Shades of Pink Baby Shower

Happy Monday!  Well, it's happy and not so happy.  I mean, Monday's one of those days that rub people wrong in the first place already.  As for me, my Monday is kind of going...except my whole body hurts and I feel like my legs are going to fall off.  And no, it's not because I found a way to use my legs to free up my hands for baking (although, that would be pretty useful...).  Nope!  It's because I ran my first 10K yesterday!  I ran the 35th Annual Chinatown Firecracker 10K.  It was an awesome scenic run and I am so very proud of myself!  And for someone who did not train, at all, I did pretty darn well!  I clocked in at 1:09:12!  And I'm even more proud because we (me and Christina) didn't carbo load the day before...and I also ran it with just an anorexic banana the day of.  Ok, I don't know if that's just pure stupidity (which it probably was) or something I should be proud of.  But still, just laying out the facts.  See, doesn't that make my run sound all the more amazing? Ok, digressing from the awesome baby shower goodies I'm about to post.  

So, my dear baking buddy had a baby shower gig she was doing.  Except, two or three weeks before the shower, she was hit with the flu.  Then, about a week or so before the shower, her water heater broke at home and flooded her whole house.  Then, she was hit with pneumonia.  Yeah.  Talk about some bad luck.  There was definitely more of that kind of luck that hit her, but let's not open up old wounds.  So, dear baking buddy called me up and asked if I was able to help her pull this shower off.  Of course I said yes.  I mean, it's from one superwoman to another, of course I had an extra cape to carry her through!  So, I helped baked all the goodies for her but she did an amazing job setting it up!  Yes, we all lectured her because she definitely should've been home resting, and not setting up a dessert table, but that superwoman did a fantabulous job!  Check it out!

Isn't this an awesome cake?  I love the pink ombre and ruffled look.  I made a similar cake for Mai's niece's birthday (I've yet to do a post on that one...coming soon!).  I just love how simple, yet elegant, yet fun the ruffles and ombre coloring did for the cake.  Inside was my chocolate cake, with strawberries on the bottom layer, and strawberries and bananas in the top layer.  I also dipped some strawberries into dark chocolate and drizzled with pink chocolate.  Had some super yummy macarons, coconut cupcakes, dark chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream, strawberry cupcakes, mini brownie bites, rice krispy treats with yummy pink sugary sugar and sprinkles, and "thank you" baby onesies sugar cookies!

Beautiful, beautiful job!  See, this is when you see real passion coming out to play.  This superwoman created such a beautiful display even when she was half dead.  *applause, applause*  Great job, Mai!  Beautiful job!  And a very special "thank you" goes out to Don, Mai's husband, for taking such beautiful pictures of my goodies!  Just beautiful!  These goodies look so glamorous!

Thanks for stopping by dear readers!  Stay tuned for more!

Happy Birthday Smitty!

Today's post is super special!  Why?  Because today's post is on my brother's birthday!  My sweet baby brother turned 24 towards the end of December.  He has this really tight nit group of friends, who always throw something together for whoever's birthday is up.  So, when Smith's birthday was up, they decided to throw him a surprise birthday dinner at one of the steakhouses here in San Diego.  However, let me tell you how good we got my brother first.  So, I work with my brother.  And I was going to make him a cake.  There was no way I wasn't going to make him something!  But because I work with him...It was kind of difficult to shield him from seeing me bake and decorate a cake.  So my grand plan?  Turn that cake into an order!  So, I ended up building his cake, right in front of his face.  In fact, he unknowingly helped me with is very own cake!  I made an extra special cake for my baby brother.  Baked up my chocolate cake and also a cheesecake.  Yes, a real cheesecake.  Not cheesecake fillSoing.  But cheesecake cheesecake!  And I smack dabbed that cheesecake right in-between two layers of moist chocolatey goodness.  I proceeded to engulf the entire cake with vanilla whipped cream (because cheesecake always tastes better with a dallop of whipped cream, right??).  Then, I stuck white and dark chocolate stripped cigarettes all around the cake (because it seems more manly....) and then realized I didn't have enough cigarettes for the entire cake.  DOH!  Fail....Lucky for me, I bought some chocolate squares too.  And luckily, I'm the super cautious type that always overbuys.  So, my brother help me remove all the chocolate cigarettes and helped me decide how to place all the chocolates around.  Once we were finished with that tedious task, I had to tackle the top.  What is manly to place on top?  I was thinking of shaving chocolate curls all over the top, but then decided it was too much chocolate and just too much business.  I really wanted to put mixed berries, but dang it, strawberries were $5.00 a pint at that time in December.  So, I asked my brother...his answer: Just get the berries and charge extra.  Oh, little bro..if only you knew...But I did really love the look of fresh berries on top of cakes.  It just looks so luxurious and fresh!  So, that's what I did.  I then told him to watch the shop while I deliver my cake to  my client.  Boy, we got him good. 

