Need I say more? This tea towel would look perfect on the cake table at your wedding or in your kitchen! Get yours here.
sweet conconctions
29
Dec 10
Spotlight on Cakes 2010!
All of these cakes were ALMOST too pretty to eat! 
Photo by Images Unveiled
Photo by Images Unveiled
4
Oct 10
Cookie and Ice Cream Pops to Your Monday Rescue!
Thank goodness my husband has absolutely no interest in this blog because I cannot wait to surprise him with these cookie pops one of these days. Summer may be over, but there’s always a good time to enjoy ice cream and cookies. So festive, fun, and delicious for your next party. For easy instructions on how to pull this off, visit Pen N’ Paper Flower’s blog here.
26
Jul 10
Pencil Us In! Creative Save the Dates!
Save the Dates present a great place to get creative. There are tons of personalized and imaginative ideas to be discovered, but I love this idea of “penciling” in the date – perfect for teachers and lovers of pencils alike! This adorable save-the-date from Melangerie (below) invites guests to “pencil” in your wedding details and even gives them the pencil to do so. All the information and colors are customizable, and you can include a message on the pencil as well – brilliant!
10
Jun 10
Anniversary Cake!
So this anniversary I was determined to pull-off a surprise of epic proportions. Too often the people I love miss out on my wedding planner skills because I’m just too tired to think of something creative. I was not going to let my wedding anniversary and the best husband ever get the brush off this year!
So Vanilla Swirl to the rescue! As you can imagine, I’ve sampled quite a bit of wedding cakes over the years. While I haven’t met a cake I haven’t liked, Vanilla Swirl is one of my all-time favorites. I emailed Tina (the owner/pastry chef) to see if she could help me out with my scheming, and she agreed!
I asked her to recreate a mini-version of our wedding cake (below).
As you can see, the design was perfect and spot-on! She even recreated the flavor of our top-tier (marble cake with chocolate ganache filling). Mmmmmm, delicious!
Thanks, Vanilla Swirl!
30
Mar 10
The Magic of Pies!
Not a fan of cakes? Explore the magic of pies as a wedding dessert option. From mini Key Lime pies for each guest to an extravagant pie bar, you can have fun with this new trend. Just make sure to include my favorite, lemon meringue as one of the options. 
And for the candy, enjoy some fun browsing 26
Jan 10
Some Seriously Divine Cakes
I was reading The Knot’s weekly vendor newsletter yesterday, and I could not get over some of the cakes featured there. Check them out below for some fabulous, unique, and just plain pretty cake ideas to bring to your baker.
The hydrangeas on the top really bring out the details in the cut-out. And blue and red is one of my new favorite color schemes.
You just can’t argue with “All you need is love.”
The green accented with the hibiscus flower brings out a new take on a round cake.
Orchids and chocolate: two of my favorites.
This cake reminds me of a Project Runway dress with the soft pick ruffles.
I love the simplicity paired with the sugar hydrangeas. Reminds me of the Cape wedding coming up in July!
This shade of purple is so sweet, especially with the delicate, elegant design.
This cake would coordinate well with a lace dress.
Nothing says Spring as elegantly as Lilies of the Valley.
This chocolate truffle cake is so unique with its asymmetrical design.
I saved my favorite for last… green love birds displayed on a hand-painted, blue cake.
23
Dec 09
Cookies and Your Wedding, but mostly Just Plain Cookies!
Last night I made my annual batch of cookies to take home to my family in Albany. I made Peanut Butter Blossoms for my sisters, Muddy Buddies for my wonderful husband (hmmm… there’s about a cup left), Spicy Chex Party Mix for my brother-in-law, dark-chocolate dipped shortbread cookies for whomever is interested, peanut butter balls for everyone courtesy of my Grandma Cel’s ledgendary recipe (because, let’s face it who doesn’t like butter, chocolate, sugar, and peanut butter combined in one festive bite?), and, last-but-not-least, ginettes for my Mom and Aunt Suzy. You might be thinking this sounds like a lot of cookies, but you haven’t seen anything until you’ve been to a wedding with a cookie station. The NYTimes just wrote an article about this common practice at weddings, especially in our region of the country. Check it out here. 
What are ginettes you might ask? In Rochester, they are known as Italian “meatball cookies.” They are also sometimes calleg “Aginoretti,” as in an Italian lemon drop cookie. My family isn’t even that Italian, but the influence was huge in my upbringing. I remember going over to my great aunts around the holidays, and there would just be plates and plates of these delightful little cookies. I also realized as I’ve gotten older how much the feed the ones you love until they explode and/or go into a food coma is ingrained into me, thus the 20 dozen or so cookies I’ve baked this week. What can I say? I’ve got a lot of love in my heart! Thankfully, ginettes are not very fattening, as cookies go. They require very little sugar and oil, which leads towards their trademark dry and slightly sweet texture. These cookies just scream nostagia for me, and I love making them for my mom especially since I think they bring back tons of fabulous memories for her as well.
Anyway, here’s my favorite recipe for Ginettes/Italian Lemon Drop Cookies/Aginoretti/Meatball Cookies
These cookies are traditional Italian cookies, cakey but somewhat dry, and not very sweet.
Makes about 24 cookies
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons anise extract – don’t be afraid of the licorice fumes of the anise if you don’t like licorice – it will mix with the lemon extract in the glaze and make the most delicious fusion of flavors – I promise, from one licorice-hater to another.
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Glaze (below)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Glaze (below)
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Mix dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients. Mix well. The dough should be soft and sticky.
With a small cookie scoop (mine is about 1 Tablespoon), form balls. Drop balls on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheets, spaced 2 inches apart. Make sure you don’t make the balls too big… think walnut sized.
Bake for about 8-11 minutes, or until firm and lightly brown. Remove cookies from cookie sheet and allow to cool completely on wire racks.
Glaze as directed below. Store in an airtight container. If you want to freeze the cookies, let glaze harden completely before freezing and separate layers with parchment paper.
For Glaze:
3 cups confectioners sugar
2 tsp. lemon extract
2 tsp. lemon extract
1 tbsp. or so of milk
lemon zest of you have it
The idea with the glaze is to combine confectioner’s sugar with just enough milk to form a thin glaze… slightly thinner than elmer’s glue. If you make a mistake, add sugar or milk until you reach the right consistency. Sprinkle with jimmies or nonpareils for extra festivus (if it’s Dec. 23rd)! You’ll note that I sprinkled mine with blue sprinkles, a symbol of our interfaith solidarity and melding of two cultures!
Happy Holidays!
18
Dec 09
Happy Friday = Couture Cupcakes
Ok, so yes, I suppose it is a bit outrageous to spend $9-$12 on 18 cupcake wrappers when you could spend a quarter of that at the grocery store for the regular pastel kind, but that’s why they call them couture!
Bella Cupcake Couture offers these delightful wrappers that wrap around the standard cupcake holder instantly increasing the charm level of your cupcakes. I think they would be perfect for an intimate shower or bridesmaid luncheon. They also come in the Holiday-Couture variety:
Happy Holidays and Happy Friday! Oh and use the code “holidays” for 20% off until Dec. 25th!
