French Macaron Wedding Favors

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of creating wedding favors for Erin and Joe's beach wedding on the Jersey Shore. Erin had contacted me a little while ago with the idea of French macarons in mind, and together we came up with the flavors, design and packaging for these trendy little treats. Her wedding colors were pink and ivory which we definitely wanted to incorporate in the favors. She and Joe chose red velvet and milk chocolate almond as flavors after taste testing a few samples I sent their way.

Very up and coming in the American food scene today, French macarons are small sandwich cookies made from almond flour and egg whites. They can be colored, flavored, and decorated in just about any way that you can imagine, which only adds to their appeal. What's more...they're gluten free without even trying (although I should mention, they were made in a kitchen with other non-gluten free items).

The pink macaron was cocoa flavored and filled with cream cheese filling. The ivory was a regular almond macaron filled with milk chocolate ganache. The flavors went together really well, and as much as I love cream cheese in just about anything, I thought the chocolate one Erin chose stole the show. Erin provided me with the adorable tags attached to the bags and I packaged them all up ready to go. I loved how the final product came together, and I thought it especially went well with their beach theme. Sitting all together in the bags, the macarons resembled sand dollars, and I hope they were an excellent addition to their big day! 

 Congratulations Erin and Joe, and also all of their wedding guests who got to go home with one of these!

October Birthday Cakes

 When I started my office "day job", I found a whole new cake market that has been so good to me for the past few months. Last week I even had two birthday cakes in one week- a first for my little business! I'm also loving to get to practice birthday cakes more frequently, because it is a different skill set from wedding cakes and it's a new challenge. The first of the week was a pink lemonade 1/4 sheet cake with citrus cream cheese frosting. I decorated with lots of little gumpaste flowers and yellow sugar. There's a Mamita somewhere with very happy taste buds:

The second was southern red velvet with cream cheese frosting, decorated with stucco texture and a chopped chocolate wave for Randi:

Here's to staying busy!

"Just Because" Cake

I could give you a hundred occasions to buy a cake - weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, baby showers, bridal showers, graduations, office parties, bad days, national dessert day [Oct. 14!] - to name a few. Above all, though, my favorite reason I've made a cake is the simplest: just because. One of my co-workers put an order in for this cake to bring home to his wife on a Friday as a weekend surprise. When I asked them if they had anything special planned or if that was a big anniversary weekend for them he said no, the cake was just because he loved her and he wanted to tell her in a different way. I'm not sure of the official standings, but I'm pretty sure he was at the top of the running for husband of the weekend that Friday. He even gave me specific directions for decorating it that were sweet and to the point:

The cake was classic red velvet with cream cheese filling.

Jimmy Buffet Birthday Cake

A cupcake tower that gives a nod to the kitschy, tropical, parrot-head culture. What's special about this cake are the unique flavors and handmade sugar decorations. There are three varieties of cupcake: the plain jane (vanilla with vanilla buttercream), classic red velvet (with cream cheese frosting) and dark chocolate chambord (a tipsy, chocolatey cake filled with raspberry preserves, fresh raspberries and iced with chocolate ganache). The 6" cake topper is also chocolate chambord.

All the flowers, leaves, bamboo and flip flops are handmade out of fondant and gumpaste.

The parrot was an online find, and he is the only non-edible decoration on the cake.

It was a cupcake tower in paradise.

Red Velvet Petite Fours

An alternative dessert detour- red velvet petite fours w/ cream cheese filling and chocolate ganache glaze made for my parents' dinner party. It's a new trend in weddings to have multiple desserts in addition to or instead of a wedding cake. These are the perfect bite sized treats and also cute as favors.