The Chinese tradition of celebrating a new baby's 100th day!

In the past, it was a gathering to celebrate a baby's survival of 100 days. Healthy and strong enough to leave the house, it was also the time for extended family and friends to meet the baby.

Nowadays, it's also a day to celebrate the parents' themselves, for surviving the first 100 days of a new baby! Additionally, it has become somewhat synonymous with the Red Egg and Ginger celebration, traditionally held a month after the birth of a baby. Hard boiled eggs were dyed red for luck, and to symbolize fertility and a new beginning. Ginger represents the gold, but more importantly, it is used in elixir's and medicines to help the mother recover from childbirth. It helps get rid of the "wind" element in the CHI of her body after giving birth.

However it is celebrated, it is a time for family and friends to come together and celebrate a new life, a new member of the community.

It's another episode of Cakes With Chu! The first one was back in 2015 😅
​This time, I helped the boyfriend make a last minute cake for his pop's bday.... turned out great! 

I received a request for a Terraria cake - I thought, "terra-whaaaa?" Turns out, it's a video game! It's styled 2D, like old school Mario. Boy do I feel old... partly because Mario has come such a long way, and partly because I had never heard of Terraria! So I had to do a little research and this is what I came up with - with the help of Google, social media outlets, and a reference photo from the client of course!

In addition, they asked for eyeball cake pops. This I could do with no need for research, but the research did help me decide the final look of these cake pops. Check out the giant eyeball cake pop as a cake topper that's four times the size of a regular cake pop! ​I had to use two pop sticks to make sure it had enough support.

​HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy 10th Birthday Becca! It's a joy to make another cake for your birthday!

Last year I made over 900 cake pops to raise money for the Lavender Pen Tour. I decided not to sell cake pops this year, although I have a friend that remembered I did 1,000 cake pops, and wanted to purchase a couple dozen from me. So I said, "ok, fine" and did it! Hold on to your butts, I'm selling these next year!~ 

My friend Jan asked me to cater an event for her in Los Altos. I've done something like this before, catering and plating on site, when I worked with my sister on her catering gigs. That's always fun - getting a chance to see how my piece fits into a bigger event. Also transporting baked goods is so stressful! So I made sure my cake pops had their seatbelt on!

Our group of friends often make fun of Jan's tagline, "does this have gluten in it?" Only because we love her, and we know she does actually gets sick if she eats gluten, so I made GF versions of the cake pops as well as the lemon bars. I was very happy with how they turned out. I think if I didn't say anything, the guests would be none the wiser.

The other cool thing about this was that I got to do the event with my friend Feldo from Sataysfied who was catering the food. We were in a beautiful home in Los Altos, and the kitchen had a huge island in the middle where we had enough room for the both of us to work. Being able to cater for, and with, friends is that it doesn't seem like work. It's just hanging out with people you like! And don't tell, but I even got to partake in a martini or two... 😉🍸

Petal cakes are so fun and so impressive, but easy enough to do. The hardest part was the prep and mixing all the colors so I could just petal it on. Also I had made a double batch of the American buttercream from my previous post and it didn't hold it's shape well enough to make the petals, so I had to re-make a batch of buttercream the traditional way and prep it - what a headache! Now I have a huge bowl of buttercream I don't know what to do with... I guess I'll have to do some more baking!

Music Credit: Sia - Rainbow (From The 'My Little Pony: The Movie' Official Soundtrack)

Happy Birthday to Daddy and Daughter! 1 year old and 43 years old = 143 which is "I love you" in pager code! (who remembers THAT?! 😂)

While this looks like a regular cake, there is something very special about it. It was the first time I made the American  buttercream in a similar way as the meringue buttercreams, minus the cooking. I'll just let Wicked Good Kitchen explain it, since that's where I got the technique.

This technique made the buttercream really smooth and it has such a beautiful mouth feel, and doesn't taste too sweet either. It was a little more loose than I'd like, but as you can see in the video below, it still holds its shape really well. and like the title of that blog says, it definitely is for me, the "Best Ever American Buttercream"

stack and frost a cake in a minute and a half...

I was lucky to be invited to host a merchant space at École Bilingue where a choir member works. In preparation, I made huge fake pops as part of the table decorations so people can see from far away what I was selling. I also sold a number of gluten free cake pops as well, that turned out quite well. I had chocolate, vanilla, red velvet, and strawberry flavors available.