Dessert Meets Design: Modern Man

Just check out these truffles! Last Fall, I designed this modern yellow, grey, and white dessert table for Zoe and Josh. It was my first experience working with a really involved groom, and Josh was great. In fact, he made every selection, and the dessert table was really a surprise for his bride. He knew what he wanted, and I think the table's overall design reflects a more masculine, modern vibe than some of my other work. My girl Kirsten of Fab Events designed the rest of the event and photog Emma Freeman took these lovely pics.

The design included graphic truffles, macarons, S'mores cupcakes, cake pops, and a custom cupcake tower that I designed to house the mini varieties.

I love when a guy backs stereotype and actually cares about the wedding details. So sweet!

pics by Emma Freeman

Dessert Meets Design: Sweetly Surprised

Yesterday, I gave you guys a sneak peek of a modern yellow, black, and white dessert table I designed. The bride and groom were totally surprised by the display, which you can see written all over their faces when they got their first glimpse.

The table was a surprise and a gift for them from their new sister-in-law Emily Steffen, who also took these gorgeous pics. Custom shortbread cookies, damask cupcake liners, and custom chocolate bars all mimicked the designs on the couple's invites. I incorporated graphic black and white striped ribbon to break up all the yellow found throughout the table.

I designed these candy bars and tucked one into each guest's napkin.

Thanks to all the wonderful vendors who helped bring this design together, like Knokes candy store, Sugar & Flour, Cocoa & Fig,

Dessert Meets Design: Mansion Matrimony

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of creating a dessert table for Kris and Gary's wedding at Cedarhurst Mansion. I had the pleasure of working with the team at Fab.You.Lous Events again and meeting photog Paige Winn who shot these lovely pics.

For this design, I replicated the couple's invitation on their chocolate bars, and offered custom cookies that featured their monograms and the unique heart symbol from their invites. I designed purple towers to vary the heights of sweets and showcase several varieties of cupcakes and macarons. Chocolate-dipped brownie bites, Neapolitan whoopie pies, and dessert shooters sat alongside cake pops.

Just to give you an idea of some of the other great details from this event, check out some of Paige's other pics.

Thank you to Buttercream and Sugar & Flour for your yummy contributions.

Dessert Table: Turquoise & Teal Treats

The team at Dooby Design created this turquoise and teal dessert table for a inspirational photo shoot that incorporated the talents of cake maker Sweet Heather Anne and the photographer Jessica Johnston. The cake and paper elements all mimicked the damask pattern on the bride's gown. Royal iced cookies, candies, and a towering cake along with custom chocolate bars all contribute to the table's design while keeping with the color palette.

The cookies are probably my favorite dessert from this design, but I love the color palette and lighting too. What's your favorite part?

Candy Shop Tour: Sugar Sugar

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, then you already know I spent last Saturday meeting with Maddy of Inspired Bride and Amy Hardy of Design 8 Days to discuss an upcoming project. After that, I visited Sugar Sugar to meet Joni and discuss candy options for a dessert table I'm designing. Next, I met with Kirsten of Fab.you.lous Event Design and her client to discuss the tropical dessert table I'm designing for her wedding.

Since so many of you liked the photo tour of Minnesota's Largest Candy Store that I shared with you over the summer, I figured I'd give you a little peek inside of Sugar Sugar. It's a small shop, but the curated collection of unusual, hard-to-find candies makes it great. A wall of sweets greets customers, while chocolate rings sit under a glass dome on the front counter.

A variety of candy bars with fabulously designed labels line the shelves of the counter. Check out some of the Komforte Chocolate bars. Ramen noodles? Who knew?

 Hand-painted truffles are on display under the glass counter top.

 Of course, there are lots of traditional Valentine's candies on display as well.

If you're in the Twin Cities, you should definitely visit Sugar Sugar's Minneapolis shop. When I was there, a lot of regular customers came, talked to the shop owner, and even brought in their dogs. It's a great little community candy store that has big city sweets.

