Chess Champion Birthday!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!!

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!

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

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!