Horse Ribbon Cupcake Liner Garland DIY - Giddy Up!

Yee-haw! I'm so excited to announce I'm a new contributor to the super sweet blog Julep, part of the design site Minted.com. I love their DIYs and inspiration and am so thrilled to share this horse ribbon garland made from good old cupcake liners with you!

Gallop (oh dear!) on over to Julep right now for the full tutorial - it's cute and easy and it guarantees that your next party will likely be horsier than the last!

 xo Lyndsay

Back To School Apple Cupcakes Tutorial

Can you even believe it? September is upon us. It happens every year (um, Lyndsay? Duh!) but what I mean is, you're stone cold cruising summer's sunny fun times, August is rolling along, hot as can be, and then suddenly BLAMMO you get a stint of cooler weather and you go, "no. It just can't be over. NO." And you cling to it and wear your shorts and sandals in defiance and you're all like, "oh yeah, I'm totally going swimming tomorrow" but then summer slips through your fingers like a melted ice cream ball fallen splat on the sidewalk.

But it's ALL COOL! Because it means back to school for so many! Fun, right? New clothes, new friends, learning stuff. Not for me, sadly. I loved school way too much. I was the biggest joiner. I played every sport, I was in art class, I was on the frigging student council. If I had known how to bake in high school, I probably would've come to class with these guys:

APPLE CUPCAKES!

So cute and simple. Top them off with a "back to cool" sign and an awesome nerdball bookworm and you've made at least 1.5 new friends. 

You will need:

1 dozen cupcakes, baked and cooled.

2-3 cups of vanilla buttercream (or store bought canned icing)

1 piping bag fitted with a large open circle tip

1 package of red coloured sugar 

A dark chocolate bar, chopped into "stems"

A 2 inch ball of green coloured fondant, rolled out and cut into leaves. 

Optional: fancy leaf cutter, stripey cupcake liners

Pour your red coloured sugar into a small deep bowl. Sprinkle down a bit of cornstarch onto a piece of parchment paper and roll out your green fondant. Stamp or cut out a dozen leaf shapes. 

Hold your piping bag filled with buttercream upright in the centre of your cupcake.

Squeeze out until you get a delightful puffy blobette.

Get ready to give your cupcake pal a little dip!

Yep. Face first right in the red coloured sugar. Rotate the cupcake to get a good covering of red sugar all over your frosted cupcake.

Tada! Kind of cool how the buttercream doesn't fall off into the sugar, right? Or maybe it did. No biggie. Just clean that out and on to the next.

Place one of your dark chocolate "stems" into the centre, and a little green leaf on its side!

Keep your assembly line going - don't stop till you get enough!

You can cut out a funny little bookworm shape and draw on a face and some lines like I did. A little sign of some kind is always fun too. Back to COOL, guys. Heh heh.

Bring these cupcakes to your kid's classroom and you will be high fived by a million children. Promise.

xo Lyndsay 

Cakes, photos and styling by Lyndsay Sung 

Dreaming of you - Cake Life via Instagram

We just came back from a sleepy dreamy week in the mountains at our family's 1971 cabin. I took Teddy swimming in a green lake (where he mostly tried to put rocks in his mouth) and we stood and cheered on some very muscular and fit superhumans as they ran the Ironman! Holy man, those are some fit men and ladies! I weep with joy at weddings, I cry at the gym when Teen Mom 2 is on (the hardships! the loss of innocence!), and I get teary eyed standing sidelines at marathons - all those friends and family cheering on their loves ones! Just call me a cultural crybaby. 

We spent Teddy's actual day of birth at the cabin and my parents came up for the night - my mom showed up with the cutest shiny red star balloon for Teddy! We had a fun, quiet birthday for him with an angel food cake, strawberries and whipped cream. I was an emotional waterworks wreck that day, thinking about all we had been through as a new family of three this past year. 

I felt happy and grateful and full of love. 

xo Lyndsay 

More 5 Year Blog Anniversary Cake Madness + Thank you

Have you entered my super sweet CAKE GIVEAWAY / RANDOM FUN PARTY IN A BOX giveaway yet? Click here to read all about it! Do it - enter! It's been a blast reading the entries so far and getting to know some of my readers! 

While I force you to look at even more favourite cakes from the old Coco Cake Land vault, I wanted to take some time to thank some of the super awesome cool blogger pals I've made over the years. I tell ya, I've got friends from all over now thanks to the wonderful world of blogging- check out my list of blogger shout-outs below. 

Are you a fellow blogger? Let me know in the comments below, with a link to your blog! 

