This year, Facebook has exposed me to many talented cake decorators in the country, Malaysia and Australia. People like Way Beyond Cakes by Mayen, she is a stay at home mom, avid baker with a generous nature, she believes to share her skills so people like me who learns from the web can benefit, she is very creative and helpful. God bless her heart!

I am still a sucker for desserts of all kinds. I fell in love with the Chantilly cake (spongy cake with light whipped heavenly cream sandwiched between seasonal fresh fruits)  from Whole Foods this year at my niece’s graduation party at Walnut Creek, I bought a chocolate version of it, it was good but heavy, the vanilla version tasted better.

Then there are cupcakes and cake pops, I still believe that Cupcakes Bakery – Herndon and Cedar location, Fresno, is the best! You can taste fresh ingredients used, I love their carrot cupcake! I have yet to try their pineapple upside down cupcake. I have quit Sugar Shack-Sommerville & Perrin, Fresno. One day, the artificial taste in the buttercream and the cake itself, hit me like a bus. I was floored. Maybe my taste buds had heightened after watching so much reality food shows, I learned how to eat with sight, smell and taste. Sugar Shack’s cupcakes stand out in terms of presentation and the heavenly looking swirl of buttercream on a huge cupcake in a brown liner. Attractive! Not for me, taste wise – I still shiver with the intense artificial sugary taste in the swirls and the cake itself, nothing I can sing about. Then there is the Frosted Cakery at Tower District, I went once, loved the salted caramel cupcake, but I could not bring myself to go back for more, because that gummy taste of a chocolate cupcake which I can’t seem to shake off.

My other sugar fix is Starbucks, cranberry bliss bar, it is a good thing they bring it around Christmas season only, I had so many – I am about to shiver. Too much of a sweet thing is never good.

I am also a huge fan of seafood, I pass by Ruth Chris every morning I go to work. Finally, I had my eleborate dinner there for Christmas, big disappointment, snooty waiter, my 3.5 male live Maine lobster was left cold when served and re-heated that it became tough. My whole entree was ruined. Will never dine at that place again, if you pay me too!

Then I went to buy some steamers clam from Save Mart for Christmas, $3.99 per pound. Lesson learned, never buy any seafood from Save Mart again, get them at Whole Foods and Costco! How can you sell smelly clams esp. when they smell so bad when you are shoving them in the bag for me! Crappy clams!

Cake pops! Everyone is making them, even Starbucks and every cupcake joint! Starbucks cake pops – not good! Some looked pretty, taste is not there.  Guess what I make good tasty cake pops, I learned from several sources and combined them, out comes the tasty cake pop!

2011 has been good, hoping for a safer, better and happier 2012 for everyone, I always believe, what comes around goes around, help a fellow neighbor or a passer-by, put a smile on someone’s face but never at another person’s expense. Pay if forward.

Happy New Year!

The above is my personal opinion from my personal experiences. Freedom to speak my mind because I paid for all my purchases.

I took my first bite at the claw meat, it was a little dry and tough, went in for the juicier part of the lobster, nice! I noticed a drastic temperature difference. My lobster was almost at room temperature. I spoke with the other head server which I will not put his name here, for 2 reasons, 1. If someone is not worthy of mention, don’t do it! 2. I don’t waste my time on bad servers with attitude!

He suggested to put it under the broiler for a few moments. I asked him won’t my protein go tough on me. His typical answer is oh no! Guess what it came back tough and chewy.

I had to send it back. The hostess came to apologize and removed the dish from the bill. She offered other suggestions but I was so looking to eat my lobster but my appetite was gone.

We then proceeded to desserts, i got to taste cheesecake, creme brulee, chocolate lava explosion and coffee. Again what is the deal with lukewarm coffee here! My husband loved the lava dessert and the creme brulee was good. The cheesecake is average.

Verdict: This is fine dining, a certain standard is expected for service, food quality and taste, food presentation and finally overall environment.

My personal experience of the place is 7/10, nice ambience and exciting!

Food quality and taste: 6/10 – blame it on the lobster debacle and pina colada strange after taste and I paid for it in the bathroom later in the night, must be the coco lopes in the pina colada.

Food presentation: average cos it is a steak house

Service: personally I was disturbed with what they did to the lobster, I think it sat on the counter till the other entrees were ready before they brought it out. Big mistake! Then reheating it, second big mistake! Any food and beverage individual should know understand that if someone ordered a market price live 3.5 pound of heavenly protein aka in this case my boy lobster, he deserves special attention and reheating seafood is a big no! Just get me another one done right!

Will I go back to this place? No. Reason for poor execution in food and that snooty head server of ours from my 2 encounters with him-during trips to the powder room, he should at least fake a smile at me, not just at my hubby’s boss!

Delightful when it arrived, cold to my lips, why or why!

Salty lobster tail and sure look rustic to me in terms of presentation!

Almost a hit, but no repeats!
Ruth’s Chris Fresno

Happy Motherhood, Megan!

I made about 60 cupcakes with Dora theme toppers and smash cake for Roslyn. I added a special effect where the smash cake rotates, thanks to Mayen, from https://www.facebook.com/#!/WayBeyondCakesByMayen.

The lovely cupcakes sat on a spiral metal tower display which was handmade by my friend, Derek.

