"Cupcake Couture Mini"

In celebration of our One Year Blog Anniversary we wanted to create a fun new illustration as an extension of our Cupcake Couture Line. We are giddy with excitement to introduce our “Cupcake Couture Mini” to you!
We really wanted to create something for little girls that was sassy and of course sweet! Our “cupcake couture mini” would be perfectly fitting for fashion, tea or even glam sleep over parties! In honor of our "blogiversary" and our new design we thought why not do a little photo shoot!?!
So we enlisted the help of one of the sweetest, fanciest girls we know, Annabella, Kellie’s oldest daughter! We decked her out in a J Crew dress, bracelet and headband! We made and decorated a tiered ruffle cake, cupcakes and mini pink and white parfaits!
We wanted to create a lacey and ruffley feel so we made a backdrop from strips of all different sized and textured lace ribbon. We carried that look onto the parfait glasses and mini cookie favour boxes! We also sprinkled little tulle pom poms over the table to add some fun!
Annabella had so much fun taking the photos and was so much fun to work with! She sipped pink soda with raspberries in it, playfully held one of our DIY lollipop rosettes, showed off her sparkly pink shoes and displayed our “mon cheri” letter garland! At the end we finally let her eat some off those sweets that had been tempting her the whole shoot! What a fun day and great way to celebrate our new design! We hope you enjoy the photos!

We want to personally thank our blog and facebook fans for all of your support and sweet words over the past year! You are all amazing! xoxo Melissa and Kellie

Cupcake Couture Cupcake Contest!

We are celebrating the one year anniversary of our blog this week...so we figured we better do it in “style”, couture style that is! You may have noticed that we have a thing for sweets, cupcakes in particular! Last spring we created a line called “Cupcake Couture”. It has been a collection that has been very near and dear to our hearts! We even did a 3 part post showing our readers our complete work process and how we created them...of course with a Parisian flair!
Part1
Part 2
Part 3
We thought that it would be so much fun bring that line to life! So, let’s get creative! We want you to send us a picture of your most “couture” (homemade) cupcake.

We are thrilled to have two of our sweet and very talented friends, Jill of Modern Cupcake and Rosie of Sweetapolita, judging this contest with us...two ladies that you can certainly draw plenty of inspiration from!
On March 16th we will announce the “Cupcake Couture” winner! Prizes will include a fabulous gift certificate to Layer Cake Shop, 12 Cupcake Couture petite invites and 12 coordinating note cards. Good luck, now get decorating...we can not wait to see what you come up with!
Rules that apply:
1. We will allow two entries per contestant
2. Anyone can enter
3. Cupcakes must be decorated by you, they can not be store/bakery bought
4. Photography will be take into consideration (please consider lighting)
5. Send all entries to icingdesigns@hotmail.com with subject line reading “Cupcake Couture Cupcake Contest”
6. Contest opens February 28 and ends March 16
7. Winner will be notified on our blog and via email

Photo: Elizabeth Messina (Kiss the Groom)

Sneak Peek

Next week is the one year Anniversary of our blog! We hope to make it a very special week for our readers! Here is a little sneak peek of one of the things we are working on for our "blogiversary"!

Two Parties

Over the past couple of weeks we have been getting requests from our readers to feature their parties. So we thought we would share a couple of them with you today. The first party is from one of our readers Mandye who wrote us the sweetest email, we have to admit it kind of made our day! Her sister, Jen has the cutest shop called Jilly Bean Kids! It has the sweetest things for parties including favor bags, paper straws, twine and so many other things...you have to check it out. They threw their first party last weekend for a sweet little 8 year old girl. It was a bubble gum theme and we think they did a great job! (Photography by Heather Armstrong)

Here are a few products from Jilly Bean Kids shop that were photographed by Heather Armstrong Photography as well!