For other real-time updates on what I'm baking and designing, to ask questions, or share links, follow along on Facebook and Twitter.

Dessert Meets Design: XOXO Dessert Table for Mpls Photo Center

Yesterday, I shared some behind-the-scenes pics of photog Emily Steffen's workshop. Em asked me to design a dessert table for her students to photograph, and I was happy to do her that favor. She assembled a great team of talented women to pull off an inspirational wedding shoot, including Abby Rutchik of Mpls Photo Center, Melissa Stratton of Sadie's Floral, and Bethany Hway of b*spoke.

We set out to create a modern event using black, white, slate grey, and poppy red for the palette. This is the palette I created to help guide the vision. I also thought it'd be fun to incorporate an "xoxo" theme to tie the entire design together. For this table, I created a monochromatic cake, chocolate whoopie pies, and coconut cupcakes. I also designed xoxo popcorn boxes and candy bar wrappers to coordinate with the invitations and menu cards. Brownie balls, powdered donut holes, and macarons round out the selection.

Want to see the reception tables and the bride and groom? Here are a few shots, but be sure to check out Emily's blog for even more great pics.

This was such a great project, and I'm glad Emily invited me to join in the fun.

Contributors:

venue: The Mpls Photo Center
photography: Emily Steffen Photography
flowers: Melissa Stratton of Sadie's Floral
desserts: Shauna Younge Dessert Tables
styling: Bethany Hway
hair and makeup: Aubrey Thoren of Foiled Again Salon
bride and groom: Kayla & Elliot 
stemware, chargers and linen: Linen Effects

Guest Desserts: Pink & Red Perfection

Today's fun pink and red Guest Desserts feature comes to us from Australia. Chelsea Arnold, a former journalist and editor, decided to change career tracks and pursue her creative passions. Eye Candy Events is a bespoke event planning service that specializes in couture candy and cake displays. I loved Chelsea's design immediately, but when she told me this was her very first dessert table I was amazed.

Chelsea made Tahitian lime cupcakes, cookies, and strawberry milk. She also included champagne, strawberry, and rose macarons, along with a couple of Australian favorites, white chocolate Tim Tam cookie pops and coconut ice.

Thank you for sharing your design, Chelsea. By choosing such a classic polka dot pattern, you've managed to create a stylish, yet timeless table.

Fellow Sweet Tooth readers, be sure to congratulate Chelsea on her very first dessert table.

Do you have a dessert table, recipe, DIY or giveaway to submit? Check out the Submissions page for all of the details.

Happy Birthday, Baby! & A Holiday Table Challenge

You might recognize one of these images from my recent Star Tribune interview, but today I'm going to share this entire winter-y design with you. I recently designed this dessert table for my little donut's birthday.

In the midst of planning the design, Kelly of The Party Dress invited me and several other bloggers to participate in her Holiday Table Challenge. Needless to say, I thought this unconventional color palette would be a fitting addition to her holiday themed table posts.

Fall Dessert Table, Sketch, and Printables!

Remember this fall-inspired dessert table that I designed for Mpls St. Paul Magazine? Well, today you can visit Eat Drink Pretty to see the sketch of the table before the shoot and to print out the custom chocolate bar wrappers I designed. There are two versions of the wrapper, so be sure to check out both.

In case you missed it, you can also check out the tutorial to make the faux bois cupcake toppers. Have a great weekend!

Dessert Table: A Totally Target Halloween

I'm so excited to share my latest dessert table with you today. I'm doubly thrilled, because Kathleen of Twig & Thistle is kindly featuring it on her blog, as well. You might remember these behind-the-scenes sneak peeks from a couple of weeks ago. Well, photog Emily Steffen's beautiful pics capture the table and the beautiful forest much better.

The Totally Target Halloween dessert table is just that. A dessert table designed using ingredients, supplies, dishware, and desserts that are all available right now at your local Super Target. Target is headquartered here in Minneapolis, so it has a pretty big presence in the area. But, it's also easy to find Target stores across the U.S., making this design a really affordable option for your Halloween bash.

