Arts and Eats Gala Logo Cookies

Recently we did some logo sugar cookies for the Volunteer Lawyers for Justice of NJ .  They provide free legal counsel and advice and also pro bono representation to economically disadvantaged people with the goal of securing fair and equal treatment within the legal system.

I think this is such a great service to the community especially when there are so many people that fall through the cracks due to legal red tape and not having the money to afford the representation of a lawyer to help them through the legal systems court process. As Karen Sacks, Esq., Founding Executive Director sums it up, "We hope you can join us in our goal for equal justice for all".

Last week they held their Arts and Eats Gala at the Montclair Art Museum in NJ, to celebrate the continued growing success of the organization in its 11th year. After the event, I received a glowing email from Karen saying they received many compliments on the logo cookies, and they not only added something really special to their event, but that they were delicious as well.

I wish the Volunteer Lawyers for Justice much continued success in the upcoming new year. Keep up all the hard work you do for NJ and it was our pleasure to be a part of your event. We also donated a gift certificate from Bittersweet Cake Design for their Auction which was also held at the Gala. Congratulations to the recipient and we hope to hear from you soon!  Below is a picture of the logo cookies we made.

Arts in the Environment Benefit

Today I had the honor of attending the "Arts in the Environment" benefit held at St. Andrew & Holy Communion Church in my town South Orange, NJ. It was an Interfaith exhibit of Visual Arts, Song and Dance, and Poetry Readings. I also sold my sugar cookies that exhibited my interpretation of different elements in the environment. It was a very beautiful event with great vocal artists and great poetry readings. All of which were depicted around the environment. There were various artists there also selling some of their art pieces. Such beautiful artwork. I wish I had taken pictures but I wasn't able to leave my table and do so.  A 20% donation of the proceeds made from the sales were given to help raise money for thewaterproject.org. An organization dedicated to bringing clean, safe drinking water to Africa.

Below are pictures from the event.

Dragonfly with Ladybug and Beehive with Bee

Beautiful Butterflies

 Sun with Earth and Tree with Leaf

 Fall Leaf, Red Apple and Butterfly....oh my!

 Colorful Fish with Sea Turtle

These sold out quickly.... as did the Squirrel with Acorn....

Squirrel with Acorn and Colorful Leaf

Mini Sugar Cookie Cylinder....all gone within the 1st hour of the event....they were actually kinda cute. Who doesn't love anything bite size, right?

Bidding For Good - Wish Upon A Wedding Auction

This wonderful organization Wish Upon A Wedding is one of the greatest charities I have seen thus far.  They offer free of charge weddings to couples in need and that are facing terminal illness. Just reading some of the stories had me crying and smiling at the same time.

 They celebrate the courage, determination and spirit of couples in love during their most challenging times. Officially launched in January of 2010, Wish Upon a Wedding will have 30 chapters spanning across the United States by the end of 2012.

I am participating in the auction to help raise funds for the organization by auctioning off 75 custom made Wedding Cake shaped sugar cookies.


Ending October 31 2011, Wish Upon a Wedding hosts the largest nationwide online charity auction of its kind, offering hundreds of luxury products and services in the realms of weddings, travel, fashion and cuisine.
Items are carefully selected to help couples create the perfect wedding or event. Proceeds from these items will help make Wedding Wishes come true throughout the United States.

So,  head on over there and check it out. There are so many categories to choose from and bid on. Christmas is coming and you might find a great gift there and you will be helping such a worthy cause.

Thanks!

Halloween Cookies! Booooo!

It's that time of year already when the baking really begins and it kicks off with Halloween! I love making Halloween cookies. There are so many talented cookie decorators out there that use many different methods like royal icing or fondant. I prefer fondant and I like to use the royal icing to add accents to my fondant. Royal icing dries really hard but as far as taste goes I prefer the taste of fondant.

Hope you enjoy them! I especially like the skeleton face. Scary isn't it? Kinda reminds me of that all too famous mask from the movie  "I Know What You Did Last Summer" ....Creepy.

Happy Halloween everyone and let the Holiday eating baking begin!!!

Frosting For The Cause

Recently I came across a website that caught my attention. It was a blog that was posting stories from people who know women that have been affected by breast cancer. The idea was to invite cookie and cupcake makers and decorators to share their stories about that person and also share a recipe. This is a 365 day project, so every day a new submission is posted. Mine is today, October 15th.

I delivered this basket to Dr. Bonni Guerin and her staff at Medical Diagnostic Associates, P.A. in Summit, NJ. She and her Nurse Assistant Catherine were thrilled to receive the basket of treats. A special thank you to them for all of their hard work and dedication.

