Long awaited Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll’s  Alice in Wonderland is one of my top five favorite classics… Tim Burton is hands down my favorite director.  His mind is filled with beautiful insanity.

I like to believe that Stephen King (who I love) has to be at some heightened level of dark, evil insanity to dream up of such horrifying stories (that his way of acting them out are through his books)…  I believe Tim Burton’s level of insanity does as well, not so much pure evil… but, evil in a wicked child’s play.

Definitely can see how Depp and Burton collaborate so well.  Depp is of course another of my top favorites.   Damn. Afraid this movie might be too much for my little brain (big head) to wrap around.  You can find me at the theaters on Friday, March 5.  Ill be the girl with eyes near falling out of sockets, mouth opened – probably unable to contain the occasional drool.  Say hi.

how cute are alice’s gloves.

Maybe Burton will one day take on a  Thornton Burgess classic…

Soon-2-B Mommy & Daddy!!!

A super darling couple are soon to be 1st time parents!!!  Congrats to you two, and I wish your family the sweetest future…

Strawberry Buttercream and Vanilla Cake

Fluffy Snow @ Bear and Cookies… what can be better?

Last week SoCal brought tons of rain (rain=snow).  We have season passes to BigBear every season and go every weekend.  Every raining day last week, Bear’s website would report the mountain was “puking snow”.  (puking. nice.)  And that its absolutely “epic.  We have not seen snow like this in over 40 years”.   Well.  That just about made me want to puke… with excitement.  After continuous pounding rain/snow for 5 days, SATURDAY was the day.  Chris and Tiggy spent the night cause for sure these two wern’t going to make it to our house 4:30am.  (There were big fat potholes all over Pasadena.  On our way to dinner friday, in babe’s beautiful car, we run over some in unlit residential roads.  ”SHWOOOOOOOOOOooOOOoooo”  WT?  Got out of the car and saw the tire had separated from the BENT RIM.   :*(   And waited for AAA.  And took forever.  We were starving children!!!  It was 10:30pm by the time they finished.  Tiggy says to the ceiling  ”I’m so hungry I’m gonna eat my face.”  LOL.)

Surprisingly, we left Saturday morning @ 430am (had gone to bed @ 1:30am).  As the sun came up, the roads unveiled a luscious winter wonderland:


(Can you find the car above?)

(Mmmmmm….. all that icing on the gingerbread house.  Looks so. Edible.  And yah… those are huge icicles hanging off the roof.  Unreal.)

(… Are we really in Southern California?)

(Those trees look like powdered sugared doughnuts…  powdered sugared shredded doughnuts? )

Unknown to us after arriving, they closed all roads to the public going to Bear.  So we played under sunny skies on blindingly white slopes, and… no crowds. Yahhhhhhhhh.   After an unbelievable day, got into the car and gobbled up all the cookies I baked the night before (especially made for the trip).  Got down the mountain in good time (considering 1/4 of the way was on chains), watching the other side of traffic, with some super unhappy people in the cars….  We stopped to take the chains off, and had to ask. They have been stuck at the bottom of the mountain for 5 hours waiting at a standstill. Ew.  Those poor people were residences trying to get home.  Every car had to verify they were locals.  When we got home, news claimed Bear was in a ‘State of Emergency’.  Poor Bear.  Poor fiening riders.  teeeeeeheeeeee. not poor us… shhhhhhh….

Cookies.  I’m gonna be real here.  I was not a cookie baker.  You’d think that cookies are incredibly easy to make.  They probably are.  I think cookies hated me. They burnt, they underbaked, they were cakey, they were gooey, they too crispy, etc.  It’s been getting way better over the years though, and quite more consistent.   But I don’t deviate much from cookie recipes as any slight alterations might just result in a cookie combusting in my face.

Friday, decided that I would add into the cookies what I loved most to drink.  COFFEE. Wasn’t feeling chocolate chips, added in some oatmeal.  But the boy loves chocolate, so I split the batter in 1/2.

