Apple Pie Pops!

My friend, Sarah, introduced to these cute little desserts called Pie Pops, and when I first heard about them, I was like "Wait, it's pie on a stick???...That's GENUIS!!!" I wish I thought of it, but in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'm so thankful for whoever did come up with this brilliant concept! Once I heard about this, I just knew I had to try it! Since it's Thanksgiving time, I thought about doing pumpkin pie pops, but I wanted to do Apple Pie since that's my favorite! I never made a pie before, so I gather a couple recipes and put together the recipe I used for these, and I must say it tastes rather tasty!

I read some notes from people who's made pie pops in the past and they said that the pie crust to pie filling ratio was off and that there was too much crust. So I rolled out the pie crust thinner instead of cutting out the shapes from the existing pre-made pie crust, and tried to stuff my pops more, and came up with a perfect ratio! I decided to dress these up a bit too by adding little hearts in the middle of them as well. Cute right? Anyways, I hope everyone had a pie-tastic Thanksgiving holiday! I know I have soooo much to be thankful for this year.  I am thankful for all those creative people out there who inspire me and allow me to continuously go on new baking and decorating adventures.  I am also thankful for my hardworking, wonderful, caring and loving husband, loving and supportive friends and family, and most of all, my beautiful precious happy baby girl, Lily!!! Happy thanksgiving everyone!!

Happy Halloween 2012

Happy Halloween! I decided to Make some festive Halloween cake pops because I got inspired with all the cool fun images online. Cake pops have always been difficult to make for me in the sense that it's hard for me to control their outcome. So I figured it's always good to practice!! These are ginger pumpkin cake pops (usually I'd go with a plain flavor cake but I wanted to try out a new recipe). The monster eyes and ears, Frankenstien's hair, bolts, and eyebrows, the witch's hat and hair, and the pumpkin stump are made of fondant. The spider body is an m&m's and the legs are chocolate sprinkles. I find it easier to use black food coloring and paint on the designs instead of using an edible marker because the waxy texture of the chocolate seems to not allow the marker to write on smoothly. These cake pops were a lot of fun to make and they sure are spookily tasty! I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!

Halloween Humor:
- What do skeletons always order at a restaurant? Spare ribs!
- What do skeletons say before they begin dining? Bone appetite!
- What did the vampire say to the Invisible Man? 'Long time, no see!'
- Why is Dracula so unpopular? Because he's a pain in the neck!
- What do the birds sing on Halloween? Twick or tweet.
- What do you call a witch at the beach? A sandwich.

Happy 28th Birthday Bi-Ying!

Happy 28th Birthday Bi-Ying!!! One of the awesome things about my friend Bi-Ying is that she's into super nerdy board games just like me! Part of her birthday celebration this year must insist of these nerdy board games, one of which is Settlers of Catan! I just got a new edible ink printer for this special occasion, because I wanted to make the decorations just perfect for her! I found out that you can print on wafer paper, which is much cheaper than frosting sheets, but you have to handle them with care because sometimes they can crack and curl up when they are dry. What I would to be useful is that instead of using water or corn syrup to adhere the wafer paper onto the fondant or frosting on the cake, I just stick the wafer paper directly onto my fondant directly using nothing but the natural moistness of the fondant. When you work the fondant into the shape you want or roll it flat, it's still a little moist, so that's what I use, so you have to act quick. It's really easy and it doesn't give the wafer paper a chance to curl or crack! The other game pieces (the robber, settlement, city, roads, and die are made of fondant.)

These cupcakes are tres leches (3 milk - condensed milk, evaporated milk, and coconut milk instead of heavy cream) cupcakes with whipped cream on top. She's never had tres leches before so I made these just for her! This is Bi-Ying's first birthday in California in several years, so I wanted to make sure this is a special one that she can always remember! Happy birthday Bi-Ying, I wish you many many many more years of joy and happiness and I hope all your wishes come true!!!!

It's been awhile since I had some fun humor at the end of my posts and I know how much Bi-Ying loved my corny jokes, or so I think she did, so here they are!!
- What do you give 900-pound gorilla for his birthday? I don't know but you better hope he likes it!
- Why do we put candles on top of a birthday cake? Because it's too hard to put them on the bottom!
- Does a pink candle burn longer than a blue one? No they both burn shorter!
- Where do you find a birthday present for a cat? In a cat-alogue!
- What does a clam do on his birthday? He shell-abrates!
- The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age! - Lucille Ball

Congrats Mr. & Mrs. Wada!

  

Congratulations to my colleagues, from UCLA, Jennifer Huynh and Christopher Wada on their upcoming wedding in two days (October 13, 2012).  I was so excited when Jenn emailed me asking me to surprise Chris with these Mario Bros cupcakes!  Jenn gave me an image of these designs, so I recreated them for her!  These are French Vanilla cupcakes with basic buttercream frosting!  All the decorations are made out of fondant.  I wish you two all the love and happiness in the world.  I'm so glad you guys are going to be starting this new chapter in your life together!  Congratulations!!

