This cake was part of a big surprise for my mom's birthday. She thought she was coming up to have dinner with me ut little did she know other people were waiting for her at the hotel, including her brother and my brother that live out of town. The second surprise was a dinner with 20 members of our family at a Korean BBQ place that she enjoyed. Her last surprise was a trip to Disneyland. She hasn't been to Disneyland in over 10 years so she was super happy about that one. 

This cake was served after dinner. My mom loves the color red and she's a florist so I thought I should make a red flower. This is now my third sugar flower and I would say it is becoming pretty easy for me to make. I actually really enjoy making these flowers and I am determined to learn how to make other flowers besides the peony. As for the rest of the cake, I wanted to keep it simple and modern. I didn't want to take too much focus away from the flower. I just added a little gold leaf and a modern cake topper made by a friend. 

The flavor of the cake was inspired by one of my mom's favorite cookies, the Samoa Girl Scout Cookie. I made a different version earlier this ear bust wasn't super happy with the outcome. This cake I made with chocolate cake layers instead of vanilla and added homemade shortbread cookie crumbs instead of the actual Samoa cookie. ​

This past weekend was full of surprises. It started off with a surprise birthday I set up for my boyfriend, Greg. I set up a night of bowling with a few of his friends after taking him to dinner. The surprise was sort of ruined becasue dinner ran very quickly and I had to figure out how to stall. So during dinner he kind of realized something was up. But, all that mattered was that he enjoyed the night with his friends. Although the party wasn't so much a surprise, he was surprised that I had made him a cake and it was already at the venue =).

So rewind back to earlier that morning. He had golf scheduled with his brother that morning and would be gone for about 5 hours, so that was the window I had to make this cake. I had made the cake layers and frosting earlier in the week so once he left I began the decorating. Oh, by the way, he told me the flavor profile he wanted already but he thought I would be making the cake for the following week for a dinner with his family. Anyways once he left I got to decorating. This was the first time I made spheres. It was kind of difficult because they kept melting in my hand. I ended up getting enough of them to work. I used luster dust to create the different colors on the cake. I added a constellation of his initials on the bottom right corner. I wanted to create an abstract galaxy cake and I think I was able to achieve that. Once I finished the cake, I boxed it up and drove it to the venue, and got back before he got home from golfing. It is very hard to surprise someone with a cake when you live with them and see them every day, but I did it! He was not expecting a cake that night and he was very please with both the design and the taste of the cake. Mission completed!​

This cake is one of the five Girl Scout cookie cakes I am planning on making. I bought five boxes with the full intention of making a cake inspired by each flavor. I will also be using the cookies as part of the actual cake and decoration. 

For this Tagalong cake, I didn't want to just make the same chocolate peanut butter cake that I always make, but I wanted to highlight my favorite part of the cookie...the actual cookie! I made a buttery vanilla cake to mimic the buttery cookie in the Tagalong. I really like the way all the flavors mesh together and I think it goes perfectly with the actual cookie. 

By the way, I still and always call these cookies Tagalongs even though some are called Peanut Butter Patties. I was a Girl Scout when I was younger and that's what they were called. I remember loving being a Girl Scout and selling cookies. I loved doing things to earn my badges. The Girl Scouts taught me a lot and this was kind of a way to show my appreciation towards a great organization. ​

This cake is the second of the five of my series of Girl Scout cookie cakes. I've been wanting to make a lemon cake for some time now but I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. I wasn't sure how many people actually like lemon cake. Boy was I hit with a huge surprise! I had so many people comment on how lemon was they're favorite flavor. I brought the extra slices to work and I was the most popular person at the office that day. Everyone loved it, it was gone before lunchtime!

