So cute

I grew up with Sesame Street during the 1970's, part of the generation who knew who Mr. Hooper, Bob, and Gordon were. Tunes like "Ladybug Picnic" still occasionally get hummed and I have been known to count like The Count at times. Ah ah ah ah...

So when Winnifred asked me to make Sesame Street themed cupcakes for the children at the baby shower, I was excited even though in general, I am not a fan of cupcakes. Maybe it's because there are so many disgusting cupcakes sold everywhere everyday which turn me off, along with the routine massive buttercream tumour which some people love.

We picked four popular hairy/feathery characters, Elmo, Oscar, Cookie Monster, and Big Bird in order to take advantage of the convenient star piping tip and colour combination. The face details were made from fondant and I admit that I spent an unnecessary amount of time focusing on their ocular appearance. Oscar has the most healthy eyes while Cookie Monster has a severe skew deviation which he does not seemed too concerned about.

These goodies, including the macarons and cake shown in my previous post, were all for a guest who has yet to arrive named Reagan. She will be here soon and hopefully she will love beautiful sweet things just like her Auntie Winnifred.

Small packages

Not all couples get wedding cakes on their wedding day. In fact, I briefly considered having a wedding pie but did not have the guts to break from tradition. Our friends Kat and Calvin decided to have a selection of petits fours as part of their wedding celebration "after party" this weekend and I was happy to oblige. There were eight different types in total but here are four.


There were mini chocolate cupcakes with two types of Italian buttercream swirls, milk chocolate hazelnut or white chocolate passionfruit. Transporting them without utter destruction was a challenge, especially with those sinister potholes cropping up all over Vancouver streets lately. My solution was to use strips of double-sided tape on trays to prevent each mini-cupcake from getting too cozy with its neighbour.


Next, a delicate dark chocolate mousse bite included layers of strawberry gelée, caramel mousse, and chocolate dacquoise. Its fruitier counterpart was a quince bavaroise bite which was layered with mango gelée, lime marshmallow, and pistachio joconde and adorned with a small meringue heart. I just wished that I could have actually attended the event too but wifely duty called me elsewhere that evening. So, to the new husband and wife...congratulations Kat and Calvin!

Where's Pablo?

Do you know this penguin? I did not until recently when I was introduced to Pablo and the Backyardigans. In fact, my knowledge of who's who in childhood pop culture is very limited these days and only exists because of several nieces who delight in Dora and Disney princesses. Personally, I am from the generation of Sanrio classics, when Hello Kitty, My Melody, and Little Twin Stars reigned supreme. Forget Barbie and Cabbage Patch Kids, this Canadian-Chinese kid from the 1970's still has her pristine collection of Hello Kitty pencil cases and stickers and currently has unusual empathy for a character named Kogepan.


A lucky little girl named Blake (a big fan of Pablo) celebrated a birthday with swirly pink, purple, and yellow cupcakes decorated with royal icing alphabet letters and numbers. Six dozen cupcakes later, I have a new respect for these small tasty treats. The whole cupcake hype has been wasted on me, who admittedly, poo-pooed the notion that a cupcake could ever be delicious or desirable (I don't like a mouthful of buttercream). But their appeal makes more sense to me now, both from a consumer and creator point-of-view.


First, rather than getting a slice of cake, it is inherently more special to get an individual serving that is yours alone, not a fraction of a greater whole. Second, even though cupcakes are technically simple and often devoid of much flavour complexity, the possibilities in design are endless as each cupcake is its own blank canvas individually but also as a group where repetition and patterns can be visually stunning. Vive le cupcake!