Under the Sea Cupcakes

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)

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!

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!