich? A fortune cookie! hehe. So for any cookie personality, these will surely put a smile on your face! Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Eric!

2010-12-02T14:30:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Eric! These are Red Velvet Cupcakes with buttercream frosting! Eric's son is in his high school football team and Eric cannot be more proud! So we thought it would be perfect to make his birthday cupcakes to be football theme to represent this! All the decorations are made out of fondant except for the grass, that's buttercream of course! I think next time though, I'll probably make the decor out of flavoured tootsie rolls since those taste yummier! Hey so what did the football say to the punter? "I get a kick out of you!" hehe.

Also, happy first day of Hanukkah!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

2010-11-24T18:43:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to Kristin and Ryan's Grandpa! Kristin asked me to make a French Vanilla Cake with Bavarian Cream filling for her grandfather who's turning 87, and she asked me to incorporate the following into the cake. She wanted me to include her grandfather's 3 wishes which are: 1) going to Disneyland, 2) going to the Chinese Garden at the Huntington Library (to see the flowers and lake), 3) spend an hr with only the grandkids and eat dessert (apple pie and vanilla ice cream). So I did this with the present tags, and made a symbol to represent each wish. The Mickey Mouse icon for Disneyland, flowers and a pond for the Chinese Garden, and a slice of pie to represent the last wish. His favorite color is blue, so I made the cake frosting blue. Also, Kristin told me that USC is very important to him as well since all the kids and grandkids went there so I made the Trojan symbol to represent USC as well. Now for those of you who know me, you know that I'm a Bruin, but USC is great, that's why I incorporated this list of all the wonderful things about USC (per Khoa's request), ready?
Here it is:

Great list right? Hahaha, all jokes aside, the greatest thing about USC are my friends and their families who went there! =) Anyways, all the decorations I made are made of fondant, and the cake is frosted with buttercream. This is a very personal and meaningful cake for Kristin's grandfather, and that's what makes it even more special. Happy Birthday Grandpa! This is definitely a special one =).

Thanksgiving 2010!

2010-11-21T02:05:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! So I decided to have an nice intimate thanksgiving dinner with all my close friends this year at my house, it was our first home cooked thanksgiving in our house and we're pleased to say it was a major success!! So, of course for this awesome dinner event, I made pumpkin cupcakes with bavarian cream filling, and buttercream frosting on top! All the decorations are made of fondant as well. Also, thanks to google search for all your inspirations! =)

There's truly a lot to be thankful for this year, so first off, I want to say thanks to Joey for making such an amazing 22.2 lb turkey and gravy! Thanks Master B for helping him and making the garlic bread and washing so many dishes! Thanks Jennifer for helping with the deviled eggs, and prepping the salad, ninja chopping the yams and cleaning the house! Thanks alvina for the garlic mashed potatos, and Linda for bring the pumpking pie, and An for bringing the whipped topping! Most of all, thanks to my husband Khoa for buying me flowers, doing all the dirty work and being such a wonderful husband! I am so thankful for having such a loving family both imediate and extended, and for having such great wonderful friends! So what are you thankful for this year?

Here are some thanksgiving jokes to entertain you over the long holiday weekend! If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? Pilgrims! Why did the turkey cross the road? It was the chicken's day off! Can a turkey jump higher than the Empire State Building? Yes - a building can't jump at all!! What kind of music did the Pilgrims like? Plymouth Rock! hehehe. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Happy 14th Birthday Lynn!

2010-11-20T23:30:00.000-08:00

Happy 14th Birthday Lynn!! So Linda wanted to surprise her sister, Lynn, with some of her favorite Red Velvet cupcakes for her 14th birthday and asked me to do sports themed cupcakes portraying all the sports she plays! So I made her red velvet cupcakes with bavarian cream filling, and made tennis, basketball, volleyball, and a sports uniform with her turning age 14, on it. All the decorations are made of fondant and the grass is made of buttercream! Happy Birthday Lynn, and I hope you have a great weekend celebration with all your friends and family!

So of course, here are some sports jokes! How many tennis players does it take to screw in a light bulb? “What do you mean the bulb was out? It wasn’t out, it was in!” (Disclaimer: Ok,here's a funny one but it's clearly just a joke!) Why should you never fall in love with a tennis player? To them, “love” means nothing! hehehe, just a joke ok??? Anyways, continuing on, why did the basketball player go to jail? Because he shot the ball! When is a baby good at basketball? When it's dribbling! What do you call a pig that plays basketball? A ball hog! Why shouldn't you trust volleyball players with your drinks? Because they'll spike it!! hehe. =) Ok I'm done. Anyways, Happy Birthday Lynn!! I hope you enjoyed your special birthday!!

Happy 26th Birthday Khoa!!

2010-11-06T18:30:00.000-07:00

So last year for our wedding cake, Khoa wanted to have a guava passion fruit (lilikoi) cake because they're exotic fruits and it reminds him of Hawaii, our favorite vacationing spot! But of course, we didn't get that for our wedding cake and so I decided to try to make it for him for his birthday this year! It's actually quite hard to find a really good guava cake recipe, but I managed to combine some recipes and replace things here and there and made my first Guava Cake with Lilikoi Chiffon Frosting and boy was it yummy! =) I also made the cake look like a pool table because Khoa loves to play pool and has been wanting one for a really long time...but until we have the space for it, he can just enjoy eating one for now =). The pool table, cue balls, rack, and pool stick are made of fondant.

