Jannette and Kenneth

I have a super fun post for y'alls today!  Today, we'll be delving into Jannette and Kenneth's wedding at the Richard Nixon Library!  Jannette is actually a good friend of my cousin, Christina.  The couple and I met about a year and half ago (when I was just jumping in to the world of cupcakes and desserts).  They actually live in Chicago, so when they were visiting at the time (family lives in LA), we had set up a cupcake tasting, where they were able to sample a variety of cupcake flavors.  Lo and behold, we met up, and they only had nice things to say about my cupcakes (they're just super easy-going and wonderful like that!)  And a few days later, they booked me for their wedding.  A wedding that will be held a year and a half later!  And initially, the head count was somewhere up in the 300 range!  I thought, ok, no problem...I have a whole year and half to think about this!! And what do you know, their wedding has come and gone!  So, the bride and groom decided to go with four flavors: chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter, and coconut!  I was deliriously happy that they decided to go with coconut...it was my favorite cupcake at the time...and just something different than the usual (bravo, bravo you two!).  And as time wore on, we also decided to add a candy buffet to the mix too.  I mean, come on, 300 cupcakes plus a candy buffet for 300 people...piece of cake, right?  Yeah...I have no idea what I was thinking.  I mean, I don't even think I thought about how I would transport all this, let alone create!  Now, remember...at that time, I haven't dabbled with dessert tables, so it was quite a huge undertaking! However, I had plenty of chances to play around with dessert tables and acquire beautiful pieces for my collection between the time of their cake tasting and their wedding.  So by the time the wedding rolled around, it really was a piece of cake!  Check it out!

I've done a few dessert tables, but this is my first candy buffet!  Not too shabby, huh?  The hard part about doing a candy buffet was estimating how much candy to buy and how much candy would fit into the jars!  While shopping for candy, the jars seem pretty big in my head.  However, we had plenty of candy left over!  So, if you haven't guessed, the wedding colors were coral, pale yellow, and white.  Coral kind of limits the candy I can get, but I think I did pretty well!  I even made some cherry flavored fleur de lis lollipops in shades of coral and also some sea salted caramels (which went into one of the coral jars).  For this event, my husband and I was also invited to stay for the wedding.  So, I had put him to work!  Can you believe that after unwrapping two boxes of old fashion candy sticks, he thought he was done?!  No, sir...he had one more box to unwrap...at which, he tried to argue with me on how to set up my candy buffet.  Uh uuh, mister...So you want to know what I told him?  Well, I told him that this was my gig and that he is my helper so he needs to do it my way...and in the future, should he get his own gig, then he can do it his way!  Riiight??  We were losing valuable time here!  So, he got to work and in the end, it turned out fabulous...just the way I envisioned it!  Now, on to the cupcakes!  Well, before the cupcakes, I wanted to show you the beautiful venue.  The reception was held at the East Wing, which is an exact replica of the East wing at the White House.  Cool, huh?

Oh, the grandeur...it was absolutely stunning!

Here's the menu:  Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, coconut cupcake with coconut buttercream, and peanut butter cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream.  The hubby helped me out by drawing the flowers that corresponds to each cupcake.  Peanut butter had no flower; it was just swirled to look like a rose.  I was fortunate enough to actually find coral cupcake liners, so the couple went with gold and coral.

Sorry for the terrible lighting...the venue had some kind of spotlight light that shone onto the wedding cake.  It gave the area a nice ambiance, but was quite terrible for my camera.  Anyways, here are more pictures of the evening!

I was a touch early...it's because they kiss so fast!  This was as close as I got, the whole day!  Congrats again Jannette and Kenneth!!!  Everything was beyond lovely; may you enjoy the time of your lives together...and Kenneth...Let me remind you: Happy wife, Happy life ;)

Kitties and Penguins

Happy, Happy Monday!  I am now recharged after the fantastic wedding event from last night!  So what better way to start off the day (after cleaning up all my jars and putting away all the candy, of course), than to kick start with a new blog post?  This post is long overdue!  I had another chance to make a Hello Kitty cake for a client.  Melissa is actually one of my donut shop customers.  I always show her pictures of goodies from events I've done...she has this super adorable moppet that I thought would get a kick out of all these goodies.  So, I recently did a Hello Kitty dessert table and Melissa had seen those photos, and she wanted to order a Hello Kitty cake similar to Faye's Hello Kitty cake.  That cake was meant to feed a lot of people...and since Melissa only needed to feed about 15 people, I told her of another option.  Let's just do a Hello Kitty head shaped cake.  It's a little smaller and just as cute. She also ordered a few dozen cake pops along with the cake.  And the kicker?  They were going to Sea World that weekend, so she asked if I could do animal shaped cake pops!  I haven't really had the opportunity to try, but I told her I'd give it a go!  So, after reviewing all the animals (sea related animals), I decided to try my hands at making penguin cake pops.  I've certainly learned what to do and what not to do with shaped cake pops...but, overall, I think they were still super cute!

Have a lovely Monday, dear readers...Check back soon for a post on last night's wedding.  Think: Richard Nixon Library, candy buffet, and cupcakes!

