White Birdie Cupcakes

The design for these cupcakes was inspired by The Dwell Studio Collection at Target. What a hip baby girl's room with the retro birds and twiggy trees. I attempted to make the chocolate fondant trees as twiggy as I could without them losing their structure, and the birds were a riot! The design has all white birds, so I felt funny even putting a little black dot for an eye, but it gave them so much more personality.

You might notice that the picture of the cupcakes was taken with them inside the box, totally ghetto, I know..... I am working on making sure I get photos of all my projects (SO slacking at the moment) even as they are flying out the door.

Crawfish Boil!

This cake was made for an adorably cute pregnant-with-twins lady. She is originally from Louisianna and has a fantastic sense of humor, so when her friends began planning her suprise baby shower, they knew the cake had to be over the top. I made all sugar crawfish, lemons, red potatoes and corn on the cobb. The cake itself is the pot and put sugar prints of babies on the side to recognize the little ones as the guests of honor.

Elmo Birthday Cake

My baby girl's first birthday finally arrived. After much debate about what cake to make for Amelia's special day, I decided to do fondant figurines of her favorite toys (Elmo of course, her rubber duckie and the Blackberry!). I made a banana cake with strawberry buttercream (two of her favorite foods) and she didnt'waste any time digging in! We had to take the cake away from her after she ate about 1/3 of it (which is about three adult slices!)

Wedding Kit Heaven!

Thanks so everyone who participated in the Wedding Cake Selection Kits! We have heard stories about the fantastic experiences our clients had tasting the cakes and buttercreams, and we are so glad everyone had a great time! If anyone would care to post about their experiences, feel free to leave a comment!

Chocolate Polka Dots

This cake was chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese icing and dark chocolate (73%) polka dots. Since attending the Festival of Chocolate, a whole new world has opened up to us..... CHOCOLATE! Before, it was a fantastic ingredient..... now, it is a full-on fixation!

The purity of chocolate is measured in the percentage of cocoa in the chocolate. Milk Chocolate is typically between 30%-40% cocoa mass because of the cream and sugar added, thus lowering its percentage. Dark Chocolate is typically between 50% - 85% cocoa mass, with much less added than milk chocolate (this is the reason many health experts recommend this type of chocolate). White Chocolate, a whole different category! White chocolate is made with cocoa butter instead of cocoa mass (creating the lack of chocolate color), which creates a slightly yellow tone in the chocolate (watch out for lighter colored impostors).

The polka dots on this cake are actually chips we got from Whole Foods, but our new premium chocolate provider (to be announced soon) has an even cooler product! Stay Tunned!

Italian Style Bridal Shower

These cupcakes were created for a bride whose wedding will take place in Amalfi, Italy in May. Since not all of her friends and family can make the trip to Italy for the wedding, the bridal shower became a meaninful celebration. We incorporated the wedding colors of bordeaux and chocolate (all with chocolate-brown cupcake liners). We brought in the bordeaux acccents with sugar tulips, sugar disques, and a "fancy" (name I made up) sugar charm. The bride purchased these cupcake towers at Target, and I am positive that she will have many uses for them in the future.

My meeting with this bride and mother enlightened me to the fact that many destination brides miss the wedding cake tasting experience, as their vendors are at their wedding destination. This is why we have decided to offer a spot in the Wedding Cake Tasting Kits to our bridal shower clients as well. We love brides, and dont want them to miss one of the best parts of wedding planning because they are having a destination wedding.

Mac Cake

This cake commission for my IT guy by his lovely fiance. He is a huge fan of Mac (even has an Apple decal on his car)! For an extra little suprise, I added some html symbols to the text..... having no idea if it makes any sense. The blue background is actually a base, covered in fondant and sprayed with light blue food coloring. The cake is covered in white fondant (for the complete iconic Mac white look) and is actually the same height as a normal cake. I don't own a Mac, but I know that the people that do are absolutely in love with them!

Stacey Kane

When Amelia was 6 weeks old, we had the wonderful opportunity of meeting the world class Stacey Kane. I had seen her work in The Knot (A wedding magazine I am obsessed with....the wedding photo above was featured in The Knot), and looked forward to having beautiful pictures of our new baby girl. I had visions of the camera fluttering away, and the baby smiling and cooing at the camera. Well, that wasn't quite the case. The baby cried or slept the entire time, and didn't flash a single smirk. I immediately began planning the next session, feeling as though 6 weeks was maybe too young for a photo shoot, and feared the whole session was a loss......until I got the photos.

