*”Happy birthday” in Japanese I had a fantastic birthday weekend… more like birthday WEEK. Vin took me on a long-awaited, much needed vacation to Riviera Maya and we ate/drank/got crazy tan lines while everyone else was dealing with a snowstorm in the Northeast. Then we come back to NY and had a whole smoked pigContinue reading “Domo-kun: "Otanjoubi omedetou!" *”
Category Archives: cakes
Checkerboard birthday cake
This is one way of killing two birds with one stone… giving your parents an awesome birthday present and giving me business @ the same time. hahaha My friend Danny wanted to order a birthday cake for his parents (what a sweet son he is!) and was open to any ideas. So I asked whatContinue reading “Checkerboard birthday cake”
Pineapple upside down cakes… take two!
A friend heard that I made pineapple upside down cakes in cupcake form and placed an order for a dozen. Now, I can’t just make 12 cupcakes. It’s like… only performing a third of a classical masterpiece such as, say… “Liebestraume” and leaving it at that. Nooo… I made extra batter, more caramel and openedContinue reading “Pineapple upside down cakes… take two!”
My sister’s birthday
My sister turned 24 this year. She is my confidante, my partner in crime, and yet she somehow keeps my head from floating off into the clouds. Sometimes she acts like the responsible, levelheaded big sister… and then she’ll suddenly say some ridiculously airheaded comment that makes me crack up with an uncontrollable “BWAHAHAHAHAAAAaaaaa” laugh.Continue reading “My sister’s birthday”
Chocolate almond cake
Obviously this cake was for someone named Frank. It was my brother-in-law’s birthday and since he looooves almonds, I made a chocolate cake with chopped chocolate almonds, nutella and almond filling, almond-hazelnut frosting, and decorated with cocoa powder and cocoa-covered almonds. There was leftover batter so I made a dozen cupcakes.
Penny’s birthday
Little Penelope turned one in September and the theme of her party was ladybugs! I made a strawberry cake with pinkish-red raspberry frosting and black chocolate frosting. Her cake turned out super cute!
Blue doughnut?
The CEO was retiring and going back to Japan, and of course I HAD to make something special for his departure. I brought in a 2 layer vanilla cake with sprinkles baked inside, and made blue soy-vanilla frosting with rainbow sprinkles. I didn’t have “The Simpsons” in mind, but it ended up looking like aContinue reading “Blue doughnut?”
Pineapple upside down cakes
Another one of my coworkers was leaving the company and so I asked “What kind of going away cake would YOU like?” The response: pineapple cake. So I looked up about five different recipes for pineapple upside down cake and read people’s comments and suggestions and ended up drafting my own recipe. My version hadContinue reading “Pineapple upside down cakes”
Summer family parties
This past June was big. We finally had our housewarming party, and just for sh*ts and giggles we threw in my brother’s high school graduation, my cousin’s birthday and my parents’ 30th anniversary. I wasn’t able to take a photo of the strawberry cakes for my cousin’s birthday, but here’s the freehand Pikachu cake (myContinue reading “Summer family parties”
Red velvet mania
One of my coworkers was leaving the company and I asked what kind of cake she’d like (I missed baking for her birthday so I felt extra bad), and she requested red velvet. I didn’t realize how much red food coloring was required, and the batter didn’t quite taste right so I kept adding someContinue reading “Red velvet mania”