In our household, birthdays are a big deal because it's not just a day where you turn a year older, but it's a celebration of life! I love you so much Khoa and you deserve the best! I hope you enjoyed your special day and there's no doubt on how many people love and care about you! Happy Birthday my love, my husband, my Khoa! XOXO

Mr. & Mrs. Philip and Lori Choi!

2010-10-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the beautiful newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Philip and Lori Choi today at the Richard Nixon Museum and Library! Lori asked me to make them a wedding display cake for their big special day and I couldn't be more honored! I was really nervous and excited in a good way to be a part of their happy day. Lori asked for a white 4 tiered cake with blue hydrangea flowers with orchids and calla lilies on top. They want to serve ice cream cake for their dessert so obviously you can display an ice cream cake because it'll melt, so that is why this will be a display cake where only the top tier is real, so they can cut into it and have their cake cutting ceremony, while the rest is fake. The top tier is a 4" round French Vanilla cake with Bavarian Cream filling. The rest of the cake are all dummy cakes that are 8" round, 12" round, and 16" round that are covered with buttercream. All the decorations are made out of fondant while the monogram had silver luster dust brushed onto it. All of this is placed on top of a 22" round silver finish wedding cake stand plateau that arrived just in the nick of time! Special thanks to my husband Khoa for your super careful stealth ninja driving skills, and for helping me deliver the cake! Once again, congratulations and I wish you a lifetime of eternal happiness and love!

These photos were taken from Khoa's nifty awesome retro camera! I love the effect!

For Military Veterans

2010-10-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

My coworker, Andrea, wanted me to make some cupcakes for her Veteran's Office at her school because they work so hard. So she wanted me to make little MRE (meals-ready-to-eat) bags that they would get while in the field or overseas because they have a little joke about them. So this is what I came up with, and I added some camouflage cupcakes as well to go with the military theme. These are French Vanilla cupcakes and I still have some Bavarian Orange Cream Filling left so I decided to add filling to these as well! You can't go wrong with Bavarian filling, it's probably my favorite filling so far! So enjoy military vets! You guys deserve it and thank you for all those who helped protect this country!

Disney Halloween Cupcakes!

2010-10-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

Trick or treat! I wanted to make some fun Halloween cupcakes for my friends and so I decided to make Disney Halloween cupcakes because I LOVE Disneyland and all the cute lovable characters. Chi Ba also suggested that I do Nightmare Before Christmas (great suggestion, thanks Chi Ba!) since I'm going with the Disney route so this is what I came up with! I made Jack Skellington and Zero, his pet ghost dog, and I made Mickey Mouse in his mummy costume and Minnie Mouse in her pumpkin costume! To find a fitting flavor to go with my themed cupcakes, I decided to make Pumpkin Spice cupcakes with Bavarian Orange Cream filling, mhmmm! I want to give special thanks like always to my wonderful assistant Jennifer for helping me with these lovely tricky creations! Thanks a bunch sissy!

So here's how I made these sweet treats! Mickey Mouse's eyes and ears out of fondant (thanks Khoa for jumping into eye duty last minute!) and piped on mickey's mummy wrappings! My pumpkin cupcakes were frosted with orange buttercream, topped with orange sugar crystals. The trunk of the pumpkin is green twislers, and the vines are green licorice rope. Minnie's bow and ears are made of fondant. Jack Skellington is decorated with buttercream and only his eyes are made of fondant. Zero is my absolute favorite and he is made out of fondant and I used black food coloring to dot his eyes! I wish I had a Zero of my own to be Luna's playmate! =)

So of course, how can I have fun Halloween cupcakes without some super awesome fun Halloween jokes?? Ready?? Here they are... How do monsters tell their future? With horror-scopes! What do ghosts add to their morning cereal? Boo-berries! Why was the skeleton afraid to cross the street? Because it had no guts! What do you do to mend a Jack-O-Lantern? A pumpkin patch! hahaha, ok that's enough =P. Anyways, enjoy and have a safe and fun time on Halloween, or as birds would say, "Trick or Tweet!" =)

Vroom Vroom Race Car Birthday!

2010-10-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Andrew! So this is my sister Jennifer's first masterpiece for her boyfriend Andrew and she custom made this British inspired Lotus Formula One race car for him for his birthday!! All I did was bake the cupcakes and buttercream and she did the rest! She covered these mini green French Vanilla cupcakes with green frosting, and coated them in green sugar crystals. She used vanilla wafers for the head, and fondant for the driver's helmet and sunglasses. She used chocolate mini donuts for the wheels with yellow mentos for the hubcaps as well! The yellow bar in the front of the car and the spoiler in the back is a graham cracker held up with butterfingers sticks. The numbers 05, the number of speed racer, is made of fondant. The black thing in front of the race car is also a butterfingers stick covered in fondant! What a great job and I am super proud and impressed of her edible piece of art!! Ok so here they come, more super awesome corny jokes! What do you get when you mix a car, a fly, and a dog? A flying carpet! What happened to the wooden car with the wooden motor with the wooden wheels? It wooden go! What happened to the steel car with the steel motor and the steel wheels? It steel wouldn't go!!! =P Happy birthday Andrew!!

Chinese Take Out Anyone?

