I designed the logo for the event and also have a little pop-up shop at the store which will be there through June. As a thank you for involving me in the event I made special cupcakes for the opening night. I happened upon some luscious blood oranges at the farmer’s market and they were the perfect ingredient for fragrant summer-y cupcakes.

I melted white chocolate into candy molds to make lollipops…

…then printed out the Supahcute and Leanna Lin logos onto edible sheets with edible ink.

I finished it off with some piping detail and sanding sugar.

They had a very cool Japanese candy bar at the event and they placed my cupcakes right in the middle. Cupcakes and Pocky for all!

Blood Orange cupcakes (recipe here)

ingredients:
2 cups cake flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
3/4 cups (1-1/2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 Tablespoons Blood Orange zest
2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed Blood Orange juice

blood orange frosting (recipe here)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

In a bowl whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs until combined.

Alternate the flour mixture with the buttermilk – then fold in the Blood Orange zest and juice.

Fill the lined cupcake pan and bake for 14-15 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

Once cooled top with Blood Orange frosting. Because the frosting is made with whipped cream and mascarpone keep these in the fridge and then bring them out 15 minutes before serving!

ingredients:
8 ounces mascarpone cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
pinch of kosher salt
2 Tablespoons Blood Orange juice
Zest of one Blood Orange
1 -1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

In a medium bowl combine mascarpone cheese, powdered sugar, salt, Blood Orange juice and zest. Look how gorgeous the Blood Orange coloring is. Sadly, it fades rather quickly. As you stir it – it becomes this:

…which will fade even more once the whipped cream is added. Stir together until smooth, and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form – don’t overdo it, the last thing you want is for it to curdle.

Gently fold the whipped cream, into the mascarpone mixture until combined. Keep in the fridge until you are ready to use.

Yep, that’s my Shave Ice Cupcake on the cover of Food Network Magazine!!

Food Network magazine approached me and to say I’m excited is an understatement. I am a *huge* fan of Food Network so it was great to work with them and have one of my creations featured in the magazine!

I first made these cupcakes for my friend Cheryl’s baby’s first birthday party. First birthdays are a huge deal for people from Hawaii and I wanted to make something special, so I took the idea of Hawaiian shave ice but made it in cupcake form. It’s a great summer party treat and Food Network thought so too!

Here’s a bigger pic from the interior of the magazine:

Very cool! My name is in there in super fine print but you have to buy the magazine to see that part. I’m thrilled with how they look! Thanks Food Network!

Tres Leches is a sponge cake, drowned in three different kinds of milk so it can soak up all the goodness and then topped off with a whipped cream. It sounds and tastes complicated but I promise you it is one of the easiest cakes to make.

Think of it as a cold cakey bread pudding. Cake pudding? pake cudding? Whatever it’s delicious. The recipe is old, tried and true and rarely varies – here’s my version:

ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

milk mixture ingredients:
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk

whipped topping ingredients:
1-3/4 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 9×13 pan with buttered parchment. Set aside.

In a bowl whisk together the flour, cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and the sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time until combined, then add the vanilla.

Add the flour until completely combined and pour into the prepped cake pan.

Spread evenly and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

While the cake is cooking combine the whole milk, heavy cream condensed milk and evaporated milk together. Keep it in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

When the cake is done, let cool in the pan for 30 minutes.

Using a fork, pierce the cake all over – you want the milk mixture to seep in everywhere.

Then pour the milk mixture over the top of the cake.

You’ll be surprised at how fast the cake absorbs it all. This pic was taken only after a minute or two!

For the topping, in the bowl of an electric mixer whip the heavy cream, sugar and vanilla until nice and thick – don’t overdo it though!

Spread the whipped cream over the top of the cake and serve.

ingredients:
2 lbs pork butt
1 small onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped
3 Tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons vinegar

In a bowl combine the garlic, ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce, brown sugar and vinegar.

Place the pork butt in the crock pot and lay the onion on top. Pour the sauce mixture over it and turn the crock pot on to low for 6-8 hours.

At the end of 6-8 hours you’ll have a mouthwatering, pull-apart pork. Serve with rice.

If you still need a Mother’s Day gift (psst, it’s Sunday) you can buy the comic/cookbook online along with O.G. Road Trippin’ as well! Thanks to everyone for all your support!

See – I’m always on her left.

