Archive for the ‘Products You'll Love’ Category

Utterly Engaged Feature!

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

I had the pleasure of working with the lovely ladies from Utterly Engaged again for their 1 year anniversary issue!  When I heard the idea for the shoot, “Sew in Love”, and then the amazing team I was going to get to work with I was SOOO excited! The team included…Art Direction & Stylist by Sugar and FluffLucia of DL/sh Design and UtterlyEngaged, and props & design from Jeni from Found Vintage Rentals!  The fabulous florals were from my girl Carissa from JL Designs…she never disappoints! Also the paper painted bouquets by Kristy Rice of Momental Designs were too much fun! I have to say a major thank you to Paula & Mike from Luna Photo for the gorgeous photos; I absolutely love working with them!  Here’s some of the pages from the online magazine!

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The models were simply gorgeous & got perfectly beautified by the talented Fiore Beauty.  Their lovely gowns were by Elizabeth Dye of The English DeptSarah SevenHolly Stalder, and Joan Shum.

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Lucia was sweet enough to send me over a couple more photos from the shoot and I had to post them!  I loved making this cake & seeing it come to life.  We made lots of custom vintage molds & put sugar paste in them & then painted them.  I loved how it turned out!

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We’ve recently been starting to make a lot of french macaroons at the shop and boy can I tell you that I am now addicted to them! My talented assistant pastry chef Susie has been coming up with so many scrumptious options that I think I’ve gained 5 lbs. just taste testing them!

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We also made some yummy little french desserts and drizzled them in pink frosting!  I wanted to make homemade donuts too, but sadly we ran out of time, so lucky me I have a donut shop right next door to my shop & picked some up for props!  Speaking of props…how jealous are you of Jeni from Found Vintage Rentals…her collection is AMAZING!

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Thanks again Lucia, Henny, & Eva for this fun opportunity!  The next photos are from the talented Kristin from Kristin Eldridge Photography!  Kristin blesses me all the time with her many talents and again came by my shop and took some photos for me of our new window display….it is quite hard to capture the cutest of it all with the funky windows & reflections, but Kristin did a great job!

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Even though my good friend Jesi, from Jesi Haack Weddings, was almost about to pop out a little baby she still was sweet enough to come over to my shop & help me put it all together!  We got inspiration from the recent Martha Stewart Weddings magazine and made the fabric hoops for the main display.  We then hung some flag banners that Jesi had from previous weddings and we were basically all set!

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If you follow me on Twitter you probably already know that I am almost finished with my new online store!  We have been working on it for what seems like FOREVER, but it really is almost finished!  I have such a love and passion for cute, adorable cake stands and I really wanted to share that with my readers, so they can get them too!  I will be selling the most gorgeous cake stands, platters, dishes, domes…..the list goes on and on!  Here are a couple sneak peaks that Kristin took for me…aren’t they dreamy!

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Another Amazing Ron Ben Israel Class!!!

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Well first off I have to apologize that this post has taken me SOOO long to get up, but with that being said it doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about writing this post for a long time. As most of you probably know, last year I had the pleasure of taking a class with Ron Ben Israel, who is definitely one of the most amazing and inspiring cake designers that I know. I am constantly enthralled with his new designs and innovations and I know taking any class with him is money well worth it! After I took that class I heard of another class on “Making Your Own Sugar Molds” and once I told my sister she said she HAD to go!

She had the time of her life at the class and learned so much information! Ron is a wealth of knowledge and she so appreciated all of his help, tips, and techniques. We have put into practice this new technique of making silicone molds out of everyday objects and then using them to make custom sugar or chocolate molds for our cakes. This allows us to customize our cakes like never before, because now when we make a mold it is unique and not everyone can buy it to replicate on another cake. We are constantly now scouring flea markets, ebay, old jewelry cases…you name it, we want to make a mold out of it!. Well enough blabbing from me, but before I go I want to say once again if you ever have the chance to take a class from Ron Ben Israel it is worth every penny! Here are some fun photos of the class in action!

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Sara made these two custom molds by taking smaller jewel molds and combining them together to make a larger mold.  For the second mold she actually braided the sugar paste around a jewel mold and then made it into a custom shaped mold…love it!  My sister is truly so talented and I really don’t know what I would do without her, she makes me a better cake designer and pushes me more than anyone else!

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Ron also taught the class how to make blinged out poppy sugar flowers!

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Now Sara, since bless her heart she is a perfectionist to the T, didn’t finish the cake at the class, but here is a photo of Ron & her with her cute, unfinished cake anyway!