Oatmeal

Chocolate Chip

The coffee extract didn’t make the cookies taste like coffee at all, but just incredibly rich.  They were perfectly baked (yay.).  Crisp on edges and chewy soft on the inside.

Oatmeal Coffee Cookies
2.5 cups (minus 2 Tablespoons) all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1.5 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Nescafe instant coffee (mixed with 1 tsp of water to make an “extract”)
1.5 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line aluminum baking sheet with parchment paper.   (Warning: I have the worst luck with non-stick dark pans.  Goodies tend to burn easier, as may your cookies!  Therefore, all non-stick pans in CakeSkye’s kitchen have been trashed.)

Cream butter and sugars until fluffy in mixer (approx 3 min).  Add in eggs, 1×1.  Add in vanilla.  Add in homemade coffee extract.  Combine baking soda and salt with the flour.  Slowly add flour into mixer.  Beat until just incorporated.  Add in oatmeal and chocolate chips.   Shape into 1.25″ sized balls.  Bake ~11-12 min or until just slightly golden on sides and top.

Watch their eyes light up when they take their first bite of warm, sweet goodness.  The coffee  is subtle, yet something yummily untraceable is definitely present.

RollerGirl! “You make me feel like dancin…”

Remember Rollergirl?  The old school electronic artist?  hehehe.

Anyway :)  A client found Cakeskye’s fan page on Facebook and emailed last week inquiring about cake/cupcakes for her sister’s roller skating birthday party (yesterday).  She let me go free on what I wanted to create, only asking to incorporate the roller skating theme .  Plus, requesting strawberry buttercream and vanilla cake layers (hello.  so YUMMY.)

Needless to say, I was darn excited to make this one.  The skates I made a few days in advance out of fondant…   Hearts?  The next corporate holiday is Valentines,  a flurry of red and pink and valentines decorations and sparkles and glitters and hearts and kittens and rainbows are everywhere I turn.   So i felt like being festive too.

Definitely one of the funnest cakes I’ve made.  Thank you Toya!!!!!!

The adorable world of cupcakes…

too darn cute.

nice icing

nevipiecakes

sharon wee creations

debbie does cakes

edible imaginations

Ugh. How sweet are these below?? Reminds me of vintage Winnie the Pooh illustrations (sort of.)

Living room cupcakes by neviepiecakes.

Craving Cookies…

Yup.  Woke up this morning with a SUPER cookie craving.  A very sweet cookie.  Mu-hahaha.  I was up @ 945am, the boy was already in the living room snowboarding shopping online (acutally just finished his purchase – so fast)!!! Anyway, he went back to sleep while I dug out a cookie recipe.  Strangely enough, didn’t want any chocolate… but something warm, brown sugary, cinnamon-y… and OATMEAL-y!  I’m really not into dried fruits, so that wasn’t going anywhere near the batter.

Haven’t had an oatmeal cookie since, this summer.  Before that… I don’t even know when!  Thus, perhaps the craving?  Searched high and low, finally decided on a recipe we used at a bakery I use to work at in Pasadena.  I had to make some adjustments to my craving, though, as there was no cinnamon in the recipe (ahem.).  After making the cookie batter, and almost in the oven to bake, it just didn’t seem right to leave it so… plain, so toasted some raw almonds in the oven for 9 min. @ 335F, gave them a rough chop and threw them into the mix before baking off the giant cookies.

