Travel Themed Wedding Cupcake Tower

Congratulations to my lovely client, Tim and Dana, who just got wedded last Saturday!  They had their vintage travel themed wedding at Green River Golf Club in City of Corona last Saturday. the venue was great and at a convenient location (not too far away from the guests, who travel from Orange County, Los Angeles County and Riverside County). 

They were such an easy to get along couple, and gave me a lot of freedom to do my designs for them and showed them my creative ideas.  I could not ask for a better client!  Also, thanks for Debbi, Dana's mom for being such a great coordinator between me and the couple.  Since the couple was studying in Egypt and also travelling in Europe before heading back to the U.S., it's not easy to communicate with each other due to the time difference and the availability of internet access.  Debbi was such a big helper for me to help the couple to create the wedding cupcakes for the wedding. 

Here are some cupcake pictures from their wedding:

Luggage tag with Tim and Dana's name on it.  Yellow flower to match their invitation and flowers at the wedding.

This couple travelled many places together.  A little airplane was the perfect guest to be part of their witness at the wedding.

21 dozens cupcakes (favors from the top - Lemon cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting, chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, French vanilla cupcakes with strawberry butterncream). 
Cutting Cake on top (vanilla cake with rasberry filling with vanilla buttercream)

Love cruise

Doesn't matter how far they go, their love always goes with them.

I start accepting orders for September and October.  Please contact me to scehdule your events.

laters, baby<3

Nutella and Banana Won-Ton Recipe

Nutella banana won-ton with vanilla bean ice cream

In the past 2 years, I invited my family and friends get together at our house for a themed dinner on the weekend.  Each time, we picked different themes for the dinner.  So far we have done Germany, Asian, BBQ, Mexican, Italian (twice) and Southern food.  Unfortunately, we have not had the themed dinner for a while due to every one's busy schedule on the weekend. 

I made this very easy but extremely yummy Nutella and banana won-ton as our dessert for the Asian themed dinner.  As many of you might know, Asian or Chinese don't usually like sweet stuffs.  I remember Anthony Bourdain once said something on his show, No Reservation - At a Chinese restaurant, they usually give you an orange at the end of the meal as a dessert.  Yup, that's US!  Asian or Chinese don't usually eat sweet after meal.  If we do, we will probably had some bean soup (green, red or assorted beans) or rice ball soup to end our meal.  Even other Asian countries, they don't usually serve desserts after the meal too.  So when I was thinking of something to make for our Asian themed dinner, I was thinking of something Asian inspired but still appealing to my guests (sadly to say not everyone likes bean soup or other strange tasting or looking desserts most Asian like). 

So I was thinking who doesn't like deep fried won-ton (or food, deep fried food taste so good), and Nutella (surprisingly, my guests had never tried this tasty hazelnut spread before) and banana topped with powder sugar and vanilla ice cream.  Just by thinking about it, it made my mouth watering.

You will need:

1 pack of square won-ton wrappers (available at Asian supermarkets or some regular supermarkets)
1 small jar of Nutella (available at regular supermarkets)
2-3 banana (don't pick those old or "too green" one)
Vegetable oil (for deep frying dessert, I like to use vegetable oil because they taste milder than peanut oil.  But if I deep fried regular food, I would love to use peanut oil for more favor.)
Powder sugar (optional)
Vanilla ice cream (optional, I got mine from Trader Joe's)

lay the won-ton wrapper on the mat and

 put about one teaspoon Nutella spread on the top of the wrapper

(don't put too much though!)

Put a banana slice on the top of the spread

Seal them with water

Heat the oil, and put the won-ton in the wok

Max Brenner Chocolate Restaurant (Las Vegas, NV)

Mr. G and I go to Las Vegas quite often in the past few years.  Sadly, we have not yet got chance to visit Vegas together this year due to our busy work schedule, friends' weddings and other family events since our last visit in September 2010. 

During our last visit, we stopped by Max Brenner Chocolate Restaurant (located at the Forum Shop at Caesar Palace in Las Vegas).  The atmosphere of the restaurant is very casual - good for a quick bite, a coffee break, an after-dinner-hang out-place, a desert place for couples, a casual family dinner or a fast and decent brunch.  However, the shop is relatively small compared to most of the restaurants in Vegas though, if you have a big group of people (more than 6), that would not be a good fun place to dine together.

Their famous hot wings

Mr's G hang over breakfast

My chicken panini sandwich

My pren-go friend told me chocolate and pinkle are a great combination!  She didn't lie; they were pretty dang good.

