Meet Me at The Lanai

💚From The Lanai kitchen To Their Celebrations: August’s Birthday Cakes🎂 🌟 August has been one of those months where my kitchen feels less like a kitchen and more like a nonstop celebration. It seems half the world has birthdays in August — and honestly, I couldn’t be happier, because nothing makes me feel more at home than baking cakes that will become part of someone’s special day.🌟 This month, peanut butter and chocolate were the stars of the show. The first was for Sarah Stouffer , a dear friend of St. Denis Medical’s  star Kayhun Kim . Sarah also happens to be someone I had the joy of working with on a Christmas movie years ago (A Cinderella Christmas — what a cozy little full-circle moment!). The cake was a deep, rich chocolate base, layered with silky chocolate ganache that melts in your mouth, and then covered with the dreamiest peanut butter buttercream you can imagine — light, creamy, and just the right amount of nutty. I decorated it with dainty gold sugar pearls an...

When it came time to plan a birthday cake for St. Denis Medical star and all-around gem Josh Lawson, the brainstorming sesh felt like a mini “Snatch Game” of dessert ideas. There were laughs, opinions, and a whole lot of sweet deliberation. What would the flavor fantasy be? What décor would serve the most birthday realness? The top three cake contenders were: 1. Chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream and chocolate ganache (classic, rich, a little sultry), 2. Hostess cupcake-inspired cake (nostalgia queen vibes), and 3. Almond Joy-inspired sheet cake (tropical, decadent, and, dare I say, a little unexpected). 👑 Enter: Laura, my coworker and reigning Idea Queen Extraordinaire, who had her heart set on the Almond Joy. Why? Not-so-secretly, she had dreams of that coconut buttercream filling dancing on her tastebuds. Now, Josh had initially leaned toward a Reese’s-inspired option (can’t blame a man for loving peanut butter), but with a little sweet talk and flair, Laura lip-synced f...