I am so in love with the way this cake came out. The flavors are exactly how I imagined it. The cake is light and fluffy with a slight lemon flavor. The lemon curd is tart and the cookies give the cake some texture. The cream cheese frosting and white chocolate ganache give the cake enough sweetness to balance out all the tart. Oh, and did I mention that I am so happy with the decor as well! It simple yet sophisticated and goes perfectly with my new Hearth & Hand cake stand Greg got me. ​

​Thin Mints are definitely a fan favorite. It has a light crunchy cookie that has a light minty flavor. For this cake I wanted to mimic the light minty flavor, so instead of adding artificial mint extract to the cake and/or the frosting, I added Thin Mint crumbs to the chocolate buttercream. The crumbs add a texture element to the cake while adding just enough mint flavoring. I was very happy with how this cake turned out. I wanted a simple design that highlighted the cookie and I feel like I did just that. ​

​This was by far my favorite cake of my Girl Scout Cookie Cake Series. The cake layers were made with actual graham cracker crumbs. The crumbs made the texture of the cake a little gritty, which doesn’t sound pleasant, but it was similar to the texture of the cracker itself. Although it was gritty, it was soft, fluffy, and delicious. As for the marshmallow, I made a homemade fluff and made sure to toast it a bit to bring out the “campfire” flavor. All the flavors combined perfectly and really highlighted the key points of a real s’more. ​

I, like many, love Samoas/Caramel Delights. I especially love them straight out of the freezer. I knew I had to include these delicious little cookies in my Girl Scout Cookie cake series. Many cakes I looked at were made with chocolate cake but I wanted to mimic the cookie so I used my vanilla cake recipe. As for the filling, I made a toasted coconut and salted caramel Italian meringue buttercream which is beyond delicious! I found that toasting the coconut added another depth of flavor as well as another texture.
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I struggled most with the design of this cake. I had an idea in mind but, in my opinion, I did not execute it well. The top made a weird dome-like shape which I really did not like. I made a ring from the salted caramel and some toasted coconut. The ring became so hard it was inedible. My goal when decorating all these cakes was to highlight the cookie, make it obvious which cookie was being used. I think I achieved that but I know I would decorate it differently if I had to make it again. Just know, besides the décor, the cake tasted exactly as I imagined. ​

This cake was for one of my good college friends named Darryl. The reason this cake is called the Day-Rell is because for the longest time I didn't know how to spell his name, so this is how I spelled it. Don't worry, I finally learned. 

Anyways, let's move on to the design and flavor of this cake. First, he likes peanut butter so that's why I went with this cake flavor. Second, recently him and his wife, one of my good friends too, bought their first house and I was inspired by their decor. Also, his favorite color is red, so I made sure to include that in the design. I struggled a little while frosting this cake because this was my first square cake and that makes it a little difficult. I also accidentally cut the triangles too big so I had to go back and trim them. As for the cake topper, I made that out of small wooden sticks I found at Michaels. It's an artistic/geo-modern "D" (for Darryl if you didn't figure that out). 

This cake brought along some challeges but I am very happy with the final product. I really enjoy making these "geo-modern" cakes and hope to make more soon. ​

One of my good friends from college, Joey, was turning the big 3-0 and decided to celebrate it at a bar in Long Beach. Joey is one of my closest friends so I needed to do something special. I knew exactly what type of cake I wanted to make. His girlfriend said he loves red velvet so that's how I came up with the flavor. 

I had made a anti-gravity beer cake in the past but I used fondant for the beer coming out of the can. This time around I wanted to do something a little different. I wanted to make it actually look like beer, so I used pulled sugar instead. To my surprise, it wasn't too difficult to melt and mold the sugar and I think the color came out perfect! Despite burning myself with the hot sugar, I think it turned out great. 

Oh, I should mention the slight headache I experienced when I tried to take a picture of this cake. I took it out to the pool area because it had the most light. I was adjusting it slightly when suddenly something slipped and my fingers went right through the whipped cream foam. Luckily, the foam was an easy fix and the cake got to the bar in one piece. ​

I was so honored when two of my good friends approached me and told me it would mean so much to them if I made their wedding cake. I was so touched that they even considered me as an option. This would be my first wedding cake and they trusted me! I went over different designs with the bride, Cynthia, and she decided on a cinnamon semi naked cake. This cake was only for the cake cutting between Cynthia and her husband, Darryl. They had their caterers name sheet cake that would be passed out to everyone. 

This was the first multi tier cake I ever made and it was going to be part of a wedding where the cake cutting portion is kind of a big deal...yah I was nervous. I watched plenty of YouTube videos on how to stack the cake that were really helpfull. I used milkshake or boba tea straws as a support. Everything turned out great and the bride and groom were very pleased. They even froze the cake and tried the cake again a year later (a tradition) and said it was still good...at least for a cake that's been frozen for a year =P. ​