Christmas Ideas | My Sweet and Saucy

Archive for the ‘Christmas Ideas’ Category

Christmas Time

Friday, December 25th, 2009

First of all thank you SO much for your sweet comments about my little niece Kimberly. I appreciate your kind words more than you know. Praise the Lord Kimberly is recovering from an almost deadly bout with pneumonia! Right at this moment I am sitting in the hospital wishing she was able to be discharged already and in time for Christmas, but I guess we don’t always get what we want. This Christmas season has probably been one of the most trying times for me…between Kimberly’s hospital stay and trying to keep up with a growing business it has been quite a lot to process. I am so thankful for both, but sometimes life can be really hard…at least I have amazing friends, family, and staff to help me through everything. I am still giving a little hope that Kimmy gets out Christmas morning (they are doing a final test to see if they can discharge her), but either way I am very blessed and will try to focus on that.

On another note, this past season I was able to collaborate with the lovely ladies of Posh Paperie and Carter & Cook. I personally knew these ladies before we all went into the wedding biz and it is so fun now to be able to work with them and see them grow into such amazingly talented women. This particular party was to showcase our holiday designs and was thrown in San Diego at WineStyles. We had an absolute wonderful time and I think they photos show how talented these ladies really are!

I loved the backdrop Heather & Ashlyn created for my dessert table!!

I was so happy that my girlfriend, Kate, came along for the festivities as well…we always have way too much fun together!

Karrie & Elizabeth from Posh Paperie created the most adorable Christmas cards and gift tags…definitely book them earlier for next year!

Heather & Ashlyn from Carter & Cook put together such a dreamy tablescape. I loved all the details they incorporated and all of the textures!

Well, I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Tags: cake lollipops long beach ca, carter and cook, christmas tablescapes, cupcakes long beach ca, decorated sugar cookies, long beach ca desserts, melody brandon sweet and saucy shop, posh paperie, sweet and saucy shop long beachca
Posted in Cakes, Christmas Ideas, Cookies, Cupcakes, Desserts | 2 Comments »

Christmas Time @ Sweet & Saucy Shop

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Well Christmas time has definitely arrived! As you can probably tell from the lack of blog posts we have been BUSY like little elves at the shop lately! Thanksgiving no sooner passed, then it was time for Christmas decor, so some of my sweet staff decided to come in the weekend after Thanksgiving and help me decorate the shop. I was also very lucky to get the chance to go with Carissa from JL Designs to the LA Flower Mart and pic up some decor. Here are some fun photos of us girls in action!

I have to thank photographer and friend, Kristin Eldridge, for taking most of these gorgeous photos! If you have a chance definitely stop by her website…she is an amazing children’s photographer and captures moments that you’ll remember forever!

I bought those fabulous wooden ornaments from one of my favorite stores, Blue Windows, which is on 2nd Street in Long Beach…if you are in the area definitely stop by!

Here are some photos I took of the arrangements and sugar cookie ornamants!

Of course we needed to get in the holiday spirit with a new Christmas inspired dessert, so this past week we introduced our new Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes. They have a chocolate cupcake base, peppermint buttercream, and are topped of with peppermint bark. We also debuted our new Peppermint Brownie Cake Lollipops which are just as delightful tasting!

Another uber exciting announcement that I am so happy to write about it the new addition of Carissa’s amazing talent to my little shop. jldesigns-holiday collection logo 2 I knew when she told me of her new venture that I had to be a part of it somehow and miraculously it all worked out! Carissa will be selling her botanical pieces in my shop starting this Friday, so stop by and check them out! She will also be at the shop all day Monday to chit chat and go over her designs with you in person. Here is how she describes her new venture…

“well folks…

this has been on my mind for some time now…itching and nagging… this idea of creating high-end, botanical pieces that fit the JL DESIGNS vibe, but are also sustainable…i figured i have been putting this off long enough and that i should just pony up and launch a line already! ” So without further ado here they are…

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So I know what you are thinking…YOU HAVE TO HAVE ONE!!! Well even if you aren’t in SoCal, don’t worry she is actually selling them nationwide! Check out her site here!

Also if you are wondering who took Carissa’s lovely photos look no further than the talented husband and wife team of Gabriel Ryan Photographers…two of my personal favs!

Tags: cake lollipops long beach ca, chocolate peppermint cupcakes, christmas cupcakes long beach ca, christmas decorated sugar cookies, christmas gifts long beach ca, desserts long beach ca, gabriel ryan photography, jl designs, Melody Brandon Sweet & Saucy Shop, sustainable florals, sweet and saucy shop long beach ca
Posted in Christmas Ideas, Cookies, Cupcakes, Dessert Studio, Desserts, Products You'll Love | 8 Comments »

Last Batch of Christmas Sugar Cookies

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

Well, I am officially done with Christmas orders…yippee!!! I thought I would share my last batch of Christmas cookies with you. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and thanks for a wonderful year of blogging!