The second party was sent to us by Shayne in Australia! She created a princess party for her daughter's 5th birthday! She told us that she took inspiration from the princess party we threw last summer for little Stella! Shayne did the whole party herself, baking and decorating the cake, cake pops and cupcakes! She also made little crown cookies for the girls to decorate themselves. She wants "mums" to know that if you put your mind to it...you can do it ;) We think you created a really special party for you little girl!

The Couture Cakery

When we were in New York for the Martha Stewart Dreamers into Doers event, we meet some of the most amazing women! One in particular, that we had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with was Jasmine Clouser of The Couture Cakery! She is just the sweetest ray of sunshine! Jasmine has combined her knowledge of art and design with her passion for baking to create a very successful business! Her designs are whimsical, elegant, modern works of art. Her attention to detail is amazing...as you can see her heart goes into each and every confection she creates! It is so exciting to see what is coming out of her kitchen each week! We are so excited to be featuring Jamine and her beautiful work today!

Icing: Tell us a little bit about your background and how The Couture Cakery was founded.

Jasmine: Well...I've always known since I was very little that I wanted to be an artist in some way. I'm grew up in Orange County CA and attended UCLA and graduated with a degree in design. After graduating, I worked for a prominent designer and really developed the skills to be a good designer there. Developing an eye for visual balance, letter spacing and producing high quality work were things I learned that will always be with me and are an important part of my business today. I still continue to do part time consulting and art direction in addition to my cake design business just because I love it. My interest in cake design started about 2 1/2 years ago. I was working part time at my local Michael's as the event coordinator. I decided to take the Wilton 1 cake decorating class and realized I really enjoyed it. I started out by making cupcakes and selling them at a local coffeehouse. It gave me the opportunity to try out new recipes but I realized that I was working really hard to sell a small amount of cupcakes. I decided I wanted to work smarter not harder. I am a huge fan of Flickr and was always online looking at the amazing cake and cupcake tower creations from Australia and England and thought I could do it too! I did my first bridal show in Jan of 2009 and my business has just blossomed since that time. Cupcake towers for weddings are a big part of my business in addition to wedding cakes and celebration cakes.


Icing: What so far has been the most exciting project you have worked on?

Jasmine: There are a couple of things I have done which have really been amazing. First, my cakes, dessert tables and cupcake designs have been published in the last three issues of Cake Central Magazine. It's a stunning publication and I am honored they continue to ask me to to submit and publish my work. Secondly, I live in PA now near Hershey PA and there is a huge charity event each year called Chocolate Fest. I participated as a vendor last year and entered a cake in their competition. Well, I won 1st place and from that I am now do all the wedding cakes for the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center which has been amazing opportunity. It's something I didn't expect. The wedding director just happened to attend the event and saw my work and asked me to work with them. My advice is to take advantage of any opportunities to share you talents because you never know who may see your work and want to work with you.




Icing: Who are some pastry chefs that have inspired you?

Jasmine: I have two pastry chefs that come to mind right away. Ron Ben Israel is a huge inspiration to me. The work he and his team creates is stunning and the craftsmanship is unbelievable. I am really excited that I will be taking a 3 day course with him in Savannah in March. I am a huge believer that you need to continue to learn and improve to become the best in your craft. You can never know too much and take the time to invest in yourself to continue to grow as person and also your business. The other pastry chef I really admire is Anne Heap with Pink Cake Box. She is super talented, but also a very savvy business woman. She utilizes blogging and her website to continue to grow her business. I have used her as my model for my business. I have a blog I post all my work to in addition to my website and Flickr site. I totally understand the importance of the Internet and social media as marketing tools and also the best way to interact with our clients and potential clients.


Icing: Can you give our readers some advice on starting/running a business?

Jasmine: If you dream big, produce a high quality product that people want and provide exceptional service to your clients and the professionals you work with then you will be successful. Don't make excuses about why you can't start your dream business. Just start slow and work smart and don't invest a ton of money. Network with other people in your industry to create alliances and opportunities to build you business. Invest in a good camera if you want to show photos of your work on your blog or website. It's one of the best investments I have made.