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!

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

(500) Days of Summer

Summer officailly started on June 20!  YAY!  There are million reasons why I love summer.  I am going to just list a few here:

• I got to see the sun even after a long work day or getting out from the gym at 7pm.
• I got to take my bike out for cruising along the beach
• I got to chill by the pool.
• I got to do some BBQ at our cute patio.
• I got to wear skirt and slippers!

Talking about summer, (500) Days of Summer is my ALL TIME FAVORITE movie!  This is not a love story, this is a story about love.  If you have not got a chance to watch it, you need to watch it this summer.  Besides the story of the movie, I also fall in love with the actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the vintage fashion style of Summer, the music in the movie and of course, appreciating the beauty of Los Angeles.  Mr. G and I even spent a day in Los Angeles to re-discover the gems of the city.  Few weeks ago, my hands got a major itch and wanted to make some cake pops to dedicate for the lovely summer in Southern California and the movie.  I have some left over cake at home (FYI - left over cake is the best for making cake pops), so I decided making some cake pops.  I will make some real cupcake decoration soon for this movie (ideas have been in my brain since last summer), I just need to find the time to do it (need to fight the time with all the wonderful outdoor activities I like to do in summer).

Here are some pictures we took when Mr. G and I pretended we are Summer and Tom in L.A.:

*P.S. I found some amazing engagment pictures of a couple on Pinterest and their theme is (500) Days of Summer for the engagment pictures and the wedding.  Would share with everyone here in our next post!

Ice Cream Gallery

Summer has not officially arrived yet; however, the tempeature keeps going up each day.  Ice cream is a great way to cure the hotness outside.  If you are an aventurer, the ice creams I am going to introduce to you today will be your "cup of ice cream"=)

I went to Las Vegas during the Memorial Day weekend, and saw a big banner of Lobster Ice Cream at Lobster Me, located inside the Planet Hollywood hotel.  It caught my eyes immediately; unfortunately, we were so stuffed from our very romantic anniversary dinner at Eiffel Tower restaurant at the Paris hotel, so we didn't get a chance to try it.  That even better for adding me an extra reason to go back to Vegas this year=).

The same night, I read an article about an ice cream shop in Hong Kong.  They even take your taste buds farther - Except for their signature French lobster ice cream, they also offer the following unique favors:

French bacon and egg, black/white truffle, foie gras, Japanese sake and black sesame...Check out what the locals said about this ice cream place here.  Since we are going to Macau and Hong Kong this November, even though it might be a little too cold to have ice cream; I still want to put this place on my TO-DO LIST while I am in Hong Kong this winter.

(all pictures are from Yelp.com and OpenRice.com)
 

The Ultimate Vacation for all the Cupcake Lovers

Picture from Cupcakes take the Cake

Who doesn't like vacation?  and what make your vacation upgrade to the ultimate one?  Of course, it has to involve things you enjoy doing, food you love, and sights you want to see...

If you are an ultimate cupcake lover, and you are reading my post...YOU need to pay attention NOW because this is one of the life time chance you could turn your vacation to an ultimate vacation by joining this cruise.  One of my favorite cupcake websites "Cupcakes Take the Cake" recently announced that they have been organizing a cupcake cruise to Bermuda on August 19-26, 2012.  Couple of the speakers have been confirmed, including Hello, Cupcake! and What's New, Cupcake? New York Times bestselling authors Karen Tack and Alan Richardson on board to show you how to decorate cupcakes into all sorts of adorable shapes; and Baked bakery owners Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, authors of the cookbooks Baked and Baked Explorations.  I am sure they will have more exciting annoucements coming out throughout this year before the cruise.  If you are interested, go to check out their website:  http://cupcakecruise.com/. 

PS.  Jessie O. from Cakespy did another amazing artwork for the cruise poster.

Thank you Thank you Thank you

Thank you for keeping C for Cupcake Cupcakery busy this August!  And thank you for understanding Mrs. G's busy schedule. We try to take one big order per day on the weekend to remain our good quality of works.  We are booked for August 6, August 13, and August 20.  After these weeks, Mrs. G will be off for a mini vacation from August 20 to August 28! 

We will start accepting orders again the begining of September!

Love you all and thanks for your business=)

"If cooking is an art, baking is a science..."

This quote is so true!  Not everyone is born to be a baker.  I know numbers of amazing cooks, who could not bake.  Baking is harder than cooking, in my opinion.  Measurement is the KEY!

I am going to share one of my all time favorite recipes with you.  This recipe is also a very good cupcake recipe for summer party.  I hope you enjoy getting your hands dirty.

Don't want to do the dirty work, but want to enjoy the result.  Send me an email or leave me a comment to order some.  It's just a click away and you could enjoy these cupcakes.

Pineapple coconut cupcakes:

Make about 12 regular size cupcakes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
A little more than 1/2 cup juice from canned pineapple juice
1 small can crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 cup shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside
3. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs
4. Alternately add dry ingredients and pineapple juice
5. After batter is well blended, fold in pineapple and shredded coconut
6. Spoon batter into cupcakes pan
7. Bake cupcakes for about 20-25 minutes
8. Cool down
9. DONE AND ENJOY!