I would love to hear which one you like the best!

Tags: christmas sugar cookies, cookies designs, decorated sugar cookies long beach ca
Posted in Christmas Ideas, Cookies, Desserts | 34 Comments »

Christmas Decorated Sugar Cookies

Sunday, December 14th, 2008

Well, I just finished decorating some Christmas sugar cookies with my sister and I wanted to share them with you! My sister doesn’t have a background in baking or decorating at all, but has always been very artistic so just recently we started working together and I began showing her how to decorate cookies, cupcakes, and cakes. Well let me tell you…she is one of my best students yet!!! She is so amazing and catches on very quickly! We have been having such an amazing time together decorating and chatting away! Here are some of the fruits of our labor, plus a few from last year…hope you enjoy!

Thanks for taking a look! I would love to hear which one is your favorite!

Tags: christmas cookies, christmas sugar cookies long beach ca, christmas sugar cookies los angeles, christmas tree sugar cookies, decorated christmas sugar cookies, how to decorate christmas sugar cookeis, ornament sugar cookies, present sugar cookies, reindeer sugar cookies, royal icing, snowflake sugar cookies, stocking sugar cookies
Posted in Christmas Ideas, Cookies, Desserts | 66 Comments »

Cakes & Cupcakes

Sunday, December 7th, 2008

Thanks everyone for your sweet comments about the Christmas cupcakes! I love hearing from all of you! Well, work has been busy and I actually have a lot of random orders that I wanted to share with you…so here they are! The first two cakes are ones that my friend Hannah and I designed for the holiday season. We thought we would go a little more modern with the designs.

This next order was for a Minnie Mouse Cupcake Cake. I hadn’t ever done one of these types of cakes before and found it to be a little tricky. I tried just using buttercream to make Minnie’s face, but didn’t like how it was turning out, so I decided to use fondant instead…overall I was pretty happy with it, but would definitely do some things different next time.

A couple weeks ago I had a cupcake order for an anniversary party. The colors were lime green, gold, and brown…this is what I came up with!

And lastly, this next cake design my friend Hannah & Nadia collaborated on with me. We wanted to do a modern tree and bird cake.

Thanks for taking a look!

Tags: birdie cake, cupcake tower, elegant cupcakes, long beach bakeries, long beach ca cakes, long beach ca cupcakes, minnie mouse cupcake cake, modern tree and bird cake, modern wedding cake designs
Posted in Cakes, Children's Birthday Ideas, Christmas Ideas, Cupcakes, Desserts, Wedding Ideas | 27 Comments »

Christmas Cupcakes

Monday, December 1st, 2008

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I was lucky enough to go up to the mountains and stay in a cabin with all of my family for about 4 days…it was a blast and definitely hard to come back to reality. But alas I am home and find myself with Christmas season upon me! Last night we decorated my mom and dad’s house and hopefully I will find time to decorate my little apartment later this week. I absolutely LOVE Christmas time and find that it is the perfect season for baking and giving gifts. Here are some cupcake designs that I recently came up with for the holiday season. I hope you enjoy checking them out and find yourself making some of your own for Christmastime!

Some of the cupcakes are easier than others, and most of the techniques I have used I have blogged about in the past, so if you want more info about how to make them check out the links and browse my blog for help. These first cupcakes are ornament cupcakes. I used a variety of techniques from embossing with stamps to painting the fondant with a mixture of luster dust and lemon extract.

These next cupcakes are a little bit easier. You simple roll out colored fondant and cut out a Christmas shape with cookie cutters. Then brush or paint with luster dust and let the accent pieces dry. Next frost your cupcake and add your accent pieces. For the holly leaf accent just pipe red dots for the berries or roll them out of red fondant.

To make these poinsettia cupcakes just follow the instructions I gave in this previous post and you should be able to make them! I was going for the brown, light blue, and red color scheme, so that is why the center is light blue, but if you want to make them more realistic looking them pipe the center yellow.

These next two cupcakes were make with modeling chocolate. I frosted the cupcakes and rolled the edges in crystal sugar. Then I used the modeling chocolate to form a rustic mistletoe branch and a little bow.

I love packaging these cupcakes individually in these clear boxes (4″x4″x4″) and then putting some M&M’s around them. They are great gifts and not too expensive.