Salty Sweet Bakes

Just some German Chocolate cupcakes with American Buttercream from my Cake Decorating 1 class. I'm still catching up on posting photos from my pastry school classes. The problem with posting old photos is that my hubby and son come into the kitchen looking for what's in the photo and leave disappointed. 🤗

Coconut Sponge Cake with Lemon Curd & Chantilly Cream - I don't know what happened to the photo of the sliced cake. I guess someone must have eaten it along with the rest of the cake 😆 Please imagine what the inside looked like with the layers of vanilla cake, lemon curd and chantilly cream. 😊

I made this cake in my Cake Decorating 1 class at HCC Pastry Arts school.

Croissants! Lots and lots of croissants! We made croissants in Fundamentals of Baking class. Lots and lots o' buttah and fun!

HCC Pastry Arts

Tres Leches Cake with Chantilly Cream & Strawberries - Where are my super-sweet cake lovers? This cake is for you! 🥰 I made these cakes in my Cake Decorating 1 class at HCC Pastry Arts. I feel so lucky to learn from the amazing chefs and instructors at this school. I count my lucky stars after each class! 🌟😇

Vanilla Swiss Roll with Homemade Raspberry Jam & Whipped Cream - more catch-up photos from my Fundamentals of Baking Class. Enjoy! 😋😊

HCC Pastry Arts

Chocolate Devil's Food Cake Cupcakes - do I need to say more? 😄 I'm catching up on posting photos from my Fundamentals of Baking class. These are from way back from Week 7. Oops! 😊

Italian Cream Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting - Yikes! I completely forgot to post these photos from my Cake Decorating 1 class for Easter. Oops, better late than never. Happy belated Easter to those that celebrated! 🐰🐣

HCC Pastry Arts

Swiss Roll Cake with Mascarpone Chantilly Cream & Poured Chocolate Ganache from my Cake Decorating 1 class. I found these colored sprinkles in the class cupboard and thought they were so much fun. I might have gone a little overboard. But all the colors were so cheerful! 😊

HCC Pastry Arts

Please meet my awesome pastry school partner . It just so happened that we both registered for Cake Decorating 1 and Fundamentals of Baking and chose the same table at the front of the classroom. It's been a great semester working with Mialee. She's a great partner! 😊

Also since our table is right in front of the instructor, I asked all my burning questions. I worried that I picked my teacher's brain so much that she wouldn't be able to drive home.

These are our Strawberry Cream Filled Napoleans made with quick puff pastry, vanilla pastry cream, and decorated with whipped cream. 😋

HCC Pastry Arts

Pie dough part 2 - Sweet tart dough. We made fruit tarts with vegan mango coconut pastry cream in Fundamentals of Baking class. Simply delish and my family's favorite.

HCC Pastry Arts

Pie Week in Fundamentals of Baking Class - It was one dough to rule them all this week. We made a Tomato Goat Cheese Crostata and a Blueberry Pie using the same dough. Instead of water, which I've always used for making pie dough, we used buttermilk. And let me tell you, the dough was spot on. Everything was gobbled up and not a crumb was left for friends and neighbors. Sorry (not sorry). 😊

HCC Pastry Arts

We baked and decorated a German Chocolate cake with Coconut Pecan filling for my Cake Decorating class. We were required to make 6 buttercream roses and write "Congratulations Class of 2023". But since my son graduates in 2024, I wrote his graduating year. It was my first time frosting and decorating a rectangle/square cake. It was a bit frustrating, but I learned a lot.

Hcc PastryArts

Brioche, Challah Bread and Country Biscuits. We finished quick breads and moved onto yeasted doughs in this week's Fundamentals of Baking class. Brioche is made with butter, while challah is made with oil, and biscuits with milk. Each one is yummy in their own way. 😊

HCC Pastry Arts

🎈Happy Birthday to me dear hubby! 🎈We made a Birthday Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting in Cake Decorating class this week. The edible carrots were sculpted out of marzipan and parsley. We also learned how to inscribe a cake with buttercream. I'm used to working with royal icing, so I struggled a bit with the buttercream. All in all, it was a good learning lesson. And my husband was very happy with his birthday cake. 😇

Pastry Arts

Behind the scenes action photo from class, showing my Italian Bread "working it" for the photo. 😆 We also made Focaccia and Blueberry Muffins. Everyone was very busy with so much to mix, knead, bake, clean, and photograph.

HCC Pastry Arts

Vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and cake with strawberry compote from Cake Decorating 1 class. I was worried the buttercream wouldn’t hold in the strawberry compote. But I had more than enough room. So next time I’ll spread more strawberry compote to the edges. I’m learning as I’m doing and it’s super fun! 🥳

Red Velvet Cupcakes for Valentine's Day from my Cake Decorating 1 class at Pastry School. My son is a big red velvet anything aficionado and gave these a thumb's up. So I'll be making these from now on. I hope your day is going great❣️

HCC Pastry Arts

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone❣️ Thank you for supporting my work through your likes, comments and purchases. I hope you have a sweet rest of your day. 🥰

Thank you to Devon on IG for this Valentine's Day class and to Mitzi The Cookiers for organizing it!

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Fudge Brownies and Shortbread Cookies (wk 2) - We're starting off easy in the Fundamentals of Baking class with simple recipes. But we're learning best practices from our teacher who has 20 years of industry experience. Since we've been finishing class early, I've been picking her brain about production and recipes. (I hope she doesn't mind but I'm loving learning all this! 😊) And I have to admit I'm enjoying these easy lessons since I know they're going to get harder later. By the way, these fudge brownies ... were awesome!

