Valentine's Story: A Romantic Day at Home

For this shoot, Apryl Ann and I wanted to eschew the Valentine's Day cheese for a minute (just for a minute, obviously,) and create a romantic shoot inspired by real, intimate moments at home, without all the fuss and the pink. Nothing is as romantic as cooking together or lazy Sundays in bed, and that's where we pulled our inspiration. Apryl's aesthetic is already so naturalistic-ly romantic and she vividly captured the true feeling of romantic intimacy in this shoot. We were so fortunate to shoot this beautiful real-life couple in their gorgeous home. It's like my pinterest dream home come to life.

100 Layer Cake featured this shoot the week of Valentine's Day, and you can see more on their site.

 

 

 

For the cake, I wanted to create something simple that anyone could make, but also do something completely different. I love to draw inspiration from other talented creatives, and was completely in awe of the deconstructed mandalas that the incredibly talented Design Love Fest and Moon Canyon collaborated on some months ago. I'd never seen anything like that, and it stuck with me - I kept thinking how cool it would be to do something similar but with a cake as canvas. It took much longer than I anticipated, plucking little petals and leaves apart, but it was a very peaceful, meditative process. The careful application reminded me of painting. I'd love to do this on a grand scale for a wedding cake or collection of cakes. (Hint Hint...)
  

 My newest recipe is this strawberry cake! No harsh dyes, just all fresh, roasted berries.

 All photos by Apryl Ann Photography.

Concept: Apryl Ann
Styling + Design: Apryl Ann and Cakewalk Bake Shop
Cake: Cakewalk Bake Shop
Props: West Elm

Valentine's Day Redux: Madewell Event

Madewell, oh Madewell. How much we love thee. Is there anyone who does utilitarian-prep better? If I could, I would bake in head to toe Madewell every single day. I'm usually in men's Blundstones, covered in flour with my go-to flannel. Utilitarian-borderline-lumberjack.  Not quite the same thing... Needless to say, I was pretty excited to host an event in partnership with one of my favorite brands, just in time for Valentine's Day.

The shop offered patrons a special in-store discount and we setup a pop-up shop selling boxes of our Valentine macarons. Amanda Marie was there to shoot/blog the event. Thank you to everyone who came out, from old friends to new, it was so much fun to chat and shop with you!

 

s'more macaron samples...mmm hmm!

 

yeti and the beast created just about the most perfectly adorable tags for our treats, don't ya think?

 

this baby is TOO CUTE. and she loves macarons. well, one day she will.

 

 

this is my favorite tag. hearts turned cacti! what?!?!

All photos by Amanda Marie.

Spring 2014 Print Publications

We have been so fortunate to have our work featured in print, not once, twice, thrice, fource (???), but FIVE times in the past few months!!!! This is something I never quite saw happening, and the excitement of standing in line at the market and seeing my work peeking back from the magazine stand is the most giddy, cloud-nine feeling. I'm so grateful for the opportunities to create beautiful work with amazing clients and to all the editors who chose to share our work in their lovely publications.

Check out the fun spreads!

The Knot Texas: Spring/Summer 2014
Extremely honored to be featured as the cake "expert" in this issue for The Knot Texas!! The feature includes a Q&A with my advice for brides as they begin the process of finding a wedding baker and choosing a cake design.

Modern Luxury Brides Dallas: Spring/Summer 2014
This one was incredible to shoot because the editor asked me to make a naked cake just for the magazine! The cake featured here is a four tiered spiced carrot cake. I loved styling this one with an abundance of fresh berries, a dusting of powdered sugar, and tons of flowers that Bows and Arrows was generous enough to let me borrow! This is my favorite way to style a naked cake. The key is small blooms. Just stick them everywhere! Manny Rodriguez took the incredible photograph in his studio, and the magazine was kind enough to feature a sweet little write-up about our shop!

Mollie Makes Mama: Spring 2014
Have you seen the amazing Mollie Makes series of magazines yet??? Mollie Makes has a few different themed circulations, include Mollie Makes a lifestyle mag devoted to craft and design, Mollie Makes Sweets devoted to baking and Mollie Makes Mama devoted to crafty fun things you can make and do with your kids. They are out of the UK, so you may not have come across this one. Oddly enough, I first found one in a Barnes and Noble in Midland, TX on a road trip last year! I was obsessed with the design of the magazine - thick artful paper, gorgeous photographs, beautiful stories about real families living dreamy design forward lifestyles. Perfect eye candy. So, pretty stoked (and completely shocked) to find out from my friend photographer Charla Storey that Alicia's baby shower was going to be featured in the Mollie Makes Mama Spring issue! Even more exciting is that it's a several pages spread that features lots of lovely photos of our sweets! I wish I had more images to share but I haven't found a copy of it for myself yet. The shower was originally published on 100 Layer Cakelet and you can check out all the images there if you'd like.

 

360 West Weddings: Spring 2014

Anaka and Manu's wedding (blogged in the post before this one) was featured in the (latest) Spring Issue of 360 West Weddings, and they chose a photo of our cake for the COVER!! So, so honored.

Pretty fun feeling! Is it odd that the cake is placed atop Eating Well and Clean Eating?