I can not tell you how honored I am to participate in this wonderful project. It was a great experience and it makes me feel good and also motivated to do something for such a worthy cause. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I salute all of the women who are fighting their battle and wish them the utmost courage and hope. You inspire me and I am grateful for the opportunity to be sharing and giving in support of the fight against breast cancer. I will be making a donation to the Susan G. Komen Fund and I hope you will too.

You can check out my blog post on the Frosting For The cause website at www.FrostingForTheCause.com.

Minnie Mouse is in the House

M.i.c...k.e.y....M.o.u.s.e....or in this particular case MINNIE MOUSE!!!!! LOVE HER! To me she is the first Diva of the cartoon world, with her polka dot couture dress and matching bow...and she certainly knows how to pose for pictures doesn't she?.

We recently did a Minnie Mouse cupcake and TrufflePop cake pop theme for a sweet little girl named NAYLA who is turning 1! These turned out so adorable and we wanted to share them with you.

 Cake Pop Display

 TrufflePops

 Minnie Mouse Cupcakes

 Aren't they just the cutest?!?!  Cupcake and TrufflePop flavors included Red Velvet and Vanilla Caramel.

Fall Cupcakes and 9/11 Remembrance

I have to admit that even though I dread the thought of Winter coming, I do enjoy when the summer turns to Indian Summer in September and then into Fall. I can smell it in the air and there is just something different that although its such a subtle change you can feel the shift. That first leaf falling to the ground, the need to pull out the light blanket at night and the crisp air in the morning are all the signs I need to know whats coming in the weeks ahead.

But there is also another event that  takes place in September every year that just makes my heart heavy with sadness. In honor of the many lives that were taken on this day and the many heroes who gave their lives during and after, I made these Fall cupcakes to brighten up the day a little and I pray that the families of the victims can find some peace in their hearts knowing that their loved will never be forgotten. The ceremonies today were so moving and just as painful to watch as that fateful day.  I really do hope that we don't have to wait another 10 years for the world to be at peace. God Bless America!

Happy Fall!

Sugar Cookie Edible Invitations and Announcements

The one thing that our clients love to talk about are our sugar cookies. We love them too. I have always liked my cookies to be soft and moist as opposed to crunchy and dry. Everyone has their preference, I guess. The recipe we use is one that is foolproof and downright delicious. The cookies stay moist for up to a week and since all cookie orders are baked to order, they retain their freshness for your event.

When they start to bake in our ovens and the smell of butter and sugar waft through our kitchen, it creates a calming effect and ignites memories of baking with my mom when I was a little girl. The staff and I reminisce about our childhoods as we wait for the batches of cookies to emerge from the oven. We also love to decorate them and come up with new ideas. (it also gives another reason to make cookies, lol). We just added our new line of Edible Cookie Invitations and Annoucements!

A unique way to send party invitations, wedding and baby announcements, and thank you cards.What better way to surprise the recipients with a freshly baked cookie! No more wasting paper. And the best part is that they get to eat the cookie! How cool is that?

We can personalize them however you like as you can see in the pictures and it adds a nice personal touch to your event planning.

Bridal Expo Contest Winner

We are pleased to announce the winner of the Bridal Expo QR Code contest:

Gina Erickson of Fair Lawn,NJ

Congratulations! She won a FREE cake from Bittersweet Cake Design for her next event.

We hope to hear from you soon Gina. We also sent an email to you with instructions on how to claim your prize.

Bridal Expo Update

The Bridal Expo last night was such a wonderful event. We got to meet with all the new brides and grooms-to-be scoping out vendors for their upcoming wedding. We were so happy to be a part of this event and can not wait for the next one. The show was one filled with photographers, travel agents, reception entertainment, and floral experts as well as Macys Bridal by Demetrios. We were able to network with each other and talk about upcoming projects. 

A few of our display cakes were available to view. One which included our unique QR code contest display on top of a mini cupcake stand. The guests were able to scan the QR code for an entry form into a contest to win a FREE cake!

We had 3 flavors of cake samples for the crowd to enjoy and the line for our tasty treats was non stop. Guests were able to sample our very popular Raspberry Red Velvet, Caramel Vanilla, and Chocolate Fudge Truffle. Thank you to my wonderful volunteers Stefanie and Patricia for being so diligent and professional with handling the crowd of over 300 attendees while I was able to answer questions and get to know some of the guests.

