Sailin'... Take Me Away...

Hi everyone! I am off on a sailing vacation around the gulf islands of British Columbia. Hoping to do some relaxing, fishing, swimming, reading, exploring, with only S'mores to bake! My favorite!! I can give my buttercream-piping wrists a well deserved break!

This gorgeous picture of vanilla buttercream topped vanilla Coco Cake cupcakes was taken by one of my best friends, Amy Pelletier! The little sailor dude in the tugboat was my favorite bath toy when I was a kid, splashing around in the bath. Little did I know that I would be marrying a sailor some 25 years later... ! Now I call this toy Little Richie. Heehee!

I'll be back on September 7th, with tons of crazy cupcakes to work on when I get back!

Have a lovely rest of the summer. Fall will be fabulous too!

xo Lyndsay

A Cake For My Bro-In-Law

My bro-in-law Gerald is a real cool dude. We even call him the "Dogfather" for his love of bringing friends, family and food together and having a great time. He just celebrated his birthday and my sis ordered a cake to help in the festivities! This is what I call my Kensie Strawberry recipe-- vanilla buttermilk cake filled with my mom's homemade strawberry jam, and vanilla buttercream! I really love simple and delicious buttercream cakes, and this one turned out so cute! I made a matching blue polka dot cake board and birthday flag too. Here's a pic of little baby Kensie too, she's saying "Happy Birthday Daddy!"

Purple Pretty! Monkey & Flower Cupcakes

Take me on a train to Kawaii Town, where purple monkey cupcakes grow. Lemon Love cupcakes with lemon creamcheese frosting, topped with fondant decorations for Vanessa's birthday! So cute and delicious!

"Mimi!" as my little nephew Brody calls monkeys!! Heehee cute!!

Simple, Perfect, Sprinkly Birthday Cupcakes

Coco Cake chocolate cupcakes with swirls of vanilla buttercream and classic colorful birthday sprinkles! For my brother in law Party Man Dan and his sis Janice! I love sprinkles. They just say party time! :)

When Cool Kids Get Married: Sara & Mike

Sara contacted me a few months ago with hopes that I could possibly make some delicious gluten free, dairy free cupcakes for her and her man for their wedding day. After a trial run of 1 dozen (it was my first attempt at gluten free cupcakes! I used white rice flour and a bit of xantham gum), Sara thought they were delicious and secured Coco Cake for her and Mike's wedding. Sara sent me their wedding website with some tough and cool engagement photos by Sakura Photography! as seen above! I dig that puddle photo. Cool eh?

I just love doing weddings. It really feels like an honour to be a part of someone's special day. I know I say this a lot but it's a really great feeling!! I'm happy I've found a career (so far-- those who know me know I have job A.D.D.) that I can be stoked on: creativity, FOOD, and working with people... pretty dreamy. Another dream job I had like ten years ago was to be a lipstick namer. That seems like it would be really fun. Cherry Overcast Day, Malibu Peach Bikini, Purple Moon...

The last picture is of the cupcakes on their fancy white stand, all decked out, set up and ready to be chomped in a wedding-happy fervor. Happy happy wedding times Sara and Mike! All the best to you!

Party! Panda Party!

My friend Helen sent me this hilarious link to the game "Pizza Party". Doesn't that look like the worst game ever? So boring!!! What a catchy song can do for marketing, I tell ya... but admittedly a pizza party is my favourite kind of party because I loooove pizza!

Happy Happy Birthday dear Rita! I hope you loved the panda bears... and that their eyes were far enough apart to be extra extra cute for you!!!

xo Lyndsay

Little Avah's Birthday-- Pink Party Time!

I love these kawaii pink color-themed cuteness for Peach Mei's sweet little niece Avah! Berry Good cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream and little fondant fanciness. I love people who have fruit as their names. I jokingly (only half-jokingly?) thought Lemon would be a cute name for a little girl. Maybe for three seconds only. Though then I thought, maybe people would think SHE was a lemon, like a car can be a lemon (ie, a crappy car.) But Lemon is so bright and cheerful and such a fresh and lovely sounding name! Kind of reminds me of how this girl thought my name was Sun, because when she met me I had been wearing a bright yellow dress. Color association! Well, and that my last name is Sung, and "Sun" could be a Chinesey-ish name, non? How the mind works in mysterious ways!

Lemon Sung! Cute, right?

Ahhh, I'll just stick to naming cupcakes for now...