Oatmeal Almond Cookie
1/2 lb (2 sticks) Butter
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour (actual recipe states 2 cups Pastry Flour)
1/2 tsp Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
2 1/4 teaspoons Cinnamon (actual recipe did not include any cinnamon)
3 cups Oatmeal (actual recipe states 2 1/4 cups)
1 cup Almonds, toasted and chopped  (actual recipe states 1 cup raisins)

350F.  Cream butter and sugars for 2-3 min until light and fluffy.  Add in eggs 1×1.  Add vanilla.  Sift flour, baking soda/powder, cinnamon, salt into a bowl or parchment paper, and incorporate into mixer by increments of 3.  Mix until flour is just about disappeared!  (tough cookies are not tasty).  Pour in toasted nuts and your batter is done after 3-4 turns!  I couldn’t wait, didn’t want to chill the batter (nor did they need to be) and baked them right away.  2 1/2″ diameter balls of cookie dough (Yes. They were huge), baked on prepared aluminum half-sheet pan.  The balls were so big that it took 17 min to bake (at least, for me, on this morning.  Enjoy warm!  Cool completely before storing in airtight container.)

They smelled so incredibly good and cinnamon-y, butter-y, brown sugary, while baking for a long 17 min (took another initial 20 min to gather all the ingredients/mix, and toast/chop the almonds) that… I lost my craving after they came out of the oven.  (this happens quite often…) **Sigh**  Was sooooo looking forward to having them with a hot cup of coffee.  Instead. became hungry… for tacos.

I had a bite before downing 5 tacos, and sure enough were exactly what I wanted when I woke up: chewy in the middle, crisp on the sides, warm, buttery, cinnamon and sweet… The boy who isn’t really into cookies except for chocolate chip, loved them.

Tiffany’s 25th Birthday!

My cousin’s 25th birthday is on the 3rd of January.   Her parents are on a cruise and she decided to throw a huge party at their house the day after Christmas, unbeknownst to them.

Anyhow, her party was huge and a hit (as freezing as it was)!  My husband rented a blackjack dealer for her as a birthday gift…  our friend dj’d and I provided her special sweets!

Red Velvet Cake and Cream Cheese filling for her to cut into, 50 baby Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Espresso Buttercream, accented with sugar pearls.

Happy Holidays!!!

Think I gained the equivalent weight of a baby…  so much food!  We had a slightly different feast this year from the traditional American spread we usually do :)  I cooked everything and we brought it over to my new momma’s house.  8 people all together.  When I cook, I like to.  Wait, when I cook, I can ONLY go big.  Therefore cooking for 8 was SUPER FUN.   (The boy at home, when cooking for us two, he gets scared, because I cook enough for 6, and we eat SOOOOO MUCH, we can finish it all, but painfully, till every morsel is gone.)

ANYHOW (going off tangent! Forget what I was talking about.)  Oh yea, so we had a kinda funny Christmas dinner, mixed ethnic.  The food was really random, but worked… cornbread stuffing, 2 lbs of Chilean Sea Bass steaks steamed Chinese Style (soysauce, ginger, scallions), rice, dill potato salad, corn cut off cob with scallions, mashed sweet potatoes, 5 plates of different vegs… more stuff, and:

15 lbs Korean BBQ Short Ribs ( SO NERVOUS.  This was the main meat dish, KOREAN meat dish, I was making for 7 KOREAN PEOPLE, including new IN-LAWS!!!  If my marinade was a bust, there goes Christmas dinner. And an embarrassed me.  but, it turned out fine :sigh:)

(teehee. there is some leftover in the fridge still.)

Let’s move onto dessert.

This  NY cheesecake recipe is beautifully rich and creamy cut with a bit of freshness from lemon juice and zest.  Baked the cheesecake Christmas Eve in a 10″ springform pan.  mmmmmm.  Made fresh blueberry sauce topping Christmas eve as well.  I never make cheesecake because the boy doesn’t like cheese ::cries::   so, this was my chance!  After dinner all the males in the house split to watch Chargers VS Titans or take a nap, but before doing so, they all (minus my husband) made it a point for us to make an announcement when the cheesecake was going to be cut.  Some wanted to skip dinner altogether and just dig in.  i don’t think so, boys.  Was it mean we didn’t wake them?  The ones who did eat it while watching football i overheard my brother-in-law yell into the tv (or to himself):  ”its the most effin delicious cheesecake ever”   creamy white. heaven.  (recipe below)