2010-09-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Michael! My work asked me to make cupcakes for another birthday and we thought it would be funny to make chinese take out cupcakes (that I saw in my handy dandy cupcake book) since he's Chinese! I made French Vanilla cupcakes with Chai Coconut Frosting! The fried rice cupcake decorations are made up of rice krispies cereal, and the vegetables are cut up lemon and orange flavored tootsie rolls and green laffy taffy for the peas. The chowmein is piped buttercream, and the broccoli are made up of green apple flavored tootsie rolls dipped in frosting and then green sprinkles. The red peppers are red laffy taffies as well. I use caramel squares to make the fortune cookies and hand wrote little messages like "Today you're celebrating a birthday!". "You'll eat a cupcake today". and "Work is happiness!" for fun =P. Lastly, I asked another coworker of mine who's fluent in mandarin and she showed me how to pipe out "Happy Birthday" in the dialect where he's from in Taiwan! I hope I did it right... Anyways, happy birthday and can you pass the soy sauce? haha!

Roxana's 5th Birthday Part II

2010-09-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Cupcakes for School:
Cupcakes for Family Dinner:Happy birthday Roxana again! Today is Roxana's actual birthday and this lucky girl gets more cupcakes to celebrate her special day with friends and family. Her favorite animal are the flamingos, and so from this cupcake book that my boss got me, there's flamingos and alligators! So I made french vanilla flamingos for her and all the girls, and alligators for the boys. Later she's going to have a small family dinner and Roxana's other interest is music, so I made cupcakes with musical notes, treble and base clefs, and piano keys! I also would like to give special thanks to my fantastic assistant, my sister Jennifer, for helping me with these awesome animal cupcakes!!

The flamingos are made out of thin pretzels dipped in pink chocolate for the neck, and I used pink chocolate to attach the bubble gum jelly beans for the head and 3/4 length banana runtz for the beak. I then piped melted chocolate for the wings. The body was frosted with buttercream and coated with pink sugar crystals. The alligators' heads were made up of nutter butters that were chopped to size, frosted with buttercream, and dipped in green sugar crystals. I then piped on the jaggedly fierce teeth, eyes and nose with buttercream. The eyes are made of green fruit loops cereal! This project was quite fun to do because of all the leftover candy and nutter butters that I got to eat =P. mhmmm.... The musical cupcakes had buttercream frosting on them as well with fondant decorations. Once again, happy 5th birthday Roxana!

Khoackie's 1st Anniversary!!!

2010-09-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY KHOA, my love, my Khoabit, my one and only babycakes!! <3 Khoa and I have now been husband and wife for a year and counting and what better way to celebrate than with close family, friends, and of course, cupcakes! I made Pina Colada Cupcakes with crushed pineapples, Coconut Swiss Meringue buttercream frosting (thanks chi hai for your faith in me!!!) filled with a coconut filling. We figured these would be the best choice for the celebration because it's tropical, just like our hawaiian wedding theme, and it's not as sweet in flavor for the adults to enjoy! The decorations are also made of fondant with some silver luster dust. I was so busy planning for this even that I completely forgot to take me usual pictures before the party, so these were the only pictures I managed to get before the cupcakes were all devoured! At least I'm happy to know that people loved them! Thank you everyone for sharing this special day with us and for all of your support and celebration! <3

Happy Anniversary Khoa, I love you more than words can describe. You light up my life and soul and you bring me such happiness. I am truly a lucky girl to have you as my husband, best friend, and soul mate. What did one light bulb say to the other? I love you a whole watt!! =) The Lovely Love Theorem states to love someone is madness, to be loved by someone is a gift, loving someone who loves you is a duty, but being loved by someone whom you love is life! Thank you honey for giving me the best life ever! I love you forever and a half!!! <3

Roxana's Science Birthday Adventure!

2010-09-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

Mini Cupcakes:Pictures from Roxana's Party (cute girl in blue in the middle is the birthday girl!)
Happy 5th Birthday Roxana! This was probably my biggest order yet with such a fun and creative theme of Science! We came up with 5 different type of designs, DNA strands, atoms, H2O, CO2, and brains, and we included the birthday girl's favorite colors of pink, purple, yellow, red, and white! This was my biggest order yet, a production of 96 standard size cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes, flavors include vanilla, chocolate, and red velvet with buttercream! that's 120 total cupcakes, wow! All the decorations are made of fondant, edible pearls, with some buttercream piping. This was definitely a grand production for a very special girl!

Also, special thanks to my lovely assistant Sarah who really helped me with the big project! Special thanks to Jack for keeping Khoa company, and to Luna for always being so cute and supportive =). So what's a fun science kid birthday party without some fun science jokes? From way down in my cranium, this prediction I will make: That if you eat uranium, you'll get atomic ache! hehe, also, what is Ba(Na)2? Banana! =) Oh and did you hear about the man who was reading a Helium book and couldn't put it down? hahaha, I love my corny jokes I find online....haha. Anyways, stay tuned next week for some more surprises for this Roxana's birthday celebration!

Ribbon Cupcakes

2010-09-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

I was asked to make cupcakes to celebrate a bunch of birthdays all of which are females and 1 male. So I made pink ribbons on all of them an a manly black one for the man! These are red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese filling topped with fondant decorations! I used flower stamps and texture mats for extra detail on the fondant. Enjoy!

Boomer's Birthday

2010-09-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Ken! I made Peach Walnut cupcakes with basic buttercream frosting topped with fondant decorations and metallic pearls. We celebrated Ken's birthday at Boomers so I made Boomer's themed cupcakes to go with this occasion! I made golf balls on tees with a little flag to represent mini golf, baseball mitts, baseball and baseball bats to represent the batting cages, go carts, and pac mans to represent arcade games! Special props to my sous decorator Jennifer, my sister, for all her help with the fondant decorations as well, it's always fun working with her! Anyways, I hope you have a boomerful birthday Ken! haha. Enjoy!

