Baby’s First Snow in Germany & Holiday Party at a Winery

We enjoyed a white winter in Germany! On our second day, it snowed & we went to a Holiday Party at a friend’s winery where I tried a traditional hot wine beverage, red wine cake, & German fruit cake, click on link to watch the video. Hope you like it, the snow was breathtaking & the wine was delicious! Hope you enjoy this video! Thanks for watching! If you like this video, please Like it & Subscribe to my Youtube channel to receive  Continue reading

Snack of the Week: Tasty Healthy Chip

This Week’s Snack is a Multigrain Tortilla Chip. It is tasty, has healthy ingredients & is low in sodium. It is a healthy replacement for potato or tortilla chips, and this chip actually tastes delicious! I have been snacking on these for the past three weeks & am pretty much obsessed with them. I also like that I can feed some to Alessandra as a snack or with a meal (just a few though because they have fiber & she’s still a toddler). I even shared them with guests and they liked them too! Watch video for more & to find out where you can find these. Thanks for watching! If you like this video, please Like it & Subscribe to my Youtube channel to receive  Continue reading

How To Have Good Friendships & Celebrating Birthday with Best Friend

My friend Lizeth invited me to dinner to celebrate my birthday and it got me thinking about our friendship. I share tips on how we have been able to remain good friends for more than fourteen years and have open communication, even when one of us gets upset and when touchy subjects come up. Thanks for watching! If you like this video, please Like it & Subscribe to my Youtube channel to receive Continue reading

Bay Views from a Penthouse & Food Truck Lunch

We headed downtown for lunch at the popular food trucks & then a friend’s party with amazing penthouse views of the bay, click to view my vlog, it was a fun day! Thank you for watching! If you like this video, please Like it & Subscribe to my Youtube channel to receive notifications of new videos I upload. And, please leave your comments below 🙂 If you are interested, you can watch more of my videos here YouTube: Paola Hernandez-Jiao.Thanks for your support!

When was the last time you went downtown?

Hugs,
Paola
– – – –

Continue reading

Fun Visit to Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas: A German/Bavarian Restaurant

img_0510

One of our first trips family trips with baby Alessandra was to Las Vegas. I was excited about the trip because I would get to spend time with my friend Rossy which lives in Las Vegas, plus a few days in Vegas is always fun (see another Las Vegas trip here)! This was Alessandra’s first flight, so we were a little nervous about how she would react. She was Continue reading

Easy Way to Cut Calories From Holiday Parties & Everyday

IMG_3547

The holidays are in full swing, we still have New Year’s Eve and Dia de Reyes (Three Wise Men Day) parties coming up. It is fun to indulge in our favorite meals and drinks during the holidays, but after a month of parties and dinners, all those calories can add up. An easy way to cut a few calories from Continue reading

Plants Vs Zombies Birthday Party Flower Pot Cupcakes

 

DSCN8980

Moms will go to far reaches to make their children happy. One of these ways is to have a child’s themed birthday party. I went to a Plants Vs Zombies birthday party, and was surprised to learn the mom had baked and decorated the birthday cake and the cupcakes. It wasn’t just any cake & cupcakes, these were special Continue reading

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo at Puesto: CincoTeca

11233814_10203790547272261_6953797955001157812_o 2

I can’t remember the last time I went out on Cinco de Mayo. For a few years, the television stations would sponsor a large concert at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and I would work at our booth on Cinco de Mayo weekend. It was always nice to meet viewers and give a greeting on behalf of the stations on stage! After we stopped sponsoring that event, I stopped celebrating Cinco de Mayo at a large public event. This year, my friend Luisteen Gonzalez, Executive Chef, at Puesto Restaurant invited me Continue reading

A Mom’s Love: Plants vs Zombies Birthday Cake

DSCN9009

Hi friends,

Children’s birthday parties are always fun. It is amazing to see things through children’s eyes and how much fun they have at parties, it is continuous playing, laughs, and enjoyment.  It is nice to see how much effort the parents put into organizing these celebrations for their children. For the child and his parents, there is excitement leading to the party and lots of details to take care of, items to be purchased, decorations, cakes, food, drinks, prizes, and lots more. Finally, the birthday party date arrives and on the day of the party, you see the joy in the child’s face & the fun all the children have….and the other parents and guests as well.  The joy in your child’s face makes all the work you put into the party , and the stress, as well as exhaustion, worth it!

