Vanilla Buttercream Frosted Chocolate Raspberry Cake!

We had a lovely BBQ in the warm evening air last night in our backyard, in honour of cousin Randy's birthday and visit to Vancouver. Our neighbors brought over a gorgeous salad fresh from their garden, including edible flowers--it was so pretty! I BBQed some freerange organic chicken from the poultry place down the street, and we grilled vegetables, Tofurkey bratwurst for the vegetarians and I made an ice cold sangria with fresh summer berries. For dessert, I made the cutest little rusticly-frosted cake-- dark chocolate, using Dutch process cocoa powder, with contrasting white vanilla buttercream and filled with raspberry preserves and topped with fresh raspberries. I LOVE the contrast look of chocolate and vanilla! The cake turned out lovely and the party was mellow and fun. I love summer, *sigh*...! and I just really love frosting buttercream cakes. They make me super happy!

Black Spidey Cupcakes!

The lovely Sarah contacted me to make chocolate with chocolate buttercream Spiderman cupcakes for her little son Nicky's 5th birthday. But not the red Spiderman... the black one!! I used fondant to create the Spiderman faces, and drew on the spider webs. When Sarah (whom I had never met!) came to pick them up, she was so happy she gave me a huge hug!! That is the kind of warmth and excitement that keeps old Coco Cake headquarters chugging along like a cupcake party train. So thank you, Sarah, for being so enthusiastic-- and I sure hope Nicky loved the cupcakes!! (Note-- like the "Happy Nicky" above? That was cracking me up a bit!

xo Lyndsay

7-11 Wedding!!

How cool is this idea? A 7-11 themed wedding!!! Bright citrus colours in green, orange and yellow, a full 5 cent candy bar, burger station, NACHO CHEESE FOUNTAIN, ice cream gelato bar, and oodles of vibrant, candy-colour frosted Coco Cake cupcakes in contrasting brightly colored cupcake liners and topped with jelly candies, plus a GIANT cupcake on top! When I met Melissa and Chris I knew this was gonna be cool-- they were both wearing great designy-graphic tshirts and were both casual -times cool. With the design-saavy-ness of Lotus Events behind the big day as well, the whole thing came together gorgeously. Oh, did I mention the wedding happened on July 11? Yes, 07/11!!!

How gorgeous and cute is Melissa, the bride, standing with the big old stand of cupcakes??

What fun. I love weddings. :) Congratulations to Melissa and Chris!! May the fun never stop throughout your married life together!! :)

Cute Sienna's 1st Birthday Bash!

Oh baby Sienna is so cute! For her 1st birthday, I made 4 dozen Coco Cake specialty cupcakes, in orange, pink and green--vibrant and bright colours for a summer birthday bash! Her mommy Michelle also requested butterflies so I made those using fondant and matching colours. I also made one golf themed cupcake for Michelle's bro-in-law, as it was his birthday too! "Fore!!"

I am stoked on my lettering style lately! I am happy I found a look that I love, vintage-like and fun! Sooo much more to come after this wild Coco Cake weekend. And I don't mean wild in the sense that there were melon coolers, topless male dancers and partying til 5am. I mean wild like I got up at 630am, baked, frosted, baked and frosted again, and stayed up until 330am working on all my decorations, then woke up this morning and baked and frosted. Although in between cake frostings I got to watch St.Elmo's Fire on late night TV. Man, my sisters and I used to LOVE this movie when we were kids! But watching it as an adult, it is the most HILARIOUS movie ever! As in hilarious not good. But still sooooo watchable and juicy!!!

Stay tuned for most posts...

Handmade Nation Good Times

Yay crafty Vancouver! Last night I got to see many crafting pals and gals at the screening of Handmade Nation at the Rio Theatre, put on by the fine folks at Got Craft. Pretty inspiring film too-- hmm, I wonder if Coco Cake will ever set up a little shop? ;) Thanks to everyone who stopped by my table and introduced yourself! It's great to meet some of my internet friends face to face! It's like the blind dates of the crafting world.

The pictures above: "Welcome Faythe" spells out these cute little chocolate ganache numbers! I made them extra chocolate by filling them with ganache too. I'm insane! Faythe is the vision behind Handmade Nation, and she was welcomed Vancouver-style at a crafty potluck held the night before the screening, and extra-welcomed by these cupcakers, ordered by the Got Craft peeps themselves.

The vanilla sprinkle cupcakes and raspberry topped vanilla-raspberry cupcakes I made for my Coco Cake Cupcakes table, and both sold out rather quickly at the Handmade Nation event!

Also pictured: a new pal and his cupcakes in Photobooth Vancouver's booth, and me and my number one helper, Mr. R.Trawick, in the Photobooth too! Sheesh my bangs are long. Luckily I just went for a bang trim, heh heh. And my head looks giant compared to Rich's. But upon measuring our heads last Christmas (?), we found that it's just my poufy hair that makes my head look so big!!! If we shaved our heads we'd basically be conehead twins.

Okay, lots more to come this weekend! Bye for now!