Designer Cupcakes

2010-08-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary An and Linda! My brother-in-law, An, wanted to do something special for his girlfriend Linda for their 4 year anniversary, and so he thought it would be great to make some designer bags and stuff since she loves to shop with class! So I made apple cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, topped with fondant decorated designer bags, clutches, and heels. The three brands I chose to make were Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Gucci, and I had the help of my wonderful assistant, who is also my sister Jennifer, in giving me information on how the different styles should look! She also did a fantastic job making the clutches, flowers, and painting of the logos. These cupcakes were a great deal of fun to make and will surely satisfy any fashionista's sweet tooth! My sister's boyfriend suggested I charge big money for these cupcakes since they're designer cupcakes...that's not such a bad idea don't you think? haha! Anyways, these are expensive tasting cupcakes that for sure won't put a hole in your wallet! Enjoy your anniversary guys! Congrats!

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AN!!!

Angie in Wonderland

2010-08-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Angie! So Angie's boyfriend, Kid, wanted to surprise her with Alice in Wonderland themed cupcakes for her birthday and since I made some before, I knew just what to do. I added the Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum cupcake as well and it adds a nice variety to the group characters. These are red velvet cupcakes with basic buttercream frosting on them. Angie I hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Happy Birthday Gay

2010-08-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

Whooaa.....it looks like a TRIPLE RAINBOW! So intense... haha! So anyways, it's Drexelle's mother's birthday today, who's name is Gay, and she thought it would be great to make it a play on words with her name since Gay always has a great sense of humor with that. So instead of saying "Happy Birthday", Drexelle cleverly thought to make the cakes say "Happy Gay Day"! Afterall, it is her day! So she wanted me to have the cupcakes be rainbow themed and so I made french vanilla cupcakes that are rainbow colors in the batter, and some chocolate cupcakes topped with basic buttercream. The rainbow themselves, the flags, flower petals, and letters (props to my hubby Khoa and partner in cakes) are made of fondant and the cupcakes with rainbows on them have some white sprinkles around the edge. Working with all the colors was a blast and just looking at the end result can put a smile on anyone's face! So one thing's for sure and that is that Gay is going to have a very happy birthday today! Pop quiz: So what kind of bow can't you tie? A rainbow!! haha, anyways, I think everyone can literally taste the rainbow with these sweeties! Happy Birthday Gay!

MEO Ribbon Cutting

2010-08-16T20:30:00.001-07:00

13349 South St., Cerritos, CA 90703
Telephone: (562) 809-2020
Fax: (562) 809-2007
Email: meoptometry@gmail.com
Dr. Jack S. Kim - Optometrist

Congratulations Modern Eyes Optometry (MEO) on your Ribbon Cutting Ceremony! The mayor will be at MEO Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 to officially welcome MEO into the community! I made MEO's favorite "Too Much Chocolate" cupcakes with basic buttercream, topped with chocolate jimmies and chocolate molded decorations. Thanks Chi Hai for the molds!

Modern Eyes Optometry is equipped with modern technology and the latest high fashions in eyeweawr. Dr. Kim offers comprehensive and health eye examinations including contact lenses and prescription and non-prescription sunglasses. Modern Eyes Optometry has all the latest designer brand lenses you can think of so you'll always be able to find the right pair for you, eye guarantee it! So come check out Modern Eye Optometry's Grand Opening event for some tasty treats, eyewear, and more. They take appointments as well so call the number to schedule yours today. It's time you start taking care of your eyes!

Birthday Trio

2010-08-12T13:30:00.000-07:00

Andrea:

Audrey:

Jacob:
My work was celebrating not, one, or two, but THREE birthdays this month! So I made 3 different themed cupcakes to fit their different personalities. All these cupcakes are chocolate with basic buttercream frosting and all the decorations are made out of fondant, but for flower stamens, those aren't edible, same with the metallic pearls, but the pearlize white ones are edible.

For Andrea's cupcakes, her favorite Disney character is Tinkerbell, so I made the Tinkerbell slippers, her magic wand, and fairy wings. I brushed on some silver luster dust on the slippers for some magical touch to it as well. For Audrey's cupcakes, she is also a Disney fanatic and her favorite characters are Bambi and Thumper. However, when trying to portray any well known and recognizable classic Disney characters, you must be SPOT-ON with your design otherwise it won't look right. So instead of trying to go on that route, I went with the symbolism route and stuck Bambi and Thumper into the cupcakes with Bambi's tail sticking out, and depicted the popular butterfly on his tail. As for Thumper, the scene I remember most about his is his large thumping feet and him being in the flower bed.

For Jacob's cupcakes, he is the most different from the two, and his biggest hobby currently is playing World of Warcraft (WOW)...and he had a long history of being part of the Alliance, but then became a traitor apparently and join the Hord! All you WOW fans out there, please go easy on my with my designs for this because I am a "noob" when it comes to these games...haha. But here they are, the simplified logos for the Alliance (the yellow and blue logo) and Hord the red one), and xBox 360 game controllers because he really wants one, so hopefully this will get him that much closer to getting one =).

Roger's Birthday Pie Cupcakes

2010-08-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Roj Poj! So since his favorite pastry is Apple Pie, I decided to make Chi Hai's super yummy Apple Cake recipe for these pie cupcakes! The cakes have a cinnamon walnut crust on top that adds a delicious texture to the cupcake and when decorated, it looks like cool pecan pie or something. For half of these cupcakes I put raspberry jam on top to make it looke like a raspberry or cherry pie for variation. The cupcakes have buttercream piping on top to make it look like the pie crust as well, and I figured the balance for this cupcake works out pretty well since you don't need frosting for this recipe. So less is more! Anyways, happy birthday Roger! I hope your day is pie-tastic!