My strawberry white chocolate milk shake

We went there on a Sunday morning for a brunch before leaving Vegas.  We got there at the perfect time because they offer both breakfast and lunch menus; the menu is short but "sweet".  They offer mostly American classic food (sandwiches, wings, burgers, and milk shakes).  They provide good size food portion; the taste of the food is great and price is reasonable.  We will definitely go back again to try more stuffs the next time.

Although their breakfast and lunch menu are small, but they do have an extensive dessert and drink menu.  Since only two of us, and Mr. G was not ready for something too sweet in the morning, so we didn't get chance to try their dessert.  We did order a strawberry white chocolate milkshake and a hot chocolate for our drinks though.  Both of them are so tasty, and you could not miss them!  Their signature chocolate pizza has been featured on the Food Network Show's The Best Thing I Ever Ate - Pizza.  They have a little To-Go counter just right outside the restaurant, if you just want to grab a slice of the chocolate pizza of some cookies, you could just order it from the To-Go counter.  They also have a little gift shop inside the restaurant.  You could take home some cute gifts for your family and friends or just pick up something "sweet" to reward yourself!

You could order the chocolate pizza by slice.

Chocolate bar

Pipe full of chocolate

Picked up a mike shake glass and a mini fondue set for myself.

My World Travel Cupcake

“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

- Saint Augustine quotes

(Ancient Roman Christian Theologian and Bishop of Hippo from 396 to 430. One of the Latin Fathers of the Church. 354-430)

I like to travel and learn different things from different places and cultures.  Thanks to my parents, who took us to travel around the world since my sister and I were a baby.  We have been some amazing places - China (just a small portion of it though), Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece (would definitely go back again, one of my favorite countries in the world), Italy, England, France, Portugal, Brazil, Swiss, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Vienna, Canada, America (of course), New Zealand, ...Did I miss any?!  However, there are still a lot of places I would LOVE to visit before I die. 

Visiting different places and countries could open my eyes to try different kinds of uncommon food, which I don't usually see in my culture, and inspires me to use different ingredients to make cupcakes and gives me new ideas on designing cupcakes.

Of course, I would like my Little Cupcake to read the whole "book" (aka the world", not just a "page".).  I took my little cupcake to Yosemite and Mammoth with me couple weeks ago.  She was very excited to explore the world and took a lot of pictures during the trip, check them out, yo!  A lot of people came and said hi to her during our trip.  So next time if you happened to see her, don't be shy, please say hi!

Little Cupcake at Twins Lake, Mammoth, CA

At the top of Mammoth Mountain

At Yosemite National Park

Kissing the Half Dome

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Little Cupcake at Mammoth

Little Cupcake:  "Ugh...getting a sun tan..."

Little Cupcake:  "Me like to take a picture with the big fishy."

Little Cupcake:  "OH!  NO!!!"

On the top of a Bear's head

Little Cupcake:  "I like traveling!  Where next?"

"Seattle cheesecake takes NY cheesecake!?!"

Last November, Mr. G and I went to Seattle for our annual vacation.  As soon as we were landed, I could smell the fresh air, I could see the greens, I could feel that I entered into a twilight zone...

Seattle is a very unqiue city and I have a love/hate relationship with "her" (I seriously think that Seattle is a girl because she is very "moody" all the time!)  I hate the weather (due to the location of Seattle, it's either cloudy or rainny 293 days among 365 days in a year), but I do love the people, the food culture and the well developed transportation system (yes, we didn't drive during our 7 day visit at all!  We took buses, cab, monorail and walk everywhere.).

After dropping off our belongings in the hotel room, we walked to the famous Pike Place Market  for some lunch.   A lot of people might think that Pike Place Market is just for tourists and if you are cool or local enough, you won't go there!  I TOTALLY disagree with it.  We talked to local and some friends, who have been living in the city for a long time or a regular visitor of Seattle, they adore this market O so much!  The fresh produce, the fish throwing, the street musician, MOST IMPORTANTLY, the FOOD! 

We tried countless of awesome food here at the Pike Place Market; this time I am going to introduce you a very tiny cheesecake boutique, called The Confesstional!  Unlike the triangle shape of NY cheesecakes, The Confesstional's cheesecakes are a petite cup-size.  They have about 15-20 different flavors daily, and their flavors change with the season.  I have tried the rasberry flavor and the caramel flavor, they both are "unreal" - Good flavor, tasty crust, smooth texture...(I can go on and on...) and compare to the NY chesecakes, I think they are lighter and fluffier!

If you have chance to check out Seattle, stop by the Pike Place Market and The Confesstional, you won't be disappointed about what you see and taste!  One great news I found out from The Confesstional's website that you could order their cheesecakes online and they ship them within US.  How awesome that is!