Raspberry Vanilla Cupcakes!

Happy Birthday Julie! Raspberry vanilla cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream and fresh berries!

Super Swirl

This is what I call the Super Swirl. It's like a mega soft serve ice cream cone! Too much frosting? Who thinks too much? Who thinks jussssst right? I would love to know! It does sort of look like Japanese unko toys a bit.

Also, check out that crazy cool ceramic art object hanging with Super Swirl. It's a ceramic cone hanging out with the ice cream cone wannabe cupcake. It's an amazing little art piece by our pal Scott Malin. You should check out his work. It deserves to be checked out!

More cupcakes comin' your way real soon! :)

Caramel Is My Pal

I've kind of avoided making caramel for the past while because of how much I actually love caramel. When I was an office temp a number of years ago, sitting there dreaming of future careers, at lunch time I would have a granny smith green apple and a bunch of wrapped square caramels and I would take a bite out of the apple and then pop a caramel into my mouth. Oh delicious. Oh boy. Oh geez. Caramel is actually wonderfully easy to make, provided that you don't leave your caramel on the burner and go check your email. Sometimes when this happens you hear a horrible bubbling over and singed stovetop sound and there is a big cloud of smoke and you go running back into the kitchen to a burning caramel explosion on your stove top!!! OOOPS!

Heh heh. So I was "fourth time's the charm" on my recent caramel batch-- I tried crazy Martha's caramel method in the back of her Baking Book, but because there was no suggested times or candy thermometer readings in her recipe I got three versions of a bit of a soupy caramel, each just a little thicker than the next batch. Super delicious of course but not the right consistency I was looking for! Kind of more for pouring over a giant bowl of ice cream which I basically did, and ate, without the ice cream part. HELLO!

Then I found this wonderful article at the great website Smitten Kitchen! This caramel turned a little harder than I was hoping, but it worked well for my flourless pure Dutch Bensdorp cocoa powder caramel-filled birthday brownies I made for my cousin in law Heather! I topped the caramel off with dark chocolate ganache and more crunchy salty pecans for a super decadent birthday brownie cupcake surprise.

I also made caramel vanilla buttermilk cupcakes for my sister's niece Serena for her birthday-- with a pretty little pink buttercream hat and some matching pink sprinkles!

Oh caramel. You're so evilly delicious. But you are my new pal.

Hello Kitty, Hello Thirty Cake Part 2!

A blue themed "Hello Thirty" cake for Kara, the 30th birthday gal! Dark chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling covered with fondant!

"Hi Baby Kensie!!"

"Hi Baby Kenshee!" this is what my nephew Brody says to my new niece Kensie, who turns 1 month old on August 7th! Last night my sister Shelley and her husband Gerald threw a celebratory 1 month party for her (it's a Chinese thing) and I made these adorable little cupcakes to match her ridiculously adorable strawberry dress Rich and I got her a few weeks ago!!

The cupcakes were a delightfully tender vanilla buttermilk cupcake with strawberry jam swirled throughout and filled with strawberry jam too, plus my mom made the strawberry jam! So it was a real family affair. I topped the cupcakes with a french swirl of pink vanilla buttercream, and handmade fondant flowers and leaves, all in shades of pink to match Kensie's dress!

Awww Baby Kensie!! You are such a little cutie!!! I think Kensie looks just like a mini Shelley, my sis!! I can't even believe she's 1 month already. I'm already plotting the cupcakes and cake I will make for her 1st birthday... :)

Alice & Rory

Um, can a couple get any cuter and more attractive and stylish than adorable Alice and Rory?? Alice and I have been in touch for the last six months planning the cupcake details for her special day. The final decision was bright pink and orange cupcake liners (gorgeous and vibrant!), and chocolate cupcakes with matcha buttercream, raspberry jam filled lemon cupcakes topped with fresh raspberries, and perfect pink vanilla bean cupcakes! Alice has great style, and it showed in her cupcake choices-- she also requested matching cupcake flags, which of course I loooove to do for weddings and parties!

I was so happy that Coco Cake Cupcakes could be a part of their amazing wedding day. What crazy, perfect weather... and a rolicking fun wedding party celebration for them at Vancouver's Brix restaurant. Special thanks to the lovely Anne Marie for being so helpful when I arrived! And congratulations to Alice and Rory... may you be happy and madly in love for all the years to come! Love that last pic where Rory is checking out the cupcakes... !

xo