World's Largest Ice Cream Cone

Have you ever secretly to take home those GIANT ice cream cone decoration in front of some old fashion ice cream shops home?  (I did, just like the girl in the picture above).  But wait, they are just a big piece of plastic "pretended" as a big yummy ice cream cone.  I don't need more junks in my garage for no reason.

How about if the ice cream cone is a real one?  Will you take home with you in this hot summer?   British chef Heston Blumenthal made my fantasy come true. He and his team served up the world's largest ice cream cone last weekend as hungry throngs looked on. The giant vanilla scoop (weighed 2,204 pounds); and it took a month to freeze -- was placed on top of a massive cone via forklift. At 13 feet tall, the colossal creamy treat, created using donated ice cream and filmed for TV, set a new world record, besting a 9-foot cone that had set a record in Italy last year. The ice cream was distributed to the masses, but sadly they had to eat it plain because the sauces and sprinkles that had been catapulted onto it didn't stick. IMPRESSIVE!  However, some food lovers complained that wasting food and labors for promoting a TV show is such a stupid idea.

The NO KETCHUP Rule

I had a very fataboulous birthday night with my family last weekend.  We went to one of the hippest restaurants in Orange County, California.  The Playground it is.  This is surely the HIGHLIGHT of the night!  We all enjoyed every dishes and the hospitality there. 

Inside of the Playground

Chef Jason Quinn with me (the birthday girl) and us

Exterior of the restaurant

Talking about this restaurant and the owner and the Chef of this place.  I have been a royal fans of the Lime Truck since they launched.  Their food is truely fresh, refreshing and delicious just like the lime logo on their truck.  They were busy because of their food.  But now they got even more popular after they won the hit show "The Great Food Truck Race" on Food Network.  Last year, I heard that the Chef, Jason Quinn from the Lime Truck left his partner and the truck to open his very own "Playground" restaurant in downtown Santa Ana, CA.  I was beyond excited and could not wait to try his "creations".  Let me tell you, everything on the menu were good and fresh.  The dishes are more on the adventous side if you like to order the same thing at the resturant, this place might be too adventurous side.  However, if you are ready to put your trust in the Chef and his team, and want to try something different and unique, you NEED to come to here.  You won't be disappointed by the quality and creativity of their dishes. 

Their signature burger is beyond awesome.

From their Large bite menu - 26oz ribeye steak.  It's really flavorful and juicy.

Broccolini with black vinegar reduction

Pork loin with pineapple and mango salsa

Smoky chicken wings

Scallop sashimi with citrus and greenapple slices
with hints of yozu dressing

I just read an article about Chef Jason Quinn on the OC Weekly.  That truely inspired me about how I should decorate my cupcakes in future.  One of his rules is "No Ketchup" at his restaurant; he explained,

"Everything [I make] is made from scratch and is beautiful, so how can we say, 'Hey, we worked for eight hours to make these French fries, but we're gonna serve you ketchup that we got out of a can?'" he says. "Those things do not equate with each other."

That makes me think about this theory should apply to my cupcake works too.  I used great ingridents and baked them with love.  Sometimes, they got ruined by those overly-sweet fondant, gumpaste and not so tasty spinkles.  These lovely stuffs somehow downgrade the taste of my cupcakes.  His article pushed me to set an additional goal for this year - decorating my cupcakes using different edible ingridents to make the cupcakes pretty and enhance the flavor of the cupcakes.  But no worries, I am not going to ditch the lovely fondant, gumpaste and spinkles because they still make the cupcakes pretty. I just want myself to experiment with more different ingridents and media for decoration.

South Park Cupcakes

I am back from my wonderful vacation!  I have been "kind of" consistently working during my vacation though, such as receiving emails, answering questions about ordering, promoting our business, and doing research here and there about ideas for some potential clients...but well, I still had fun of doing it while I was enjoying my vacation.

Before going on our vacation, I took 2 order requests.  One of them is a South Park themed cupcakes; the client specify asked for certain characters from the cartoon (the 4 main characters [Stan, Kyle, Kenny (my favorite character) and Cartman], plus Butter and the Chef).  I made 2 different expressions for each character.  They came out so cute and I had fun of doing them.  The client was telling me that they LOVE them and didn't even want to eat them!  But o well, they killed Kenny!  LOL

If you have any idea in your mind, please send me an email at c4cupcakecupcakery@gmail.com.  We could help to come up with ideas to fit your theme.