Even though my hubby and I are not parents yet, we go to lots of children’s birthday parties, aka piñatas for hispanic families. In addition to my nieces and nephews birthday parties, we go to our friends children’s parties. I also accompany my sister to a few parties each year and recently went to birthday party with a Plants vs. Zombies theme (in case you are wondering, just like I was, it is a popular video game).

When we arrived, the host was finishing the decorations on the birthday cake. She baked the cake from scratch and  decorated it with the Plants vs Zombies theme. Beforehand, she bought all the necessary items, including the decorations and food coloring spray. She claims she is not a good baker or cake decorator, but I disagree. This mom rocks, she is not only an amazing mom, she’s also a great cake decorator. The cake was not only beautiful, it was delicious, rich and moist! If i had not seen her decorating the cake, I would have thought it was made at a bakery.

It was so nice, that I asked her if I could post it on my blog & luckily she agreed.

What she used:

-Cake mix (marble and chocolate), items for cake: eggs, oil, water

-Hand blender

-Unflavored whipping cream

-Food color spray (in green color)

-Chocolate frosting

-Marshmallows (large white)

-Oreo cookies

-Candy gummy flowers (multiple colors)

-Lollipop sticks (to use as stems for gummy flowers)

-Candy in the form of small rocks

-Sugar sprinkles (in green color)

-Zombies vs Plants figurines

-Cake decorating icing bag (can be replaced with icing writing tubes)

-Large rectangular cardboard wrapped to use as base for cake (wrapped with green wax paper)

-Candles (of your choice she used gray candles to go with the theme)

Theme: Plants vs Zombies

DSCN9056 DSCN9042 DSCN9051

Steps:

1) Prepare the cake mix and bake the cakes – one marble sheet & one chocolate sheet, allow them to cool

DSCN8997

2) Mix Oreo cookies in a blender to make crumbs

3) Cut the marble cake in two layers, to make two thin layers

DSCN8968

4) On the wrapped cardboard that will be the base of the cake, build the layers, starting from the bottom with the marble cake, then a layer a chocolate cake, a layer of chocolate frosting, a layer of marshmallows, lastly add the thin layer of marble cake with the smooth surface facing up

DSCN8972

5) Use a blender to mix the whipping cream to the right consistency, separate a small bowl of whipping cream to use to write Happy Birthday on the cake

DSCN8970

6) Decorate the entire cake with the white whipping cream

DSCN8971 DSCN8992 DSCN8991

7) Spray the entire cake with the food color spray (you should do this in a well ventilated place because the aerosol gets in the air in the room and you way want to cover the surrounding areas with paper towels or newspaper because it will get on other surfaces, but it is easy to clean off)

DSCN8994 DSCN8995

8) Mark the area you will decorate as the garden – make the border with the rocks and use the Oreo cookies as the dirt

DSCN8999

9) Add the lollipop sticks to the gummy flowers, then place the flower gummy candy and a few Zombie figurines in the garden area

10) Add the remaining Zombies vs Plants figurines on the cake

 DSCN9001

11) Add a few drops of food coloring of your choice to some of the whipping cream, a few drops of black were used here to make gray whipping cream

12) Fill the cake decorating bag with the colored whipping cream, and write Happy Birthday and child’s name on the side of the cake with whipping cream

13) Place the candles on the cake

DSCN9009

13) Add the green sugar crystals as grass on the top surface of the cake and tilt a few of the Zombies so it looks like they are crawling

Approximate time: 2 hours

She also baked some unique & delicious cupcakes, I’ll post about those later this week.

Here’s how the final masterpiece was placed on the cake table, ready for guests to sing Happy Birthday to the birthday boy  & make for a perfect picture moment! Wonderful family memories!

 DSCN9010