HCC Pastry Arts

Chocolate Devil's Food Cake with Chocolate American Buttercream - We've been busy in the Cake Decorating 1 Class. The first day of class was a holiday. So last week the class had to make up the lost time. My partner and I made 8 cakes - 4 vanilla cakes, 4 chocolate devil's food cakes, and vanilla American buttercream.

This week we learned to frost a cake and we made chocolate American buttercream. If you've been following me, you know that I've frosted a cake before. But this time, I really felt that I got the technique after watching my teacher, Chef Christina, from Sweet Eden Bakery ( on IG). I've watched lots of videos but the way she broke it down and seeing her frost the cake in person really made the difference.

My family was very excited to see the cake and dug into it as soon as I got home. We're not really "cake people", but this cake was delicious.

HCC Pastry Arts

Pastry School has started again and it's just as fun as the first semester. I'm taking 2 classes this semester - Fundamentals of Baking and Cake Decorating One. These Chocolate Chip Cookies and Snickerdoodles were the first week's bakes for Fundamentals of Baking. My family and our dinner guests loved them!

In the class, we start from easy drop cookies and work our way to making plated desserts and puff pastries. I'm excited to learn new techniques and hone the ones I already know.

Thank you for continuing to join me on this baking journey! I appreciate the support, especially on days when I return home from a long commute and standing on my feet for hours. 🥰

🎊 Happy New Year!!! 🎊 These gluten-free cookies for my son are purposely plain since my son asked me not to frost them. You see we recently discovered he is sensitive to gluten. So I’m excited to find a recipe that he likes on the first try. But I couldn’t help but add some stickers to celebrate tonight. 😊

Thank you everyone for your likes and comments this year. I’ve really appreciated them❣️ Best wishes for a happy and healthy new year! 🎊🥰

Thank you to for the gluten-free recipe!

Merry Christmas sweet friends! I hope your day is filled with holiday cheer and joy. I’m spending the day with this guy by my side (on IG swipe left to see who). 🥰

Happy First Night of Chanukah! Before the pandemic started, I taught a cookie decorating class to the ladies at my synagogue. If you swipe through the photos, it shows the process from designing the cookies, planning the class, to creating fun designs with royal icing. Keep swiping to see some of the ladies' designs. They were awesome! 🕎 🥰

My gingerbread house made a quick appearance on HCCTV! The college's TV channel did a segment about the Pastry Program's Gingerbread Competition. Mike of Two Good Friends Bakery said it looked like a fairytale in gingerbread form. Aww, that made me happy 😊 You can watch Mike's interview at the link in my bio or on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/ddCyCQwAdVo.

Practical Exam: Ceylon (Cinnamon) Ganache Molded Chocolates. In pastry school, you're tested on your ability to produce a product similar to the ones made in class within a time constraint and by yourself. These Ceylon Bonbons were my finished product. But I was SOOOOO nervous! Can you tell by the shaky painted lines?

Note to self: Never paint lines under pressure!

But I'm happy with the outcome. The chocolate shell was thin, and the ganache set solid. And the best grade came from my son, who said, "Mmmm, those are pretty good!", as he popped a few in his mouth. 🥰

I've bought some chocolate molds and I'm looking forward to offering bonbons and candies on my menu. Stay tuned! 😊

I finally met my virtual baking friend ! We met at .bake.fest( a virtual baking conference - two years ago and despite the distance, her in California and me in Texas, we've kept in touch. It was awesome to talk about life, family, and, of course, baking.

Darlene brought me some beautiful and delicious rose-shaped pistachio chocolate ganache and almond salted caramel macarons. 😋 Darlene was one of the contestants on Baketopia on HBO, she was awesome. She's also a cottage baker, and you can buy these delicious macarons and other treats from her. Please check out her Instagram: to see her bakes.

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm grateful for you. Thank you for your support and encouragement. May today bring you a belly full of yumminess and a heart full of joy! 😋🥰

Final Class - Pastillage, Modeling Chocolate and Candy. For our final class, we made 1) pastillage, which is similar to gum paste and fondant, 2) modeling chocolate, and candies.

The pastillage is made out of lots of powdered sugar, corn starch, gelatin, glucose, water and lemon juice. We were supposed to make circle structures that stand up. But mine hadn't harden enough and broken when I removed it from the mold.

Modeling chocolate is made out of chocolate and corn syrup or glucose and kneaded until it becomes like playdough. We made chocolate roses out of it. My table-mates made incredibly refined and beautiful roses. I was just happy that mine stayed together and remained standing! 😆

Then finally, my table-mates and I made vanilla-flavored lollipops and candies. I really enjoyed the vanilla flavoring in the candy; it had a light butterscotch taste.

And that's a wrap! It was a really fun semester. I'm looking forward to taking Cake Decorating 1 and Fundamentals of Baking next semester.

Please meet some of my Chocolate & Confections classmates!

Gilly and Maggie in photos 1 and 2 shared the pastry table with my partner and me. Aren't they cute?! I had no idea they were making funny faces until I saw the photo! They're also really talented and awesome table-mates.

Marshall (in photo 3) and I started Pastry School at the same time and were the only ones who showed up in civilian clothes on the first day. I was relieved that I wasn't alone.

And then there's the team of super fun classmates in photos 4 and 5. Seeing them every week and their creative chocolates and candies was a joy.

It was a really fun semester. 😊