Party Spotlight: E & S Paper Studio Holiday Party

Good Morning Ya'll! 

I know its been a while since I have posted my last post, but I have been super busy with the holiday coming, orders and work. So needless to say, I am blogging now. The great part is that I will have some awesome parties to show you but some of my creations as well in the next couple of weeks! Great stuff is coming:) So right now I have another vendor spotlight for you. Elizabeth Braegger who is the owner of E & S Paper Studio and elleBakes. Elizabeth does some great stuff..if you haven't seen her work you can take a look at her Facebook page or her website here. If you are only for a fully customized party printables then check her out! Her style is clean and modern. You can tell she has a great eye for design. 

Like some of us small businesses (including yours truly), Elizabeth has a day job. For the last couple of years Elizabeth has been in charge of her department's Holiday Luncheon. Well she did a great job and she did it on a small budget! What is better than putting together a great party layout while doing it cheaply:) Elizabeth was not only kind enough to provide some great pictures for the spotlight, she also provided a cost breakdown for the party. Proof that a great looking party doesn't always has to clean out your pocket. 

Here is what Elizabeth had to say about the party: 

Here's an office lunch setup on a budget! In the last few years as our department has grown we went from a restaurant to a conference room. Our bosses provided us with lunch, and my co-workers and I would bring the desserts, drinks and serveware for the occasion. For the last few years, I've taken charge of our Holiday Luncheon. Working with a minimal budget, and using as much of my own Holiday decor as I can, I've setup this simple, festive table.

Decorations:Gold Chevron Table Runner - I sewed it with 1 yard of fabric from Joann's - $7White Poinsettias - From my own Christmas decor - $30Ornament Centerpieces - Dollar Tree ornaments - $4White & Glitter Snowflakes - Dollar Tree - $2White Damask Tablecloth - Vendor's Warehouse Sale - $3

Serveware:White Square Paper Plates - Dollar Tree - $2White Dinner Napkins - Dollar Tree - $1Silver Plasticware - Dollar Tree - $4Clear Cups - Dollar Tree - $1Gold Cups - Party City - $3Gold Napkin Rings - Scrapbooking Paper, Michaels - $2


Sweets - elleBakesChocolate Covered StrawberriesRum Cake Gold PopsMerenguesMint Chocolate Brownies

So as you can see Elizabeth is very talented and she was able to put together a great looking holiday luncheon for under $60.00! So please don't forget to stop by her fan page and websites to say hello, you will be glad you did! 

Peace & Blessings

Kima

Weddings & Airplanes!

Hello once again,

So I have been able to blog more lately because I am learning to do my prep work for cakes earlier in the week so by the time I have to start baking cakes or cupcakes I have everything else prepared. It really helped me out last week with all of the orders I had and it also helped out a bit this week. For the past two weeks it has been really really busy for me and I love it! It lets me know that the local community is starting to find out about me :) So on to this week. First up was a cake I had to make for a couple that I did their wedding cake back in July. Due to the heat and having their wedding outdoors (which I warned them about) I had some issues with the bottom tier by the time I go to the venue and then the cake sat outdoors in the heat. Needless to say the fondant slid a little. I explained to her what happened and why the fondant slid. So because I am who I am and want all of my customers happy and coming back, I told her that I would do a smaller cake for at her choosing for free. So this is the cake, it was her husband who turned 25.

Butter cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream Filling. The 2 & 5 were separate cakes that I attached to the square cake. 

The next cake was ordered from a repeat customer of mine. She is so easy to work with and gives me free reign as far as design is concern (which I love).

Strawberry Theme Birthday Cake- Strawberry cake with Strawberry Buttercream Filling. I made the strawberries on top from red fondant. The vines are dark chocolate with white dogwood flowers. This was my first time making fondant figures so I am really pleased with the way the strawberries came out. 

