Pastry Perfect

I have made a tiny cake every day since the beginning of the COVID-19 quarantine. For my family, that started on March 17th, which happ...

A lot has happened in the years since I last posted. To name a few of the milestones... I went to culinary school in NYC, moved to Ital...

When their first birthday came around last year, Shea & Mirren each got "smasher" cakes. Yes, that's right, I made an...

I have a new pet. It lives on my kitchen counter and is named after my favorite pasta shape: "Bucatini." Though made of water...

I live in a studio apartment, so needless to say, space is limited and precious. I have only one baby blue shelving unit and it must be ...

Cherry Pie. I spend so long making sure it's ready for the world ahead of it. Thoughtfully mixing the dough, gently laying the thin c...

This summer I took my first, but certainly not my last, trip to Southeast Asia. My travel buddy and I picked Thailand as our destination...

My good friends, Nora and Shawn, have been dating for almost a decade now. This month, they are going to Michigan to tie the knot in wha...

When I took on this order for my favorite vintage apron design company, Jessie Steele , I felt ready to bake up anything they needed for the...

In years past, I've been known to make a wedding cake each Valentine's Day. February 14th is, in fact, my favorite and most anticipa...

It's that time of year again -- the White Barn Winter Fair is next weekend! Just imagine the scene: you drive out of the crazy Bay Area ...

This cake was so satisfying. Three tiers of pure, milky white, smooth, fondant-covered cake balanced like a yogi comfortable and confident i...

Easter couldn't come and go without some sweet pastel indulgence. This year the festive desserts of choice were Robin's Nest cupcake...

When the director of a pinker-than-pink children's ballet school decides to have her 2-year-old son's birthday party at the studio, ...

Blanca comes to clean the house I live in every other Thursday. She has been in training since she moved to the United States a few years ag...

My dear friend, Holly, is unlike anyone else I know. She's sweet, generous and smart -- like most of my friends. But she seems to genuin...

When I ask brides to describe the kind of decoration they want on their cakes, I hear a lot of the same key words: "something floral,...

After an hour spent meticulously molding the letters of her name out of dark chocolate a friend watching me work asked, "So how do you ...

Congratulations Jamie and Bill! This lovely bride and groom had a gorgeous wedding this weekend in Healdsburg -- complete with a Sweet Peony...

Baking with kids might be the greatest thing ever! Add on top of that -- the chance to make a cake with my adorable nephew, Chef Sam. In fac...

Oops! Sorry to disappear like that! I heard my roses and zinnias whispering to me and I had to fly 3,000 miles to heed the call. This happen...

This cake has 45 hand-cut black fondant polka dots spotting its vanilla buttercream skin. One of the polka dots represents this birthday boy...

Yes, it's true. Sweet Peony, my tiny little dessert catering company has its very own commercial... made by the oh-so-fabulous Scott McC...

So exciting! My cupcakes were featured on "Style Me Pretty -- The Ultimate Wedding Blog" yesterday. I would have had no idea excep...

I think it's a shame that most people only get to design and eat their own wedding cake once (or twice, or thrice). They are such wonder...

... Especially when the diamonds are edible, sweet and pink. I found incredible candy molds from a catalog that enable you to make chocolate...

The Sugar Plum Fairy made an appearance. 100 little girls in tutus tip-toed around the floor. An entire corner of the room was dedicated to ...

Trifle: A traditional English dessert created to use up stale left-over cake. That's right -- when a cake has been sitting around for ma...

I know. My sister had the same complaint: "It's Thanksgiving , Katie. No pie?? Are you completely crazy? It's not Thanksgiving ...

Oooh lolli, lollipop! There's something about lollipops that just reminds me of having fun... maybe because I associate them with childh...

I think it's a confirmed fact that making a wedding cake is hard. But try making just one slice of 5 different wedding cakes! Turns out,...

I had to break it to her. Of course, I fussed around with a lengthy pre-amble first: "Slate grey and yellow.. wow, such sophisticated w...

So what would you say if someone asked you to make a cake based on a book you've never read? I guess you could gracefully decline the of...

I always need a project. Something that allows me to research, take notes, and inevitably, forgo sleep for nightly games of mental ping pong...

If I knew your were coming, I'd have baked... strawberry shortcake. I know I once swore to be faithful to wedding cakes -- til death do ...

No mom, I'm not getting married. But recently my landlady's living room has become the "tasting room" for hip brides and g...

As I was slicing each apricot and delicately placing one sliver on top of another, making sure that just the right portion of each segment w...

A freshly cut stalk of rhubarb is firm and glossy, the color ranging from light pink to crimson red and a secret light green circle may reve...

I don't think theme desserts are my thing. But Independence Day comes but once a year, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Brainstorm w...

My mother called me in mid-May asking when I was coming home for a visit, and specifically what date I might be available to cater a luncheo...

"5$? Are you sure? Can you weigh it again? There must be some mistake." I tried to reason with the shop-keeper, but apparently it ...

Who knew that 200 cupcakes is quite a hefty order? I do now. And so does my dining room. I successfully covered every inch of the old mahoga...

Maybe I don't need to be sweating over my oven in this Berkeley summer heat, or constantly finding dabs of crusty frosting on my face at...

I know I should branch out. I know I should experiment with basket-weave, swirls, rosettes, shell borders, fancy icing designs. But I am tra...

Happy Birthday to you... again. This cake is a pretty funny story. Aside from the fact that it looks like I swiped it right from under Barbi...

This weekend was my busiest yet for my under-the-radar cake making business I've been trying to start up. Five orders in one weekend: 50...

I started decorating this cake for my friend, Scott. No big deal. I just filled a vanilla cake with some strawberry rhubarb preserves (one o...