Can't.... Resist.... Showing You Guys...

I just can't help but post one more photograph from the lovely Coco Cake Cupcakes photoshoot with Amy... !!! Also... I just gotta say, I love my blog readers so much and I just want to thank you for taking the time to cruise through Coco Cake land with your comments and friendly and encouraging emails! I've really been enjoying making so many new internet pals who share an interest in beautiful and delicious food. Hope you like this crazy photo.

In other super exciting family news... my sis Shelley had a baby girl yesterday!! Kensie Olivia! She's a real cutie... and I can't wait to make something real cupcake-cool for her!

Lots O Cupcakes Week!

Isn't that the cutest photo of a Coco Cake chocolate buttercream cupcake? It reminds me of a family road trip in the station wagon to historic Mount Cupcake, and oops the police come and bust up the scene! Perhaps a scene out of the next Vacation movie? :)

One of my best friends, Amy, who is a professional photographer, came over to my place this past Sunday for a brand new Coco Cake cupcakes photoshoot! I am slowly recreating my Coco Cake website, to be launched in probs a month or so, and there will be soooo many beautiful and fun new pictures! Ah, so fun to set them all up!

And... check out:

Coco Cake will be participating in two big events this week: on Thursday, July 9, a big screening of Handmade Nation at the Rio Theatre with a craft showcase at 7pm sharp! I will be selling cupcakes at this event! Vancouver's Got Craft people have organized this exciting event.

Then, on Friday night July 10, I will be a Judge in Vancouver's first Cupcake Camp! This is a fundraising event for the Downtown Eastside Women's Center, and it will be held at Workspace in Gastown. cupcake Bakers, Tasters and Judges all get together and suss out some seriously delicious cupcakes! Come and check it out!

Not only that... but this weekend is bonkers for me with cupcake and cake orders... AND... any minute and any hour, my sister Shelley will be popping out her first baby!!! Wheeeeeeeee! Auntie Lyndsay once again!!!

Happy 40th Anniversary Mom and Dad!!

A shout out to the best parents in the world: Gerry and Linda Sung! Forty years ago today they were married in Vancouver at a church on Oak Street. They had a huge reception at the Westin Bayshore (back when they still had Trader Vic's restaurant!), then, the next day, an additional 500-guest Chinese reception at the old Marco Polo restaurant! It was all filmed on super 8 too! Happy Ruby Anniversary mom and dad, love you lots!

The Polka Dot Door

Remember this show? Canadians? Born in the 1970s and 1980s? Great little animated intro with nice graphics, nice catchy little children's song. These blue and brown cuties were a great little Coco Cake cupcake order from possibly the nicest boyfriend in the world, a surprise gift for his girlfriend's outdoor picnic birthday! Oh, how I always wished my birthday was in the summer. Summer babies have splashy swimming parties, July barbeques, beautiful picnics in the sun on blankets in green parks, beach birthday parties with ocean swimming and clam digging and cake on the beach...

On my birthday, every single year, it's raining!! Though, I always got awesome birthday parties too. 5 pin bowling followed by pizza parlour and homemade bunny face cakes!, or birthdays at the indoor Canada Games Pool with hot dogs and cake afterward. Maybe it's why I love parties so much. We always had the best parties growing up. Just fun parties, with lots of amazing and delicious food, all of your favourite people around, and that particular feeling of it being a very special day!!

Oops, sidetracked! Here are the blue and brown polka dot themed chocolate birthday cupcakes Le Hung ordered for his girlfriend Tamara. He also ordered matching mini cupcakes! The guy's got style. Tamara, don't let this guy go, how thoughtful is this gift?

Peppermint Cupcakes & Raspberry Rose

You know what's fun? NAMING your cupcake flavours. You get to make up something called "Raspberry Rose"... a beautiful little pink buttercream frosted, raspberry jam-filled and fresh raspberry topped vanilla cupcake! For the lovely and amazing Sydney, I made Raspberry Rose cupcakes and cool white buttercream topped Coco Choco Peppermint cupcakes. I love how real peppermint extract really is like a cool breeze when you add it to the buttercream. A true cool breeze wafts up with a dust of icing sugar, a sweet little blizzard on a hot July day. I made these little pepperminters extra pepperminty-seeming by making little green fondant leaves for toppers. I also got to see Sydney's cutest little baby Gloria! Seriously, can she get any cuter!? I can't help it-- I always think of this song when I hear her name!!

Aren't these the cutest cupcakes for an outdoor summer birthday picnic??? Awwww!!!

60th Birthday Cake: Day Of The Dead!

Inside this pristinely white and smooth covered cake is a very yummy dark chocolate cake with a hint of spicy cinnamon, filled with dark chocolate ganache and chocolate buttercream... oh, I wish I could see the inside again. It's like you're a little house builder, creating the structure first, filling it all in, making it sound. Then covering it with fancy tile or wallpaper. But underneath there's a nice little foundation. A delicious little foundation even, that took womanpower to create. That's one of the cool things about cakes!

For Trixie's mom's 60th birthday, they were celebrating at a Mexican restaurant, and also celebrating memories of their recent trip to Mexico together. So I made the Coco Cake version of a Day Of The Dead cake! Bright colours, lots of little flowers, rosettes and leaves, and a cute little skull. Not very scary,eh? I didn't want to scare myself...

Happy 60th Birthday Trixie's mom!!!

To The Batmobile!

This was a total blast to make, and a real family affair. Chris turns 30-- so for this special event, his sweet mother, who lives in New Zealand, emailed me to request some very chocolatey cupcakes for her son, who is a Batman aficianado! I met Chris's wife too, who it turns out, has a baby due in August! So my heart melted for this cute and cool family who sought out Coco Cake Cupcakes to make some super special cupcakes for an obviously special guy.

I enlisted a very special guy myself to help me with this project: my husband Rich! Rich was in charge of creating and remolding a Batman logo shape out of one of my large collection of cookie cutters, which I believe he made on his lunch break while watching the Rockford Files. Thank you honey!!

Bright colours and a retro cartoon throwback was my theme for this Batman project; the Batman logos and blue and yellow lettered cupcakes are made from fondant; I also cut out and made flags from an old Batman logo. The cupcakes themselves were Callebaut chocolate ganache FILLED chocolate cupcakes, with chocolate buttercream. YUM!

Happy 30th Birthday Chris!