This year The Comic Bug invited me to come down and sell some things and take part in the events. I was next to the fantastic UglyDoll table! David and Sun-Min are the niceset people and they even tho they have a global brand, they came down to fill their table with their wonderful toys and even give some away! That’s what Free Comic Book Day is all about.

I go to a lot of comic shops around the city and the Bug is one of my favorites. The staff is kind and knowledgable and the space is large so they hold a lot of cool events there too. The owners Mike and Jun are always helpful if you’re looking for something specific or just getting into comics.

Every year FCBD seems to grow and the line seemed neverending. What you shouldn’t forget is that all the shops PAY for those comics that they give away, so it’s nice to not only pick up your free ones, but also buy from the store and the vendors they invite. It’s not a requirement, just a courtesy to say thanks for hosting such a great event.

As a thank you to the shop for inviting me down I made cupcakes and they gave them out to the best cosplayers in line. True, the lines were long but it was worth it to get all your free comics in the end. Hopefully a lot of new fans were made that day.

I printed out The Comic Bug logo and the FCBD logo in edible ink on edible paper and then placed it on lollipops that I molded out of chocolate. Piped a frosting outline and dipped it in sanding sugar for some bling.

It was a crazy, fun event and I encourage everyone to go support your local comic book shop!

I have a lot of Star Wars recipes on this blog from Princess Leia cupcakes, Han Solo in carbonite Jell-o, Smores Troopers, Jawa cupcakes, Yoda Oreos…but nothing, nothing will compare to what I have for you today. To celebrate Star Wars Day 2012 I give you…a severed Wampa arm made out of cake!

A wampa was the ice creature that captured Luke when he was on Hoth. Using the force, the young Jedi gets his lightsaber and slices off the wampa’s arm to make his escape. (watch it all go down here.) This is my version…in cake.

Are you disgusted? You should be because it looks very real. In fact I put it in O.G.’s fridge and she freaked out. Oh, she ate it of course but she kept saying it ‘was making her gag’ so she ate it with her eyes closed. However, she did say it was delicious but “Why can’t you ever just make me a regular cake?” Ah, story of my life.

ingredients:
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup white sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
6 egg whites
Red gel food coloring

powdered sugar for dusting
1 cup Guava jelly
Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe here)
2 cups sweetened coconut
Chocolate bars

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prep a 10×15 inch jellyroll pan with parchment, lightly buttered.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks and sugar until light. Add the vanilla. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and add it to the yolk mixture. While mixing, add in the red gel food coloring until combined. Set aside.

In a separate bowl whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the red batter until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepped jelly roll pan – using a spatula to even it all out. Bake for 8-10 minutes depending on your oven.

Get a CLEAN dishtowel and dust it with powdered sugar. Turn the warm cake onto the towel. Peel back and pull off the parchment paper.

Cut about 3” off the end of the cake and slice that into 1” wide pieces – these will be the Wampa fingers. Set aside for later.

Roll the cake up with the towel – the LONG way. What you are doing is trying to form the rolled shape. Let cool in the rolled up towel for 20- 30 minutes.

Whisk the jelly to get it nice and loosened up, also reserve about 3 Tablespoons for later. Guava jelly is light, almost clear and always makes for good ‘blood’ substitute (Game of Thrones horse heart cupcakes) but a dark jelly will work also.

Carefully unroll the cake, and spread the jelly onto the cake. Now roll the cake up again. Quite obviously NOT with the towel. Place the rolled cake seam side down onto a platter.

Arrange the Wampa ‘fingers’ you cut at the end of a platter so they look like a hand.

Frost the cake arm and ‘fingers’ with the whipped cream cheese frosting.

Getting between the ‘fingers’ can be tricky, just use a small offset spatula and take your time.

Take the coconut and pat it around the frosted cake and fingers, like ‘fur.’

For the fingernails I cut a thick chocolate bar into chunky pieces and placed them on the end of the fingers.

Finally, take the reserved jelly and pour it on the cut end of the ‘arm’. It will look like oozing Wampa blood.

Who’s ready for Wampa? YUM!

Celebrate FCBD with some of these super heroic treats!

Hulk ice cream sandwiches (recipe here)
(Green Tea Spice Cookie + Milk Chocolate ice cream)

Punisher Pie-cakes (recipe here)

Batman Lollipop cupcakes (recipe here)

Daredevil cupcakes (recipe here)

Phoenix cupcakes (recipe here)