strawberry

Wedding | Jamie & Eugene in Saratoga

May 7, 2018| Featured, Weddings

Yesterday was Jamie & Eugene’s 1-year anniversary! I didn’t get around to blogging about their wedding last year, as we were preparing for our baby to arrive. But they brought out their cutting cake from the freezer this weekend to celebrate their anniversary, and just polished off the last of it tonight. It’s about time I commemorated this special wedding!

I’ve known Jamie since elementary school and have been lucky to call her a friend ever since. I remember her first date with Eugene, and the many double dates that came afterward. At one point in time, I was housemates with Eugene, and then housemates with both. Add in a couple dogs, and it was a full, but joyous house with lots of dessert eating. It was an honor to be in their wedding, and to also make the desserts as well.

These beautiful photos are from Julianne Brasher (http://www.juliannebrasher.com/).

For the wedding guests, there were salted caramel chocolate cupcakes and vanilla lemon curd cupcakes, each topped with buttercream.

I had been a little worried about the cupcakes being out in the sun for a long time since I had to set up the cupcake tower earlier than usual in order to prepare for the ceremony procession. However, the chilly afternoon and evening had a convenient refrigeration effect! For the cutting cake, I made a strawberry jam and strawberry buttercream semi-naked cake, with wafer paper flowers. I love the following photo for capturing the magic of the night (with cupcakes to fuel the dancing).

A belated congratulations Jamie & Eugene, and cheers to many more anniversary celebrations ahead!

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4th of July | Flag Birthday Cake

July 5, 2016| Birthdays, Holidays

My birthday is just shy of July 4th, but it has always been fun to combine birthday celebrations with 4th of July weekend getaways and BBQs. This year, still inspired by summer fruits, I made a blueberry buttermilk cake, with pastry cream custard filling and homemade raspberry-strawberry jam. The blueberry buttermilk cake is actually one that I haven’t made in a long time, but I happened to remember it when I was brainstorming and it turned out to be a great building block.

As for the decoration, I had been thinking about red, white and blue for the cake, but not necessarily a flag cake. But as I was playing with the berry milk crumbs and extra blueberries I had, I kept gravitating towards a stripe theme. To make red stripes on the side of the cake, I frosted with buttercream, chilled the cake in the freezer, and then wrapped acetate strips around the cake.

I pressed the berry milk crumbs against the exposed buttercream.

And then pulled away the acetate strips to reveal clean lines.

For the top, I piped buttercream with a star tip and placed blueberries in between. I wasn’t counting, but I believe I ended up with 47 blueberries. If I had known I was going to fit that many blueberries on the cake, I might have planned for 50 blueberries! Next time 🙂

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Birthday | Guava White Chocolate Mousse Cake

October 27, 2015| Birthdays, Featured

I always recommend Extraordinary Desserts to any dessert fans who are visiting San Diego, and I love comparing notes afterwards about each person’s decadent experience. My friend Patricia is one such dessert fan, and for her birthday earlier this month, she knew she wanted to replicate her Extraordinary Desserts experience. She has a couple favorite cakes from the restaurant, but knowing that she intended to celebrate with a Brazilian BBQ birthday dinner, she requested the fruity and light Shangri-La cake as a nice contrast to the meat-heavy meal. I’m not sure I’ve ever had this cake at Extraordinary Desserts, but when I saw the description on the restaurant’s website, I was game to give it a try.

I made this cake with a basic white cake, cut into three layers. (I think the restaurant probably uses an almond sponge cake, but I realized that after the fact.) Each layer was soaked with a Kirschwasser simple syrup, then topped with guava mousse (made with guava puree to ensure a distinctive and fresh guava flavor), chopped strawberries and white chocolate mousse.

After letting the stacked layers set in the freezer in a ring mold, I then crumb coated the layered cake with a plain Swiss meringue buttercream. For the sides of the cake, I pressed on white and pink chocolate curls, as I loved that look on the website. For the top of the cake, I piped buttercream rosettes and other patterns over sliced strawberries, and used additional chocolate curls as filler.

The individual flavors in this cake are unusual, but when paired together, they go surprisingly well together. On their own, I’m not a fan of white chocolate, or Kirshwasser, or even guava. But I’ll admit to enjoying the combination!

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