Under the Sea Cupcakes

2010-08-06T00:01:00.001-07:00

Happy Sweet 16th Birthday Sarah! For someone who loves chocolate and has a big sweet tooth, she'll surely be satisfied with these under the sea marble white chocolate and milk chocolate shells, starfish, and fishes! Dolphins are Sarah's favorite so I got these cake topper dolphins for keepsakes! I love themed cupcakes and I had bubbles of fun making these for my coworker's daughter. The seaweed, star, and "16" are all made out of fondant, while the cupcakes are chocolate flavors topped with basic buttercream. Put on your flippers and don't be afraid to make a splash with your sweet creations! There's so many things you can do with chocolate and pastries, so grab your fins and get creative! Don't let the waves pass you by! Don't forget to bring your sweet tooth! =) Once again, Happy Birthday Sarah! I hope you have a great time celebrating!

Threadcakes 2010: Search and Rescue (Entry 1)

2010-07-28T11:53:00.000-07:00

Threadcakes is an online cake competition where you use a Threadless T-Shirt design and turn it into a tasty cake masterpiece! You don't have to be an expert to join in on the experience, you can just try it out for the pure fun creativity of the challenge and share your work with others! Check out my entry HERE!

I didn't want to just make a cake and then have it be thrown away, or eat it all myself, so I am dedicating this cake to my friend James Yu! Happy Birthday tall asian chinese ninja man! This cake is a pretty good representation of him because at first glance, you can see that he's a 6 foot 5 (w/o shoes) tall chinese man, and he basically towers over everyone. Although it may seem like a burden, we all seem the advantages in having such a tall person as a friend. The giraffe in the cake represents him because he helps us out when we're in need, not just when it comes to vertically challenging tasks, but things in general as well.

This hedge maze is made out of a vanilla and chocolate cake recipes that i swirled together to make a marble fudge cake. I asked James what kind of cake he wanted and realized he eats anything and everything, so he gets the best of both worlds! The grass is piped on with buttercream that I colored green (can you say major hand cramp?). The giraffe is made of rice krispies that I made myself as well, and then covered in fondant. The bunnies, bird with the bluetooth microphone headset, and bunny ears are also made of fondant! I love the image's concept of the bird communicating to the giraffe on where all the bunnies are so he can go rescue them! So cute!

So anyways, Happy Birthday James! I hope you find this cake aMAZE-ing =).

Modern Eyes Optometry Grand Opening!

2010-07-16T22:37:00.000-07:00

13349 South St., Cerritos, CA 90703
Telephone: (562) 809-2020
Fax: (562) 809-2007
Email: meoptometry@gmail.com
Dr. Jack S. Kim - Optometrist

Come to Cerritos to check out the Grand Opening of Modern Eyes Optometry owned by Dr. Jack Kim, O.D.! You can find these vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting along with some mint truffles at Modern Eyes Optometry only on Saturday, July 17, 2010. Store opens at 10am and closes at 6pm on Saturday!

Modern Eyes Optometry is equipped with modern technology and the latest high fashions in eyeweawr. Dr. Kim offers comprehensive and health eye examinations including contact lenses and prescription and non-prescription sunglasses. Modern Eyes Optometry has all the latest designer brand lenses you can think of so you'll always be able to find the right pair for you, eye guarantee it! So come check out Modern Eye Optometry's Grand Opening event for some tasty treats, eyewear, and more. They take appointments as well so call the number to schedule yours today. It's time you start taking care of your eyes!

OC Fair 2010

2010-07-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

My Entries for the 2010 OC Fair Cake Decorating Categories! Come to the fair to see them in person! Wish me luck! =) Results are in! I and very happy and surprised to announce, that I placed in ALL of my entries, 3rd on both cake entries, and 1st on my cupcakes entry! Thank you everyone for always having support and faith in me! Everyone's encouragement and warm thoughts really keep me motivated and inspired to continue to create lovely edible treats! Thanks!
Formal Cake (3rd Place):
This cake is an elegant cake that can be fitting for an formal occasion such as weddings, anniversaries, etc. The cake is covered with fondant, the blue brick border and rope liner are also made from fondant, and all the branches are made of buttercream fondant to make it more malleable to the cake. The flower blossoms, orchids, roses and stephanotis are made of gumpaste. I decided to put a brick pattern on the blue ribbon around the cakes to tie in the theme with the flowers and branches, to make the cake as a whole seem more earthy. I kept most of the flowers white, with some yellow highlights, to keep it elegant, fresh, and clean.

OC Fair "The Beat Goes On" Theme Cake (3rd Place):
How do you even begin with the theme like that? Well this is the best I can come up with! All the decorations in this cake is also made of fondant. I went with a lot of musical symbols and items to best represent my vision of the theme. The bottom layer is covered with piano keys. The middle layer cake is of a drum, the core of beats, surrounded by abstract sheet music, drum sticks and musical notes (you could say the music notes jumped right out of the pages! - Khoa), the top layer is the music staff with music symbols and notes. The cake topper is of a giant note, the universal symbol for music and very significant because I feel that music brings people together. My love for music is reflected through this cake and it's a great theme for a fair as well!

Faux Cupcakes (1st Place Prize!):
After my recent vacation to Maui, I got inspired to make this under the sea themed cupcakes. At first, I had no idea what "Faux" cupcakes meant, so I just figured it meant fake cupcakes to i just assumed it was safe to do anything my creative juices can think of! All the sea creatures are made out of fondant and places on buttercream frosting that's piped on to look like water and waves in the ocean. So as you can see, i made a star fish, sea turtle, sting ray, octopus, coral, and a clam with a pink pearl! The sea has so many beautiful wonders in it that I find extremely fascinating! It was a lot of fun capturing some of the favorite things about our beautiful ocean and it's sea life.

