My best friend's wedding

My best friend got married a few weeks ago! The entire day, I had this opening scene from My Best Friend's Wedding running through my head.

My friend had a pro photographer and cake maker and florist for her wedding, but of course, she knows me well enough to have known that I would absolutely not sit idly on the sidelines. So she asked me to contribute on the fun parts for the wedding. Because how could I not when weddings incorporate some of my favorite things: flowers, photography, cake, music, and friends. :D

So here are some shots from her wedding from my point of view. I made the bouquet and decorated the cake (which was ordered plain from BiRite Creamery). My friend really wanted peonies, which are a wee bit out of season, so we woke up at 4am the morning before the wedding and hiked over to the SF Wholesale Flower Mart (an amazing place, if you haven't been) to track down fresh peonies for the cake and bouquet. I also love that it's lilac and dogwood season, so insisted on incorporated some of those into the bouquet and cake. I'm so, so pleased with how they both turned out! My cake skillz haven't completely atrophied, it seems!

As the maid of honor, I also got to tag along on the photoshoots, so naturally, I brought my own camera (You can take the girl out of the studio, but you can't take the camera from the girl? Or something). :) My friend picked these gorgeous spots around SF, including Lover's Lane, which is this beautiful trail on the southern edge of the Presidio, with tall, whispering eucalyptus and a thick, verdant blanket of wildflowers this time of year. It was such a smart choice, because the tall trees provided the perfect antidote to the high noontime sun, creating some awesomely dramatic shadows and stabs of light to photograph in. Seriously, this makes me almost want to become a wedding photographer. *almost*

(For more shots from the day, see instagram.)

Super congratulations here to my bff and her new hubby! I'm so thankful to have been a part of your guys's wonderful, wonderful celebration.

A Bamboo Flower Wedding

July has been a quiet month on desserts for breakfast, but that doesn't mean it's been a quiet month in the kitchen! Quite the opposite--a whole week of mid-July was pretty much dedicated to churning out a set of wedding cakes! We had three stand mixers going, four pairs of hands in the kitchen, and went through mountains of butter and eggs, a Costco-sized bag of flour, and a whole lotta sugar.... whew!

It's been a while since I last made a wedding cake, and now I remember full well why: because the recovery from attempting such a project in a small, non-commercial kitchen is almost as exhausting as making the cake itself. My dish rack is still piled with spatulas, mixing bowls, and piping tips that I have yet to get around to putting away. But, recovery is coming slowly, and even as I type, there's a sweet something chilling in the fridge that I'll hopefully get to share on the blog soon.

I have to say that my favorite part of making a wedding cake is crafting the sugar flowers and decorating the final pieces. For this wedding, Helen and Evan--the bride and groom, and incidentally, my cousin and cousin-in-law!--had gotten married in Hawai'i a month ago and were having a separate reception here in San Francisco for extended family and friends. So for the reception decor, they wanted to tie in the tropical and Asian themes that were present at their wedding in Hawai'i: lush florals, bamboo accents, orchids, and a rustic, laid-back charm. So instead of one gigantic cake, I went for many cakes of different sizes to give the table a more casual feel. I decided to make a combination of royal and richly-colored peonies to emphasize the Asian feel, with punches of light green cymbidium orchids and hand-painted bamboo on the cakes for a uniting theme. I adore how the sugar flowers came out, even though each petal was cut, shaped, glued, painted, and glazed by hand so that every flower would be unique, like real peonies--*that* took forever.

Oh--and each cake was a different flavor: chocolate, passionfruit, raspberry-mocha, and macadamia nut mocha crunch.

I hesitated for the longest time about posting about this wedding, mainly because I hated the way the photos came out (I'm no wedding photographer!). But every now and then, I have to remind myself that this blog is ultimately a journal, and life, though sweet, isn't always perfectly placed all the time! This wedding cake is something I'll want to reminisce about ten years down the road, so of course it deserves a place on the blog. :)

A huge thanks to my best friend, Jessica, who pulled all-nighters with me to finish these cakes! and thanks to my parents who helped me transport them and clean up the disaster that was my kitchen afterwards. And, of course, a big congratulations to Helen and Evan! May you live long and prosper happily.

