Free Cupcake Pineapple Pop!

This week is National Cupcake Week in the U.K.  What's a better way to celebrate this special week with a free chocolate covered cupcake pineapple pop from Edible Arrangements.  I love receving edible arrangments more than flowers because they could last a little bits longer in my tummy!  They just came out with a new arrangment, which is a chocolate covered cupcake pineapple pop arrangement.  They are absolutely cute to look at and good to eat, genius idea!

From now to September 21, go to Edible Arrangmentments' facebook page to sign up to be on their mailing list, you will get a free cupcake pineapple pop at your local Edible Arrangments store (refer to the details below).  I have signed up to get mine already, what are you waiting for!?

It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.

It's been a long time since I updated my last post.  I am so glad to report that our Cupcake-Sell-A-Thon for Brendan and his family was a great success! 

I made the following flavors for the Cupcake-Sell-A-Thon last week:

The Summer Cupcake (vanilla cupcake with strawberry frosting)

Coca-Pop Cupcake (chocolate and coca cola cupcake with cherry frosting)

Ms. Rosie Cupcake (vanilla cupcake with rose water frosting)

The Dude Cupcake (chocolate cake with bacon bits, PB frosting and champagne pomegrate filling)

The Classic Cupcake (vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream)

The Chocolate Lover (chocolate cupcake with strawberry frosting)

Everything was sold within the first half hour, and we even needed to limit people to buy only 2 max. for the first round.  Some people even gave me more money than the cupcake actually cost.  Besides selling those amazing cupcakes, we also have a secret auction for a half dozen cupcakes, which came with each flavor) to boost more funds for the family.  The secret auction went so successfully and it got sold for 100 dollars=)  I hope that the funds we collected during the sale could help Brendan and his family to pay off some of their bills.  Also, glad to hear that Brendan is a very tough little guy.  He has been recovered very well and hopefully, he could leave the hospital by end of this year. 

Ms. Rosie Cupcake without the rose pedal

The Classic Cupcakes and the Summer Cucpakes were both sold out quickly.

Coca-Pop cupcakes are a lot of people's favorites

Ms. Rosie Cupckes got dressed up with a edible rose pedal

The Dude Cupcakes are not just popular among the dudes. 
They were so popular among the ladies too.

Hurry up, only two Ms. Rosie left! 
And Tony (Brendan's dad) shared some recent pictures of the family and Brendan with us.

Gone Gone Gone...

The secret auction.  The half dozen got sold for 100 dollars!

This time, I gave up using fondant for decoration.  I used edible rose pedal for the Ms. Rosie Cupcakes, a small stripe of bacon for the Dude Cupcakes, and a cherry and a straw for the Coca-Pop Cupcakes...they came out as cute as my hand crafted fondant toppers.

I had so much fun of planning and organizing this Cupcake-Sell-A-Thon and I was touched by all the kind people, who came out and support.  This meant a lot to me, Brendan and his family.  You guys ROCKS!

I am feeling geeky...

Last week, my sister and her husband invited us to their house for a house warming party and her husband's surprise birthday party.  She asked me to make them some cupcakes for the party and she asked me to decorated some of them to the stuffs her husband likes.  Play Station 2 (PS2), XBox, Honda Civic Si, and books (all the manly and geeky stuffs).

Based on her information, I crafted the cupcake toppers to all the geeky stuffs he likes.  I made two different favors based on my sister's request.  They are lemon-fresh blueberry cupcakes with rasberry frosting and chocolater cupcake with rose water frosting.  They are so summer-y and refreshing! 

Here are some pictures I want to share with everyone:

Enjoying my lemon zest cupcakes in this beautiful summer

Summer is finally here!  Last weekend was hot, sunny and beautiful!  And finally we got to clean up the house a bits and got some new patio furniture for our lovely little patio.  I am going to put our paito in a good use this summer.  I enjoy reading, eating, having my cupcakes and chatting with Mr. G at our patio. 

I made some lemon zest cupcakes with lemon zest raspberry butter cream frosting and some chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting with chocolate ganache.  They both tasted lovely and I enjoyed every bite of them!  Tell us what are your favorite Summer cupcakes.

Lemon zest cupcake with lemon rasberry butter cream frosting

Chocoalte cupcake with peanut butter frosting with chocolate ganache

Enjoy the beautiful summer day

Food is fake, but art is real.

Peter Anton (born 1963 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an American artist and sculptor. His primary subject matter is food with an emphasis on chocolates and other sweets. He creates giant realistic sculptures and is best known for his "bigger than life" boxed chocolates.

Anton treats his food artworks very seriously.  His beginning process of creating his artworks is to eat, smell, feel, study and dissect a new food over and over again in order to hyper-familiarize himself with the new subject. He then begins the long and tedious process of sculpting, carving, sanding, painting, and construction of his mixed media works.

I am sure his artworks could certainly fool you when you first look at it.  Even just looking at the pictures, I really want to lick the box of donuts or touch the giant ice cream.  However, his artworks has bigger meanings than just being looking real. Anton emphasizes:

In my sculptures I like to alter and overstate foods to give them new meanings. I have an innate reverence for the things we eat. Food brings people together and there is no better way to celebrate life. Through the use of humor, scale, irony, and intensity in my forms, the foods we take for granted become aesthetically pleasing and seductive in atypical ways. I like to create art that can lure, charm, tease, disarm and surprise. My sculptures put viewers in a vulnerable state so that I can communicate with their inner selves in a more honest and direct way. I activate the hunger people have for the things that give them pleasure and force them to surrender. The sensual nature of the works stimulates basic human needs and desires that generate cravings and passion. 

Getting Ready for Cinco de Mayo!