Daddy's 60th Birthday!

 

 

My dad is having his milestone 60th birthday next week on September 18, and we are having an early birthday dinner for him!  Since he doesn't like sweets much, I decided to make a carrot cake that had all the fixing, raising, crushed pineapples, chopped walnuts, and coconut flakes!  Plus, he had my carrot cake before and loved it!  He is a water dragon, the same exact dragon that my baby Lily is, and this only happens every 60 years!  So this birthday is a double whammy special one for my dad because not only is he turning sixty, but he is also a new grandpa!

I look up to my dad in so many ways, and not just because he's taller than me (hehe).  He is an amazing father, and a wonderful grandfather!  He always puts everyone else front of himself, and he'll sacrifice anything for the happiness of his loved ones.  He works so hard (2 jobs) to support our family) and he never complains about it!  He inspires me to be a great person, help others, work hard, and to appreciate life.  He is the most selfless person I know, and he is the best dad anyone can ask for.  My dad really is the best!  He has a great silly sense of humor, he always has a smile on his face, and he just exudes joy and happiness.  Anyone who's met him or has been around him loves him, and would tell you the same thing.  I love you daddy, happy 60th birthday!!!  He's a picture of my dad with my daughter, his granddaughter (big dragon and little dragon, double dragon!).

Alvina's Bridal Shower

 

My best friend, Alvina, is getting married in September and I get the special honor of being Matron of Honor!  I hosted her bridal shower today and one of the things I made for her shower are her favorite Red Velvet cupcakes with Whipped-Cream Cream Cheese filling and buttercream frosting.  The decorations are all wedding related (the ring, "I Do", garter, and wedding dress) and then some Gerber daisies since she loves bright colors and happy flowers!  All the decorations are made out of fondant, and the ring has metallic pearls on top.  The Gerber daisies have some gold luster dust for some fancy pizazz.

The shower was tons of fun and it was simply wonderful to see the joy on Alvina's face!  I had a lot of fun making these sweet treats just for her, and I am glad I was able to give her a party that she will always remember!  She truly deserves to be so happy and I'm glad all her gal pals got to get together to shower her with our love!  Stay tuned in September to see part of my wedding gift to her, the Coastal theme cupcakes, cake and cupcake tower!

Lily's Baptism & 1 Month Celebration!

  

Our precious baby Lily is 5 weeks and 1 day old and she just got baptized today!  As a Vietnamese tradition, we usually celebrate the baby's 1 month old milestone, called a Ngày Đầy Tháng.  We only celebrate the baby's first month and 1 year birthday, but luckily for Lily, we will adopt the Western tradition and celebrate every year of her life as well. =).  Since I am still a new mom and in recovery, I ordered a mixed berry cake from one of my favorite bakeries, Givral Bakery.  I asked them to make a texture on the cake with a ruffle border near the bottom, it didn't quite turn out how I wanted, for instance the texture is inverted and it's fondant covered instead of buttercream, and they didn't do the ruffle border, but it's ok.  I made the peonies flowers and letter blocks spelling out Lily's name in fondant and dotted the little flowers with black food coloring.  Overall, I'm am still quite pleased with her first cake and even though I didn't bake it, I'm glad I was still about add my love to it with the decorations I made for her!

 

  

These cupcakes are French Vanilla cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  I actually had time to make these and the decorations as well, also made out of fondant.  I wanted to make cupcake decorations that were cute but also baby related.  So I made love birds to represent the love of her parents that create our precious angel Lily, I made a bassinet to and pacifier for the cute baby items, and the hearts that says Love and baby Lily to show her that our hearts are filled with her love and our love for her, and the pink flowers represents the pretty girl she's already growing to be!

A couple months ago near the end of my pregnancy, Khoa bought me this cool book that has a bunch of recipes and imaged of cake Push Pops, and I've been waiting for an occasion (where I have time and energy) to make these!  Although right now I don't have as much free time and energy as I use to, I still decided to try to make these.  Luckily, I was successful and made Strawberry Shortcake cake push pops!  I was going to tie a pink ribbon and add a pink rhinestone in the middle of the bow for decoration around the push pops, but I decided this was enough work!  I'll go all out for her 1 year old birthday! =P  I'm so happy to have such a cute, healthy, and strong baby, I cannot be more happy and in love with our Lily.  I hope she looks back and enjoys these sweet treats I made for her special day!

Our Baby Shower!

We had a great baby shower this weekend to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our first child, our baby dragon Lily!  One of my favorite parts of the shower was the dessert station!  The color theme was pink, light green and white, and so we made the desserts to match!

Our beautiful dessert tower set up by Chi Tu and Alvina!

