Part 2 of asian tradition: the 100th day celebration for baby!  The day to celebrate and wish for the baby to live 100 years.  (I believe this tradition originates from Korea).  As we did a full moon celebration for Abigail’s full moon, we kept this one low key.  Immediate family for a dinner only.  And since I didn’t make a cake for the full moon celebration, I’m not missing the chance this time!

I wanted to make this cake extra special, so a week or so prior, I started planning little elements I would add to the cake: Sparkly Cake Topper, her name in Royal Icing, and Butterfly fondant accents.

1. Sparkly Cake Topper

Since I don’t have a very cool machine like a Cricut to do this sort of thing, I did it old school way – by hand/xacto knife.  The Dollar store had a pack of 2 silver glitter cardstock for $1.50.  I took a 1/4 of it to make this.  (save the rest of course).  Printed the design on regular paper first, and then traced it on the cardstock. Carefully slice it out.  And then traced the 2nd copy, but flipped (Mirrored) so that it will fit on the other side.  I chose to make 2 layers as the cardstock wasn’t super sturdy and I didn’t want the sign to wobble.  Hot glue 2 toothpicks on, and then put the 2 layers together…voila:

Sparkly 100 Day Cake Topper

With all the cakes I have made for family and friends over the  years, there was no way I would not do the same for my Ellie girl’s first birthday!  I looked online for inspiration – something that didn’t have flour in it.  Ellie isn’t intolerant to grains, but figure why put it in if I can avoid it.  Got enough inspiration, so got to it. super easy, enough to make one ramekin sized cake for my pup.

She didn’t leave my side the entire time, and got to reap the rewards of licking the spoon and bowl clean!

Ellie even sat by the oven while it was baking…to be honest, it did smell pretty good

Shot of the pupcake before frosting:

Added a coconut oil frozen bone for decoration, plus a candle of course, and voila!

is this made for me?!

I’m crazy about mangos (mangoes?)!  Though I actually can’t eat so many as my tummy tends to hurt after (boo!)  I have been “studying” on making a mango mousse cake – something new for me and was excited to have a friend’s bbq to try it out!  Then I loved decorating it so much, I made a 2nd one for my father in law for a belated father’s day dinner with a slight variation.

Mango Mousse Cake

Derrick, a friend who we call our 30-something teenage son, made a request just for his birthday.  Complete with a story of his childhood birthdays, his wish was to have a homemade black forest cake for his birthday.  Haven’t made one in a long while, but was up for the challenge.  That week, met up with a work friend, and happen to mention that I was preparing to bake this said cake, and “coincidentally”, his son was having a birthday party, and he also loves Black Forest Cake.  hint hint hint.  damn it.  ok.  fine.  i’ll just double up on everything.  Never made identical desserts on the same go before, had quite a line assembly going in the kitchen.

Happy with the result, did my own cherry filling though may make it more tart next time.  Result of my work in the fridge:

Everytime I ask Nick what he would like me to make for dessert, it’s almost a guaranteed response:  pavlova! Thanks to Nigella Lawson’s version, it’s quite easy to make, and absolutely delicious to eat.  I just do not make it EVERY time Nick requests it – or else I would be making it every week, and we would have diabetes and weigh 300lbs each.

I watched the movie “The Vow” a few weeks back, and this quote caught my interest:

Paige:  “I vow to help you love life, to always hold you with tenderness, to have the patience that love demands, to speak when words are needed, and to share the silence when they are not, to agree to disagree about red velvet cake, to live within the warmth of your heart, and always call it home.”

Red velvet cake…yum!  I kept thinking back on the movie as I was baking my first attempt.  It was actually quite easy – now my new favourite thing to make!

It all starts with this:

side note: I love making this so much that I went on Amazon and ordered a 3x16oz bottles (for total of $23 dollars!) – Food Basics for these little 3 tbsp bottles (28ml) was $2 each…which means that it would take 50 bottles of these to get to the 48oz from Amazon at a whopping price of $100.

Enough math – on to baking!  Preheat oven to 350F.  Get all your stuff assembled! (bamboo plant not part of it)