Shaggy mums....Pompoms...and a worm?

Doesn't it look store bought?

Shaggy mums....

Pompoms......

Blue worm hiding amongst the grass.....

These cute cupcakes were made for my decorating class.  The flowers are pompoms and shaggy mums. I just loved the way the shaggy mums turned out!!! They look so pretty.  As for the little blue worm, that's my own creation....pretty cool, huh? The teacher said we can do whatever we wanted too so I was in the mood for insects (due to the previous ladybug gig) and that's how the worm design came up.  I didn't feel like taking it out of the box and so sorry if the pictures are not so clear.

Pineapple Cupcake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

I got this pineapple cupcake recipe from TLC "top 5 healthy treats".  It is considered healthy because you are using crushed pineapples so you don't have to use too much sugar.  When I started making this though, I added some shredded coconut to the batter to make it more tropical.  The outcome was a very moist cake....kinda like the "pineapple upside down" cake texture where the top was shiny glaze-y golden brown color.  Supposedly, there was no frosting recommended just dust the cupcake off with powder sugar.  However, I wanted to see how it would taste like with some frosting.  So I made some coconut cream cheese frosting to top it off.  I didn't try any myself with the frosting on top but my friends did and they said it was a unique taste.  Another commented that there were too many shredded coconut.  Good to know....next time will definitely either lessen the amount of shredded coconut going into the batter or omit the whole thing...=).

Ladybugs and lizard on my cupcake?? ewwwwww!

Do you see what I see??? ladybugs and lizards....is that right? Yes! I made this because it was a request for a 10 yrs old upcoming b-day party.  It's still in the stage of testing out the design of the lizard but the lady bugs are awesome!!!  They look so cute. Of course, the actual order will have the correct colors of the bugs.  I got this idea from Martha Stewart's "Cupcake" book that my friend got for me when I told her I was going to venture into baking.  It was a pretty cool experiment and fun too.  The little crawlers were not so bad to make and I just loved the way the grass turned out.  The cupcake is a yellow buttermilk cupcake with green buttercream frosting.  The creepy crawlers were made out of the MM fondant........all edible! Can't wait to do this for the b-day girl....hope she will like it! 

Coconut Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

                                                             Someone couldn't wait to get their hands on it.....

I made this cake for my cake decorating class that I just started last week.  I figure since I'm going to try doing cakes now, why not learn some more techniques of decorating that would help me out more.  Ironicly, the design on top of the cake was a cupcake, which I thought was pretty funny since that's how I started this whole venture! ....hahahahah.  I wanted to take a picture of the whole cake but as one as can see, someone beat me to the cake before I got a chance to take the picture...(hint: hubby).  So the cake was a coconut cake that was made with coconut milk and then filled with coconut cream cheese frosting that I tinted with yellow food coloring to make it look tropical.  The cake was delicious and moist with a hint of coconut....kinda have a texture of a pound cake too.  As for the frosting outside the cake, I cheated since I freakin' forgot my buttercream frosting that I had all nicely made and packaged for class but left it at home!!! So, I had to use store bought icing and did the decorations and frosting.  The class was pretty fun and informative eventho some of the stuff I already knew prior to taking the class.  But regardless, I really enjoyed making this cake and I brought some to work to share.  So far....good reviews on the cake...so another "pat on the back" for me.......=).

Let there be cake.........

As Buzz would say "To Infinity and Beyond"

Like the title goes....."let there be cake"....is exactly what I did. After baking and testing out so many cupcakes, I figure why not venture into cake designing and decorating.  So the first cake I did was my son's birthday cake. As one can see, it was "Toy Story 3" theme and Buzz was my son's favorite character!  I initially didn't know what to think of making this cake since I never custom make any cakes before beside buying the box cake mix and just bake it and frost it as it.  Then on Saturday night while surfing the net, I googled "Toy Story 3" cake design and lo and behold.....I saw this lady making a "moon-like" cake and having the Toy Story characters on it. So I thought about it and figure that would be a great idea but didn't know where to start. 

