Happy Easter Cupcake Party!

I know, I know. I'm a few days late but hey, I know you want to see some yummy treats from Easter! =)

My family had been trying to plan another cupcake and wine party but it was so hard trying to coordinate everyone's schedules. So Easter was the perfect opportunity!

The cupcakes I made were Pineapple Li Hing. But since it was Easter, I decided to decorate them to fit the theme.I was going for a little egg nest with eggs in it, and it kind of worked =)

In addition, I was really excited to test out one of my favorite bloggers Just Jenn's Coco Puffs recipe. Unfortunately, my expedition did not go as smoothly as Jenn's. I had a very very hard time with the chantilly frosting. Nonetheless, they were yummy overall and people loved them! I made them mini size like Jenn suggested and people were standing at the table popping them in their mouths! Here is a picture of them, with a little Easter chicky. See how the chantilly is dripping and oozing down? :/ Why!?

Anyhow, back to the cupcakes, Here is a picture of all of the delicious cupcakes:

L to R clockwise: Strawberry basil by my sissy Mia (check out her awesome blog here), Strawberry-Lime bunny cuteness by Auntie Flo,

Suman (yummy filipino sweet rice dessert) by Auntie Mily,

Pineapple Li Hing by me,

Lemon-y Lemon by Auntie Chris,

Lemon with Raspberry Filling by Auntie Rach and Rayna,

Dark Chocolate Orange by Mama

And then some misc cuppies, and more Lemon Raspberry.

YUM-O!

A close up of the bunnies:

Auntie Chris and Rayna excited to eat cupcakes!

There was SO many cupcake we had to cut them in 4's and there were still too many!

Me, with my plate of treats...sissy was smart and make her strawberry-basil cupcakes in mini size. =)


Everything was so yummy and I, along with most of my family was in a sugar coma for the rest of the day. Can't wait for our next cupcake party! =) Happy (belated) Easter!

Pretty Plumerias

Cutting and rolling the gumpaste:

Painted and all glittered up:

Finished!

Another Shot

Pretty close eh? I tried to make one to match my fave flower =)

I miss hawaii!

Cupcake Camp Seattle

Since we haven't had a cupcake camp here in the bay for TWO years, and I missed the big event in LA, one of my pals and I decided to make the trek up to Seattle to attend Seattle's Cupcake Camp! =)

First of all you can read my full review of the event on my Yelp. Big things that won me over at this event were the 1. You had to pay to get in, and that is because the $ went to the Hope Heart Institute (awesome!!). 2. It was SO organized! 3. Inedible cupcake vendors :) Some of the cons were that all of the participants were professional bakers and amateur bakers (like me!) could only participate in the decorating contest. boo! Also, there wasn't a very big range of flavors here...many companies only had choco and vanilla...too plain! I miss the adventurous flavors found here at cupcake camp sf. Also, my friend and I had a crazy hard time getting there! In short we got totally lost and had to walk/rent bikes to get there.

Anyhow, check out this neat punch card, which allowed each person 6 mini cupcakes, designed by none other than the amazing Cakespy!

Speaking of, I got to meet Jessie! Definitely one of my highlights of the day. I love love love the Cakespy blog...so fun and inspiring! =)

Cake featuring Cakespy's talent:

Here is the plates of our plates of cupcakes:

And here are some of my favorites from the decorating contest:

love love love the mini macaroon on top! cant wait to take my macaroon decorating class!

In addition to many many cupcakes, they had a couple of inedible cupcake vendors. One woman made neat baby cupcake gifts and another made these:

Cupcake Bath Bombs! You drop the cupcake into the tub and then the bottom "cake" fizzes into the water and the top "frosting" part floats to the top and is a body scrubby. I bought 2 regular sized ones and 3 mini's for $40 =) I haven't had a chance to try the out just yet but I can't wait to take a nice long bath to test them out.

All in all the event was fun despite the complications of getting there. =) I really hope cupcake camp happens in SF this year! Its been two years!!

Thanks for reading! =)

xo,

Treen

Pineapple Li Hing Cupcakes!

Pineapple, Yum! Li Hing...?! What is that?!

Li Hing Mui is actually a chinese salted dried plum. It has a sour, sweet and salty taste. It can be found in most Asian markets. I remember going to International Market with my Grandma or Mom as a kid and getting these...they came in tiny little clear box...I loved them! My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

Nowadays, this little guy is very popular in the Hawaiian culture. It is also sold as a powder and oh boy, it tastes so good on basically everything. Well not everything. It is delightful on all fruits, especially pineapple and mango. And adds an extra yummy flavor to sour candy, like sour belts or sour patch kids. Leonard's also makes a malasada dusted with li hing sugar and oh my was it just about the greatest thing I ate that day!

I guess now its even used to make margaritas so next time I'm on the Islands I'll be sure to grab one. One of my other faves is Li Hing kettle corn. =)

Li Hing Mui (Dried Salted Plum) Li Hing Powder

When we were in Oahu last week, I made sure to pick up a large bag of Li Hing powder and we picked up a bag of fresh mangos and li hing. And that is where it hit me. I needed to make Li Hing cupcakes. I love li hing-ifying so many things, why not a cupcake!?

And bam, this is what came about:

A pineapple cupcake, filled with li hing pineapple curd, topped with pineapple cream cheese, dusted with extra li hing powder.

(wow that was a mouthful huh?)

The pineapple curd was so yummy on its own, but once I added the Li Hing, oh man it was on! The cupcake is moist and hits your mouth with all kine's of flavors! Sweet, tangy, salty oh my!

Here is a picture of the cupcake with the li hing filling goodness:

I only made a few cupcakes since these were jsut a test run, but I plan on making them on Sunday for some friends and will give em out at the O'tea 'Api performance at Newpark, so if you want one, better be there! =)

All of my other cupcake ideas have been put on hold and replaced by Hawaiian inspired cupcake creations. I miss the warm sun already!

Anyhow, thanks for reading.

xo,

Treen.

Crabcakes

My dad took me to the cake store a while back and he picked up these adorable little chocolate crab molds. I made these for his fishing shindig. Chocolate crab cakes =)

And here is a close up of one of em. My dad also decided to put eyes on it using the food airbrush ink and it looked good, except I put the crabs upside down...you can kinda see on the bottom it has two dots...those are supposed to be its eyes hehe. And he said the ink dripped down later so it looked like he had runny mascara, but here it looks awesome hehe.

xo,

Treen