 Later that day, I made plans with Smitty to go out for dinner..just big sis and lil bro....and another couple.  Just the four of us.  And that's what we did.  Or, at least, that's what he thought we were going to do.  However, when we got to the restaurant (the crew had already reserved a private room in the back, so everyone was already there), Smith was thrown the biggest surprise ever.  Everyone was there.  His whole crew was there.  Right when he thought they really didn't care...they did.  Of course they did!! That, my dear readers, was surprise #1.  We got him real good.  

So, what's a birthday without a cake right?  See how awesome his cake was??  Look at all those yummy fresh fruit and all that chocolate!  And the cake sliced up was just absolutely beautiful.  Two thick layers of chocolate cake and a beautiful white layer of creamy cheesecake.  So good!!  And you should have seen his face when the waiter brought out his cake.  His cake...the one he helped with...the one for some other client...the one with the expensive strawberries.  His face was classic.  And I wished I remembered to take a picture of that face.  But, alas, I lived in the moment, and that face will forever be remembered in my memories!

Happy Birthday baby brother...try and top that! Ha! Hope everyone enjoyed this post!  PS...sorry for the terrible pictures...of course no one brings a real camera..and we had to take quick pictures in a dimly lit room!  But I'm sure you can still tell what everything is!  Until the next post!

Happy Birthday Marcus!

Happy Monday my Loves!  And happy President's Day too!  (Especially for you lucky loves who get the day off!)  Not me.  In fact, I'm stuck doing double shifts here at the bakery while my brother is off on vacation!  But that's ok, there is plenty for me to do here, but first, let's get started on another super fun post!  This post, as usual, is long overdue!  So, I another chance to play with a savory food table.  My #1's boyfriend's birthday was coming up, and instead of opting for a restaurant, she decided to throw something at home.  So, I was enlisted, because, clearly, the woman does not know how to cater.  And of course, we went from a fairly simple finger food kind of evening, to something outrageous and fun.  Yep, that's me: outrageous and fun!  I had this whole menu planned out, and at the very last moment...like two days before the event, I completely changed the menu.  Not only that, I also decided that everything will be of the miniature size.  Yes, you read right.  New menu + mini everything = disaster?  OH wait...I forgot.  This was to take place in Los Angeles too.  So, brand spanking new menu + mini everything + drive two hours (+) to Los Angeles = disaster??  Of course not.  I'm superwoman, you know...(still patting self on the back, actually).  Ok, Ok, enough silliness...It actually was a very good event.  I didn't really panic because this wasn't a super major gig with crazy clients.  But we made very good time and everything looked fantastic.  Check it out:

Doesn't everything look yumm-o??  My cousin really loved my chicken pot pies.  So, my bright idea was to make a chicken pot pie dinner.  With all the fixings of course!  It wasn't a very complicated menu, until I decided that mini pot pies, like super mini pot pies, and mini mash with mini corn..and what the heck, everything mini would just be super adorable.  And who doesn't like adorable food??  I intermingled our "real" dinner with some finger foods like goat cheese tartlets, mini tomato caprese salads, cheese and meat platter, mini puff pastry pizzas, some healthy fruits and veggies...so. much. food!  I guess that's my other "problem" too.  I overdo and overmake!  But who likes to go to a party with just barely enough food, right??  I sure don't and in my opinion, there can never be too much food.  Bring it on!!

 Unfortunately, this was the only cake shot I got that night.  I decided to go super simple since I knew all the mini food would keep me pretty busy.  Inside the cake, is my chocolate cake with a cheesecake middle layer (you will see more of this kind of cake in a different post!).  I always find it kind of difficult to decorate a cake for the guys out there.  I feel like flowers are just too girly, so what else but fruit?...especially when I want to go simple!  But I was pretty happy with how this one turned out!

See the super, super cute mini lion's head bowls on the far right?  I saw them at one of my most favorite stores and just had to buy them...of course, then I had to add soup to the menu too...but hey, it was so worth it!!  I absolutely loved the look of the big lion's head soup careen along with the cute mini ones.  Will definitely need to find another event to put them to use! 