The next couple of pictures are from the order a customer picked up today for her sister's wedding. The wedding will be held in Maryland tomorrow. She preferred to take the cake and things down rather than have me deliver. The wedding's theme was red, blue and airplanes. This order was good size too one smaller cake (for the wedding party), sugar cookie favors and cupcakes for the guest. I love doing these kinds of orders because I am doing multiple things for one event and it shows off my skills. 

Airplane Wedding Cake- Triple Chocolate Fudge cake with Chocolate Ganache and Chocolate Buttercream fillings. The cake is decorated with blue and white compass roses on the sides. On top sits a little airplane that the couple wanted. A very talented fellow cake decorator did the plane for me since I am not that good with fondant figures yet. I had to put it together and think I did a pretty good job:)

Compass Rose Cupcakes- Matching cupcakes to the airplane wedding cake. Cupcakes were carrot, vanilla and chocolate. Topped with blue and white compass rose. 

Airplane Sugar Cookies- Vanilla sugar cookies decorated with red and blue royal icing. The cookies have the couples name and the wedding date on them. I made the favor tags as well. 

Cupcake Tower- I made this square tower to go put the cake and cupcakes on. 

I really wished that I could have set this up but I will have to wait for pictures so see how she set it up. I will be posting more pictures tomorrow after I deliver and set up a cupcake tower for another wedding. I also made some delicious cakes for my church's annual picnic for the baking contest. I also have a birthday cake to deliver as well. But I have GREAT news for everyone. Kima's Konfections is moving! Yes we have have been approved for a house in the city of York (we currently live in the township). It is up the street from a park on a quiet one way street. But the best thing to me is it has sooo much room! I will be able to have a dedicated room just for the business! Which means I can take on more customers! I am so excited and more updates will be coming soon with pictures. Move in date is set for sometime in October! 

Peace & Blessings

Cakes & Cookie News!

Hello Again!
I have been a busy little bee trying to come up with new flavors, working on cakes and starting a new decorated cookie line. So I need to go back to last week with my delivery from last Friday when I delivered a groom's cake and matching sugar cookies. The bride to be wanted something that represented her fiance so she gave me a card from the game Magic The Gathering and wanted me to create a cake that looked like the card. Well I didn't disappoint and she was so happy! The cookies were a bit of a challenge in that up until this point I didn't do decorated sugar cookies. Well I was pleased with the way the came out but thought I could do better. So after checking on my favorite forum in the world..CakeCentral.com I decided that I could do cookies.. more about that later!

Vanilla bean cake with Chocolate Tuffle Filling

Sugar Cookies with Glace Icing and Fondant Accents

So now we fast forward to this week. I received two orders for July 4th related items and I decided to make some samples for my business class that I have been taking on Thursday nights at York College. I want to open up a shop at some point so I figure I should get as much knowledge in the business arena as possible hence the class:) The first order was for star sugar cookies. So I made 3 dozen little star cookies. The second order was for chocolate covered brownies. Then I baked up some mini cupcakes and chocolate covered strawberries for class. 

Star Cookies- sugar cookies with vanilla glace icing in red, white and blue. Decorated with USA, 4 and some dots. 

Chocolate covered Brownies- brownies hand dipped in red chocolate and decorated in red, white and blue glace icing.

Cinnamon Bun Mini Cupcakes & Chocolate/Caramel Mini Cupcakes- cinnamon cake with vanilla buttercream and sprinkled with cinnamon; triple chocolate fudge cake with chocolate/caramel buttercream and drizzled with caramel sauce

Raspberry Mini Cupcakes- Raspberry cake with Lemon buttercream

Chocolate covered Strawberries- dark and red chocolate covered strawberries in various designs

So now for the big news after some thinking and designing I am launching my own Konfection Cookie Line. Sugar based cookie (in various flavors) decorated to match a theme or event. I am working on some mock up cookies now so pictures will be coming over the next couple of days as I finish them. Also since summer is officially upon us I have some summer cupcake flavors that I will unveiling tomorrow. So until then...

Peace & Blessings

Kima