Friday, November 21, 2014

A Season in Review: Fall 2014


We are finally slowing down a bit to recharge before our December holiday season starts, so I thought I'd take a little time to reflect on this busy fall season. It was a literal whirlwind of flour and sugar: nonstop baking, collaborating, meeting, delivering, brainstorming, tasting since August hit. Sixteen hour days were the norm, six to seven days a week, and we were hustling like we'd never hustled before. There were so many days/nights where I thought, "um, I don't think I can do this anymore." (full disclosure) but we had no choice but to keep on keeping on and now that I have finally reached that Friday before our Week of Rest, I am filled with so much pride and gratitude (and a little bit of shock) at all we have accomplished: from weddings and big events, to baby showers and birthday celebrations, new client meetings, incredible shoots, work trips, and even teaching classes.  We also dived into design work this year and are so excited to have a shoot we designed featured in print in the latest issue of Southern Weddings magazine! Additionally, our home was featured on Design Sponge and the Southern Weddings Southern Newlywed column. It has been pretty amazing, but I have to admit a little awkward sharing so much of our private world with the Internet. Something I need to get over already in this biz!

We've met so many lovely new people and had the amazing opportunity to help so many people celebrate something beautiful. I truly love hearing so many love stories and seeing people grow giddy at the chance to celebrate their deep love for each other. It's such a treat to talk with different people and hear about life outside of the kitchen. Running a small business is incredibly challenging at times - there's this pressure as a business to operate at a level of perfection that sometimes goes beyond human possibility. There are days where you get run down and fall sick, days where no matter how hard you try, you just make some mistakes. We are all human and human imperfection happens whether we intend it to or not. But something that I have been so fortunate to experience as a business owner is human grace and kindness. Some days it just blows my mind how kind people are - how real and appreciative they are. There have been so many times that I've been brought to tears by people being good. So, if you're one of our past clients or collaborators or colleagues or friends please know that we are so thankful for your myriad ways of support, encouragement and kindness. Now, #wipingtearsaway, onto some photos of some of our favorite experiences from the Fall:


Photo by Heather Hawkins

Our Naked Cake DIY Tutorial featured on 100 Layer Cake // Photo by Apryl Ann

For Kelly's wedding in Golden, TX we made a 4 foot long cake and built custom stands for her donuts.

We traveled to Marfa for a creative girls' trip/photo shoot. Here's a work scene of our hand painted marble motif cake.

For Amanda's 25th birthday, she kinda had to have a crazy cute cake to match her own crazy cuteness.


We hosted a cacti-themed shower for our beloved Apryl Ann. This simple ombre cake was made pretty darn adorable with Lauren's crafty cake toppers.

We helped the Nasher Sculpture Center celebrate their annual Garden Party with a collection of naked cakes, pumpkin macarons, mini pies and toasted meringue cakes.

I loved creating this floral "tetris" (as Alicia calls them) with her blooms for Pia's first birthday!

Sometimes the littlest are just the best. Pia's smash cake topped with one of Little Cat Design Co's toppers.

We partnered with our neighborhood ice cream shop Melt for a special macaron ice cream sammy! Mmm-mmm.

We made some custom gift bag goodies for Bows and Arrows Marfa Floral Workshop, inspired by those awesome Marfa sunsets.




For Saylor's birthday, Lottie ordered some colorful mini donuts that were too fun to make!





While naked cakes were definitely our hot item this season (er, year!) we had a lot of fun painting cakes too.

The Dallas Morning News featured our caramel apples in their Style section.

We taught another cake decorating class with Fullosophie and the student work turned out absolutely beautiful!

PBJ Macs seem like the right way to end this post...