See these little finger desserts?  The one to the left are palmiers cookies that I, (well, actually, I put my cousin and her room mate to work with these...) dipped into home made caramel, sprinkled with sea salt.  The treat on the right are waffle cookies, dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with sliced honeyed almonds.  Super yummy and super easy!

And that's all folks!  Share some love and thoughts about Marcus's birthday!  I definitely had a lot of fun planning and executing everything and I hope everyone there enjoyed the party and food, and that you, my lovely readers, enjoyed this post!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy belated Valentine's day  my sweets!!  I hope everyone enjoyed a beautiful and loving day!  And YES, that's a Hello Kitty strawberry you see there in that fancy box of goodies!  Well, we definitely received a beautiful day here in San Diego, that was for sure!  So, every single year, for Valentine's day, I always make chocolate dipped strawberries for my Valentine.  Always.  I don't buy fancy (or any, actually) gifts.  I usually buy a somewhat sweet card (or if I have the time, I'll make my own card) and make a plate of chocolate covered strawberries.  So, my strawberries always come straight from my heart!  Well, this year, my Valentine was quite expanded!  I made them for some special people in my life and I also made them to sell at the bakery shop!  Let me tell you...those strawberries (and all things Valentine's related) flew out the door.  I actually started selling strawberries since the Sunday before Valentine's day.  And each day, and through Valentine's day, I completely sold out!  I hand picked the biggest and most beautiful strawberries out of the thirty two pounds of strawberries I had.  I made the simple, elegant dark chocolate covered strawberries with white chocolate drizzle to sell at the bakery shop.  However, in today's post, I want to show you some super decadent and fancy strawberries that were made on Valentine's day for some super special people!

Aren't they adorable?  Yes, I know...anything Hello Kitty is super adorable.  But the rest of the strawberries were pretty neat too.  I especially loved the white chocolate ones with the crystal sugar...it's so bling bling!  Do you also notice the chocolate dipped raspberries and blackberries?  Yes, chocolate covered raspberries and blackberries.  Find them!  See, the story was...the day before Valentine's, I couldn't really find nice big strawberries.  In fact, that's an understatement.  I couldn't find any.  I get my strawberries from Costco, and that day, I went to four different Costcos all over San Diego, and there were no strawberries to be found.  So, the next best thing?...why, dip raspberries and blackberries, of course.  And yes, they were quite the pain, especially since I double dipped the blackberries (first in white chocolate and then dark chocolate!) but, man, they were so good!!  Oh, so, as if chocolate dipped raspberries weren't enough, I also dusted the tops of the raspberries with gold luster dust too.  That certainly made quite a statement.  They were just absolutely beautiful!  And together in the box with the fancy strawberries...one word: awesome.  Fancy.  Beautiful.  Elegant.  Ok, definitely more than one word, but you get the picture right?  Anyways, I loved these strawberries and I would've been ecstatic to receive a box!  Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday!!

Xmas in...February?

Happy Lunar New Year!!!  May the year of the snake bring great love, health and prosperity to all!  I, for one, am definitely looking forward to this new year.  I can feel all the greatness about to happen and I am super excited to see how it will all unfold!  So, let's start this new lunar year off with a great post...even though it will take us back into the past, right around Christmas time.  Remember Karen?  Sweet Karen had contacted me about doing desserts for the annual office holiday party.  This year, the party was being held in their beautiful home.  Of course I said I was interested...and somehow, two three-tiered dessert trays turned into this:

Yeah...I know...overboard I went.  Again.  I can't help it.  Karen and Bill are just two of the nicest clients one could have.  So, overboard I went!  We had an array of sweets, from, an assortment of macarons, peppermint bark, apple spiced bundt cake, home-made truffles, an assortment of yummy cookies, chocolate dipped wafer rolls, and mini caramel apples!  Oh, the jam thumbprint cookies were so so soooo good!  I think jammy thumprints might be one of my favorite cookies for the holidays (or anytime for that matter).  These were slightly crispy with a chewy aftertone.  So very buttery and sugary too.  Definitely on the delish side!  Oh, and can't forget about the cake!  It was a strawberry and chocolate cake!  I had some extra mini apples, so thought, what the heck, and threw it on the cake.  Super yummy and super fun!  I had some help from my sweet baking buddy, Mai, who, thankfully, cooks, and was able to whip up a simple gluten-free meal for one of the guests.  It looked super tasty and she totally saved the day!  Overall, the event was super fun (it always is when working with Karen and Bill!) and I was very happy with how the desert table turned out, and even happier with how it tasted!  It was definitely a feast for both eyes and stomach!

Thanks for reading!  Tune in soon for another post!