Ladies Lunching.

For my best friend Natalie's birthday this year, she decided to throw a cute little lunch for us girls and it was so adorable! No detail was too small for her beautiful day, from the food to our place cards...everything was perfect. 

My place setting.

With the birthday girl. 

Our delicious lunch. 

Fruit and champs. 

The pretty, pretty table. 

Some of the desserts :).

Dessert table with nail polish as our party favors.

Happy Birthday Natalie!

After having our drinks and lunch, we each painted our own pumpkins. Overwhelmed by the cuteness? Yeah so were we!

Perfectly Sweet.

I took a break for an afternoon treat today at this spot my friend, Fadia, had told me about. I love sweets, but not so much when they are overly sweet, and this place had the perfect marriage of sugar and deliciousness in their pastries and desserts. It's even in the name...Perfectly Sweet! It's a small drive to Alhambra, but totally worth it. This sight is something to make your eyes widen 0_0

Dulce de Leche cake, fruit tart, and Tiramisu custard cup.

Valentine Mocha Cupcakes.

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays out of the year. Most people associate Valentine's Day with romantic relationships, boyfriends, girlfriends, but I like to associate it with a day to express love to people you love most...not solely restricted to a romantic interest or spouse. For that reason, I wanted to do something special for not only my boyfriend, but for a few loved ones, so I made some delicious Valentine's cupcakes!

I tried something new and added some coffee to my cakemix to create a mocha cupcake. I also took a crack at making chocolate buttercream frosting from scratch and it turned out great. Recipe follows...

It is imperative to sift all the dry ingredients to insure there are no lumps in the mix.

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant espresso granules to 1 cup of brewed coffee to get a mocha flavor.

The finished cupcakes decorated with candy heart and chocolate chip X's and O's.

I bought some pretty pastry packaging from Michael's and gave a box each to my boyfriend, my best friend, Natalie, and my mom.

MOCHA CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups of flour
• 2 cups of sugar
• 3/4 cups of cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup of freshly brewed coffee
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant espresso granules 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and mix until combined with a spoon, a hand mixer, or electric mixer.
3. In another bowl, mix buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla.
4. With a mixer on low speed, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
5. Add the 1 1/2 teaspoons of espresso granules to a cup of hot coffee and stir to combine. With the mixer still on low, add the coffee mixture to the batter and stir to combine.
6. Distribute the batter into prepared cupcake tins.
7. Bake for 18-22 minutes until cake tester comes out clean. Let cool for 15 minutes then remove from the tin and let cool completely on a cooling rack. 

*Note that the batter will be a bit runny, but this is perfectly fine.

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

Ingredients:

• 1/2 a pound of bittersweet chocolate
• 6 ounces of semisweet chocolate
• 2-3 egg whites, at room temperature 
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 3/4 pound of unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of instant espresso powder dissolved in 1/2 teaspoon of water

Directions:

1. Chop the chocolates and place in a heat proof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.
2. Place the bowl of egg whites over the pan of simmering water and heat until warm to the touch, about 5 minutes.
3. Mix the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt in an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed for 5 minutes, until the mixture holds a stiff peak. 
4. Add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time, while beating on medium speed.
5. Scrape down the bowl and add the melted chocolate, vanilla, and espresso and mix for 1 minute until the chocolate in completely blended in. If the buttercream seems very soft, allow it to cool and beat again.

Voila!

Cakemix.

So it was my best friend, Natalie's, birthday this month and when thinking of where to take her out, I thought, yeah we could go to a nice dinner and be ordinary OR we could do something that is fun that we both love. Now, Natalie and I love to bake and decorate and we often share recipes with each other, so I found this place, Duff's Cakemix in West Hollywood that let's people use their creativity and love of baking to decorate their own cakes!

Chef Duff is from the TV show Ace of Cakes and he is the owner of this cake making studio, so you know there were tons of cool and professional tools to use to decorate the cakes. He often tapes his show in the studio, in fact we missed him and tapings by one hour! You start with a pre-made cake...we chose their flavor of the month, pumpkin chocolate chip! Then we chose fondant as the topping in our favorite colors and used dye to make additional colors of fondant. Lastly, we added some toppings like edible glitter and candies. These are the cake and designs we created...a very happy birthday to Natalie! :)

Our starting cake.

Some designs we created.

Our final product!

Happy Birthday Natalie!

25

In my circle of friends, we celebrate our birthdays on the actual day and continue celebrating until a week or two after..what other way would you want to celebrate your birthday? Birthdays come once a year, celebrating yourself is only appropriate. These are the highlights of birthweek celebrations...

My week started with a romantic dinner with my boyfriend.

Houston's, Pasadena.
Recommended entrées: Thai steak noodle salad, French dip sandwich. 
Recommended wine: Belle Glos Pinot Noir.

Next I celebrated with my family.

Birthday balloons from my best friend.

Pink ombré cake with strawberries and Kit Kat made by my mom. 

                     

Me and my best friend, Natalie.

Finally, I celebrated with all my friends at one of my favorite bars, Sassafras Saloon in Hollywood. 

Revolving whiskey bottles at the bar.

My girls.

Spin the wheel, for your drink price.

L'amour. 

Homemade cinnamon and chocolate chip cupcakes for all.

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so memorable this year. I love you all!

Haute Cakes!

Attention Hautties…Cupcakes are sooo last year, and Haute Cakes are in! Better known as “cake balls”, Haute Cakes are homemade bite sized desserts perfect for any occasion. I ordered these for my birthday this past April, and they were a huge hit with all my friends. It was the perfect sized treat to take to the bar where I held my party and their portability made them easy (AND DELICIOUS) to eat there. The baker of Haute Cakes, is really sweet and tailored to my desires. I ordered four flavors, and she even gave me a few of her other flavors to take home. Haute Cakes come in a variety of flavors including traditional Classy Chocolate and Whimsical White and some other alluring flavors such as Velvet Vixen, Sassy Strawberry, and Perilous Peanut Butter. My personal favorite was Stunning Cinnamon :) 

                http://myhautecakes.com/