Joyce Gourmet

One of the sweetest people I know, I am so thankful and blessed that I met Kim while we were both undergrad students at UCSD.  We both stayed in SD after graduating and often met up to have dinner together.  And often times it was various Thai restaurants or Super Sergio's for Pollo Asado / CA burritos.  I definitely missed being able to meet up for our late night dinners when I moved to Japan and lived there for the next 5 years, then DC for the next 2.  And now that we are back in SD for the next couple of years, I am so happy I am able to catch up, have our daughter play together (yes, I can't believe we are mommy now!) and that I was able to make this Japanese Strawberry Shortcake for her birthday! Happy 30th Birthday to one of my best friends, Kim!  

I was asked to make a Japanese Strawberry Shortcake for a very special 40th Birthday, along with 3 dozen cake pops.  The 4 layer cake was filled with 3 layers of fresh strawberries and whipped cream, which ended up being 5 inches tall.  Then I decided to top the 10 inch diameter cake with 40 strawberries, and make a variety of designs for the 3 dozen cake pops.  Her favorite color being yellow I made yellow cake pops (Vanilla Cake) with white swirls and white cake pops (Chocolate Cake) with yellow swirls, all tied with a little white ribbon.  The other 2 designs were a blue ombre (Vanilla Cake) made with layers of fondant ruffles, tied with a little blue ribbon and pink sakura (cherry blossom) flowers (Chocolate Cake) for the spring season, tied with a little green ribbon. Cake: Japanese Strawberry Shortcake Filling: 3 layers of fresh strawberries with whipped cream Frosting: whipped cream Topping: 40 whole fresh strawberries Cake Pops: Yellow with whi...