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.

Oh, my little Monkey! This little man turned one! I can't believe it's been a year now. My sister wanted a bubbles theme, so it was a chance to try out a new skill. I made gelatin bubbles that could be placed on top of the cake.

The first batch I made had too much coloring in it, and didn't look enough like bubbles. I still ended up using them to top off the cupcakes that I made (even though I don't make cupcakes, but for my nephew, I'll do anything!) The second batch had just the right amount of coloring, but I forgot to oil the balloons before dipping them in the gelatin, so getting the balloon out was a little harder than the first round. Check out the video from the first round of bubbles below.

​It was the biggest mess I ever made in my kitchen, but the product that came out was just absolutely beautiful! Monkey ended up playing with the bubbles more than he did smashing his cake!

Greetings! I'm continuing to sell cake pops to raise money for the #oigc#sfgmc #lavenderpentour in October. Please support buy purchasing some cake pops or visiting my crowdrise page! www.crowdrise.com/isachu

44 orders, 75 dozen, and over 900 cake pops later, you've helped me raise over $1,100 out of my $6000 (adjusted) goal for the Lavender Pen Tour happening this October, 2017! Thank you all so much!

​Special thanks to my mom and POPS (see what I did there?) for helping me wrap, bag, and double check all my orders!

Happy Lunar New Year! More important than Thanksgiving in my family is definitely the Lunar New Year. This year, I went to hang out with my mom and her sisters to make little sweet peanut, sesame, coconut turnovers. 

The little pouches of sweetness look like little gold nuggets once fried up, like old school Chinese currency back in the Qin Dynasty (sycee or yuanbao), and the sweetness inside is to wish the receiver sweetness and good things in the year to come.

Here's a photo of the completed turnovers, as well as a video of my aunt's mastery in making the beautiful folds.

Happy 2nd birthday to my niece Sierra! YiMa loves you!!!

Congratulations, it's a GIRL! I appreciate that its not the traditional blue and pink, but a nice show of Oakland pride using green and yellow #oaklandloveit