Hello everyone!  I'm sure that all of you are getting very excited about the holidays.  I, for one, am very happy that they are winding down.  Lindsay and I have been working our buns off trying to get all of our orders filled on time and we just finished.  We actually baked over 7,500 cookies in a week and a half.  Believe it or not, most of them went for two big orders.  The first was 1,500 decorated sugar cookies for two performances of the Nutcracker and the other large order came from a wonderful  customer who orders 17 trays of assorted Italian and traditional holiday cookies every year.  Thank you so much for your continuted business.  We love our clients!

We also have had a substantial amount of  baking for multiple holiday parties through our friends at Struck Catering, as well as desserts for our regular clients.

I didn't post last week because I was holding onto a wonderful secret from my "future son-in-law", John.  That's right; John proposed to my beautiful daughter, Christina last Friday evening and it was a wonderful surprise for her.  We went to New York City last weekend to celebrate with John and Christina, John's family and their friends.  I was afraid that if I posted anything I might have slipped and ruined the surprise.

New Year's Eve is fast approaching and we have a beautiful  wedding that evening at Cranwell Resort, Spa and Golf Club in Lenox, Massachusetts.  Our couple is having a gorgeous wedding cake with about 600 sugar flowers on it, similar to the one in my previous post, except smaller and with all shades of white, cream and ivory.

Don't forget that we will be hosting our annual winter tasting event on Saturday, January 21st at Tuckerman Hall in Worcester.  We are looking forward to a great turnout this year.

I want to wish each and every one of you a very Happy Holiday season!

Michelle

Today is the last day of November, 2011.  Where did this year go?  Something Sweet by Michelle has been so busy that I have no clue what happened to the last six months.  It seems that just yesterday we were planning to do this amazing wedding cake for Tatiana and Josh who had a destination wedding in Northampton, Massachusetts on June 17.  They were such a beautiful couple who met and lived in California for 10 years before deciding to get married at her parents' home in Western Massachusetts.  Just before the wedding, they relocated to London, England where Josh's family and their family business is. 

We received the referral from Lauren and Ruthie of Eutopia Events in Northampton.  Lauren and Ruthie are wonderful to work with.  I first met them a couple of years ago when they coordinated my niece, Sasha's wedding at the Cape.  These girls really know how to plan a party!

Elisabeth Millay was the photographer for Tatiana and Josh.  Kudos Elisabeth on an AWESOME job!

Tatiana and Josh's cake was five square tiers with two inch risers in between to leave enough space to place all of their sugar flowers.  We made them to match the colors in her bridesmaids dresses (shades of peach, pink, cream and white).  We made English garden roses, vendella roses, Sahara roses, peonies, sweet peas, hydrangea, rose buds and calla lilies.

By the way, the fabric for Tatiana's blush pink wedding gown and her bridesmaids' dresses were manufactured at Josh's family's factory in England.  How cool is that?

  Upcoming Events:

Our annual winter tasting event, better known as our "Wedding Open House" is scheduled for Saturday, January 21, 2012 with a snow date of Sunday, January 22, 2012 at the beautiful Tuckerman Hall, a symphony hall located in Worcester, Massachusetts.  As in year's past, the event is hosted by Something Sweet by Michelle, Struck Catering, Tuckerman Hall and Cookie Creatives by Jennifer.  We usually have a florist, a photographer or two and a disk jockey on hand, just in case couples are still undecided about their vendors.  If you are interested in attending this event, please contact one of these vendors either by phone or email and you will be added to our guest list.

I also would like to schedule a sugar flower class for sometime in January which would end in March or April, depending on when the start date would be.  Anyone interested in taking this class should contact me at michelle@somethingsweetbymichelle.com.  I limit my class size to 8 people per course.

That's all the news for now.  Enjoy the remainder of your week and I'll write again next week!  

I'm very excited about my new blog that Ryan (Martin, web designer extraordinaire) has created for me.  

Where should I begin?  I guess I should start out by saying that I LOVE CAKE!  I mean I REALLY love cake!  I love to eat cake, bake cake, design and decorate cake.  That is why I started my business back in 1992 so I could share my passion with everyone within reach, and perhaps a little beyond.  Here are a few of my favorite flavor combinations:

• pumpkin brown butter with caramel butter cream and caramel
• chocolate fudge with Chamord truffle filling and fresh raspberries
• brown butter almond with pecan praline and caramel
• carrot cake with toasted walnuts and cream cheese filling
• white chocolate cake with white chocolate mousse and fresh strawberries
• and coconut cream cake with passionfruit mousse

You might have noticed that the first four are pretty intense cakes that are perfect for this time of year.  They are my  "comfort" cakes.  You know, like comfort food?  My last two favorites are just amazing any time of year.  I'd like to add that we also make great sauces to go with some of our cakes like strawberry rhubarb sauce, warm apple pear compote, black raspberry coulis, blood orange reduction.  The list just goes on and on.

This time of year, we are very busy baking our brains out for Struck Catering, who happens to own the building we are in.  All of us are in high gear for holiday parties and corporate events as well as weddings through the end of the year.  I love being this busy!

Speaking of weddings, we have had a tremendous year.  I have to say that my brides are the nicest brides in the whole wide world.  They come from all parts of the United States (and abroad); they all have different tastes, different styles, different themes; but the one thing they all have in common is that they all love to eat my cake!  Below are some of my favorite couples with photos of their wedding cakes starting with the most recent going backward in time.

Laura and Vinnie, November 11, 2011.   Venue:  Cranwell Resort, Spa and Golf Club, Lenox, Massachusetts.  Betsy Winsor is the Wedding Director at Cranwell Resort.  She is fabulous to work with and the facility is just beautiful.  Derek Fowles was the photographer for the wedding so I can hardly wait to see some of his photos.  He does an amazing job.