Stanford Home and AT&T

Growing up in Sacramento I was always aware of the existance of the Stanford Home and when a wedding industry friend changed industries to work with them I was very excited for her. When I was asked to participate in one of their events I was even more excited. This was a Thank You and Ribbon Cutting party for AT&T who had just granted the Stanford Home a grant to pay for an art therapy room. How wonderful!

We created a pretty little dessert table for the party and Jackson Catering took care of the yummy food. It's always nice to work with vendors you know! A special thanks to Bruce Robinson Photography for the following pictures!


Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes and Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes and Creme Brulee

The whole shootin' match, including Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake and the ever popular Peanut Butter Sandwiches.

Last, but not least, Dark Chocolate Mousse with Farm Fresh Strawberries

My (not so) New Obsession... Religieuse

Excuse the rant....

Why are Americans stuck on the same desserts? If I see another cheesecake, creme brulee or @#($*#$& chocolate lava cake I'm going to slit my wrists! COME ON PEOPLE!!! There is a whole flipping world of desserts out there!!! Venture out... I promise, it'll still be creamy or chocolate-y or whatever you love.

OK, now that that is out of my system...


(Photo by: Beth Baugher, Religieuse by: Sugar and Spice Specialty Desserts)

I've been in love with these little guys for the longest time. A Religieuse is made of two filled and stacked cream puffs. mmmmm, cream puffs (insert Homer Simpson's voice here). They can be filled with everything from flavored pastry cream to mousse. All good stuff! The coolest (and prettiest... HEY, I'm a girl... pretty matters!) part is that the top of each puff is glazed to reflect the flavor inside. Sooo pretty, soooo yummy! I'm bent on making these the newest dessert craze, who says Sacramento, CA can't be the center of the dessert world?


(Photo from Laduree Paris website)

Rehearsal Dinner - Dessert Bar

It was another busy weekend. Thursday rehearsal dinner dessert bar at the Citizen Hotel downtown, sculpted shoe cake on Friday, and INSANE detail wedding cake at the Sutter Club.

Yesterday was also family picture day... Mom and Dad with the boys, Mike and I, and our goddaughter's three month pictures. Those pictures will come soon, but you'll just have to wait!

For now I only have pictures from Thursday, but I promise more to come from the other events!

Let me begin by saying that I like to think I play well with others, well, a girl has to draw a line SOMEWHERE... I do not EVER again want to share my dessert table with the coffee station. It looks, well, not to put too fine of a point on it... LIKE CRAP! Of course the desserts were still tasty and my couple did like them, it just wasn't the look I was going for. Dang.

Special thanks go out to Brandy Sommer Photography for coming at a moments notice to take pictures! I'll also be getting pictures from Allison Stahl Photography, but we'll have to be patient on those.

The close ups are so much more picturesque!

Chocolate Eclairs... with the cutsie white chocolate hearts!

Ubiquitous vanilla bean creme brulee... how can you argue when it's so good and sooo popular!??

Fresh fruit tart... all berries this time... Aren't those golden raspberries to DIE for???

If you haven't figured it out by this point, I ADORE gold... leaf, dust, flecks... all of it. I'm a glitter girl, I can't help it. Everything in my nature screams MORE, MORE, MORE! I have to intentionally put my instincts in check some times!

Last but not least are these yummy triffles. This one is similar to the ones I did last weekend for the bridal shower, except that they have raspberries inside! White Chocolate Mousse, Passionfruit Curd, Red Raspberries and White Chocolate shavings all layered together with vanilla bean butter cake. So many textures and flavors, and so so yummy!

Kate and Paul - June 14, 2009

Sunday (a beautiful California day!) was Kate and Paul's wedding at La Provence Restaurant. The first pictures here are from Brandy Novey-Capik (Brandy Sommers Photography), and the lower photos are from Monica Lunardi. This was a beautiful wedding with a food and wine theme and the evening's desserts were all about the chocolate! Amber Novey of Platinum Planning did a lovely job coordinating all the little details!

Kate and Paul were all about the chocolate, the cake was more of a formality, so we made it small, understated, and elegant, but elevated so that it was still the center of attention on the dessert table.
Chocolate Raspberry Mousse (with raspberries skewered with chocolate cigarettes and Dark Chocolate Tulip Cups (filled with white, dark and milk chocolate mousse and fresh fruit)

Yup, that's me! I didn't even see her take that picture!

Kate and Paul cutting the cake... look at all those lovely candles!

The dessert table all set up!

Chocolate Raspberry Mousse

Opera Cake with Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans and Gold Leaf

Wedding Kisses and Tying the Knot Truffles (Cabernet Reduction Truffles with Strawberry Dust and Grand Marnier Truffles with Candied Orange Zest Knots)

Tri Mousse (Dark, Milk and White Chocolate) Tulip cups with Fresh Fruit

Chocolate Eclairs with White Chocolate Hearts and Tying the Knot Truffles

Rehersal Dinner Desserts

Last night I met with Tracy and Tim and Tim's Mom to discuss the rehearsal dinner. Boy what a fun event. They are having food stations at La Perla Bistro and a band. Instead of a traditional Groom's cake or petit fours I presented them with four plated desserts. (Unfortunately the Mocha dessert had two frozen components so with the last minute plating I didn't get a picture.)

Four very different styles and flavors, but basically two chocolate desserts and two fruit desserts. I'm already scheduled to make cupcakes for their wedding at Arden Hills Country Club, so I thought something a bit different would be nice for the day before. (Side note, I also know that the day before a large wedding is very heavy on production so I don't want to over-commit myself! Plated desserts are lovely, but also far less stressful than a Groom's cake or lots of little bites.

