Happy Bday Dad - Kayaking cupcakes

My dad loves kayaking. Well actually he loves fishing and kayaking enables him to fish, so therefore he loves kayaking. :) So for his birthday I decided to make a mini version of him kayaking. His kayak isnt just any kayak, it's got all kinds of mods on it so I wanted to replicate it to make it look exactly like his did, so I used a picture of him to do so, and even went into their garage to check it out. 

Here is a pic of my dad with his kayak:

 And here is my fondant version of him :) He said I did pretty good, except I forgot his hair lol. This little fondant version of him is bald! Notice the details? It has the same criscross things (whatever those are?) and even has a fish finder, and a place for fish in the back. :)

And here is my dad, happy with his cupcakes and his little mini me. :) Happy Birthday Dad!

Mod Monkey Cupcakes for Karisma's Birthday!

I didn't know what a mod monkey was before my cousin Kathy asked me to make them for her daughters birthday. Turns out these little mod monkeys are as cute as a button! German Chocolate and Red Velvet cupcakes covered with mod monkeys and some cupcakes are topped with my cousin Kathy's homemade toppers! Kathy always plans awesome parties for her kids! I always tell her she should do this professionally. So Kathy if you are reading this, I'm telling the world that you are an amazing planner and people need to hire you if they want an amazing party for their kids. :) 

Sea of mod monkey cupcakes:

Here I am setting up the cupcakes. An just an fyi I did not make the cake. ;)

 Here is the complete set up of the cupcakes :) topped with Kathy's toppers! Happy Birthday Karisma!

Superhero Cupcakes!

Part 1 of birthday cupcakes I made for my beautiful friend Lupe's sons birthday. She said he loves superheros and disney, so it was only right to make half Superhero's and Half Mickey. :) 

Superman, Batman, and Spiderman Cupcakes.

3rd Annual Cupcakes For A Cause Bakesale!!!

Hello Blogger Land!

Gosh, I can’t believe how long it’s been since my last blog. Well life’s just been really crazy but I promise I’ll be good about blogging! Anyhow, just wanted to warn you all too that since it’s been a while, I’m going to be posting a whole bunch of things to fill in the gaps from the last few months. J Anyhow, what I wanted to write about today (or right now since I plan on posting all day today) is my bake sale.

This Month on July 15 from 7am – 2pm, I’ll be hosting (for the third year!) a bake sale at my church. I am really excited to work with the community to aid Share our Strength in their mission to combat childhood hunger in America by 2015. Share our strength is a national organization that is dedicated to help end childhood hunger by working with a network of community groups, activists, and food programs to catch children who are struggling with hunger and surround them with nutritious food where they live, learn and play.

Do you know?

· More than 50 million Americans struggle to put food on the table.

· More than 16 million of those affected are children - That's 1 in 5 kids in America.

· 21 million kids receive free or reduced lunch, yet only 3 million get summer meals.

· Children who struggle with hunger are sick more often, recover more slowly and are more likely to be hospitalized.

· Children who face hunger are more susceptible to obesity and its harmful health consequences as children and as adults.

· Lack of enough nutritious food impairs a child's ability to concentrate and perform well in school.

· Teens who regularly do not get enough to eat are more likely to be suspended from school and have difficulty getting along with other kids.

These are just a few alarming facts, so please be sure to check out Share our Strength for more information, ways to help support their efforts.

Last year, with the support of our family, friends, and church community, we were a ble to reach our goal of $1500 (!!!!!). We had a huge variety of baked goods - there was something for everyone! You can read and see pics from last year here. This year I've set out a goal of $1500, and I know we can reach this with all of your support!

Funds raised by the bake sale will help accomlish the following:

· Enroll more eligible kids in school breakfast, after-school snacks and meals, and their families in SNAP (Food Stamps)

· Bring community gardens and farmers markets to low-income neighborhoods.

· Bring affordable, fresh fruits and veggies to urban corner stores.

· Help local food pantries, food banks, and soup kitchens meet the pressing demand for more nutritious food.

· Increase awareness and understanding of childhood hunger and solutions to it.