Beach Sandals Cupcakes

2010-06-12T21:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Mimi! She originally wanted to have a beach party with all her friends and family, but we ended up celebrating at a restaurant instead. So I decided to bring the beach to her! She requested for banana cupcakes, so guess what I made? That's right! Banana Cupcakes! I topped it off with basic buttercream frosting and graham crackers and fondant sandals. The whites of the sandals are piped on with buttercream. Happy birthday cousin and I hope you have a great wonderful day! All is know is that I'll be flip flopping on whether I should eat the frosting or the cupcake first...or just both at the same time! Either way, I'll have a sweet time eatting these fun in the sun delights!

Housewarming Cupcakes

2010-06-10T23:13:00.000-07:00

Alvina and Will got a townhouse and what better way to celebrate than with a housewarming party! I baked her favorite Red Velvet Chocolate Chip cupcakes with basic buttercream frosting. All the decorations are made out of fondant with edible pearls. She wanted the theme of red and pink flowers and houses, so this is what I came up with! My sister also helped me make those pretty flowers as well! Congratulations Alvina and Will on your new home sweet home!

Congratulations Dr. Steve Le!

2010-06-05T01:35:00.000-07:00

What's up Doc? hehehe... My cousin is official Dr. Steven Le now and for his graduation from UCI Medical School celebration, I made him red velvet cupcakes filled with cream cheese frosting. I used basic buttercream for the top frosting because my cream cheese frosting wasn't stiff enough to keep it's form. I made all the decorations (the bandaid, pills, blood pressure tester, stethsoscope, and letters) out of fondant, except for the graduation cap, I used bite size Reeses Pieces and a Ghirardelli Mint Chocolate Squares (not caramel since he doesn't like caramel! weird I know! who doesn't like caramel??) for the cap with fondant tassles. Props go out to my sister Jennifer for cutting up the awesome letters! I also used a metallic pearl for the center of the tunable diaphragm of the stethoscope and in the middle of the bow on the diploma. Also, Steve likes the colors blue (midnight blue to be exact, but it's a tinsy bit hard to get that color with frosting...) and yellow to fit his graduation theme so that's why I chose the colors I did. I also used silver luster dust on the letters to give it some pizazz.

Congratulations once again Dr. Le! You worked so incredibly hard to get to this point and it is only the beginning! We are all so very proud of you and I'm so glad for being able to witness all your accomplishments and success. You're a true inspiration of dedication, hard work, and pure genuisness....haha. You know what I mean... Anyways, congratulations, and I know you'll be able to patch me up whenever I'm broken. These sweet treats don't cure cancer, but Dr Le might some day! Congrats Cuz!

Happy Birthday Carolina

2010-05-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

My friend Lan asked me to make a birthday cake for her friend Carolina and the theme was a red, black and white, two-tiered cake! So this is what I came up with. This cake is Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Mousse covered with basic buttercream frosting. The roses, leaves and piping are from frosting while the black trim is make of black vanilla fondant. I also added a touch of gold luster dust on the top tier for some pizazz! I decided to make the roses black rather than the typical red roses to have a dramatic effect! Happy birthday Carolina, I hope you enjoy your sweet cake! Don't forget to stop and smell the roses, or in this case, eat them! =P

Alvina in Wonderland

2010-05-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

It's Alvina's birthday and she loves Alice in Wonderland, so I decided to make her Alvina in Wonderland cupcakes. These are red velvet chocolate chip cupcakes with plain frosting. All the decorations from the teapots, flowers, mad hatter, to the Cheshire cat are make of fondant and metallic pearls. Of course, Khoa contributed his fabulous letters which are made of black vanilla satin ice fondant as well. It's so much fun creating such fun and yummy decorated sweets for special occasions! Everyday is always someone's birthday but rather than celebrating a very merry un-birthday today, we celebrate Alvina's birthday! So happy birthday Alvina and to everyone else out there that's born today! Hurry up and eat them cause they're tea-lightful!

Goodbye CAP Cadets

2010-05-21T08:16:00.001-07:00

I was asked to make these goodbye/goodluck cupcakes for some CAP Cadets (Civil Air Patrol) who are leaving CA to move to the east coast! Fly away with these German Chocolate Chip cupcakes with basic frosting topped with vanilla and chocolate sprinkles. The stars and flags are sugar decorations and I made the little toy airplanes out of fondant, and the banner is gum paste with food coloring text. I thought it would be easier and faster to write the text with a brush, but I think next time I'll use piping gel or use cut out letterings, it'll look better that way. Every cake is a learning process! =) Anyways, have a safe trip, good luck Seth, Noah, and Bruccoleri!

Iron Man Birthday Cake

2010-05-17T22:32:00.000-07:00

My company was having a surprise birthday party for my boss and the theme was Iron Man since Iron Man 2 recently came out. I was asked to make the birthday cake, so it was only fitting to make the Iron Man helmet for the cake! This is a simple design, I tried to mix some gold luster dust with corn syrup to make the yellow part of the helmet look more gold...but it's hard to see it in the photo. I think overall it didnt turn out too bad! This cake is a French Vanilla cake with basic buttercream frosting, covered with satin ice fondant and black piping gel. The cake may not be lethal, but it sure can be used as a weapon to kill anyone's sweet tooth =P.

