We've been blogged! - Twice!

I got two delightful emails yesterday saying that we'd been blogged! The first was from Memory Journalists (they are SO GOOD to me!). They did a little profile "run down" interview. Thanks gang... we love you too!

The next was from the always fabulous Beth Baugher of True Love Photo. Yes, she was MY wedding photographer, and yes, it was upon her urging that we officially started Sugar and Spice Specialty Desserts. So, of course we love her! This was an amazing home wedding that Lora Ward, with A Day To Remember coordinated. Ahhh, such beauty and SO MANY amazing details. I've already shared this cake with you, but Bethy got some lovely up close and personal shots too, plus I HAD to share a picture of this darling couple!

Real Weddings Magazine - Featured Wedding

We just LOVE it when our couples are featured in the local wedding magazines! Real Weddings is such an amazing and unique magazine because they really do focus on REAL couples... not just gorgeous models or photo shoots with no budget (which are fun, but not always an accurate reflection of real wedding budgets.) If you read the article in Our Weddings magazine about Your Wedding, Your Menu, Laura and Gary were the couple who were honeymooning in Hawaii and had the chocolate cake with macadamia nuts and coconut pastry cream (and the unmentioned coconut buttercream). Laura and Gary were a great couple to work with and I couldn't be happier to see their wedding featured!

A special thanks goes out to The Memory Journalists for taking amazing pictures and for doing all the work to track down the article and do the post.

Carla and Trevor - Our Weddings Magazine featured wedding

Quote-worthy!

I'm always nervous about being interviewed. There is always the concern of mis-speaking or being too strong, or too critical, or too something, and after reading this I was afraid it was one of those times, but the only thing I would change is that I would clarify the last sentence... Although I encourage my clients to be creative and to have fun with their flavors I will NEVER let them walk out the door with some combination that I think is gross... or worse, that I think their guests will think is gross. I do, firmly, stick by the fact that it doesn't matter what I like, that it is all about my clients, that being said, my limited dislikes in the pastry world are a shadow to my dislikes in the savory world! I love pushing the envelope and I adore my clients for being game and for being adventurous.

Check out this great article in Our Weddings Fall/Winter issue.

By the way... we've been working with Christine and Aldo since just after they hired their darling wedding planner... in addition to being the sweetest couple ever, they are a joy to work with and as we're rapidly nearing their wedding date I am getting increasingly excited!!!

Kathy and Jason - ParaVi Vineyards

Kathy and Jason came to me about six weeks ago with their wedding on the very near horizon. As Kathy's sister said on wedding day, "You are perfect for Kathy and Jason, they LOVE dessert and Kathy loves little desserts." To which I responded, "Everything big is better small." Kathy was all about the pies, Jason, being from the East Coast, was all about canolis and pasticiotti (more on this in a minute). They had no interest in cake and loved the idea of feeding each other canolis. Who says you can't take the parts of the traditions you like and leave the rest behind? Pies I can handle, but I'd never made canolis even though I knew about them and had a rough, general idea of how they were supposed to taste and look. The pasticiotti however were a total new experience! I ordered specific pans for them and wound up getting the recipe from the Jason's aunt. Pasticiotti is a cakey/cookie like crusted tart baked in a fluted pan and filled with a vanilla or lemon scented custard. (In this case we went with vanilla.)The wedding was at the amazing ParaVi Vineyards. The venue is basically divided into three tiers. The upper grassy tier was where the ceremony took place. The next tier down was a large grassy lawn where a long kings table was set up. The bottom tier was where the barrel room (in this case, the dance floor and desserts), the tasting room (aka, the bar) and a lovely outside deck area that is perfect for cocktail hour. If you are having a smaller wedding you HAVE to check it out!

I don't have a ton of pictures because we've got all sorts of fun plans for it to be published, but I did want to share a little bit with everyone! A HUGE thanks to Chris Shepard for being the dedicated machine that he is... I still can't believe that he got these sneak peek pictures turned around so amazingly fast! Of course I also can't wait to see MORE! This wedding has also been blogged about (don't you just love the enthusiasm for beautiful weddings!) on our buddy Shannon's Fancy Pants Weddings blog.


I almost forgot! A special thank you to Ellie my new intern, she took care of doing the set up and all of the dessert tags. Simple, Clean, Perfect. I also wanted to thank Sunny and his team with Exquisite Events and Entertainment for going with the flow and adding lighting to the dessert. (Nobody puts Baby in the corner!) Without it the desserts would have been entirely dark, with it the plates just shone! And last, but not least, a HUGE thanks to Francie of Bocca Catering, without her I never would have met Kathy and Jason!

Christina and Mickey - River Highlands Ranch

I met Christina and Mickey through Kendra Pfeiffer of Pfeiffer Event Planning. What a darling, sweet couple. They were married last month at River Highlands Ranch near Grass Valley. What an amazing venue! Yes, it was country, no, it was not rustic. It was just beautiful.

Special thanks to Bruce Robinson for these pictures.

The Bride was recently diagnosed with Celiac (gluten intolerant), so we made smaller versions of the large chocolate mousse cups for the guests for her darling Groom to feed her.Don't you just adore the wheat grass base for the cake?
Lastly, a brief note on the cake, the Bride and Groom described the buttercream technique as "ceiling spackle", I call it "homestyle", but either way, it is a soft, relaxed, romantic look and when paired with the flowers and the wheat grass base it was perfect for their reception. Special note, if you have a smaller cake, place the cake on a bar height cocktail table, it'll give you additional height and the smaller surface area will make the diminutive size of the cake feel a little more in proportion!

Style Magazines - Summerpalooza!

Last week Style Media Group held their Summerpalooza party out at Bass Lake Golf Course. WHAT FUN! It was a benefit for Play for All, a wonderful charity that creates fully accessable playgrounds. What a great organization to be a part of!

As part of the festivities they had a hole-in-one contest, my darling husband took a swing, and, well, lets just say it didn't quite go as planned, but at least he had fun!

Additionally there were more raffles that I can list, but here is one of the cakes that Darcie of A Dazzeling Day won. YEA Darcy!
(Strawberry Covered Chocolate: Chocolate Fudge Cake with Strawberry Buttercream and Fresh Strawberries)

Of couse, we did our part and had a scrumptious dessert bar. A special thanks goes out to Siegel's Portrait Design for the pictures!

I also want to thank Lara Kiniris of Calligraphy Girl for the lovely dessert tags!

Good Old Fashioned Chocolate Chip Cookeis
Creamsicle Panna Cotta (Vanilla Panna Cotta layered with Orange Gelee)
Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes (Vanilla Cupcakes filled with Lemon Sabayon and topped with Raspberry Buttercream) Honey Bee Cupcakes (Chocolate Cake topped with Wildflower Honey Buttercream)
Flower Butter Cookie Lollipops
The Always Popular Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies!
Mini Dark Chocolate Mousse Cups

Last, but not least, nothing says summer quite like S'mores... so we went with S'Mores Tarts!