Cheesecake
Crust:
12 graham crackers (3×5″)
1/4 cup sugar
5 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:
2.5 lbs cream cheese, softened
1.5 cups  sugar
4 eggs, large
1 cup sour cream (didn’t use reduced or fat free – let’s be real here, it’s a cheesecake, honestly did not want to sacrifice taste over calories.)
1 lemon, grated zest and 1.5 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Oven preheat to 350F.  Optional: line your springform pan with parchment paper (I personally like to line all my cake pans with parchment before baking, so the beautiful and time-consuming cake does not stick to the pan!)  Spray your 10″ (9″ is fine as well) springform pan bottom with non-stick spray.  In your blender or food processor, pulse sugar, melted butter, and crackers.   Press cracker mixture on bottom of pan and up sides.  I actually spread out the crumbs then use a glass cup (make sure the bottom is completely flat) to press it down.  Results are more neat, less messy, and just so much easier than using your fingers.   Bake for 10 min if in a dark non-stick pan.  Bake for 15 if in professional/aluminum pan.  Turn oven down to 325F.

Put a pot/kettle of water to boil while making your cheesecake filling.  Cheesecake:  Beat cream cheese in your stand mixer until smooth (couple min).  MAKE SURE TO SCRAPE DOWN SIDES OF BOWL (very important).  Beat in sugar until fluffy (couple min). SCRAPE DOWN BOWL.   Beat in eggs, 1×1.  SCRAPE DOWN BOWL.  (If you do not scrape down bowl between each step and often, your cheesecake will mix lumpy and there is no reversal once the eggs are in! ewwwwwwwwww.)  Once eggs are completely incorporated, do not mix much more after.  Beat in your lemon juice and zest with a few more turns.  Beat in sour cream.  Set Aside.

Line the bottom of your crust-ready-springform-pan with aluminum foil, making sure the aluminum foil goes up 1″ up the sides of your pan.  Set in a large roasting pan.  Pour cheesecake filling over crust.  Place the cheesecake/roaster pan on the rack you want to bake it in.  CAREFULLY pour in boiling water into the roaster pan – do NOT SPLASH INTO YOUR CHEESECAKE PLEASE! and only pour in enough water to come up 3/4 of the way up the aluminum foil on your springform pan (the point is to not have any water get through – soggy waterlogged cheesecake is YUCKY.)  I baked my cheese cake for 1hr 20 min exactly in a 10″.   Cheesecake should be jiggly in the middle when you take it out, so don’t be afraid if it is!  Carefully take roasting pan out out of oven (leave cheesecake still in waterbath) and let cool for 1/2 hr.  Using a flat metal spatula, loosen sides of cheese from pan (prevent cracking).  Take cheesecake out, take off foil, and cool completely on a cooling rack.  Cover top of pan with foil and place in fridge overnight.

Fresh Blueberry Sauce
1 lb blueberries (can be frozen)
1/2 cup plus 1.5 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Combine cornstarch with lemon juice and mix well in small bowl.  Place all ingredients into a saucepan and pour cornstarch/lemon juice mixture over.  Cook at medium-high heat.  Bring up to a simmer, then cook for 5 more minutes thereafter.  Let it cool completely before storing in fridge in an airtight container.  Chill overnight before serving!

Baby cupcakes are happiness!

A bride and her soon-to-be family came in for a cake tasting this past rainy Monday!  The bride and groom were mainly interested in the Red Velvet.  I prepared baby cupcakes for them to sample:  Red Velvet with a super rich cream cheese frosting, Devil’s Food with Espresso Buttercream, and Devil’s Food with Green Tea Buttercream…  So cute enough, the couple, who are having their wedding in Orange County, have a “Red Baron” theme running through their wedding, and wanted me to create a “Red Baron” taking off on a runway up the cake!

A lil’ bit of autumn decadence… for work!