Stacey's philosophy is that everyday moments are what will will look back on and treasure, and that is what she captures in her photography.
On top of her paramount talent, Stacey is one of the most humble, sweet and lovable people I have ever met! She makes you feel so comfortable, and I think her amicable personality plays a part in getting such natural shots from her clients.
Stacey lives in Maine, but us Orlando folks are really lucky that she is a Disney-nut! She comes to Orlando several times a year and her next visit will be in April 2nd-5th. She is doing sessions for $150.00, and donating $50.00 from each session fee to Operation Smile. What a generous heart!
To see more photos visit: http://www.staceykane.com/ or to contact her about scheduling a session her email address is: staceykphotography@mac.com

(Please note that the original image quality is lessened by my cut and paste action :) )

Ina Garten: A Master Chef

Anyone that knows me, knows that I LOVE Ina Garten! My grandmother bought me her cookbook, Barefoot in Paris, in 2005 and she loved the recipes I made so much that she bought me her another cookbook, Barefoot at Home. She inscribed on the inside "To Jennyfer, A Master Chef in The Making." Shortly after her passing, I had the strong desire to bake and eat sweets... come to find out I was pregnant!!! Where is a sweet-obsessed pregnant lady to turn?.... Ina Garten!
I have since tested dozens of cake recipes from various chefs, and I always turn back to Ina ( I now own ALL her cookbooks). Her simple, elegant approach seems to fit perfectly with the vision and flavor of The Sugar Suite and I use many of her recipes for my own cakes (with slight variations of course :)). The recipes seem to bring out the best in traditional flavors, and are never over-thought or over-done. The cake and cupcake industry is trending toward complex, new-fangled combinations..... while we are pulling in the opposite direction taking traditional favorites and classic dessert flavors and focusing on making them the best. Why try to complicate a cupcake when flavors like key lime pie and tiramisu are what bring on the raving fans!
Her new cookbook, Back to Basics, is my new BFF and she continues to inspire my professional life along with grandma's words that ring dearer every day.

Wedding Cake Selection Kits, The Encore!

Its that time again, time for brides and grooms to pick their wedding cake flavors!

We are gearing up for our next wedding cake tasting, which we call The Wedding Cake Selection Kit. It will take place on Friday, March 20th. It is a "to-go" format, meaning that the kit is complete for a home tasting! Brides and grooms can either come pick up the tasting, or we can deliver it.

In an effort to enhance this process, we are keeping the buttercream seperate from the mini-cupcakes to allow for more taste combinations. As always, we are interested in feedback on this style.

To sign up for the tasting, email Jennyfer Mancino at Jennyfer@thesugarsuite.com!

Princesses and Pirates!

This two cakes were made for the 5th birthday of one of the sweetest little girls in the world. The theme was Princesses and Pirates! When asked what flavor she would like, she asked if she could pick more than one flavor so that everyone could have a flavor THEY liked..... how sweet! We did three different flavors (carrot and vanilla in the castle, and chocolate for the pirate ship), and the two together fed about 50+ guests.
Kids cakes are always so much fun! They love getting involved in the design process, and most kids are familiar with flavors other than just vanilla and chocolate. This little girl wanted carrot cake (wow!), and we have had other similar requests from kids. Kids are cool!
My own daughters first birthday is in 2 weeks and I wish she could tell me what she wanted! :)

The Festival of Chocolate Experience!

We are officially "Award Winning!" The two ribbons here were for "Runner Up" in the Chocolate Cupcake and Chocolate Brownie Categories!! The competition had so many fantastic bakers, I was so honored to receive recognition!

The event was hosted by Indigo Creative Productions, and was first class all the way! They had demonstrations by chocolatiers in which they showed the audience variuos techniques for creating chocolate masterpeices. The judges included with NBA player Bo Outlaw of the Orlando Magic, Robyn Austin of 103.1 WLOQ (love her!), many local news anchors, Chef David Ramirez (2009 Team USA Pastry Captain), and MANY other talented and decorated pastry chefs including the Executive Pastry Chef of Universal Orlando, Mike Harman, who said that my Tiramisu buttercream was one of the best he has ever had!!! My feet haven't hit the floor since :)

This weeked was so amazing, and the best part was meeting the guests and other vendors! It was an inspiration to receive so many return clients to our booth, and hear so many kind words about our product. There is so much effort that goes into making sure every cupcake is perfect (even when you are making 1,400 of them) and its wonderful to see, hear and feel the fruits of our labor. Thank you!

Festival of Chocolate!

Attention Chocolate Lovers!!!!

This weekend The Sugar Suite will be attending The Festival of Chocolate! This Festival celebrates the wonderful world of chocolate and is great for the whole family (includes children's activities and a chocolate museum)!!!!

Entry is $10.00 (free for children 10 and under) and includes 2 "chocolate coins" to spend at the show.

The Sugar Suite will be offering:

Mini Cupcakes:

Chocolate Tiramisu Cupcakes (chocolate cake with espresso-rum buttercream and premium cocoa)

Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Chocolate and Peanut Buttercream Cupcakes

Red Velvet and White Chocolate Buttercream Cupcakes

Brownies: Caramel, Walnut and Chocolate Fudge

See you there!