Baby Bump Cake - Luce's Baby Shower

2010-05-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

I feel like the greatest gift in the world truly is the gift of life! My beautiful and glowing friend Lucerne is having her baby shower this Saturday in SF and unfortunately I can't make it since I have a wedding to attend (yay Jack and Sarah!), so my good friend Kat is graciously driving the cake and cupcakes up there for me! Luce and Yang are going to have a baby girl in June and they are going to name her Avery! Pretty name don't you think? So I went with the white, pink and black color theme and made my first attempt at making a baby bump cake since it's all the rage these days for baby showers. The bust might have been a little too voluptuous, I should have known better when I asked my darling husband if they were too big and he said "nope, they're good!"....haha. And I learned that it's a lot harder than you would think to make it non smooth for the fabric look.

Anyways, as for the cake itself, it is red velvet with basic frosting and the cupcakes are chocolate flavor. All the decorations from the bows, to the flowers and butterflies are in fondant. We got to use my new awesome cricut cake for some of the designs on the dress and cupcakes as well! Happy baby shower Luce!! I hope your celebration is bumptastic!!

Eye See Jennifer's Graduation Cake!

2010-05-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

My one and only favorite sister is graduating from the New England College of Optometry and so I decided to throw her a nice intimate surprise party to celebrate her last 4 years of hard work! She seriously is a genius and is super awesome in what she does, I can't wait till she starts supporting me and giving me family discounts on eyewear and exams/treatments =P.

I made her a rich chocolate cake with buttercream frosting on the bottom tier and rich chocolate and triple chocolate chip fudge frosting on the top tier. I made the mistake of the frosting the top layer with chocolate chips...cause then it was a little bumpy when I tried to cover it with fondant...but at least it'll taste yummy! All the decorations from the cap and tassle to the diploma and Coach glasses (she's one of style, so you gotta have the designer lens!) are made of fondant. The flowers and leaves are made of frosting that I just piped onand I accented the center of the little pink flowers with metallic gold pearls. I decided to make the drapes on the cake represent the hood on her graduation gown, since it is the significant physical difference between that and other graduation gown, and I made the tassle green to represent her school color. She likes pink so that's why I made the flowers pink as well. Also I must note that Khoa's masterpiece is the text on the cake board =).

Anywho, you don't need to be a pupil to see how wonderful of a human being she is both personally and professionally! If anyone needs an optometrist, my sis is the doc to see! Ok ok I admit my jokes are getting cornea these days...ahhh I'm making a spectacle of myself! I can't stop! Iris my case! Haha! Congratulations and eye love you sissy!

Cake Pops for Mom!

2010-05-06T22:50:00.000-07:00

Mother's day is coming up and it's always tricky to find the right gift to show your mom just how much you love and care about her. My mom is one of the most caring people in whole world and I really wanted to take the time and make her something that I know she'll appreciate and enjoy. Since my mom doesn't like to get flowers because they wilt and die and she thinks they a waste of money, and doesn't need anything else in the world, I figured these cake pops can match her own sweetness. These cake pops are made out of spice banana cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting. They are coated with white chocolate and topped with chocolate sprinkles. So happy mother's day mom! I love you and I hope these blooming sweets will bring sunshine and love into your special day! <3

Cheeseburger with a side of Corn Cupcakes!

2010-04-17T01:39:00.000-07:00

We've been having such beautiful California weather lately so why not celebrate by having a good 'ol American style BBQ with lots great friends and of course, yummy food! We had a BBQ at our home this weekend and our resident community has a beautiful pavilion where we can have a BBQ and grill some hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and steaks. But of course, with every complete meal, there's always a dessert to top it all off, so why not keep with the theme with these triple layer cheeseburger cupcakes!

These are french vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, with basic buttercream for the ketchup, mustard, and lettuce. The cheese is made out of satin ice fondant, my favorite kind of fondant because it actually tastes good, it's sweet and not chewing and or tasteless like most fondants! These burgers are low in protein but are loaded with fun and love. They come with sides of corn as well, made with french vanilla cupcakes, jelly beans for the corn, fruit chews for the butter, chocolate shavings for the seasoning, and white chocolate cream cheese frosting to coat the cupcakes. Light up your appetites because these burgers are grillicious!!

Baby Cakes!

2010-04-09T00:11:00.000-07:00

One of my closest's friend Lucerne is having a baby and it's a girl!! I wanted to make her something special to celebrate this very special time in her life so I made her these banana baby cakes for our Girl's Getaway Mini Vacation this weekend in Sequoia! These banana cupcakes are filled with white chocolate cream cheese frosting with a hint of orange flavor, and are topped with fondant decorations with some edible pearl white candy. The baby bundle of joy is due in June and we all know she's going to be fabulous mother with a super cute baby girl! So for now, we celebrate our very glowing and beautiful friend's journey to motherhood! You don't need to be a baby to go gaga over these sweet treats, enjoy!

Happy Easter Cupcakes!

2010-03-31T23:32:00.000-07:00

The Easter bunny got too excited and started digging for carrots! =P These carrot cake cupcakes are topped with carrots and bunnies made from fondant. The frosting is basic buttercream, but I made another batch with white chocolate cream cheese frosting that's nicely sweet with a hint of orange in it. Yuuuummy! The frosting doesn't hold it's form well, just like any other cream cheese frosting, but it tastes wonderful! Also, my cousin Chi Hai gave me a link to these nest cookies that I used to make topping for these cupcake. They are simply made out of chow mein noodles (the kind you put on salads, not the actual chow mein noodles...) dipped in butterscotch. The eggs are none other than Cadbury Mini Eggs! So come on everybunny, hurry up and get your sweet fix because Easter is just a skip and hippity hop away!

