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!

Waffle + Pizza = Waffza at Love to Go (San Gabriel, CA)

Hours:

Mon-Thu 11 am - 10 pm Fri-Sat 2 pm - 12 am

307 S Mission Dr
San Gabriel, CA 91776

I always admire entrepreneurs (just like myself); these people are fearless, innovative, passionate, driven, open mind and they always have that JUST DO IT positive attitude and a strong work ethic. The market has not been going to anywhere these few years, it's extremely challenging to become an entrepreneur.  I hope all of us could just hang in there during this tough economy.  Believing in yourself and your companies because your confidence will show to your customers, your employees, your stakeholders and your suppliers.    Eventually, our passions and services will touch people's hearts.

A refreshing Kiwi yogurt Italian soda

I met this girl, Sundi from church when I was living in Pasadena back to year 2000.  I heard so many good things about her cookings, her sweet personality and her food from others at the church we both went to.  Few years ago, I found out that she finally opened her first cafe, Love to Go in City of San Gabriel, California.  I am so excited and happy for her when I first discovered this news.  Because turning your interests and hobbies into a career require a lot of efforts, time, money and a lot more...Her passion towards food have shown on her works.  She created this sweet treat called waffza (think about a combination of waffle and pizza).  This signature dessert is very popular at her cafe (so does their Italian soda).  I am so honor to share her journey and passions with everyone on my blog.

Enjoy these interview Q&A, and I truly wish that after reading this post, you could sit back and take a moment to think about what you are passionate about and GO FOR IT because life is too short to wake up with regrets.

Mrs. G = G
Sundi = S

G:  When did you open your own store, Love to Go?
S:  I opened my store on April 18, 2010

G:  When did you discover you have passion toward food?
S:  When I was studying in college, I started cooking dinner for my friends, brothers and sisters from church all the time.
One day, I saw a commercial on TV about Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena.  I immediately made a phone call and scheduled a visit at their campus.  After the visit, I finally made up my mind and decided to complete an associate degree in Culinary Arts.

Four different types of waffzas

Hong Kong style peanut butter waffle pocket

G:  What inspired you to create waffza?
S:  I found out that many people in the States like to eat waffles.   They also like  pizzas. I think people like these two food because you could put a lot of different toppings on these two food items.  I got inspired by pizzas and waffles and create waffza. At first, I made my waffza on a whole waffle and topped with ice-cream, whipped cream, strawberries and bananas, later I realized most of the people could not finish the whole waffza by themselves.  It made me wonder how I could alternate my creation with more varieties. At last, I came up with the idea of separating the whole waffle into smaller size (their original quarter size) and decorate them slice by slice...Waffza was created ^.^

G:  What is your favorite waffza?
S:  I like all of my waffza, but the most favorite waffza that I love is the banana & nut coated with dark chocolate.

A banana waffza cake

A strawberry and banana waffza cake

Orangina, My Favorite Soda

I don't usually drink sodas.  I used to love it when I was a kid.  All of a sudden, ever since I graduated from high school, I lose interest of drinking them.  However, there is one soda, I cannot image I could give up in my life. 

Her name is Orangina! 

We first encountered each other when I was in France when my family and I were visiting my aunt and her family.  After the first taste of her, I could not forget about her.  I lose touch with her after I got back to my home town, Macau.  Frankly, thing started changing after I moved to the States for college, my sister came home one day and told me that she found her at Trader Joe.  I was in heaven!  We reconnected again!  I seriously missed her during all those years.  I am glad that we reconnected. 

Enjoying my Orangina at South Beach, Miami.

In my opinion, the differences between Orangina and regular sodas are -

Orangina is about half as carbonated as most sodas, sweet but not overly done, with a nice citrusy flavor and slightly bitter aftertaste, like the natural oil from orange peel and probably from the grapefruit juice too.  Imagine you drop a piece of lemon in your water.  Your mouth always has that bitter sweet aftertaste from the water with lemon.

Plus, look at the bottle of her, how could you not fall in love with her curve (I am talking about the small bottle of her)?  LOL!  If you have never tried this soda, you need to go to Trader Joes to grab some for yourself, open it, taste it and you will know what I mean.  They have two different sizes at Trader Joe's:  4 small bottles package (see the poster for the size) for $2.99usd, and the 1 liter bottle you saw from my above picture for $1.89usd.