cupcake

Wedding | Sandy & Mike in Malibu

May 29, 2015| Featured, Weddings

I previewed, but never got a chance to feature, the event that premiered the new Milo’s Bonbons logo. At Sandy & Mike’s wedding in Malibu earlier this year, we set up a dessert table with a wedding cake centerpiece. It was colorful and fun, and a real smorgasbord of sweets.

I had a lot of fun collaborating with the bride and groom on interesting flavor ideas and presentation. They were excited to present unique desserts that featured some of their favorite flavors like Earl Grey tea, bourbon and peach. I was also inspired by their wedding colors, which were along the lines of coral and slate blue. What made the experience really special for me was the abundance of support and enthusiasm the couple had for Milo’s Bonbons. It was amazing seeing the tent card signs they printed for the desserts, especially the “Desserts by Milo’s Bonbons” sign. Thank you Sandy & Mike!

The dessert table featured mini cupcakes, macarons, tarts, mini cakes and parfait cups. For the cupcakes, I made two types: a chocolate bourbon ganache cupcake with bourbon buttercream, and an orange cupcake with champagne buttercream.

For the macarons, I made two types as well: an Earl Grey chocolate ganache macaron, and a passion fruit pastry cream macaron.

The mini tarts had a layer of baked almond cream and was topped with mascarpone mousse and little gumpaste flowers.

To add variety in height and shape, I also had parfait cups filled with layers of granola, peach custard and raspberry puree. The photo I took of them was unfortunately a bit dark.

The wedding couple’s wedding cake was three tiers, but only the top tier was actual cake for cutting purposes. The bottom two tiers were dummy cakes. The cake was a strawberry layered cake with Chambord buttercream and in order to share this with guests, I also created mini cakes with golden heart skewers added by the bride. That was actually the most challenging item of the event, as I was exploring different cake textures and cutting techniques and learning as I went. I certainly learned a lot for future events!

Photo below by onelove photography:

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Baby Shower | Congrats Alice & Mark!

May 25, 2015| Baby Showers

Babies on the way are always exciting news, but this one in particular makes me so happy. Alice has been a sister to me, friend, confidante, mentor, and even once-employer. Her recent baby shower was a no-frills gathering of friends and featuring great food (Waffle Roost Food Truck), reflecting the priorities of Alice and Mark. Other than some flavor preferences, there weren’t any special requests for desserts. So left to my own whims and imagination, I made chocolate hazelnut mousse (with flourless chocolate cake and chocolate meringues), matcha green tea “napoleon” cakes and lemon curd strawberry buttercream mini cupcakes.

The chocolate mousse cups had a small circle of cake at the bottom, topped with the chocolate hazelnut mousse, and a cluster of meringue sticks inserted on top. Although baked until they dry out, the meringue absorbs a bit of moisture over time, resulting in a melt-in-your-mouth texture.

The matcha green tea cakes had layers of green tea chiffon cake, green tea pastry cream and puff pastry (one of my favorite combinations these days). I topped them with buttercream and sprinkled with matcha green tea sugar and turbinado sugar and served as small slices.

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Wedding | Congrats Stephanie & Michael!

June 15, 2014| Featured, Weddings

(Photo credit for featured photo above: Sara Richardson Photography)

ETA: Updated with photos from wedding photographer(s). Also, the wedding was featured on Jet Fete Blog!

Last weekend I had the honor (and challenge) of making the wedding desserts for my good friends Stephanie and Michael. I first accepted the honor of making the ~100 red velvet cupcakes. Then I found out the wedding was in Mexico. That’s when it became a challenge . . .

and you know I don’t back down from challenges!

Photo Credit: Sara Richardson Photography

Photo Credit: Sara Richardson Photography

I’m happy to report that everything went off without a hitch. We did a cupcake taste test a couple months in advance, experimenting with a combination of fillings (e.g. lemon curd, chocolate ganache, cheesecake), frostings (plain cream cheese frosting, lemon cream cheese frosting, ginger white pepper cream cheese frosting) and decorations. After it became apparent that bride and groom (and participating wedding party taste testers) had drastically different taste preferences, we settled upon two cupcakes: (1) red velvet with lemon curd filling, lemon cream cheese frosting and white pearl sprinkles, and (2) red velvet with dark chocolate ganache filling, plain cream cheese frosting and chocolate curls.

Photo Credit: Sara Richardson Photography

As a surprise, I also made a 6″ topper cake, which was alternating layers of red velvet cake and cheesecake, covered with cream cheese frosting. The idea was to use this either for the cutting ceremony, or for the couple to take home and freeze as a 1-year anniversary cake.

I went back and forth about what to prepare ahead of time, and what to do once in Mexico, but at the last minute after a trial run, I decided to bake the cupcakes and frost them ahead of time. The cake was made in advance and frozen. The cupcakes were baked the night before I traveled, refrigerated and then frosted right before I barely made it on my flight. The 84 cupcakes + 1 6″ cake were just the right amount to fit into two cardboard boxes that were each the dimension of carry-on luggage. As soon as we got to Mexico, they went into the hotel refrigerator.

The morning of the wedding, we transported these to the wedding villa for decoration and setup. Unfortunately, we lost about 6 cupcakes due to mishandling by hotel staff, but everything else held up! The gumpaste sunflowers I made for the topper cake had some breakage issues, but I sacrificed one petal to use as gumpaste glue the night before the wedding to make some repairs.

I breathed a sigh of relief when the cake was finally cut, and the cupcakes were gobbled up. Whew! Exciting and so much fun!

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