Happy 5th and 4th Birthday Justin & Hayley!

Happy 5th and 4th Birthday Justin & Hayley!!  I had the honor in making strawberry cake pops with fresh strawberry puree inside for two cuties!  The theme is Ariel from the Little Mermaid by Disney.  I used cardstock to print the image of Ariel on them, and then made the fins out of fondant and lightly painted some pink luster pearl dust on the fins the give it that mermaid shine.  I sprinkled some seashell theme sprinkles on the cake pop and decorated the trays with crushed graham crackers to look like the ocean floor and added some fondant sea shells as well to complete the look.  I had some leftover cake batter and so I made some cupcakes!  These two had a drive by birthday celebration and even though our visit to celebrate with the birthday stars were short, we were still able to the joy on their faces and got the opportunity to wish them a happy birthday from a socially safe distance!  I wish you two the best and happiest of birthdays so far, and it's such a joy to see you grow up and see your personalities develop!  Happy Birthday Justin and Hayley, hope you guys had a splashing good time!

Happy 1st Birthday Emmy!

 

 

  

Happy 1st Birthday Emmy!!  I got the honor and pleasure of making dessert for Emmy's 1st birthday party!!!  I made a 3 tier cake where the bottom two tiers are fake.  The top tier is a "sugar-free" apple cake with raisins (the recipe called for chopped walnuts but I omitted them for baby allergy reasons) with a "sugar-free" cream cheese frosting!  I also made red velvet and french vanilla cupcakes, french vanilla cake pops, and individually wrapped party favor sugar cookies with a personalized tag!  I wish you Emmy a wonderful new year in your life, you are so special, sweet and greatly loved by everyone you meet!!  You are so cute and your personality is so precious!  You're a joy to be around and we all love your beautiful smile and awesome dance moves!!  I'm so happy I got to help make your birthday a little more sweet.  Here's to many many more birthdays to come!!  Photo credits goes to Nelly Chung at Modern Element Photography!!! Thank you for beautifully capturing this lovely celebration!!  Check out more photos from Emmy's party at Modern Element's Photography here!

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.

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!

Don't Worry, Be Happy!

I saw these cute smiley face cake pops and so I just had to make them myself! I love sending out a positive message whenever I can, and I feel that the more we absorb ourselves deeper into our busy hectic lives, the more we tend to forget the bigger picture and actually ENJOY our life! So now and then just stop and not worry too much, and try to be more happy with all the positive in your life rather than the negative. There's also opportunities to make a person's day a little brighter, so seize those moments! Now back to these cuties! These are French Vanilla cake pops dipped in white chocolate that's dyed yellow. I used black food coloring to paint in the faces and red food coloring for the tongue. Life's too short, so spend each day like your last!

Here are some happy inspirational quotes to help remind what's important:
- Most people would rather be certain they're miserable, than risk being happy. - Dr. Robert Anthony
- If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.- Albert Einstein
- Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. - Helen Keller
- Life is relationships; the rest is just details.- Gary Smalley
- What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful. - H.H. the Dalai Lama
- People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People who really want help may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway. Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt. Give the world your best anyway. - Mother Teresa

Happy Easter 2011!!

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!

Happy Birthday Mike!

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!

Cake Pops for Mom!

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