We were able to catch a breather once the Macys Bridal Fashion show began. I wish I had taken more pictures. I was so captivated with the beautiful gowns and tuxedos parading down the runway that it completely slipped my mind.

We also were able to give away a door prize of 6 Custom Wedding Cookies to a very lucky recipient! The bride to be was so ecstatic to win her prize and we could not be happier for her. We hope she enjoys her cookies! Our signature GlamGirl® shoe cookies were also on display which were a huge hit, particularly the infamous Carrie wedding shoe from the movie "Sex and the City".

What a great time we all had!!!!  We were able to book weddings and other events, set up appointments for future consultations and we are looking forward to a very successful wedding season to come for all!

Bridal Expo

We are happy to announce that Bittersweet will be in attendance at the Bridal Expo on August 25th, 2011 at the Holiday Inn in Parsippany, NJ.

Bridal Expo is one of the largest Bridal Shows in NJ and we are looking forward to working with them.

If you are a newly engaged couple and planning a wedding this is the place to go for all of your wedding needs all under one roof like wedding planners, Bridal Fashions, photographers and of course Wedding cake designers like us.

We will be there and will have plenty of cake samples to give out and we will also be having a contest to win a FREE cake!  So don't forget to stop by our booth to try our delicious cake samples and enter the contest.

Chef Lisa will be there with her assistants to answer all of your questions and we will have some of our cakes on display.

Hope to see you there!

Carrot Cake Confession

Ok...so here is my confession. What had happened was....LOL...and I really don't know what came over me when I did it but I knew it was wrong and I am here to tell you that I righted my wrong so here's the story....

My Mom had been coveting this slice of carrot cake that my daughter bought for her and honestly, how dare she bring her this inferior dessert!!! ...OK OK, I know it's not nice to be jealous but to tell you the truth I was a little hurt by it...... So I ate it...

Hey, I felt it mocking me and the more I looked at it the more I wanted to just make it disappear from the face of the earth. I must admit that it was good because although all I really wanted to do was sample it for authenticity, it turned into me devouring the slice like it was the last piece of cake on earth. Maybe I was just overly hungry.....that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Anyway, I knew my Mom would be quite upset since she took great care of hiding it from everyone else so it wouldn't be eaten . And what's worse, is that she doesn't even know that I have eaten it yet. Shes out of town at the moment and she wont be back until Wednesday. I could have easily gone to the bakery where my daughter had bought it from and replaced the hostile slice (yes.hostile...I said it), but decided to do one better and I knew what I had to do. I made a WHOLE Carrot Cake. This will make that little slice look like a mini cupcake. Mom will be so pleased to know that although I was initially a bad girl while she was gone, I made up for it 10 times over, and more importantly, the guilt of eating it would be lifted of my back.

SO here is the finished product....isn't she a beauty? I was very proud of the outcome considering I wasn't planning on making a cake like this today.

I got to try out a new icing technique as you can see how the outside is piped with beautiful cream cheese dollops vertically patterned around the whole cake. I felt it needed a little more color so I put some dots of orange colored icing in between the rows. I then piped some icing carrots and sprinkled some finely chopped walnuts on top to finish it off. This technique is a keeper. I like the modern look it gives the cake and the visual texture it provides to the eye.

Holy cow, can you say yummy.com. LOL

I can't wait to eat it!!!!!.....uhhh,oh yeah,  but not until Mom has her slice first. LOL

Baking A Difference

I am very proud to announce that I have signed up to be a featured baker for "Frosting For The Cause". A great website that was formed to help raise money for the Cancer Society.

Everyone that signs up for this 365 day project takes turns doing a guest post on their website FrostingForTheCause.com. Once a day, every day a new blogger will share a recipe and their story about a woman affected by cancer.  My day to post will be October 15, 2011.

Please go to the website to see how you can be a part of this wonderful project.

I am very honored to be a part of it and I look forward to posting my recipe and story about a very brave and courageous woman. I don't want to give away the whole story just yet so you will have to check back on the day I am supposed to share my story and recipe.

I think that it is a very honorable way to give support to a worthy cause as well as do something good for those that suffer from this horrible disease and to those who have lost their fight to it. I know all to well about losing a loved one. and I hope that those who have lost someone can be comforted and encouraged by this website because as their motto states....Together we are baking a difference.

Cake Classes

We are pleased to announce that in the Fall of 2011, we will be launching the

BITTERSWEET CAKE INSTITUTE.

We will be offering private and group classes in cake baking and cake decorating.

Please check the website Classes page for more info...