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So the main reason why I waited SOOO long to write this post is because we both wanted to post a photo of the finished cake along with the rest of the photos.  As you might have guessed, we were a little busy at the shop and it took us awhile to finish it. We wanted the cake to be elegant, modern, and glamorous.  We made some more custom jewel molds and even took apart the flowers she made in class and combined them into one larger flower with a black center.  We added a middle tier to the cake too, so that it was a little larger overall.  The final cake has to be one of our favorites so far!

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And here is another cake we made using Ron’s mold technique. We found this amazing little mum brooch at the local flea market and knew we had to make a mold out of it.  We wanted the cake to be modern, clean, with a vintage touch!

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Thank you SO much again Ron for your dedication to the craft and your willingness to share your knowledge!

Utterly Engaged Party

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Well I am finally breaking my blogging drought!  I can’t believe how busy I have been lately!  The shop keeps growing and growing and more fun opportunities keep coming my way, which is so amazing, but leaves me with little time to do anything else but work. Thankfully my wonderful new assistant, Hayley, is going to start blogging for me too, so then I’ll be able to share more fun photos with you!

This blog post is completely dedicated to the lovely women over at Utterly Engaged! They threw an AMAZING party a couple months ago and I had the pleasure of being a part of a wonderful team that designed a table for the event.  There are so many fun details to this table that I thought I would send you over to the wonderful blogs of two of the talented ladies that I worked with…Nancy from, So Happi Together, and Megan, from Mae Mae Paperie!  Nancy & Megan came up with the whole fun concept behind the table and this is how Megan described it…

“The requirements were to take our own twist on a modern tablescape. We created a “brand” for the wedding which was “Love. It’s the big idea” and the logo was a light bulb with a heart inside. The couple was a pastry chef + an engineer, Polly + Edison. Mel crafted cookies and the decorations for the cake from my illustrations. You haven’t lived until you eat something with your design on it. My favorite element was all the paper we used in place of traditional elements. The table runner was paper and the place mats were also paper. The two place mats also acted as escort cards with the names on the top.”

Megan also took some wonderful photos as well, so here they are!

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I have to say I was blown away with Megan’s designs and knew I had to incorporate them into my desserts somehow…that is why I used edible images to print her designs out.  Nancy had a great vision for the whole tablescape and Mille Fiore did an amazing job with the florals! So here are the rest of the photos that the fabulous Jasmine Star took for us!!!

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I also made some mini cupcakes with the images and sugar cookies as well!

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I had a chance to snap a few photos myself, so here they are!

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Thanks so much for stopping by and I promise to have more posts soon!!!

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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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 2I 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!

Featured on UtterlyEngaged!!!

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Well, as most of you can tell from my lack of posts I am barely hanging onto my sanity! The shop is basically all I sleep, breathe, and eat these days! I knew it would be a lot of work, but let me say that it is really A LOT of work starting up a dessert studio! I am loving every second…well, maybe not every second (the late night dishes, lack of sleep, and nervous stomach aren’t too much fun), but overall I am really, really happy with how everything is going! I have so much to blog about, but before I try to do all of that I had to let everyone know about my absolute favorite online wedding magazine…Utterly Engaged! You must check it out…even if you are already married or not in the wedding time of your life, the magazine is filled with gorgeous photos, interesting people, and fun ideas. I was beyond excited when they asked if they could feature my new studio and had a blast when they came out for the photo shoot. I of course had to get my adorable nieces and handsome little brother in on the fun…they are my cutest advertisement! A big thanks to Eva Chiou, Lucia Dinh and Henny Setiadi, they are the talented ladies behind all the magic. I also can’t forget to thank Brandon Kidd who was the amazing photographer who shot all the photos…if you are in the Southern California area and need a photographer I definitely recommend checking him out. Well here is the link to the whole magazine and sneak peak at my feature! Utterly Engaged Magazine!

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And like I said there are tons of uber talented contributors so check them out!

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Sugar Flowers & Bridal Showers

Friday, March 27th, 2009

Well, as you know my sister and I are trying to learn how to make all sorts of sugar flowers.  We have become quite obsessed with them and my credit card bill definitely proves it!  I have only actually taken one class from Ron Ben-Israel on how to make sweet pea sugar flowers and the rest we have learned through books and watching videos from Nicholas Lodge.  Sugar flowers are very tedious and require a lot of patience (and tools), but they are also one of the more artistic aspects of cake decorating.  The cake was buttermilk cake with white chocolate mousse buttercream and fresh strawberries…yummy! We made it for a recent bridal shower and were very excited to put our sugar flower knowledge to the test and create a gorgeous cake for the bride-to-be!  

We had such a great time making these peonies, berries, parrot tulips, and butterflies!  Definitely let me know which one you liked the best!


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