Target's black cake stands make the perfect pedestals for two great cakes. You can use a favorite family recipe or a boxed mix to make both. Target's bat cookie cutters and black sparkly decorating icing (in the baking aisle) add flourish to this chocolate cake. Jumbo and mini marshmallows transform into cute ghosts when you add chocolate jimmies for the eyes for this vanilla cake.

I used these great jars to hold licorice and black raspberry gummies. Target's white and milk chocolate truffles and candy corn go along with the chocolate-covered rice crispy treat tombstones and chocolate-covered Oreos I made.

To display several of the treats, I wanted to create ceramic-looking platters. I used Target's black gift wrap to cover box lids and risers to mimic the reflective quality of traditional china. You can use books or any other flat surface to raise your treats to differing heights.

favor bags: Two brown paper lunch bags make great favor sacks. Simply shred one and place another un-shreeded bag inside of it. Fill the inner bag with lots of sweet treats, insert a stick, and tie the bag closed with twine or other natural-looking string or ribbon.

skull & bone chocolates: I couldn't find the perfect spooky chocolates, so I used Target's skull & bones ice cube trays as molds to make custom white chocolates.

cupcakes: These brain cupcakes were surprisingly easy to make using buttercream and a frosting tip. You can bake them from scratch using ingredients, a box mix, or pre-made cupcakes, all of which can be found at Super Target.

brownie pops: These brownie pops are incredibly simple. Bake your own brownies, buy a mix, or use Target's Market Pantry brownie bites from the bakery section. Roll a golf ball-sized portion into a ball, insert lollipop stick, and dip into melted white chocolate. I alternated the spider web flags I designed with ones that say "Boo!," "Beware," and "Howl" to add a finishing touch to each pop.

I also designed "Trick or Treat" wrappers to dress up standard chocolate bars. I painted Target's butter dish black to display the chocolate bars, while a gothic goblet housed black-speckled jelly beans.

Invite designer and budding stylist Bethany Hway created these invites, which are inspired by the chocolate bar wrappers I created. I love how well they coordinate with the bars and brownie pop labels without exactly mimicking them.

 

Thank you so much for sharing my design with your readers, Kathleen! Please head on over to Kathleen's blog, Twig & Thistle (one of my daily must-reads), to download the chocolate bar wrapper and brownie pop flags I designed. You can also download and print the invitation that Bethany Hway designed. Don't forget to stop by photog Emily Steffen's blog for even more photos from this shoot.

If you're visiting the Sweet Tooth blog from Twig & Thistle, thanks for stopping by. You can check out my other designs on my website or follow me on Twitter and Facebook.


*Target, Corp. in no way compensated me for this post. I am not now, nor have I ever been, employed by Target Corp. or any of its affiliates*

SYDT in Mpls St. Paul Magazine!

Yesterday, I shared the cover of the current Mpls St. Paul Magazine with you. Today, I'm back with the feature. Editor Melissa Colgan's only requirement was that the table have a Fall theme. I chose to go with an unconventional color palette instead of the more expected red, orange, and yellow hues that are synonymous with Autumn. Thankfully, Melissa was on board with my concept. I hope you like it, too!

To further turn convention on its head, I made an all-white abstract leaf cake with a flowery brown topper. Custom bird cookies, these faux bois cupcake toppers, caramel chocolate apples, and pheasant feathers share the spotlight with whiskey-infused chocolate figs, white chocolate cocoa, and cinnamon truffles. I designed corduroy, burlap, and wool favor bags to bring some typical Fall fabrics to the design. I also chose chocolate brown velvet ribbon to add another cozy element.

Along with this full-page spread, the magazine also featured another page with some info about me and the firm.

I'm really thrilled to be featured in Mpls St. Paul Magazine, and I'd like to thank the awesome local bakers and artisans who helped bring my vision to life. Check out the article for more info about each vendor.

So tell me, do you prefer unconventional color palettes or traditional ones when you decorate for the seasons/holidays?