Monday, August 26, 2013

Happy Birthday Ava!

...And there went another Monday.  I'm serious, each day/week/month goes by so darn fast!  I can barely keep up!  I was just at the store earlier today and they were already getting ready for Christmas! What happened??  Where did 2013 go??  Oh, I know.  It is because I actually have a lot of fun doing what I do...which makes time fly all the more fast!  Speaking of fun, today's post is beyond fun!  I had the pleasure and priveledge of creating a dessert table for Baby Ava's first birthday party!  Mommy Thao decided on the most wonderfully unique theme for baby girl's first birthday: Willy Wonka!! Can you imagine?  Tons of kids and adults running around a beautiful home filled with chocolate and candy and sweets?  Oh boy, it sure was a treat!  Check it out!
 This beautiful cake was made by a talented and yummy bakery in the OC area!  Isn't it a super fun cake?  I absolutely loved all the Wonkiness in that cake!
There was so much playfullness with this dessert table!  I brought in rainbows and chocolates and everything definitely weaved in together beautifully!  Thao had researched on some desserts she'd like to have on the table, and together, we made it happen.  We made some banana sundaes (minus the ice cream), which were super adorable.  I also made some chocolate dipped spoons, which brought in some fun colors and were very easy to make!  Did you notice our chocolate fountain??  No Willy Wonka table is complete without a chocolate fountain!  We had set out bananas, strawberries, vanilla wafers, marshmallows and pound cake for dipping!  Yummo!  I definitely had a great time with this dessert table!  Thanks Thao for a fabulous themed party and Happy birthday Ava!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Happy Birthday Keanu

This week is flying by way too fast!  There is so much going on, I almost don't know where to start!  So, first off, I don't know if you remember, but I run my own donut and bakery shop.  Well, we just launched our facebook page for the shop!  So please stop by our page and show us some love!

My FACEBOOK

Ok, now on to more fun stuff!  Today's post is on FOOD!  Well, cake food that is.  I've had the pleasure of making some super fun cakes recently.  The first is for my dear friend's son.  Mai's son, Keanu, had requested a...ready for this?...Pho cake!  Yes, a pho cake!!  I was actually slightly scared to take it on because it looked quite difficult to create.  And to make it even more challenging?  They have already experienced a pho cake before.  So it really upped the ante!  Anyways, let me know what you think!
Not too shabby in my opinion!  It almost looks exactly like a bowl of pho!  Everything in that bowl was handmade...well, except for the chopsticks...but everything else is fondant and edible!  I wish I had a picture of the cake itself.  Keanu had requested a rainbow cake, dressed as pho.  And that was exactly what I delivered him.  Yep, it's rainbow cake inside this cake and it actually looked pretty awesome.  Stay tuned for the next food post...I think, hamburgers!


Monday, August 19, 2013

626 Night Market

Happy, happy Monday!  I had a fantastic weekend out in Rancho Mirage, celebrating a friend's birthday.  It was tough getting back into work mode today!  We did nothing but lounge around in the lazy pool, ate, and drank.  Yep, one of those lazy weekends.  However, back to the real world...back to work!  It is proving to be a pretty busy  month, once again!  Gigs are lining up and coming in like crazy.  Welcome to my world!  I am getting ready for a bridal shower dessert table this coming weekend and then another 626 Night Market next weekend.  Because of the upcoming night market, I decided that I should probably post on the first night market I was a vendor at early last month.
 My cousin, Christina, had actually told me about 626 last year.  Of course, 626 came up in conversation right after the event had passed.  We decided that I should try to become a vendor at this night market the next year.  Well, next year rolled around...we had kind of forgotten about 626, and if it wasn't for our Chinatown Firecracker 10K, we probably would have missed this year's 626 event again.  Luckily, at that 10K run, 626 Night Market had a booth and I ended up taking one of their flyers and following up on the actual event.  This year, 626 was going to have three weekend events: June, July, and August.  Unfortunately, I was only able to do the July weekend (weddings in the other two months...blog posts to come soooon!).  The main goodies for us to sell?  Macarons!  Hello Kitty macarons, actually!
Remember these cuties?  Yes, I know...the other Hello Kitty macarons I've posted previously had little ears...I, however, think these are just as cute!  They're like little fat Hello Kitty heads! I think they are super adorable.  And, apparently, the crowds at 626 thought so too...I completely sold out of Hello Kitty macarons my first day!  Not only that, we had some Hello Kitty casualties...people even bought those too! We also had about 10 different flavors of macarons.  We bought a few display cases and used one specifically for macarons.  They were so pretty!
Want to see the menu?  Here you go:
We decided that macarons will be our specialty but also wanted to have other goodies there too.  Especially because macarons tend to run on the pricier side (for sweets) and there are probably people out there who have never experienced the yumminess of macarons (tsk, tsk!) and who aren't willing to take that yummy risk.  Isn't that chalkboard art beautifully written?  My other other half, Christina, actually wrote it up for me!  I absolutely loved it...in fact, it's still intact as is today!
There were four of us working the booth that weekend: Smith (my brother), Christina (my cousin and other other half), Daniel (my dear friend), and me!  We had a pretty steady sell the entire night...it was definitely hot that weekend...we had tons of chocolate type goodies...and who doesn't like chocolate in all kinds of forms and mediums?  Even the melted form!

This was definitely and experience...one that I would love to do every single year.  The highlight of my weekend??  I actually had a young lady come into line to purchase a Hello Kitty macaron.  The first thing she asked me?  Did I have a blog?  "Yes" I told her...I do!  And it's "www.sweetsby..." and the young lady finished my sentence.  "sweets by linda?"  YES!  She follows my blog and recognized me through my Hello Kitty macs!  She said those macs look pretty familiar...and she's seen them on this blog...and indeed she has!  What a small world!  Of all the bazillions of blogs out there, how random is it that one of my readers show up at my booth (of all the dessert booths out there at 626), and of the three 626 events?  It was so crazy and shocking and just wonderful!  I had a beam of a smile for the rest of the night!  

And, for those of you who missed us in July...626 is actually doing an encore weekend, and yours truly will be there once again!  August 3-4 was supposed to be the last weekend of 626 for the year, but there is an encore weekend coming up.  The final 626 Night Market will be held once again at the Santa Anita Racetracks August 31-Sept 1.  BOTH Saturday and Sunday night will be open from 4pm-1am! 

 What to expect from me this time around?  More macaron (definitely more Hello Kitty and many more mac flavors), CRONUTS, puff pastry filled with red bean and mochi, puff pastry filled with nutella and mochi, and cake pops (pink lemonade, orange creamsicle, chocolate!) 

Yes, my loves, you read that right and you definitely do NOT want to miss this last event!  See you all there!  XOXO