Cakespy, also known as Jessie, was the first blog to encourage me! It was very exciting to get a comment from Jessie five years ago! We continue to high five each other over the internets and she has two wicked books you really need to check out! She even interviewed me on her blog a few years ago... pretty sweet!

Poppytalk is run by Jan Halvarson, who is just the darn nicest and coolest woman ever, with an eye for everything designy and cool. Thanks Jan for all your support over the years! I love writing for Poppytalk, too - thanks for continuing to have me.

Melanie at You Are My Fave! How totally rad you are and it's been so fun to be a part of your blog lately, too! Years ago Melanie sent me a SWEET cake stand in the mail and that sold me forever on her coolness.

Rosie at Sweetapolita! Rosie is the grand dame beautiful cake and buttercream superstar of North America (feel free to use that!) and is just the sweetest nicest cake pal.

Linda at Call Me Cupcake! My cool Swedish cake pal who also plays music. International friend alert!

Juanita at Sweet Things! My fellow Asian Canadian cake buddy!

Ok that's enough gushing for now... I've made so many more nice blog friends but I'll save that for another post... Huzzahh!

Don't forget, both local Vancouver people AND worldwide buddies can win! You can win a Coco Cake Land CAKE for your next party or a party in a box if you live anywhere else. Sending mail is fun! 

xo Lyndsay

Coco Cake Land Blog Anniversary + A Sweet Giveaway!

Holy guacamole.

Holy smokes.

Holy shnikey and whatever else holy you want to call it.. I can't believe I've been blogging for five years! And I also can't believe the cuteness of the fact that the date in which I started my baby, this here Coco Cake Land blog, on August 20th 2008, and then that happens to be the date I also give birth to my real-life baby, my son Teddy, in 2012!

Cahmannn, world - throw me another August 20th bone, why dontcha!

To celebrate, I'm throwing a 

COCO CAKE LAND CONTEST GIVEAWAY. 

OHHHH YEAH! 

Slog through these cakes to get to the details below! I'll be posting even more of my fave cakes I've made over the years through this week...

So five years ago my blog looked pretty different than it does now. 

Crappy flash photography photos, finding my voice in writing, weird muffins and shaky-hand buttercream frosting work. Five years of caking, baking, photographing and writing and I'm constantly tweaking and building and transitioning. It's always a work in progress! Even if those first posts are cringe-inducing, I'll keep them up to remind me of where I started!

And... of course I want to THANK YOU for being my wonderful Coco Cake Land readers, followers and fans! I wish I could meet you all and see what you're all up to. But what I want to do is offer a 5 Year Blog Anniversary Coco Cake Land Contest! Say that five times fast and you're the winner! Just kidding... ya gotta do more work that that... ;)

Ok! Here goes - I want to make an insanely excellent cake for one loyal and awesome Coco Cake Land fan here in Vancouver, BC Canada. And I want to send one special party pack of FUN to one loyal and awesome Coco Cake Lan fan that lives anywhere else in the WORLD. Yeah, take THAT, world mail service!

Local Fans Contest: 

1. Prove your cake love! Leave a comment on this post with the word LOCAL and a link to your favourite Coco Cake Land cake creation from my blog, why it is your favourite, AND tell me your best BIRTHDAY CAKE story you've got. I will choose one lucky winner based on your answer, who will win that very favourite Coco Cake Land cake. Oh snap! Cake prize valid for one year from contest closing and cake date subject to availability. I'll try my best to accommodate when you're hosting a birthday party or sweet celebration!

Worldwide Fans Contest: 

2. Prove your cake love! Leave a comment on this post with the word WORLDWIDE and a link to your favourite Coco Cake Land cake creation from my blog, why it is your favourite, and, yes, tell me your best BIRTHDAY CAKE story you've got!  I will choose one lucky winner based on your answer, who will win a totally random but FUN party pack delivered to you in the mail by yours truly. Oh snappers!

Contest is open until the clock strikes midnight, Pacific Standard Time, September 3, 2013. That's right - two weeks to get shakin'!

Thank you so much for being a fan and for helping me celebrate.

Ready? Set? Cake?

GO!

xo Lyndsay

Tea & Roses: Ultra Simple Rosette Cupcake Photo Tutorial

The key to the beautiful buttercream rosette? Take your classic 1M piping tip. Start piping in the middle and pipe outward - I go counter-clockwise. Practice this over and over and before long you will be the master rosette piper. And I will call you that, too. How do you do, Master Rosette Pipah!

So lovely for a little tea party with a feminine touch!

xo Lyndsay