If you have a specific class you are interested in please feel free to tell us about it.

Bittersweet Love Bowl

I made a delicious Dessert Trifle and I want to tell you as I was making it I thought about all the different flavors that would mingling together to create this colorful and beautiful eye pleasing dessert. I would like to share the recipe with you. Its easy and going to be oh so scrumptious. It can also be a great lazy summer treat that is not only light and refreshing and absolutely what dreams are made of. I could only think of one name to call it that would be fitting...

THE LOVE BOWL! .....ENJOY!

Here is the recipe:

BITTERSWEET LOVE BOWL

You will need a large glass trifle dish or a nice big plastic one like the one in the picture. I found it at a party supply store. This one had a lid which will make for easy travel.  I also made it super easy for you.  Although I make my own lady fingers, the supermarket has them available in the produce section. I made my own raspberry fruit compote but you can substitute it for jarred fruit preserves. I make my own bavarian cream but you can use a ready made version that you can get from the restaurant supply store which is pretty good and they come in these ready to use sleeves.  You can always use instant vanilla pudding mix if you cant find the ready made fillings or whatever flavor of instant pudding you like. (Lemon would be good) And lastly, I made fresh whipped cream which you can substitute with Cool Whip....See... super easy, otherwise the prep would involve too many steps and take longer than necessary. I'm a Pastry Chef so I enjoy the work...LOL...

Ingredients:

5 packages -  Lady Fingers (they usually come with 4 rows per pkg)

2 sleeves -  Bavarian Cream

- or you can use 3 -  (4.5oz) pkgs of French Vanilla instant pudding mix and make according to the package directions and have ready to use when you are assembling your trifle

1 32 oz jar - Raspberry preserves (seedless)

1 16 oz pkg - White Chocolate morsels

1 container - Fresh Blueberries

 

4 containers - Fresh Strawberries, sliced into halves, save the largest one for the garnish

5 lbs - Fresh Peaches, sliced into quarters (if not available, sliced canned ones will do)

4 containers - Fresh Raspberries

Directions:

Layer the bottom of the bowl with lady fingers and add the fruit, preserves, white chocolate chips, bavarian cream and whipped cream into a layers so that you see a nice pattern developing and continue layering until you reach the top of the bowl. (see photos)

Lastly, once you have reached the top of the bowl, make a nice decorative pattern of all of the fruits around the outer edge of the bowl, top with more whipped cream in the center and place the a whole strawberry into the center of the whipped cream. Sprinkle the whole top with white chocolate chips and chill for at least 6-8 hours or overnight. Delicious!

Servings: 12-15

Prep Time: 30 minutes (The long version...you dont want to know...LOL)

You can certainly get creative with your flavors and make it your own LOVE BOWL.

I hope you enjoy mine...

Have a great weekend!

The Aftermath

OK...so I was not expecting this. My beautiful cake was practically demolished as you can see. And mind you this is not someones slice of cake. This is what was left. So lets recap...those who were watching their figures yesterday and did not give in to the temptation of the luscious layers of red velvet and cream cheese icing...raise your hand....LOL!

I can tell you right now, no one is raising their hands. So my experiment was a success! I guess I can now say that 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays....as long as I make red velvet cake. Maybe next year I will make the layers with red velvet and BLUE velvet to really shake things up a bit. Enjoy the rest of your holiday guys!

Happy 4th Everyone!

Its that time of year again when families are sparking up the grill to really kick off the summer with a 4th of July bbq. I have to admit that although I am a patriotic citizen its not the most popular holiday in my book with regards to the cuisine. Theres never room for dessert and everyone is always watching their figure more closely during these summer months. So fruit salad is usually the sweetest thing at the bbq. Well this year I decided to make a cake anyway and do a little experiment. My family is having a bbq today and I am going to post a before and after picture and see just how many people stayed true to their "figure watching"

I made a Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese filling. Yum! One of my favorite and also a fan favorite. I had a stencil that kind of looked like fireworks after I put the red and blue sugar on top. It looks so pretty, dont you think?

Have a great 4th everyone and be safe....Stay tuned for the after picture.....

The Next Great Baker Season 2!

I am considering that I should take my talents and just go ahead and sign up to be a contestant for The Next Great Baker Season 2....scary, but I have been told that I should just do it. What do you think? Was there ever anything that you had to overcome your fears with and have a story that you can share with me...Let me know...

Welcome to the Bittersweet Blog

Welcome cake lovers...Here is your blog that will be inundated with information concerning the goings on at Bittersweet....Everything Sweet at its Finest!