· Teach at-risk families how to plan, shop for, and prepare healthy low-cost meals at home. (this bullet point is especially important to me, as I teach the nutrition lesson for some of the classes in the area J ) 

So please please come out on July 15th from 7am-2pm at All Saints Church in Hayward to purchase yummy treats! Also, if you are able to donate your time or baked goods, I would greatly appreciate it. J If you are interested in baking, please contact me at catrinaarmas@gmail.com. Thank you for reading and hope you can make it!

Karisma's Baptism Cupcakes

These baptism cupcakes were made for my sweet little cousin, Karisma on her baptism day. After I began setting up the cupcakes, I realized I should've brought an extra layer of the cake stand. :p But they still looked pretty. hehe.



And lastly, here is the sweet little princess with her cupcakes. She especially loved the fondant toppers. She took one of the cupcakes with the letters of her name and ate it! :)

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Salted Caramel Cupcake. Dark rich chocolate cake filled with fleur de sel caramel. This is probably my favorite cupcake to eat. And the flavor I'll go for at any other cupcake shop. Yummmm.

Salted Caramel Cupcake topped with a nutella taiyaki. Taiyaki's just make everything better.

Making Mochi

I love mochi. I love the chewy goodness on froyo, around ice cream, in Filipino desserts, and in yummy Jamnese desserts. I also enjoy mochi in savory dishes like stir fry or wrapped in nori and sprinkled with furikake.

Anyhow, I was inspired to try and make my own mochi after a fun trip to Japantown with my love. There is a store there that has an array of mochi...Next time I'm there I'm definitely going to pick up a box of chocolate mochi - yum! Jon and I had lunch at this little kiosk that sold onigiri and tea. And while I was browsing I found a tray of Mochi! And it was from one of the best places around - Sheui-Do Manju Shop! I was so happy because theyre mochi is the best. It's the perfect size shape, texture. OH and they sell shave ice! Winner!

Little Wall of Mochi and My stash:

So. I decided to make some. And for instructions/ideas/support, I went to one of my fave blogs to read Just Jenn Recipes. She has a whole section on Mochi Recipes so check her out!

I decided to try out the PB&J Mochi. It's easy to make, just very messy and hot!

I made half pb&j and half nutella. yum! Here's most of the ingredients minus the sugar and water.

Before they're rolled into the ball shape:

Here's a nice round mochi =)

And here's a finished one!

Next, I want to make some fall inspired mochi - probably pumpkin and nutella - best combo ever!

Oh and this weekend, we're headed down to LA again to celebrate my birthday in Disneyland so I'm for sure going to make a stop at Mochilato for some yummy mochi gelato! Cant wait!

Red velvet Push Pop/Push Up Cakes

When I was a kid, I LOVED getting ice cream and candy from the Ice Cream truck. My favorites included: red sour belts, pelon pelon rico, and lucas powder. I didn't have a favorite ice cream because I always felt overwhelmed by all of the different varities shown by the pictures on the truck. I remember trying alot of those character popsicles with gumball eyes...they kept coming out with new characters!

And, I did love pushups...especialy with the Flinstones on the packaging! They did melt rather quickly though. Pushpops...I remember getting them too, but I didn't like them too much because whenever I would try to pus the lollipop up, my finger would get sticky! Yuck! haha

Anyhow, I found these awesome push up containers for cupcakes!

Cake. Frosting. More Cake. More Frosting. Sprinkles!! What a great idea. And they're fun to eat.

And, here's a picture of one of my favorite cupcakes to make and eat. Red velvet and cheesecake. Sweet, creamy, tart goodness. Yum-o!

Oh. One more...Had to include an instagram shot! =)

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Trinkette

Yo Gabba Gabba Cupcakes and DIY YGG party decorations

There's a party in my tummy, so yummy so yummy yummy! All of these cupcakes came to the party and my tummy was happy!

I made these little guys for my neice's 1st birthday! Happy birthday Alyssa! =)

They flavors were: oreo, red velvet and vanilla.