An Orchid Wedding

So I hinted in my last post that I had a special project that I rushed back from Thanksgiving for: this is it!  A wedding cake!  And quite possibly my favorite one that I've done to date.

Normally, I don't take wedding cake orders in the middle of the school year, much less on the weekend *right* after Thanksgiving (yes--try to cook a Thanksgiving dinner and make a wedding cake in one weekend...!) and *right* before finals/papers season.  But, when J approached me about making her wedding cake and told me that her wedding was an Asian theme, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity, especially since I'd been itching to make sugar orchids for ages now.  J was gracious enough to give me plenty of free reign in designing the cake, which I love, (her one request being that it be TALL) and when I finally sat down with her to show her my sketches, she picked out the one design that I'd sort of sketched as an improbable "fun" drawing, never meaning to make it.  But that's the one she wanted!

And I have to say, I love how it turned out!  The orchid flowers, buds, and leaves were all handmade out of sugar paste and painted with colored flower dust.  I was a bit worried for a while about how I would support the sugar orchids on a tall stem, but a trip to Home Depot totally solved that problem quickly (thanks to Anita of Dessert First and her husband, Mike, for pointing me in that direction), and the drama that the tall orchid stem added to the cake was fantastic.  People kept thinking they were real orchids on the cake, too!--even the bride, who was well-aware that I'd planned to make sugar flowers!

The cake itself was a dense dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache studded with crystallized ginger slices, mango and fresh ginger curd, and mango and vanilla buttercreams.  J and S really wanted a mango and chocolate cake, and I added the touches of fresh and crystallized ginger to tie into the Chinese theme of the wedding.  The vertical buttercream stripes on the cake were meant to provide an illusion in the height of the cake.  And I particularly liked the white sugar pearls that I added at the last moment for even more texture and detail and to reflect the sparkles in J's wedding dress.

One of the best parts of the whole day was how incredibly well the cake matched the rest of the wedding.  The rooms were all decked out in a ravishing array of beautiful orchids of every type and shape and color imaginable, with tiny orchid plants on every table as party favors for the guests to large orchids scattered about the doors and entry tables.  The orchids on the cake even matched the orchid in J's hair perfectly, though we hadn't planned it that way at all.

Congratulations to J & S for their absolutely gorgeous wedding!  Thank you so much for letting me be a special part of it!

[For dessert and cake order inquires, please write to s {at} dessertsforbreakfast {dot} com.]

A Blue and Gold California Wedding

I've been so mired up in scrambling for a big deadline in my day job this past week that my head is quite literally spinning, and I haven't given a single thought to food at all.  But, now that we finally have a draft of our submission, I can at last take some time to blog about the wedding that I did way back at the beginning of July!

Because of the growing demands of my day job, I haven't been actively seeking out dessert orders this wedding season, but when my friend M. asked me to make the wedding cake and cupcakes for her wedding, I just couldn't say no!  It was even more fitting, too, because M. and her groom, S., went to UCLA for college and planned to have a blue-and-gold, California-themed wedding, which was so. right. down. my. alley.  (Go Bears!)

The wedding was so much fun--so much so that I didn't actually get any pictures of it, save the cake!  It was a morning wedding, and M. had sewn all of these beautiful picnic blankets so that everyone could picnic on the grass under the sun for brunch.  For the cake, I wanted to reflect the California rustic theme of the wedding, with the baby blues, golden yellows, and creams.  M. and S. knew that they absolutely did not want fondant (I concur!), so I went with a rustic buttercream exterior, which complimented the laid-back summertime feel of the wedding.  Then, I made three dahlia sugar flowers because all of the flowers at the wedding were to be in-season, organic, California-grown flowers, and dahlias were indeed in season!  Finally, the cream ribbon wrapping the cake was a bit of inspiration from M.'s wedding dress, which was super cute, with a cream sash around the waist, held by a bright, baby-blue brooch.