A Parisian Affaire to Remember

I am super excited to share today's post with everyone today!  I had the pleasure of catering a fun and elegant Parisian themed bridal shower this past weekend.  Let me tell you...it was absolutely beautiful.  Karen, the auntie of the bride, lives in this beautiful home, with views of the Pacific.  There was a very nice breeze that blew in through the back French doors, circulating throughout the house.  And the day couldn't have been more perfect!  We actually got sunshine the whole day.  It was just beyond beautiful!  So, this event is a tad different from my past events.  I was actually able to do savory items on top of a dessert table!  Also, the majority of the savory items were vegetarian!...well, vegetarian as in no meat meat.  At our first consultation, I remembered when Karen said vegetarian, my jaws almost dropped.  I was thinking that all my desserts pretty much contained eggs!  Good thing it wasn't the case that the bride didn't eat eggs!  So, the plan was to have a table full of mini savory vegetarian items.  You know, finger foods.  We also planned on having a dessert table.  This was a good, maybe four months ago that we have been planning!  We wanted to have a perfect shower, with perfect food, and perfect sweets.  Well, that was definitely my intentions! And you know what?  I think it was!

Isn't this staging beautiful?  Karen has this wonderful artistic touch when it comes to staging!  I absolutely loved those Paris boxes and the beautiful mannequin!

There's our bride, saying hi!  She's next to the wishing tree I had my husband make for me.  Not too shabby huh?  I know, you've seen trees on this blog before...let's move on to the food!

This was the spread!  What do you think?  We had a yummy cheese platter, accompanied by fresh and dried fruits and roasted nuts, a variety of crackers and bread and some delicious Gruyere cookies, pureed carrot cold soup served in shot glasses, chicken salad served in fresh mini croissants (Karen's chicken salad was SO tasty!!), fresh cut fruits and vegetables (because a vegetarian spread isn't complete without cut veggies right??), watermelon squares with pecans and blue cheese, goat cheese tartlets, herb leek tarts, and yogurt parfaits served in individual shot glasses. Oh yeah, we had roasted red pepper hummus, garlic aioli, and a cream cheese with roasted chipotle raspberry sauce too.  Whew...was that everything??  Oops, forgot about those tomato poppers!  Those were last minute additions to the menu because when I was shopping for the food, I saw these perfectly round mini tomatoes.  And when I say perfect, I mean it.  They were slightly larger than globe table grapes...and each package contained tomatoes that were just about the same size.  So, what else could I do but buy them and figure out what to make with them?!  I ended up making mini Caprese salad bites.  They were a hit!  One delicious bite!

Don't forget about the dessert table!  Karen had told me that when she went to order her linens and serve-ware,  she had saw one of those plush velvet ropes (you know, meant to keep people from getting too close to whatever the ropes were behind) and was thinking of renting one...joking, of course.  However,  after we had set up the dessert table, we thought we really should have rented it!  Don't you think so?

There was all sorts of yummies that day.  Mini pink velvet cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, rock candy, old fashioned candy sticks, hazelnut madeleines, mini creme brulee, chocolate dipped strawberries, cake pops, white chocolate Eiffel tower pops, Parisian macarons, croquembouche (that became cream puffs), and sugar cookies.  OH the sugar cookies.  They were my pride and joy.  These cookies were so beautiful, I'm sure no one ate them (I hope that wasn't the case, but really, these cookies looked awesome!)

Marie Antoinette cookies!!!  Aren't they fantabulous?!? I am still in love with these cookies!!!

I made a small cake that the bride could take home with her.  It was chocolate with a vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and fresh strawberry filling.

All in all, this was one fabulous shower!!  I had fun and I was just the caterer...I can hardly imagine how the bride and guests feel!!  There was more than plenty of food and desserts to go around.  The champagne was also free flowing the whole day!  Everything was just fabulous!  Karen definitely topped the standards, as far as bridal showers go!  I'm glad I was able to play a part of this!

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Congratulations Robin and Omar!

Good evening cyber world!  So, my life has calmed down just a bit.  I'm in the middle of making a bazillion flowers for a wedding this Sunday, but I think I'm doing great on time.  And you know what that means, right?  It means I have some "free" time for a blog post!  And for bearing with me these past two months, as I've been "slacking off" on writing my posts, I am treating you folks to a super fun post filled with skulls, hearts, roses, and a...wedding!  Yep, you read that right!  This was a "Dia de Los Muertos" themed wedding!  Different right?  It was totally awesome and I'm delighted to have taken part in it!  The bride, Robin, actually encountered me at the "For the Love of Justice" fundraising event.  I had donated a dessert table for the event, so Robin actually enjoyed some nibbles and thought about me when it came time for her wedding celebration.  I was extremely flattered and excited, as I love doing weddings and her theme was just so different from past events I've done.  I must admit, though, that I was a tad anxious about this event.  I can usually do pretty things pretty prettily...but this theme was more hip and different and just totally awesome!  It had an edge that I wasn't sure I could handle.  But lo and behold, I think everything turned out beautifully!

