Everything's Coming Up Roses

Vancouver people: do you know Sunrise Pizza? It's on Commercial Drive, close to Venables? It's one of those ancient Vancouver establishments that was maybe renovated in the 1980s, has strings of old Christmas lights and weird knick knacks up on the wall (two giant red boiled lobsters anyone?) and has AWESOME deepish-dish pizza loaded rather heavily with salty, melted cheese, an extensive cocktail menu of hilarious and refreshing ice-cubed drinks served in glass CARAFES, Greek salad with kalamata olives that comes with buttery and crunchy garlic toast on the side in a little basket, and glasses of soda on the menu for $1.25. Pretty sure I saw a Chinese man working the pizza oven. Big-ups, my brother!

Meghan and Sarah, the beautiful twins, had their birthday party at Sunrise last evening, and Meghan's cool dude BF Jason secretly ordered two dozen super special Coco Cake cupcakes for the occasion!

So I've been taking this super fun cake decorating class to try and kick up my skills sky-high at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts and I recently FINALLY learned the technique of buttercream roses! For like an entire year I tried studying youtube videos and decorating books to try and figure out this elusive petal-ed creature of decorative beauty. Now that I learned... I was so thrilled to finally put the skill to the cupcake!

Meghan and Sarah's excitement over the cupcakes made me soooo happy! Happy Birthday Meghan and Sarah, you cuties you! Hope you both have an amazing super special year!

Additional pics by Jason!

Blim Market: Good Times, Cool Cupcake Moments

What a blast at the first of the monthly Blim Art Markets at Cambrian Hall! Cupcake fever was on, and Coco Cake cupcakes sole proprietor L.K.Sung will need to double cupcake output for next month's market because the cupcakes sold out in just a few hours. Mega apologies for those who came down and only found a bunch of hand cut leather leaf earrings to eat. Next month there will be more, more, MOOOORRE cupcakes! Props to my honeybun Rich, my sis Leanne, my good pal Sharon and "Korean cousin from another Asian race" Christa Min for partying it up with me at my table, plus other pals and family who stopped by to say "hellllooo"!

Next month I will also be selling a limited amount of 4 cupcake taster boxes, with a yummy assortment of cupcake flavours, so those "on the go" can take 'em home and scarf em down in front of the TV or have a fancy and scrumptious little tea party or give someone a bday prezzie, etc!

Top faves at the sale were definitely Coco Chocolate (chocolate with chocolate buttercream and sprinkles, yum!) and vegan Coco Ganache with raspberry filling, as well as the beautiful Coconut Dream (coconut cake with creamcheese frosting, and lovingly house-toasted crunchy and browned coconut flakes!) Old friend Lemon Love created some lemony smiles and it was great to see people walking around enjoying all the crazy art, cool stuff, clothing and other foodstuffs while chomping into a Coco Cake cupcake!

I also bought myself the CUTEST SNOOZING CAT FACE PILLOW! I can never be in one of these markets and not buy something myself. When you flip the cat pillow over, it's a SNOOZING KAWAII FACED ASIAN GIRL! I love it, thanks Jen!

Wonderful, wonderful day. See you all next month at Cambrian Hall! I will be making an assortment of flavours once again... flavours to be announced closer to the date!

Yay! Talk to you all soon!

Tears Of A Clown: Circus Cake/Cupcakes!

Two clown-ish memories of elementary school:

Memory One: Being 7 or 8 years old (in grade 3?) and watching an assembly in the school gymnasium of the grade 7 students dressed as clowns doing a juggling act with colorful scarves to the tune of "Send In The Clowns." Super weird, super awesome. We had panda bear head juggling balls at our house which I would attempt to throw around. That, or oranges, as there was always plenty of fruit.

Memory Two: Being in possibly grade 6 or 7 and watching the extremely terrifying Stephen King-brought-to-television miniseries "It." There is a scary, scary clown in that one. Note to parents: kids really do remain terrified of scary things they see on TV or at the movies for many years to come! Example: I was scared to go into the bathroom for two years because I thought I would find E.T. almost-dead on the floor, all white and powdery, moaning for help and possibly trying to kill me. Even though E.T. was benign.

Now onto life in the future: a wonderful request for a "circus" themed vanilla Coco Cake and matching delicious cupcakes for Aza's 7th birthday party! "Hmm," I thought. "Could I possibly create a CLOWN cupcake that wouldn't entirely terrify me??" The challenge was on. To make a clown cupcake cute.

Making the cake circus-y themed was lots of fun. I immediately thought of a big circus tent, so red striped cake was crucial. Then I thought of circus animals. Initially I was thinking elephant sitting on top of a ball. But then, I remembered how CUTE seals are! A funny little grey seal, with a ruffled collar, balancing a red ball on his head!