As for the flavor of the cake, M. and S. presented me with a bit of a challenge that took me a while of deep thinking to solve.  They wanted chocolate--lots of rich, dark chocolate.  And mint.  Nothing else--no fruit, just chocolate and mint.  Finally, I decided on a black cocoa chocolate cake--as dark as you can get--flavored with Bailey's liqueur and layered with fresh mint-infused dark chocolate ganache and vanilla Italian meringue buttercream.  The fresh mint and dark chocolate went together beautifully and worked wonders for a hot summertime day!  I'm so glad I went with the fresh (home-grown, may I add) mint instead of peppermint!  The cupcake flavors were much simpler: chocolate and vanilla cake bases, with chocolate-cream cheese frosting and vanilla buttercream.

One final congratulations to M. and S. for their marriage!  Thank you so much for letting me make your cake and be a part of your special day!

A Sunflower and Pastry Wedding

So here goes the long-awaited post about Maria and Nicholas's fabulous September wedding! I've already been posting recipes from the various desserts at the wedding for a while now (vegan chocolate pumpkin cupcakes, key lime heart pies, pomegranate-basil-vodka cheesecakes), but I have yet to give you all the big picture, so here goes.

This was most definitely my largest order thus far in the history of my little pastry start-up. I not only made Maria and Nick's wedding cake, but also a whole dessert bar! We'll get to that, though. First--the cake.

Chocolate cake

with cherry filling, dark chocolate ganache,

cream cheese frosting, and sugarpaste flowers

Maria is a huge chocoholic, so she most definitely insisted on a chocolate cake, and they wanted cherry, so I decided to make a chocolate cake with dark cherry filling, dark chocolate ganache, and cream cheese frosting on the outside to balance out the darkness inside! (I don't believe in fondant and try to avoid it whenever possible.) The sunflowers were all made by hand out of sugarpaste.

I have to admit, though, as much as I liked the final result with the sunflowers and ducks (Maria and Nick have an awesome rubber duck collection!), the cake looked even better after they had cut into it and taken the first slice. I'm so glad that I was around for it--it makes me feel so special that a couple is eating a cake that *I* made for their special day.


Anyways, so now on to the good part: the dessert bar! I have to say that I love this new trend at weddings. I did another similar dessert bar set-up in August for another wedding, but that one was far simpler and involved a lot more miniature cupcakes. Maria is also a huge tea connoisseur, so she wanted to have a fabulous, miniature pastry spread for everyone to enjoy with tea post-dinner. *Right* up my alley! So I whipped up the most fantastical menu I could think up for them:


Dark chocolate truffles with crushed cacao nibs

Espresso dark chocolate truffles

Amaretto dark chocolate truffles with almonds

Chocolate cupcake with pumpkin buttercream (vegan)

Fresh fruit tart

Pomegranate-basil-vodka cheesecake

Key lime pie

White and dark chocolate dipped strawberries

Lemon pie meringues

Man, was it a spread! Three different types of handmade truffles (for the chocoholics, of course!), cheesecakes, tarts, pies, cookies, tuxedoed strawberries! Everything turned out to be quite a hit, and the desserts really flew off the tables... Yes, that's tables. Here's just one half of the set-up:


*whew* It was so much fun to do a large mini-pastry order like this, I really have to thank Maria and Nick for the chance!

Oh, and before I'm done, a quick peak at those truffles:


(What you see there off to the sides are the lemon pie meringues--basically, the best parts of a lemon meringue pie, minus the crust--and fruit tarts.)

Congrats on your marriage, Maria and Nick!

Key (Lime) to My Heart

Yet another dessert from the vast dessert table I did for Maria and Nick's wedding this past weekend (comprehensive post coming soon, I promise)!  At our first meeting, Nick mentioned that he really liked key lime pie, so I knew that I wanted, no matter what, to include it in the dessert menu.  But man, oh man! Squeezing key limes is one hell of a pain.  I've joked with several people now that if I were to open my own bakeshop and sell key lime pie, I would *have* to hire someone I couldn't stand and force them to squeeze key limes for by hand.  Or, just get someone who really enjoyed eating key lime pies.  Anyways! if you dare, I'll include the recipe here.  Or, if you have one of those handy dandy juice squeezers, you're golden, and I'm very jealous.