Below are pictures and descriptions:

Lemon "Meringue" Tart (Lemon tart with graham cracker crust, topped with whipped cream and meringue shards, candied blueberry compote and vanilla ice cream - not pictured, but sat on top of blueberries)Strawberries and Cream (Mascarpone mousse with strawberries hidden inside on a white cake base, tarragon caramel, roasted strawberries, super fresh/ripe strawberry, and strawberry sorbet - not pictured)Mocha (Dark chocolate pot de creme topped with a layer of Vietnamese coffee ice cream - sweetened condensed milk and espresso, coffee granita, whipped cream, gold leaf, chocolate cigar, coffee caramel on plate)

Chocolate orange (Dark chocolate mousse on a chocolate cake base, topped with salted caramel, orange confit, grand marnier ganache, salted caramel sauce) - this was also supposed to have a salted toffee chip garnish, but I flubbed and totally forgot! After much discussion they decided to go with two smaller versions of two desserts on one rectangular plate. I'll be doing the Lemon "Meringue" Tart and the Mocha... it will be LOVELY!!!!

Jessica and Jason - April 25, 2009

Jessica and Jason were married and had their beautiful "lounge" themed reception at Viscaya Pavillion in beautiful downtown Sacramento. Her colors were greens, pinks and purples with lots of crystal! With these details in mind we created this cake in three shades of green with sugar diamonds between the layers and all topped off with Waterford Crystal flowers.

(Quick note here: When Jessica asked every other bakery in town about using the crystal flowers to top her cake, they all said no. I try not to have that word in my vocabulary. It was just an obstacle to be overcome. Each flower had an 18" long stem (that you don't see because it is INSIDE the cake).

I created a plastic tube and plate structure that went through the entire cake and that the flowers slipped into... very slick, but more than a bit difficult to assemble!) The cake, again!, was a real collaboration. The bottom tier was chocolate cake with layers of cherry jam, vanilla bean pastry cream and Morello cherry compote. The middle tier was vanilla bean butter cake with layers of raspberry pear mousse with fresh raspberries. Jessica's Mom made the raspberry pear jam that I then turned into mousse. The top layer, to be saved for the following day, was red velvet with layers of cream cheese buttercream. What a cake!

With the "lounge" theme Jessica and Jason decided to have heavy appetizers and a dessert buffet (in addition to the cake!) instead of a sit down dinner. Below are some of the pictures.

Fruit Tartlets with Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream

The guests were treated to, among other things, pink peppermint and pistachio marshmallows cut into the couple's first and last initials. I went a step further and cut out their whole first names... how fun! (This is the joy of a boutique dessert shop! We can do fun crazy things like this!)
Jessica's Mom's favorite! Lemon Meringue Triffle: Layers of lemon curd, creme fraiche and dried meringue.

Special thanks to Allison Stahl Photography for all these lovely pictures! She did a great job and I'm thrilled to be able to share these pictures with you all!

Sacramento Bride and Groom: SWOP Meets

Tonight is Sacramento Bride and Grooms bi-monthly networking meeting. It's an invite only event for the advertisers and I'm fortunate to be a guest this month. I've also teamed up with the host location, Granite Bay Golf Club, to provide the desserts. I'm serving: bouchons, s'mores, lemon marshmallows, salted caramel tartlets, and pavlovas. All soooooo yummy. Here is a preview pic (a little assortment pulled out for Lora's birthday).

French Macarons - SUCCESS!!!

mmmmm, just typing the name of these little cookies is enjoyable. I'm drinking coffee and eating my experiment from last night. The first bake should have been at a slightly lower temperature, for a little longer. (perfect tops, lovely ruffled foot, but a little too chewy and moist on the inside) The second batch, well, I was cleaning (I have to confess... I'm such a bad lier!) and forgot about them, so they were a little too dark, but had a nice crunch and the over baking really added a nice nutty flavor. These are usually sandwiched with some sort of filling (coordinated with their color), but for family meal I just put out a lid of ganache and surrounded it with cookies. Of course Anna (our dishwasher and prep cook extraordinaire) got perfect little cookies that were sandwiched like they were supposed to be.

These are very finicky cookies and I have to say I haven't made them since cooking school, so now that I have regained my confidence and I'm thrilled! There really is no greater satisfaction than something turning out... followed by no greater failure than a flop. (I'm always pissy when things don't turn out, it's not personal, it's just me!)

Look for pictures of future batches. I'll be making more this weekend and playing with colors and flavors. Yea!

I like da purty pictures...

Dhaling Nicole over at Memory Journalists took some stunning pics at the David Girard Girl's Night Out. Do take a read through the post on the MJ Blog, but here are the pictures I shamelessly stole off their site! Pictured are: Myer Lemon and Pink Peppermint Marshmallows, Salted Caramel Tart with Hawaiian Sea Salt, Mixed Fruit Tart, Milk Chocolate and Coconut Mousse with Coconut Meringue.

Thank you Nicole and Memory Journalists for being so long suffering! I'm forever begging for pictures.

Sweet Words...

Jennifer over at Memory Journalists is a doll. Take a read through her sweet words.

Girls Night Out!

Last week I sent out an email to all my past and present brides, industry professionals, friends and family letting them all know about David Girard Vineyard's Girl's Night Out! Event. What fun! Chicks, wine, good company! I'll be a vendor and I'll have tons of free little bites and a dozen each of four individual desserts for sale. (Take a little something home to your honey or little ones!) I hope to see you all there! Stop by and say Hi, I'll be the tall chick in a chef coat and red shoes!

Dessert Menu

Milk Chocolate Coconut Mousse - $7
Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Tart - $7

Fresh Fruit Tart - $7
Marshmallows - $7/dozen
Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie - $3

February 20: 6:00-9:00 Girls Night Out!

Spoil yourself with an evening of food, wine, art, chocolate, makeup artistry, chair massages, and so much more. Free to attend.