I drew diagrams of the cake and cupcakes first, and followed the drawings pretty closely. I have been doing this lately and it's been very helpful! I thought the key to my clown cupcakes would be friendly little eyes. No scary clown makeup. I made friendly little clown hats using fondant, sprinkles and red candy hearts, and drew my clowns as friendly as can be. I think my clown cupcakes turned out pretty cute too!

To view an easy tutorial on how I make an animal face (or clown face!) cupcake, go to my flickr site here!

Phewf! Cute clown cupcake challenge is over! I was going to look up the TV miniseries "It" and do a link to it but I got too scared, LOL. Yes, I am a CHILD!

Hollah Atcha! Coco Cake Cupcakes For Sale

Hi Vancouver cupcake fans! As the blue scallop says, "come on down to cupcake town and say helllooo" to me and my cupcake friends! This Sunday! Other awesome vendors can be found here!

Also, stay tuned to Coco Cake Cupcakes blog as new stuff is comin' up like spring flowers all week...!

Woof Woof, The Pup Cake

I miss our old dog Woody. He was a very sleek and adorable boxer dog with the most hilarious and sweet personality. When Woody's back legs stopped working for him, I did some research online and found a doggie wheelchair online called the "canine cart", so my parents ordered one for him, which gave him new life again! He was so excited to go for walks again! So when Jessica emailed me to order a cake for her boyfriend's birthday featuring their pup Tyson, I couldn't help but think of good old Woodrow "Woody" Sung...!

Jessica ordered a dark chocolate, chocolate ganache filled, peppermint buttercream frosted and fondant covered cake for her boyfriend Chris's birthday. She sent a pic of their ridiculously cute french bulldog Tyson. So here is the bday cake I created for Chris! "French bulldog, masculine but still cute design!" requested Jessica!

I molded Tyson the French bulldog from fondant. For his face, I used edible marker, two large white non-pareil sprinkles for the eyeballs (which I colored black but left white highlights!), a round chocolate sprinkle for the nose and half of a heart shaped sprinkle for the tongue! Kawaii!

The Hungry Caterpillar Cupcake Party Train!

I loved doing this so much! I get such joy when I receive a phone call or email from someone with a great request. The Hungry Caterpillar for a 1st birthday bash? You betcha!! Just for the fun of it I decided to document the "making of" the caterpillar, so here it is!

I first made a ridiculously cute and small round vanilla layer cake with vanilla buttercream, covered in red fondant to create the adorable face of my little caterpillar buddy. Fondant eyes and nose, and two antennae, plus little bootie feet for the caterpillar were also made! I did vanilla cupcakes, and vanilla buttercream in a "psychedelic swirl" effect, blending two shades of green to try and mimic Eric Carle's beautiful watercolors. Little chocolate sprinkles plunked one by one into the buttercream created the furry bits of the caterpillar. To finish, I made a baby friendly "berry patch"-- low sugar banana cupcakes with mint leaves and fresh berries. The key to the puzzle was securing each cupcake down with my good pal Royal Icing. This stuff hardens like glue, so the cupcakes would remain secure on their polka dot cake board while traveling. Additional grass green frosted cupcakes with pretty flowers, roses and leaves also accompanied Caterpillar on his journey to 1st Birthday Land.

Eeks this made me so happy... and here's to a very Happy 1st Birthday to cute little Jamie!

Hello Kitty, Hello Thirty Cake!

When my sisters and I were kids, we were SUPER OBSESSED with SANRIO! Do you know Sanrio? It's the home of Hello Kitty, Little Twin Stars, Tuxedo Sam (my fave) and My Melody. Basically super kawaii before-kawaii-existed characters. Hello Kitty plastic dishes, spoons, stuffed Hello Kitty, stickers galore, little mini purses, fruit scented Hello Kitty erasers... and my coolest Sanrio toy ever: my Tuxedo Sam bath plushie, which CHANGED COLOR in warm water!

A super fun request from Lenny for his wife Erin-- a Hello Kitty themed 30th birthday cake, with 30 accompanying cupcakes. This made Coco Cake sole proprietor L.K.Sung very happy-- crazy orders are so fun! The cake was dark chocolate, with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream, covered in fondant, with fondant Hello Kitty and satin ribbon. The cake and cupcakes were met with rave reviews, yay!

Happy Happy "Hello Thirty" Birthday Erin!! Hope you have a tremendous year full of good times!

xo

Alien, Robot Slug, Piggy Giant Robot Cake

These little mini fondant cakes, they are getting rather popular over in old Coco Cake Land! Today I made two, so here is the first of two! For Shawn's birthday, I was asked to make a "Giant Robot" toy inspired mini cake, chocolate with vanilla buttercream filling covered with fondant. Upon studying some images on the internet, I decided to roll with a couple of made-up characters: Big Eyed Alien Flower Boy, The Grey Robot Slug Man, and Pink Piggy! I covered a circular cake board with some polka dot paper, adorned the cake with a polka dot ribbon and a happy birthday flag! I think my fave might be Grey Robot Slug Man. I think he's a cool dude.