Baby Tanner's 100 Day Dinner & Tiger Cupcakes!

Wowzers. My sweet and super cute new nephew Baby Tanner, also known as TanMan, or Tan Tan, or Tanner Banner, celebrated his very special 100 Day dinner here in Vancouver. Yes, he's just a little 4 month old chubalub! He has the lightest ginger brown hair, pale alabaster skin and one double eyelid and one single eyelid... plus a little adorable Chinese face! And he actually has an all-natural mohawk...! Poh-poh and Gonge-gonge (Grandma and Gramps in Chinese -- well actually, grandparents on your mother's side -- and the spelling of P&G varies from family to family) threw this 100 Day Chinese banquet at our fave family hot spot, Golden Ocean.

I love the names of Chinese restaurants. They can really do it up mythical styles! Golden Ocean, Pink Pearl, Flamingo, Shanghai Wonderful... like a magical, mystical world of bamboo forests, hazy sparkling skies and cool breezes. Imagine! Swimming through an ocean of GOLD? The MINDS of these people! ;)

Lobster, Peking duck, roast chicken, oodles of noodles... TanMan got a party worthy of a little Prince! If RT and I ever have kids, there will be definitely be a designated vegetarian's table! Tanner was born in the Year Of The Tiger, so Auntie Lyndsay (also known as: ME, also known as Auntie Coco Cake) made special little tiger topped cupcakes for him and the kids, and classic swirl with rainbow sprinkles cupcakes for everyone else! The party was a total blast... and big brother Brody is a budding photographer. He's 2.5 years old...! The photos he snapped were seriously cool!

The last two pics are of the family! Party Man Dan (that's what I call my bro-in-law, or Party Man Dad) and my sis Leanne a.k.a Awesome Mommy of TanMan and Brody! :)

Welcome to the world, little TanMan! Can't wait to see what kind of crazy little nutbar you will turn out to be...

Love, Auntie Lyndsay

Maneki Neko Cake & Cupcakes!

Eeeeks! I just love it when I get a cake request for something as ridiculously cute as the Maneki Neko. Maneki Neko is the little white cat with a paw saying "hello, come in and welcome!" that greets you at many Japanese and Chinese restaurants. It's a ho-ho lucky cat that brings fortune and good times to your establishment. Hmm, maybe I should invest in a little Maneki Neko for Coco Cake!!

Fei wanted something special for her brother's 40th birthday party, which was a sushi and sake themed party... so she thought a Maneki Neko cake would be jusssst right...

I made a 7 inch dark chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and chocolate ganache filling, using an "Asian-y" cake board and matching flag, and of course red fondant to cover the cake to make it extraaaa lucky. Fei also ordered 2 dozen matching Maneki Neko cupcakes in Coco Cake Chocolate and Lemon Frill flavour! She came to pick up the cakes with her cute daughter Elsa!

Happy Birthday Brent! And thank you Fei for the delightfully enjoyable order!

xo Lyndsay

Crazy Cake For My Pal Raf

Raffers a.k.a. Shogodog (er, real name Rafael) is the best buddy a girl could have. Raffers and I met in 2003 when I did a media technician internship at VIVO (a multi-media learning facility for nerds here in Vancouver). Raf was the head technician, I was the lowly intern with a handful of patchcords and nowhere to put them. Shortly after my internship, Raf and I spent a whole day together lacing together a DVD for a music video event... and I am pretty sure it was then when I realized this quiet, stylish Japanese guy had practically the exact same sense of humour as me. Animals in human clothing? Check.

Fast forward to 2010: Raf and I have collaborated on many art projects together in our conceptual art group Guimauves, and had lots of great times as buddies eating our way through Vancouver and beyond.

For his birthday, we threw a BBQ and an outdoor movie screening on our back fence! I made a triple layer matcha green tea cake with anko red bean filling, and vanilla creamcheese frosting piped in a hairy canary fashion, with blackberries making up some sort of face... a very Japanesey cake for my best Japanese Canadian friend Raffers!

Er, I also got him a custom printed GARFIELD poster. We're also Garfield twins.

Happy Birthday Shogodog!! :)