The BF was in charge of decorations and you know, it's not easy to find Yo Gabba party stuff. You either have to go online or...well thats all you can do. So, the BF and I got creatvie! We printed a whole bunch of stuff off of NickJr.com and went to town on eveything we could find at Party City. We made lanterns, streamers, and bucket table centerpieces. Heres a look at em:

Here's a few more looks at the cupcakes:




Toodees and Munos

Plexes and DJ Lance Rocks

Brobees and Foofas

 

And lastly, here's an awesome pic of me and the bf. I made the Muno shirt last year for my neice's birthday, and Jon felt left out so he made one too! =)

Thanks for reading!

xo,

Treen

Birthday Cake Remix Cupcakes

Whew, it's been a while bloggy-land! I've missed you! It's just been a real busy summer...camping, trips, disneyland...you know. :) Anyhow, here come a whole bunch of pics of what I've been up to in the kitchen. Check these out...

I call it the birthday cake remix cupcake! =) The day I made these I was REALLY craving ice cream...more specifically Cold Stone's Birthday Cake Remix. But I couldn't go. So, I decided to make my version of it! 

It's a vanilla-almond cake with sprinkles (of course!), filled with ganache and topped with cake batter cream cheese frosting, and topped with more chocolate and sprinkles. Everything is better with sprinkles! It was delicious. Next time I make them, I'll be sure to grab a pint of the ice cream from Cold Stone...OR you can bring me some for my birthday...it IS in a week! :D 

And last, here is Kiana who is showing you how to eat one of Auntie Treen's cupcakes! =) 

Thanks for reading! 

xo,

trinkette

Share Our Strength Bake Sale - Cupcakes For a Cause

Hey All!

Wow this week, actually few weeks have been SO busy. This past week has been especially busy. It was my neice's 3rd birthday AND my bake sale at my church All Saints.

Let me just tell you, planning a bake sale is much harder than it sounds. Looking back there was so much I should've started earlier and done to spread the word, but hey, I wrote everything down and created checklists and protocols for next year lol.

Anyhow one of the biggest challenges was making sure we had enough product to sell! I hadn't heard many folks saying that they would donate so naturally I was worried. Thus I asked my family to bake bake bake! And I did the same:

In total I made two bundt cakes, one medium cupcake cake, one small cupcake cake, coffee cupcakes, my funfetti cupcakes, ice cream cone cupcakes, strawberry cupcakes, and two batches of muffins. Wow right!? Yep. While I was baking away, my dad and Jon were busy at my parents house.

They made not one, but TWO awesome cake stands for me! =) They are sturdy, collapsable, and basically pretty awesome. Oh AND they hold cake pops! Here is a pic of one of em...you'll see them in the pictures below =)

Anyhow bake to the struggles of my planning lol. Well that was actually the only problem. hehe. I am very lucky to have such a supportive team behind me, helping in every way possible. Thanks to Chuck and the RCIA group for really making this happen and to my parents and Jon for helping oversee the whole thing. Annnd thanks to my family, who came maybe to just buy goodies but got sucked into helping staff ;) hehe. Thanks to all the bakers who donated all of the delicious treats and lastly, thanks to everyone who came out and purchased goodies and donated food for the Alameda County Community Food Bank!!! =)

Oh and, we had so many goods left over, we came back to church to sell goods at the 7pm evening mass and good thing we did because we finished off almost everything. What little was left over was donated to a local shelter.

All of our hard work paid off because we raised $1,475!!!!! AMAZING!! =)

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you everyone! =) I can't say it enough. Thus, I'm going to share pictures. A whole bunch of pictures:

My friend/MTF Alum/fellow baker April:

Jerilyn dropping off beautiful cupcakes:

Staffing the tables =)

Auntie Rach and Rayna staffing the table on the other side of the church - they were troopers sitting under the sun! =)

Love this picture of my mom and jon because it reminds me of cupcake wars! =)

Another one of my favorite shots =)

Friends and family who stopped by =)

Rayna and Jassy enjoying treats in the sun


THANK YOU AGAIN everyone! =) This post has sooo many pictures and I just noticed how many smiley's it has but its accurate to how I feel. hehe. Alright, good night blogger-land =)

xo,

Treen