Its fall.  IS IT FALL?  or is it now winter??  Anyhow, during the holidays, I always purchase a liberal amount of canned Libby’s Pure Pumpkin as they are delicious, abundant, in your face at the market, and on sale!  and…  i just LOVE pumpkin.  To eat, to touch their hard cool skin, to stare at, to hug.   YAY.  Pumpkins.

Okay, back to the point.  I accidentally purchased a can of Libby’s Pumpkin Pie (Pumpkin with added sugar and spices).   But there was no way I was going to throw away a 30 oz. can!  All pumpkin recipes  I own are only for Pure Pumpkin so did a search online and found a  pumpkin bread on Libby’s website (it was not easy finding recipes with the Pumpkin Mix – I was hesitant on substituting since there is added sugar and spices and didn’t want to misjudge!).  I did make some alterations – instead of apple juice, I substituted plain yogurt, omitted the pumpkin spice and added 2 3/4 tsp cinnamon and 1 1/4 tsp of ginger and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg, omitted nuts (you can substitute dried cranberries, but I’m not much of a fruit gal if I’m going for something rich and heavy.)

Already knowing I wanted  cream cheese with this (love cream cheese), had a 3lb brick in the fridge ready to go.  First made the pumpkin bread recipe in my trusty KitchenAide mixer 600 Series,  then preheated the oven to 335F.  Pour the finished batter into a clean bowl.  Wipe the mixing bowl clean with a paper towel, and add:

1.5lb (or 3-8oz) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
(cream the above two ingredients until creamy and smooth ~3 min)
3 eggs  (add in 1×1)
(mix until eggs are fully incorporated into cheese mixture)

Pour 2/3 of  pumpkin batter into a 9×13″ parchment lined, sprayed (with Pam), springform pan.   Spread batter to cover bottom of pan.  Carefully pour all of cream cheese mix over batter.  Spread out evenly over pumpkin batter.  With a large spoon, carefully spoon (dot) the remaining 1/3 pumpkin batter over cream cheese mix.  Swirl with a knife.  Bake for 30 min.  Rotate pan and bake for another 30 min (may need an extra 5 min depending on your oven.)  Check at 55 min first, if your toothpick comes out clean, take it out!  (This baby was HEAVY.)

I baked the Pumpkin Cheese Coffeecake Tuesday night and waited until Wednesday morning to cut into so that babe could take it to work.

I ate one.  I think I ate it with my eyes closed.  Felt super sinful.  Thank goodness he took the rest to work.  I would have done some serious damage.  OH YEA.  He does not eat anything pumpkin unless its pumpkin pie.  And only on Thanksgiving day.  Therefore, I didn’t get a review from him, but his people loved em!  Try them next time you are in the mood to bake.  WILL NOT regret.  ::giggles::

Cute Cakes

There are  so many cute cakes out there in cake-land!

Bride and Groom cake toppers have become passe’, but they may be making a comeback… in different forms.   Here are a couple playful wedding cakes found at TheKnot.  LOVE.

Argyle Print-Flowers and Dots-Multi Stripes-Japanese Skeleton Toys!

I’m a HUGE insect fan… to LOOK at.  Most give me the heeby-jeebies if they come within a feet of my skin.

(Vanilla Bakery’s butterflies really grabs the attention, simple but edgy.)

Our Wedding (well, cake)

Our wedding just recently passed on October 3,  I wish we have the pictures from our photographer now to post!

Brian, my husband, will only eat chocolate cake – i eat ALL CAKES, but love coffee as well.   It was perfect to combined the two.  Devil’s food cake (with a super generous amount of espresso added into the cake batter!) and espresso buttercream…..

I’ll post wedding details at a later date when we get the professional pictures, but here are a few of the wedding cake I made (it was certainly a feat only a few days before the event while also making favors.)…

The moths were made by using thyme twigs from my herb “garden” with skeleton leaves as the wings (courtesy of Martha Stewart’s wonderful online crafts DIY section!!!!  LOVE Martha.   She’s so smart and talented.)  Fondant flowers are 2 different sized mums and hydrangeas… and the finishing touch, thick black satin bows.