Photo by Carli Morgan Photography

Photo by Carli Morgan Photography

The Westersund wedding cake is chocolate mud cake layered with ganache covered with buttercream, followed by champagne tinted fondant. The bottom tier is 14″ round 6″ height, middle tier is 10″ round 8″ height, lastly the top tier is 6″ round dummy tier with fondant decorations and rhinestones belt – for bride to keep.

Things I learned from this cake:-

1. Wedding cake pedestal – a must for wedding cakes! I bought on Ebay for $90, a 20 inches round aluminium. The pedestal gives the cake extra height and a majestic feel to it. It is a good investment.

2. The Mat by Sweet Wise – another tool I found very useful, for the first time my fondant covered middle tier looked immaculate. The Mat is food safe vinyl mat which is an excellent tool for rolling out fondant to cover cakes, if you are like, who keep wishing for fondant sheeter. The Mat costs $19 on Amazon.com

Everyone raves about how good Satin Ice-endorsed by celebrity cake bakers. I do not agree. I used it once long time ago, here is my old post. http://xoxodesigns.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/amore/

I still hate using it. It has a indecisive texture to it. When I roll it out to cover my bottom tier, cracks appeared, luckily the bottom tier was designed with ruffles. I used Satin Ice to make roses, comparing to my normal 50 wilton 50 duff fondant combo, the petals on Satin Ice roses cracked easily. It still smells funny to me.

The talented Edna dela Cruz’s creation using the topsy turvy pans.

I buy most of my baking and cake decorating stuff online nowadays, because it is easier and I am trying to avoid going to my local bakery supply store in town because of their unprofessional customer service. My point in case, I will take my spending to somewhere else and pay a little more sometimes for shipping, but I can deal with that. Then I found Petal Crafts online during one of my blog reading sessions late nights. www.petalcrafts.com
Owner-Kaye H. is known for her sugar flowers and jewelry making talent! I bought several items from her to make high heels from fondant. It was like any other purchases. Then I liked her company on FACEBOOK. She does monthly giveaways for stuff that people like me –  would love to own but strapped with cash in this gloomy economy of ours. I was lucky to be the August 2011 winner and received a prize of $130 worth, it is the latest topsy turvy pans-6″ 8″ 10″ 12″. I was late to claim the prize due to Internet failure over labor day weekend. In addition to that, I was lucky that her fans on FB gave me another chance to claim the prize and today, I received my topsy turvy pans! There is more to this experience with Petal Crafts.

I was declared the August winner around 9/8 and gave all the necessary info for shipment. Almost 2 weeks – I did not receive my prize and so I emailed Kaye personally, she was sure she forwarded the necessary info to her warehouse staff. Then she found out she did not do so and she apologized.

5 Points in being a Great Person in anything you do!
1. Always be nice.
2. Always be nice without an agenda.
3. Sincerely own up to your mistakes.
4. If you are able to make someone’s day special, do something EXTRAORDINARY!
5. Be humble in all you do.

Kaye scored all 5 of these POINTS with me.
The part I appreciated the most, she apologized sincerely, she went an extra mile to make sure I got the pans asap! She incurred some shipping charges via Priority Overnight so I can get my prize!

So I endorse, www.petalcrafts.com for their great products and great customer service!

It came with 48 sets of toppers for cupcakes.

To see more of the cake in action, go to here.

The top left one is da bomb, salted caramel.

I visited Frosted Cakery last weekend. It was at historic Tower District, it is a quaint little shop with ample parking on the side of the building. As you enter, you are greeted with cupcakes at the front counter and the back is the open kitchen where all the cake decorating work is done! I met the owner, whose father owned the former Jimmy’s Bakery in Clovis. It is a family run business, nice people!
The cupcakes came in a brown box with a clear top. Finally, someone is willing to spend the monies on packaging that makes the cupcakes shine! However, the customers will be paying the price of the nice packaging. They had canolies, French macarons (not the coconut macaroons where spelling mistake always occurs) and cake pops.

For my initial visit, I purchased 3 dozens of mixed variety and 6 of the gluten free/vegan. It came to $111.

Here is my likes/dislikes about this place:

1. Love the buttercream frosting, very fluffy airy, just right in terms of sweetness. Hands down winner for excellent buttercream frosting!
2. The cupcakes has different cupcake liners-but not very good quality liners like what Sugar Shack uses, sturdy brown and uniform across all types of cupcakes. I had a hard time holding my chocolate cupcake with fudge frosting (I think that is the flavor).
3. My first bite into the chocolate fudge frosting cupcake was not to my liking, the frosting has a waxy after taste and the cake itself is bland and gummy in texture, it was not my favorite.
4. Then I tried the popular salted caramel, the cake is fresh, soft like a sponge cake and love the frosting with caramel drizzle, it is to die for!
5. I do not see any visible pricing displayed like how other cupcakes places in town do. Letting your customer know the prices is a good thing!
6. They have gluten free and vegan which I love!
7. They not only sell cupcakes, they make cakes for all occasions!

I will try to go back as often as I can because of the other flavors I have not tried and also for the buttercream! I am a buttercream girl!

It is record time  (3 days) for me to complete this 21st birthday cake from a very good sister for her brother who turned 21 last week. The helmet is hand molded from RKT and wrapped in fondant. Flavor of cake: milk chocolate cake and ganache & fudge frosting. All edible except the front part of the helmet where I bent floral wires wrapped with fondant  to make the protective  face gear.