Oreo Mint Truffles

2010-02-28T11:21:00.000-08:00

My sister gave me a great idea to add truffles to the mix of sweet for my bakery! Since I decided to make these for my friend's mom's birthday, I decided to make mint oreo truffles since I know how much my friend loves mint oreos! =) So this is the final product, I also made some in heart shape as well, it's fun to try different shapes to fit any occasion. One thing's for sure is that these can really satisfy anyone's sweet teeth cravings! Mint, oreos, and milk chocolate, I'd say that's truffle-ly sweet and delightful!

Masquerade Birthday Cake

2010-02-14T01:40:00.000-08:00

This cake is a Mardi Gra/Masquerade inspired cake for my aunt's birthday! The cake is a mint chocolate chip cake (request by her son, my cousin) and is filled with raspberry mousse since raspberries are her favorite. The purple roses are made from basic buttercream and the mask is painted with black food coloring, and the orchids, crysanthemum, violets, and leaves are made out of gumpaste. The cake is covered in ivory fondant with black buttercream piping.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

2010-02-07T00:54:00.000-08:00

I used dark chocolate and white chocolate to cover these fresh juicy strawberries! Whether it's for romance, for satisfying your sweet tooth, or just for fun, you can't go wrong with these very berry sweets!

Kat's Birthday Cake

2010-01-31T00:15:00.001-08:00

Kat's birthday was earlier this month but I did not have time to make her a cake, so I finally has a chance to do it! Her favorite flowers are bright happy Gerber daisies, so I made some daisies and did some piping work. The cake is a french vanilla with raspberry filling, covered in fondant with fondant flowers. This cake is a double layer 6 inch round cake. I did all the piping with piping gel, but I'm wondering if piping with butter cream would have been better? Well, trial and error, I guess it's also personal preference. I haven't decided which I prefer, so I'll keep experimenting!

Steve's Birthday Cake

2010-01-17T00:10:00.000-08:00

Beer mug or frothy cafe drink? I was trying to go for a beer mug for my cousin's birthday cake, it's a really simple french vanilla with raspberry filling cake, covered with chocolate fondant and butter cream on top. This is a mini 3.5 in. round cake. It's only a 2 layer cake, although I made 3 layers, I thought 2 might have been enough, but with time, my tall mug became short, probably because the filling probably flattened with time. Anyways, every cake is a continuous learning process. Beer mug, frothy coffee, or hot cocoa, bottoms up!

Kristin's Birthday Cake

2010-01-15T00:43:00.000-08:00

It's my good friend Kristin's Bday and what better gift than love and time. I made her 1/4 sheet red velvet cake, her favorite, and filled it with cream cheese frosting. Her favorite color is pink so I made this girly present cake for her. The cake is covered in chocolate fondant, the leaves are made out of chocolate fondant, and everything else is made of gumpaste. I also brushed some gold dust on the flowers and petals for some extra shimmer to it. There's nothing better than spending a lot of time on something to give to a friend, especially when it tastes good too =). Happy Birthday Kristin!

New Years 2010

2010-01-01T22:52:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years!! What better way to start the new year than to ring it in with happy vibrant sunflower cupcakes with cute little lady bugs for detail! These are mint chocolate cupcakes with basic butter cream. I also experimented with some poured fondant on a few cupcakes (the last image). I used chocolate poured fondant for the top of the cupcake, and basic butter cream for the sunflowers, leaves, and vines.

All I did for the poured fondant was heat up some fondant in the microwave for a few seconds, added some water and mixed it to a runny texture, and dipped the cupcakes in then to get a nice smooth and even texture on top. It was a little tricky trying to get the right consistency but with practice it will become easier. Happy New Year everyone!

Spaghetti Cupcakes

2009-12-30T00:28:00.001-08:00

For an Italian themed party, Chi Hai sent me a cool ref image and so I decided to make spaghetti and meatball cupcakes! The cupcakes are French Vanilla with buttercream, raspberry jam, Ferrero Rocher candy and white chocolate shavings. Buon appetito!

Holiday Cupcakes Part 2

2009-12-25T22:58:00.000-08:00

Chi Hai and I made this holiday wreathe using a little under 40 Mini Mint Marble Fudge Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Buttercream. We added some gold dust for some sparkle and as well as some pre-made royal icing decors like the Merry Christmas banner, poinsettias in the middle of the wreathe, and the giant holly on the bottom of the wreathe, all other decorations were done with buttercream piping! We had a few mini cupcakes leftover so I made mini pointsettias as well.

Holiday Cupcakes

2009-12-17T12:34:00.000-08:00

Jackie, Van and I got together as Khoa and Bao played Band Hero to make cupcakes for our holiday party with the cousins. These are a Oreo mint chocolate cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting.

Sesame Street Cupcakes

2009-12-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

This was a big production for Aidan and Brooke's 1st Birthday Party. Jackie and I worked on concept and she did the fabulous piping. Mike whipped up the best Swiss Meringue Butter cream ever that we will probably use forever now while the Fondant Team: Khoa & Bao worked on eyes and other body parts respectively. Hahaha. It was a lot of fun and they turned out great. We didn't even have any left over and we made nearly 50 cupcakes!

Each character was a different flavor:

Elmo - Red Velvet
Cookie Monster - Cookies and Cream
Oscar the Grouch - Pistachio
Big Bird - Humming Bird