I know, it's a lot of different colors, huh?  However, once you see the cake, you will understand!  Besides, most "Dia de Los Muertos" items are pretty colorful!  It's definitely a lot of fun.  So, the cake.  The picture that Robin had sent me (of the cake) was this super beautiful artwork of a cake.  I tried my best to replicate that same cake, but with just a small spin...well, I had to work with the dimensions I ended up with...so, had to revise just a tad.  However, before I show you the cake, check out Robin's cake toppers!  They are the most adorable things ever!!

I know, awesome, right??  I loooove these!  They are just the cutest things...and coming from me, that says a lot!  Skulls usually scare me, but these are just awesome!

Not too shabby, I think...a few somewhat minor hiccups, but overall, not too shabby!  I absolutely loved all the fun colors in this cake!  And although Robin's main color was red, she gave me creative freedom and I ended up pulling a lot of colors out of the cake to use on the dessert table.  I think it worked out beautifully and I'm glad the couple gave me the freedom to "do my thang!"  I sincerely hope that they loved everything as much as I did!  Congrats again to Robin and Omar!  And with that note, I'll just leave you readers with a view of what passer-bys got a glimpse of:

Mustache Cupcakes

Happy, happy Monday!  I can't believe that it is July already!  Time is flying by way too fast for my liking!!  Hmm, for some reason, that seems to be the phrase of the year...year after year.  Scary, huh?  Well, let's stop time for a few minutes here and revisit some yummy cupcakes I had the pleasure of making.  I was asked to make some black and white cupcakes with a mustache theme.  Had I known that mustaches were going to be so "in," I would have totally picked up the "Billionaire" Cricut cartridge that I saw at Wal-mart...it was on clearance too.  But nooo, at the time, I was thinking that I didn't really use my Cricut all that much.  And even though that cartridge was on clearance, it still had a hefty price tag on it.  So, I didn't pick it up.  Fast forward two months later, and here I am, trying to make some mustache cupcakes with no mustaches.  And the fact that I have an old Mac laptop (that seriously does not like to cooperate with me on anything technological (or not)), which has conversion issues and whatnots, and what did I have?  Nothing but a bunch of regrets.  In fact, I was also remembering the time I was out at Paper Source with my cousin, and I picked up (picked it up!!) a box of the mustache cookie cutters.  It was pretty cool...but the logic side of my head told me I didn't really need it.  And what happened?  Yep, I needed it.  Anyways, my sweet baking buddy had some mustache art she lent me...it just wasn't in the colors my client needed.  And of course I couldn't crop the image so that I'm not printing out the entire page (with 2/3 of unneeded art)...I was stingy with my ink...(hey, who isn't?!)  Well, I printed what my stinginess will allow me to before trying to figure out another way around printing more.  And I was able to maneuver a mustache clip art and size it the size I needed.  It turned out pretty good!  Take a look!

These were chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting.  A perfectly sweet combination, in my humble opinion!  There was something very elegant about these cupcakes.  I used black cupcake liners, with chocolate cake, white vanilla frosting and black and white toppers.  I think the polka dots gave the toppers more character!  And better yet, I had enough polka dots toppers to make even rows!

Hope this post brightened up your Monday just a bit!  Cheers!

Happy Birthday Auntie Eng!

See, I am trying to catch up!  Allow me to share another post with you today, dear readers.  Today, I want to share a special birthday (and cake).  Today's post is on a beautiful lemon-raspberry cake.  This was a super cute cake!  It was only about six inches in diameter but super tall...around six or so inches high.  I didn't quite measure it...all I knew was, it was tall...I was actually a bit hesitant to ice it and actually, truth be told, I was actually pretty scared of the cutting part.  I had recently played around with my vanilla cake recipe.  The last time I made vanilla cake, I wasn't too happy with the dense texture...so I thought I'd play around a bit and come up with something else.  And this was it.  This was a soft,  yet dense (but not too dense), spongey kind of cake.  I added my coveted vanilla beans and thin bright yellow lemon rinds for a hint of that "something special."  I had two layers of creamy vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream, topped with a tangy lemon-lime curd, with chunks of freeze dried raspberries on top, and a middle layer of creamy custard to cut through all that tangy lemon-lime curd.  The middle layer (the one filled with custard) was what made this cake unstable.  The Swiss meringue buttercream will firm up once it is cooled, but that custard...he sure was a troublemaker.  No matter how chilled he was, that custard stayed wobbly!  It's tasty custard though, so I forgave him.

Anyways, it was Auntie's birthday, so I thought I'd make a cute little cake to celebrate.  She is my mom's best friend and they've been friends since forever.  In fact, we kind of grew up together.  Her house was like a second home to my brother and me.  However, now, since we're all grown up and getting caught up in our own small families, it's been hard to see each other as often as before.  But if there's ever any excuse to bake a cake, a birthday is as good as it gets!  And like I said before, this little cake turned out pretty high, so it wasn't quite so little after all!

I decided to go simple with the decorations.  I think raspberries have a simple, understated elegance and will dress up anything!  And because this was a lemon-raspberry cake, I thought it was fitting to gown the cake with raspberries and silky Swiss meringue buttercream.

Happy Birthday Auntie!  May this year be just as blessed as last year!