Cinco de Mayo is right around the corner, are you ready to party?  I came across this very cute piñata cookies' recipe on a website called, She knows Food and Recipes.  The recipe is great with step by step pictures and clear instruction.  If you want something different for your kids on this Cinco de Mayo, this will definitely surprise them with a pinata cookies filled with mini M&M inside=)

The cookies just like a real pinata (filled with candies)!

Cinco de Mayo is not just for kids, how about some taquila shoot for the grown-ups?

Need party ideas?  Taquila shoot and mini taco for the adults.
(photo from Pinterest)

The Best Dessert I ever Ate - Bacon Chocolate Bar with S&P Ice Cream

We don't go to Los Angeles (LA) as often as we want to due to couple reasons (far distance from OC and the horrible traffic and parking situation).  We felt that we did miss out a lot in LA - all the bar scene, fancy and classy restaurants, interesting and unique places and museums...  About a month ago, we decided to take a mini weekend get away trip in West Hollywood area to explore the city and escape our normal busy lives in Orange County for a few days.

The highlight of the trip to me was visiting Animal restaurant, located in LA, by the famous Melrose neighborhood.  I have heard so many positive comments and impressive compliments about this place on different media.  I was beyond excited when we got there.  We didn't make any reservation, so we waited for about an hour and half for our table (not bad for a busy Saturday evening at a hip restaurant like this in LA).  We ordered five small dishes (Pork Belly BBQ Sandwich, Fois Gras with maple sussage and home made biscuit and gravy, Halibut with Peas, Churrizo with Melted Cheese, Marrow Bone with Chumichurri Sauce) for the two of us.  Everything was amazing and I could taste the freshness and well-preparations in each dishes.  Of course, we could not leave the restaurant without having some sweet to end our meal, so we ordered their signature bacon chocolate bar with salt and pepper ice cream and Dulce De Leche.  The Dulce De Leche was average, nothing really special about it.  However, on the other hand, the bacon chocolate bar and the s&p ice cream was delish!  No wonder it was featured on Food Network's show, The Best Thing I ever Ate. 

 

Let me tell you the presentation of the dessert - Very elegant and modern looking presentation.  And the bar looked like a piece of bacon with different kinds of chocolate in between.  The saltiness from the bacon mixed with the bitterness from different kinds of chocolates and the perfect sweetness from the creamy and silky ice cream was a perfect harmony; it was undescribably incredible. 

A Sweet Anniversary

A friend of mine and one of my loyal customers just celebrated she and her husband's 2-year wedding anniversary last week. I am so happy for them and I wanted to make something sweet for them to show that how much I care about her in person and her business to me.  She is such a freindly person and on top of it; she is very creative and organized too.  Becase of these gifts, she decided to open her own wedding planning business, On the Dot Event Planning. I am sure she could help the bride (and the groom) to take away a lot of stressful moments for preparing their perfect wedding.

I know she likes pink (that's the theme color at her wedding) and girly stuffs, so I designed and created a white cake pops and oreo cake pops dipped in pink candy melt (they are a heart shape cake pops) and dark chocolate as their anniversary gift.  Want to see how they celebrated their anniversary, please check out her blog, here.

Note:  If you are interested in ordering cake pops, please contact me for inforamtion=)

Happy Birthday, Kayson!

Over the weekend, I made some cupcake pops for my best friend, Ashley's son. I planned to make him little something for his birthday for a while.  I know he likes candies and everything sweet. Ashley told me that every time he went to Starbucks with her, he was telling her how much he wanted the cake pop from the Starbucks.  Based on these two clues, cupcake pops and a jar fulled of Easter's M&Ms will make his birthday even sweeter.

I am glad to see his smil-y face when he received the gift. Even better, I got to see him ate them and enjoyed them; that's priceless.  He is one of the coolest kids I ever met.  He is so beautiful inside and out, I wish he would never change.  Happy birthday to you again, Kayson; Carmen and Chris (he kept asking me where my "boyfriend" [aka my husband] is) love you!

PS.  If you want to send something sweet and special to someone you love, contact us today.  We could craft and design some beautiful cupcake pops or cake pops/balls for you and the one you love=)

Whiskey White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies Recipe

I made some cookies for the family during Christmas time.  Sound strange but I got to admit that I don't like to drink any kinds of alcohol beverages.  However, I do like to use alcohols to cook and bake.  I think the alcohols take the food or the baked goodies to a deeper level of flavor.

Whiskey White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies Recipe (Make about 24 cookies)

Ingredients

You could ignore the oatmeal in the picture. 
I was thinking of putting some oatmeal inside the batter, but I though it will be too much texture for one little cookie.

• 1/2 cup of Whiskey and 1/2 of Gold Rum (to soak the cranberries in, then saving 2 teaspoons of it for later), if you don't have rum, just use 1 cup of Whiskey.
• 1 cup of dried cranberries
• 1 cup (two sticks) of butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup of granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup of lightly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 cup of white chocolate chips

Instruction

1. Put the cranberries in a measuring cup and then pour whiskey and/or rum.  Put the cup in a microwave and heat it for 30 seconds.  And let the cranberries soak in the alcohol for about 15 to 30 minutes. 

2. Preheat oven to 375°F. Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugars and beat again until light, fluffy and well incorporated.

3. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and add 2 teaspoons of the Whiskey that the cranberries soaked in. Beat well until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl midway through to ensure even mixing.

4. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt, then add to the mixture a bit at a time, beating until just mixed. Fold in the brandy soaked cranberries (get rid of the liquid by squeezing the cranberries) and white chocolate chips. Let chill for 15 minutes in the fridge.

5.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Flour your hands (to prevent the dough sticking on your hands), and grab about a spoonful of dough and make it about a size of ping-pong ball.

6. Bake at 375°F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for a minute, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

I made some little vintage inspired tags to dress up the cookies.