That's when my journey lead me to marshmallow fondant (MMF).  This is just like your regular fondant but a little sweeter.  I think it kinda taste better than store bought fondant since it's freshly made..=).  So, with MMF in my hand, I started to think about the design of the cake.  That's when I figure Buzz should be the talk of the town since my son just loves him so much.  Then the design came to my head while incorporating the website ladie's idea too....a moon-like cake on top of a rounded cake, making it look out it's out of space.  As you can see, the idea and the cake came out pretty good and YES, I am pretty proud of myself...(a pat on my back).  The bottom cake was chocolate with raspberry buttercream and the top cake was just chocolate.  My son and daugther both liked it a lot and now my daughter has requested that for her b-day she would like a monkey cake!! 

So, my new adventure into custom cake design and decorating has begun!  It was a very fun and interesting learning curve for me when it came to making this cake.  But at the end, it was well worth it since it put a smile on my kids face and seeing their expressions was priceless!

Pricing and Orders......

PRICING AND ORDERING INFORMATION

•   Cupcakes* 
•  Mini:   $15.00 (doz.) or  $10.00 (3 doz. or more)
• Regular w/o frosting: $10.00 (doz.) or  $8.00 (3 doz. or more)  
• Regular w/frosting: $24.00 (doz.) or  $20.00 (3 doz. or more)  
•   Cookies 
•  Regular $7.00 (doz.) or $5.00 (3 doz. or more)
•  Regular w/nuts $8.00 (doz.) or  $6.00 (3 doz. or more)    

*Custom design cupcakes: call for price  
 **Extra Designs: add $3 to each order (candies, etc) 
 ***One design per order.  Complex Design is extra: call for price ALL CUSTOM DESIGNS NEED 3-4 WEEKS IN ADVANCE NOTICE.  


*** More designs will be posted later, Check back regularly for new creations and designs.  

Note: A minimum order of twelve (12) is required for cupcakes, custom cupcakes, muffins or cookies. You may select 1 flavors for each dozen order or 2 flavors for two or more dozen orders.

• Cupcakes/Cookies: Orders should be placed ONE WEEKS in advance by either email or Facebook contact. The available flavor selection for cupcakes/cookies are listed under the CHI-CAKES List of Flavors.
• Custom Cupcakes: Orders should be placed THREE WEEKS in advance.

CHI-CAKES List of Flavors

Cupcakes:

• 18 Carrot: Carrot Cupcakes with Cream cheese frosting
• Velvetly Red: Red Velvet cake with Cream cheese frosting
• Peanut Butter Brownie: Chocolate Browine-like cake with Peanut butter frosting
• Mango Delight: White cupcakes infused with mango and roasted coconut flakes with mango icing
• Strawberry: Strawberry cupcakes with Strawberry frosting
• Chocolate: Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream frosting
• Chocolate Pretzel: Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache icing, topped off with pieces of salted pretzels
• Hawaiian Getaway: Coconut pound cake-like with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
• Pina Colada : Pineapple cakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
• Funky Monkey: Chocolate banana cake with creamy peanut butter frosting
• Chocolate Heaven: Chocolate cake with ganache silky frosting
• Triple Threat: Chocolate cake with chocolate chips with chocolate ganache frosting
• Maple Sunrise: Buttermilk cake with maple frosting
• Pandan Express: Pandan Chiffon cake with whipped cream frosting
• Lemonade: Lemon Chiffon cake with lemon whipped cream frosting
• Raspberry Lemonade: Lemon Chiffon cake with raspberry whipped cream frosting

Cookies:

• Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies: This cookie can also be made with a variety of extra ingredients (i.e, cranberries, walnuts, etc.)
• Original CC cookies
• CC and almond cookies

Party Favors...more in the works!

This to-go favor boxes came to mind when my friend asked if I would be interested in doing party favors for her son' baptism luncheon using the cupcakes. So I thought about what I should do and I recalled seeing on Martha Stewart's Cupcake book that she had something like this where she used these take out boxes as favors. Martha is like the "IT" person to go to when it comes to entertaining. So I took that idea but made little changes. Still in the works but I thought this is such a cool party favors to give out. Martha's concept was to just put a cupcake inside and the box is shorter, like a pint size. My concept is to put a cupcake inside the box and surround it with candies like skittles, M&Ms, etc. That would be an awesome favor for kids to open up and see their faces light up to all the sweets!!!!!!! (Sorry parents not good for you since your child might have a sugar overload after eating that!!!!) Might plan on doing this for my son's upcoming b-day party....but with small boxes with a mini cupcake inside and filled the rest with candies. stay tuned........