I made green tea and rose macarons, and my cousin (also the host of the shower) made vanilla mini cupcakes with green tea buttercream.  I made the little fondant flower decorations to go on top of the cupcakes, and Chi Hai's cutie patootie daughter, my niece, helped place the flowers on the cupcakes, she's a natural!  Chi Hai also baked vanilla cake pops with the remaining batter from the cupcakes, and then my friend Alvina and I dipping them in pink chocolate candy melts.  Then we all added the white chocolate stripes to them. 

Our dragon lily's cake! We ordered a mixed berry cake from Givral Bakery in Westminster, CA.  I love that bakery, it's my favorite also because we used them for our wedding, and any other special occasion!  They did the light green piping along the side of the cake and added the green ribbon and bow for the border.  I made the little baby dragon and the broken green egg shell to place on top of the cake.  Khoa bought spray light pink roses that I cut up to place on the cake as well.  I am 3 weeks away from my due date, so this was one last baking and decorating gig for a very long time!  I would have made sugar flowers, but why do more work than I have to, plus, nothing looks better than the real thing!

 

 

I would like to also give special thanks to Khoa, without him, I would not have all these wonderful things in life to look forward too!  I love you baby cakes!!  We had so much and it was great to see everyone before our precious baby gets here.  We felt so much love from everyone and we are extremely blessed and lucky to have such a wonderful family.  We are so excited for what’s to come, we can’t wait to meet her!!!!!  I will now go on my official maternity leave for at least a couple months!  I'll be back in no time to make more lovely creations for all of you to enjoy!  Until then, I have a great day!!!

I Scream for Ice Cream Cake Pops!

My friends and I decided to throw a little poolside barbeque to enjoy the nice sunny California weather we've been having, and to enjoy each others' lovely company! This also gave me a chance to try out my new cake pop pans! What I really liked about the cake pop pans is that it makes the whole process of making cake pop super fast and less messy. You don't have to crumble the cake and mix it with frosting (which ends up making the cake a lot sweeter than it need to be in my opinion) and then forming the cake into round balls that's relatively the same size. With the pans, the balls are made purely from the cake batter, and then you just use the chocolate for coating, so no frosting and messiness is involved. The chocolate adds the right amount of sweetness that the frosting normally would give to a cake or cupcake. That being said, I decided to make these super fun ice cream cake pops that I've been seeing on Google images! The flavor is French Vanilla, and I used white chocolate, milk chocolate, and pink chocolate melts for the coating of the cake pops along with a variety of sprinkles. These were a big hit and I had a great time making them for all my friends to enjoy! I also made flower cake pops and smiley face cake pops that I will add in separate posts! It's been a long time that I made something just for fun, so it's times like these that really makes me enjoy my hobbies =).

Ice Cream Humor:
- What did the cake say to the ice cream? You're cool!
- The young man entered the Ice Cream Palace and asked, "What kinds of ice cream do you have?" "Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry," the girl wheezed as she spoke, patted her chest and seemed unable to continue. "Do you have laryngitis?" the young man asked sympathetically. "Nope," she whispered, "just vanilla, chocolate and strawberry."
- A man approaches an ice cream van and asks, "I'd like two scoops of chocolate ice cream, please." The girl behind the counter replied, "I'm very sorry, sir, but our delivery didn't come this morning. We're out of chocolate." "In that case," the man continued, "I'll have two scoops of chocolate ice cream." "You don't understand, sir," the girl says. "We have no chocolate." "Then just give me some chocolate," he insists. Getting angrier by the second, the girl asked, "Sir, will you spell 'van,' as in 'vanilla?'" The man spells, "V A N." "Now spell 'straw,' as in 'strawberry.'" "OK. S-T-R-A-W." "Now," the girl asked, "spell 'stink,' as in chocolate." The man hesitates, then confused, replied, "There is no stink in chocolate." "That's what I've been trying to tell you!" she screams!

Flower Cake Pops

These are flower cakes pops that I decided to recreate that I found on Google images. These are great for the spring time, mother's day, or any special or random occasion for your special someone in your life. These are French Vanilla cake pops dipped in white chocolate. The flowers are made of fondant with edible pearls in the centers with colored white chocolate for the streaks. The cherry blossoms branches are painted with black food coloring and the blossoms are piped on with pink chocolate melts.

A useful tip that I discovered while making these cake pops is that double dipping in this case is perfectly a-okay! If you find that the first coat of chocolate is too thin, and you can still see some of the cake texture showing through, wait till the chocolate dries completely, and then re-dip the cake pop into the chocolate for a second coat! This makes the coat thicker and more opaque, and it often makes it more smooth as well. Also, if you're having trouble dipping your cake pop into the chocolate (meaning the chocolate is too thick and the cake pop keeps falling off the stick), there's 2 things you can do. I always dip my stick into some chocolate, stick it halfway into the cake ball, and let it harden (dry) completely. Then you can thin the chocolate by adding non-flavoring oil (like canola oil) and this will make the dipping as lot easier. Do NOT add water, that will ruin your chocolate. I hope you all enjoy and have a blossom day!