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!  

Received yet another adorable request for a first birthday cake:  a 3D Baby Teddy Bear wearing a diaper and an Elmo Bib, building block letters spelling birthday boy's name placed in front of the cake. They had scheduled a taste testing session back in March and said they liked the Strawberry cake & Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling.  So they wanted their cake to be half strawberry, half chocolate.  Then 2 days before the birthday party, they requested the cake be made gluten free with minimal sugar.  I had to run to the store to buy the different ingredients to make a gluten free cake, but I'm happy that I was able to do this for them, since the mother was saying that her son was reacting to the cupcake that she had made earlier in the week. Cake: Gluten-free Strawberry & Gluten-free Chocolate Cake Filling: Vanilla Buttercream Icing: Vanilla Buttercream Design specifics: *Teddy bear with hands in front, space for a cupcake (mother ...

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...