Key lime pie

with graham cracker crust

and dark/white chocolate hearts

By the way, these heart shaped mini-pans are just awesome.  I got mine at Sur la Table, though I couldn't find them online when I looked.  I also have the round version, which I did find on the website.  They're great pans, and mousses, cakes, cheesecakes, or tarts that I make with them always slide right out.  (of course, if you're paranoid like me, you'll take the time to line the bottoms with parchment and spray a bit of non-stick...)

Now onto the recipe (and chocolate hearts)!

Key Lime Pie

makes ~24 mini hearts

for graham cracker crust (this will make a bit more crust that you need, but better to have too much than not enough, in my book)

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (I just run store-bought graham crackers through a food processor)
1/2 tspn ground cinnamon
1/3 cup melted butter

1. Combine graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Mix in butter.
2. Press the crumb mixture into (sprayed and lined) the bottoms of the pans, about 1 Tbspn per heart.  Use something like the side of a small rolling pin to press the crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan and a little bit up the sides.
3. Put the crust in the freezer while making the filling.

for filling

2 14oz. cans condensed milk (Trader Joe's has great organic condensed milk for cheap)
8 large egg yolks (save those whites for meringues/macarons!)
2-3 Tbspn key lime zest
1 cup key lime juice (~25 key limes... have fun!)
green food coloring (I used gel coloring, so please adjust as needed)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Combine milk, yolks, zest, and juice in a bowl.  Whisk until smooth.  Whisk in one to two drops of food coloring for a light green color.
3. Pour mixture into the crumb-prepared pans, filling about to about two-thirds full.  Bake for 13-15 minutes until the center looks set but moves like jello when you give the pan a bit of a gentle shake.
4. Remove from oven and let cool completely.  Keep the pies in the pans until you are ready to serve.

To make chocolate hearts:

Melt chopped chocolate gradually in the microwave in a microwave-safe bowl or in a double boiler.  Pour the melted chocolate into a disposable piping bag or parchment triangle.  Be careful! The chocolate is very hot!  If it's too hot to hold, wrap a dish towel or paper towel around it so you don't burn your hands.  Then, pipe small heart shapes on a piece of parchment paper or Silpat.  Allow the chocolate to cool completely, and then peel off the parchment paper.  These hearts are made of untempered chocolate, so they are very delicate and should be kept in the fridge.  I use a pair of chopsticks to arrange them on the pies, but food-safe tweezers are also useful.  :-)











So one last story about the key lime pies.  As I was cleaning up the dessert table and consolidating the few remaining morsels onto two platters, a wedding guest comes up to me and asks, "Are there any more of those key lime pies?"  When I told him no, his face just completely fell!  He was so disappointed that I felt so bad I hadn't made more.  But, at the very least, I take it as a sign that all that key lime squeezing and juicing really paid off.

Something blue

For M & D's wedding, I put together a dessert bar for ~140 guests.


Chocolate, yellow, and funfetti cupcakes
with cream cheese and chocolate cream cheese frosting

The dessert bar consisted of three tables:
1. a strawberry shortcake station, with strawberries, strawberry sauce,
angel food cake, pound cake, and whipped cream

Angel food and pound cake for strawberry shortcakes.

2. A table of cookies of various sorts, brownies, and cupcakes.

and... 3. a sundae station (not pictured).

Summer wedding season begins...

Cupcakes for a tasting with fondant calla lilies and roses.
(for August wedding)

Ivan and Celeste's Wedding Cake

Devil's Food cake with vanilla buttercream, passionfruit filling, dark chocolate ganache, and hand-molded chocolate roses and leaves. for Ivan & Celeste's wedding, themed "Decadence and Decay."

Top down view

A close-up of the roses, made of molding chocolate.