Grace's birthday cake from Paris Baguette, Santa Clara, SF.

I haven't had Paris Baguette since Korea! I'm still so sad that I didn't start food blogging while I was living there, but Paris Baguette is a huge Korean chain that is now in select US cities.

I don't super love Paris Baguette cakes. I just don't find them very flavorful, which is great for Koreans though because most Koreans don't like things to be too sweet. If I'm having a slice of cake though, it better be delicious. ;)

This was very pretty and most importantly, the beautiful birthday girl, Grace, loved it! :) Happy birthday, Grace!

Hello Kitty birthday cake and Karaoke Party at 111 Minna, SOMA, SF.

111 Minna was perfect for Tamiko's private karaoke party. I love singing with that girl! You'd better believe we busted out some Shania and Dixie Chicks! ;)

Would you just look at that cake!? Hah! I love it. So cute. And this was massive, too (you can't really tell from the photo)! I don't know where the cake was from, but it had chocolate filling with a raspberry jam layer. The cake was very light, which isn't my preference for chocolate cake, but it was nice.

On a side note, the September art exhibit at 111 Minna, Everyday, is beautiful. Here is a piece by artist Mike Davis.

Pete's Birthday Cake from Schubert's Bakery, Inner Richmond, SF.

VERY good birthday cake. Lovely old-school layered cake.

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Alexa's birthday BBQ at Artillery, Mission, SF.

Backyard BBQ birthday party at Artillery AG!

The fabulous birthday girl miss Alexa with Aldo! I adore the crew at Artillery!

Lots of amazing food! Great guacamole, pico de gallo, BBQ meats, chips, donut holes, etc! :)

Birthday ice-cream cake from Cold Stone for Chris L!

I love me some ice-cream cake! This was okay--my first Cold Stone cake, I think. I liked it fine, but didn't love the whipped frosting.

Happy Birthday, Chris!

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"Tuxedo Night" Part 2: Grubstake, Polk, SF.

After quite a bit of drinking.. fried food sounded AMAZING. :) Jalapeno poppers!

And this fabulous bacon, fried egg, cheeseburger! I split this and the poppers with a friend and it was perfect!

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Pat! :)

On your birthday you get a free slice of pie at Grubstake--yay! The photo looks like it's an omelette, but really they just have a big slice of vanilla ice cream over a slice of apple pie. :) The apple pie was amazing, too! Most are chunky, but the apples in this pie were very thinly sliced, which I just loved!

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"Tuxedo Night" surprise birthday with cake from Miette, The Bigfoot, Russian Hill, SF.

The birthday card I made for my bestie, Pat! :) When I found out he didn't have anything planned for his birthday this year, I decided to throw him a surprise birthday party! The perfect theme dropped into my lap...

Pat loves the TV show How I Met Your Mother, and this inside joke/theme night they have is "Tuxedo Night"! So Pat and a few of his mates had been wanting to do a "Tuxdeo Night" of their own for awhile and this was the perfect occasion! I schemed with one of his good friends and made it so that they were going for "Tuxedo Night" with three close friends, but then the rest of us would be waiting at a bar, in tuxes, of course!

While we were waiting at The Bigfoot, we decided to take some photos. :) Everyone looks FABULOUS!

And here is the Birthday Boy!! He was VERY surprised! It was funny because as I was getting ready, he texted asking if I could join them for dinner! I wanted to so badly, too, cause I was starving! Hah! I was very excited that he didn't know about the surprise though! He was thrilled and I'm so glad I could help make his birthday a happy one! :)

The beautiful Vanilla Tomboy cake from Miette, one of my favorite local bakeries.

And cupcakes from my friend Audrey!

Mmmmm! The cake was VERY GOOD! The cupcakes were nice, too, but the frosting tasted too much like straight cream cheese to me.

The famous "Sasquatch" at the Big Foot. It'll do the trick.. ;)

The Bigfoot

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Miette

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Artillery boutique 1 Year Anniversario party, Mission, SF.

Artillery AG, a local art/design boutique in the Mission, was celebrating their 1 year anniversary party!

Shakirah (right) of Slow Jams! She gifted me one of her strawberry jams and I can't wait to try it! Her stuff was so cute (designed by her boyfriend Philip) and her baked goods were such a hit. Mmm!

Artillery's 1st b-day cake! Yay! This had a pineapple filling that was pretty yummy. :)

The guys at Artillery are SO great and I had so much fun celebrating with them! Go shop and support local art/design! :)

Moleskine Recipe Journal.

My soon to be sister-in-law, Jessica, who is also a big foodie, got me this wonderful Moleskine Recipe Journal! It's so fabulous and I'm big on pen & paper, so this will be a great place to keep my favorite recipes!

You can click on the photos to enlarge. Moleskine is one of my favorites--the folks there have some pretty clever designs. :)

The cute cover imprint.

Calories, carbs, etc! Wow!

It even comes with these cute stickers!

I love this! Thanks so much, Jess! :)

Birthday gift cards.

What is the perfect present for a foodie? Gift cards! Haha. I'm pretty difficult to shop for (Picky? Gilty!), so gift cards are really my favorite! Trinh and Kat got me this wonderful one to Williams Sonoma.

And my brother got me this one to Trader Joe's! Yay!

Thank you guys, SOOOO much! :) These will get great use. ;)

Birthday strawberry-lemon layered cake and layered cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting.

Lemon cake. Strawberry cake now in the oven..

Strawberry and lemon cupcakes.

Strawberry cream cheese filling frosting.

Sliced cupcakes.

Frosted and put back together with alternate tops and bottoms!

And frosted!

Lemon cake, sliced in half.

Strawberry cake, sliced in half and top cut off (because of the dome).

So the layers went strawberry, lemon, strawberry, lemon, with the strawberry cream cheese frosting between each layer.

Frosted with coconut cream cheese frosting and sprinkles!

Side. :)

Sliced and served later at my post-birthday, Lost finale party! I gave the cupcakes to people, after dinner, who weren't attending the Lost party so everyone got some birthday cake! :)

Birthday dinner at Kokkari, North Beach/Embarcadero, SF.

The whole party! Thanks so much for coming, everyone! I had a wonderful evening! :) And thank you, Kokkari, for being so great! Kokkari is one of my new favorite spots in SF. It's completely fabulous! :)

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