Woo hoo! Aimee Wenske and I got a cover this month. Go Team! Our photography and styling efforts are featured on this month's TODO Austin.

TODO Austin is a FREE monthly newspaper that focuses on ethnic communities in Austin. The site says it's "multicultural."

I'm sure not about all the distribution locations for TODO Austin. I am sure that you can pick up copy of the July 2010 issue at the laundromat next to Quack's Bakery.

Aimee and I made a bunch of bread flags with white bread and condiments.

I don't think I can show this to mommy Phan, she'd be ashamed that I replicated the current Vietnam flag.

Here are some non-flag outtakes that didn't quite make it.

I'm a vegetarian, so I don't eat animals, but I will eat animal cake pops (and Animal pops!). I never liked that "Do vegetarians eat animal crackers" joke. When it comes to cake pops, yes, yes we do eat animal cake pops.

Fabulous photographer Aimee Wenske and I teamed up for some fun cake pop pictures. This time, we added a chalkboard.

Eek bloody red velvet beef. I guess this guy is rare.

The pigs were our favorite pops.

Here's the pig cake pop from as seen from a bird cake pop's eye view.

Photos by Aimee Wenske

My friend Lauren Blazic is a fashion designer who sells appliances by day. You might remember her blending into houndstooth or crafting moustaches with me.

Lauren needed to get her portfolio together at the last minute for an interesting opportunity. I knew of two photographers who would be easily convinced to shoot pictures in trade for cute hair accessories.

We went to Hyde Park (Quack's Bakery, a laundromat, and a park) that Sunday afternoon. Here are some of my favorite pictures from Aimee Wenske and lil Phan.

Sara Janz from Beauty Emporium & Salon did the hair and make up (bad site, good hair). I think her most amazing feat of the day was getting (my) Asian hair to curl. Trick of the trade: use a flat iron (they curl, too).

The appliances get me every time.

Photo by Aimee Wenske

I kept this headband.

There was a minor fashion emergency along the way. Chelsea got stuck in her dress and had to be removed with the jaws of life (or by breaking the zipper).

Lauren made sure her everything was perfect for her portfolio.

To top it all off, I got to eat this vanilla cupcake with coconut cream cheese frosting at Quack's. You might remember Quack's from my Mmmpanada Misadventure post. The vanilla coconut cream cheese cupcake was just as good as the lemon meringue.

Yum.

Fabulous friend/photographer Aimee Wenske and I were lucky enough to take some pictures for Retro Bizzaro. Armed with a bag of treats and a box of fabric, I styled and set up the shots while Aimee shot pictures. We ironed a lot and took turns carefully taking bites into treats.

Retro Bizzaro is Mark and Amanda Joyner's way of bringing snack cakes and candy bars made of local ingredients to the people of Austin, Texas. Look for them at Hope Farmers Market and random other markets. For a fun window into their lives follow them on Twitter @RetroBizzaro.

The bella luna is like a s'more cookie sandwich. I liked the chocolate half better than the other. I got to take the first bite of this one.

Logs are a retro version of the Hostess Twinkie with vanilla cake filled with grapefruit cream. The log was my favorite Retro Bizzaro treat. I sometimes find myself craving them. I wish they delivered to my work.

Others treats are quite bizzaro like this bacon marshmallow "tweet" (which is like a marshmallow Peep).

I let Aimee take bites of the meaty-bacon treats.

Amanda and Megan from Stetted just started a new food blog called Two Forked Mamas where they document their adventures in mommy-hood and farm fresh foods.

Megan told me Retro Bizzaro discontinued the grapefruit filling and replaced it with strawberry lemonade. As long as it still sounds summery and citrusy, I'll take it.

The Wednesday before Easter, my cake pops were featured in the Food & Life section of the Austin American-Statesman.

Photo Courtesy Tina Phan

Not only were my cake pops featured, I asked to have Aimee Wenske take the pictures and the Statesman said yes. A HUGE yay for both of us! Yay for teamwork. For us, this is major. Hopefully this will be the first of many good things.

Lesson learned: Sometimes, you just need to ask.

Here's how it happened:
I was sitting on the SXSW shuttle when I saw a new comment to my blog. At first I was excited. I love comments. I started reading and it was none other than Addie Broyles, food writer for the Statesman. Wow she reads my blog AND comments. I keep reading...she's doing a story on Easter treats and would love to talk...OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! We talk, and then it happens. My boss gives me 1.5 days off to make cake pops.

For the story, I wanted to make something Easter-y that wasn't too cliche. I came up with Fabrege egg pops. Addie, also wanted to have some cute, kid friendly cake pops that parents and kids could make together for Easter. So, we made Bakerella's Spring Chicken Pops and bunny pops to go with the fancy Fabrege egg cake pops. Thanks Bakerella.

I was able to borrow the redhead's grandmother's huge, gorgeous, and well-lit kitchen and the set up was perfect for a cake pop story. My kitchen would have been inadequate.

Addie was super nice I had a lot of fun making cake pops with her. I am so thankful for this wonderful opportunity. Thanks Addie.

I'm so glad I wore my cute cupcake apron, the pink cupcake pattern looked great against the pre-dipped pink strawberry cake pops.

Thanks everyone for your support in my cake pops.

The full story and photo gallery on Austin 360 and Addie's take on cake pops at her blog, Relish Austin.

Chris, Lil Phan, my coworkers, Lil Phan and Chris' coworkers ate leftover pops for about a week after the shoot. In the end, we all win except Chris' grandmother who is allergic to strawberries. Don't worry, I made her a non-strawberry batch for Easter.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to translate "Cake Pop" into Vietnamese and explain the phenomenon to my mother. This should be tricky.

My photographer friend Aimee Wenske and I are working on some collaborations. I style things and she takes pretty pictures of them. Here's the outcome of our first photoshoot as a team. Hopefully this leads to even more collaborative projects.

I like aqua, and I like shoes. Therefore I like aqua shoes. Transitive property.

Why, yes, I do have cupcake patterned Converse.

I spy a cake pup.

Saint Patrick's Day cake pops in varying shades of green. The sprinkled cake pop has tiny clover shaped sprinkles.

For the past few years I've been trying to get the redhead to grow out his beard starting in late January so he'll look like an overgrown leprechaun. Each year he has refused. As a friend of ours put it, "Leprechaun fetish denied." Luck O' the Cake Pops, I guess.

The pictures above were taken by the very talented Aimee Wenske. Thanks Mia! (Yes, I call her Mia. To most everyone else, she's Aimee).

Hope you and your Irishman have a happy St. Patrick's Day.

For my yearly holiday party (usually around New Years) I made Twitter cake pops. I believe 2009 to be the year of Twitter (bird).

Using Bakerella's Easter spring chicken cake pops as inspiration, I created blue Twitter birds. This was my first try at the cake pop and sadly, quite a few cracked. I'll call those wounded birdies the Twitter fails. Maybe I should have made some fail whale pops, as well?

They are strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting and vanilla shell. Really tasty. I love how the pink pops against the blue.

FYI the little beaks, wings, and feet are labor intensive. After making a third of the birds I had Chris dig through the muticolored sprinkle jars for orange and yellow sprinkles as he watched some college bowl games. Now he claims he helped make the Twitter pops. I guess, it's true.

I gave the leftovers to a few of my co-workers. What lucky co-workers...

Quite a few people have requested a recipe/instructions. Check back on Monday night for a how-to post. Until then, in case of Twitter bird pop emergency, please consult Bakerella's blog.

Please Retweet.