It’s been a flurry of activity at Sweet Element this March, but I’ve finally been able to catch a little bit of computer time to share what we’ve been up to here in the land of sweets!
We started the month off with a very tall, very chocolate wedding cake for a wonderful couple who had their wedding at Battery Gardens in lower Manhattan. Ilona & Allen were having a black & white NYC themed wedding, and loved the concept of having a unique chocolate buttercream cake decorated with a stunning silver NYC skyline, some graphic red fondant hearts and the iconic “I ♥ NY” logo in the center of the cake. This cake was all red velvet, filled with cream cheese filling, and stood around 27″ tall!
Keeping in the NYC theme, we created this fun Jets jersey groom’s cake for another wedding at ‘Cesca, on the upper west side of Manhattan the following weekend. The jersey was customized with the groom’s name and the couple’s wedding date in place of the player’s number. The cake was a rich vanilla cake, filled with dark chocolate ganache, frosted in vanilla buttercream and decorated in a combination of fondant and gum paste decor.
We also created a fun Baby Einstein themed cake for a 1st birthday party in NJ. This cake was a devil’s food cake, filled and frosted in vanilla buttercream. The baby blocks on top were decorated rice cereal treats made with white chocolate in lieu of marshmallows in order to get nice edges. All decor was made of fondant & gum paste.
Next up was prep for the 19th GLBT Expo at the Javits Center in NYC – which involved a LOT of baking: 6000+ mini cupcakes! I am happy to say that I definitely had help this year in the baking department: BIG thanks to Mr. Sweet Element, fellow pastry chef LP & Remo – our newest intern! I don’t know how I would have gotten through it all without you!
The GLBT Expo took place on St. Patrick’s Day weekend … which meant that Mr. Sweet Element and I celebrated our 1st date anniversary working the booth! After last year, we realized that we definitely couldn’t do it alone, so this year we enlisted the help of some fabulous family and friends. I don’t think I could give a big enough *THANK YOU* to Kim & Susan for all their help! We were also very happy to share our booth with Nancy Swiezy Events, who created a gorgeous floral display for the table. If you are ever looking for a fabulous florist or wedding planner – definitely give Nancy a call!
Here are a few snapshots from the show (last two courtesy of my cousin Kim, as most of my photos were STOLEN!***)
Kim, me & Susan all set up and waiting for the crowd to head in on Saturday. Pistachio, Almond, Red Velvet, Confetti, Coconut & Vegan Chocolate mini cupcake samples, a few display cakes, a gorgeous floral display and little moo cards filled up our table!
Mr. Sweet Element, me & Kim ready to take on the onslaught of tasters!
Mini cupcake closeups and a shot of our back rack filled with boxes of cupcakes and display cakes.
***The weekend was fabulous … until I realized that someone swiped my phone!!! Definitely a downer to a great weekend, but luckily I was able to get a new phone late on Sunday at the AT&T Times Square store, who had reps at the Expo and were extremely helpful. I’ll definitely be going back there for any phone needs in the future, as I’ve never received better service at any other store. I thought it was incredibly sweet that the rep who I talked to at the Expo personally called me later that night just to check in to see if I was ok and had everything squared away.
So, new iPhone acquired, but many contacts and photos lost as I hadn’t synced it in a small eternity. Needless to say I’ve already set up my new one and all my other devices on iCloud with “Find my iPhone/iPad/etc.” installed!
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