Here she was as I was trying to figure out on placement of the flowers… took some pictures to email Brian for approval – after all this was half his wedding! (I did not want to pluck off any decorations he didn’t like, and see a great big hole left behind!  Ew.)

He approved.

OKAY.  I can’t resist….  Ill post a few more pictures…

PROGRAMS:   Handmade the tags first, writing the names out with the old school calligraphy pen dipped into ink…  They were then scanned and uploaded onto the computer for printing.   Thank goodness for Theresa.  She and I put these programs together (8 hrs straight, 5 hrs on my own before that from printing/cutting/gluing) with black and golden twine-ish yarn, skeleton leaves, and a  12 page program!  (I love reading programs at weddings but find there are never nearly enough words in them!  This program included a couple of horoscopes, appetizers, dinner menu, letters to our guests…)  We spent so long on them, both our backs started to ache, Theresa said if she found any lying on the floor or in the parking lot she was going to pick them up and take them home.   LOL.  Afterwards, we found only about 1/2 were taken figuring each couple only took one.  I still have like 80 of them – couldn’t bear to throw them out!

Escort Cards: The escort cards were simple, made of plain black cardstock.  Mr… Mrs… Ms… following with a picture of a cow, fish, mushroom, or baby giraffe!…  Surrounding a birdcage filled with 180 Ghiredelli Chocolate Squares!

Flowers:  Very particular about the flowers since that was the only thing I didn’t really have hands on (other than the food and linens – food is always my #1 concern, and was not worried, as we had more food anyone could finish and the Trump’s dishes are super delicious).  Lets face it, flowers really express who the marring couple are.   Or shall I say reflect who the bride really is, in most cases.   We found a family friend to do the flowers for me.  There was a language barrier, but, was eventually able to to tell her exactly what I envisioned and we worked it out for the most part (whew!).   I love nature… and trees, well, tree branches, and insects… and Halloween.   ;)  And balls of flowers. And Alice in Wonderland.  LOL.  That was direction I was going towards, but not so much that it was very noticable nor too “childish” (for his sake.)  I did convince him at least to have the wedding in October.  Below is a picture of the ceremony and the 2 manzanita trees with hanging balls of red and white roses.

Okay, that is enough.  More when I get pictures from our photographer…

Wedding fit for a Queen… queen of cuteness.

September wedding at Marvimon’s Smog Shoppe in Culver City – absolutely gorgeous, eclectic, and chic!  The bride happens to be a close friend of mine who just loves cute darling things.  :)  of course, she opted for 200 mini cupcakes.  A 6″ rich devil’s food cake with espresso buttercream filling was placed on the top tier for her and her husband to cut into!  The cake and mini cupcakes were topped with vanilla espresso buttercream and fondant pearls/balls/flowers.  The bride found the vintage crown cake topper (LOVE!!!) at the Pasadena Flea Market – she was told it came straight from England!  If it did or not, doesn’t matter, absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!  Super cute for a super cute couple.

*If interested in Candy Buffet, email me!

60th Birthday Cake

This was ordered August 2008 for a gorgeous lady’s 60th birthday.  I delivered it to Porterhouse Bistro in Los Angeles for her surprise birthday!

Red Velvet cake, Vanilla Buttercream Filling, Fondant Icing and decoration, Dried Natural Flowers

Lemon Shortbread Wedding Favors

A bride who had wanted to come in for a tasting for her wedding last May asked if I could make individual favors for her… Well of course I could, dear bride – would never pass up such a fun opportunity!  Unfortunately, I was not available their wedding day to create the wedding cake for them, but the favors were definitely do-able!

Fresh Lemon Zest buttery melt in your mouth Shortbread Squares was what she decided on!   :)  Delicious choice!