Adventures in all things yummy.

Here comes the sun.

Beatles - Here Comes The Sun

 

Good morning! My daily ritual after rubbing the sleep out of my eyes is to hit my knees, have a few moments of reflection, meditate, then listen for inspiration. Then me and the pups head out to the yard to take in the delicious silence and awe of the southern california desert. I am looking over my block wall at the most amazing picture; Crisp green leave cascading perfectly to the right with houses peeking over backdrops of chocolate brown mountains that look painted on the powder blue sky. Cotton candy pink and lavender clouds kissed with delicate pink hued pink painted clouds in between, and I am inspired. Not to paint, but 5:45 sounds like a good time to whip up some butter cream and play with a purple/pink palette for frosting. Oh camera, where are you? I promise we will have a long productive life together. I will be gentle and kind, and shoot only the prettiest of pictures with you. Off to Candy land. Camera you will be mine, this game of cat and mouse I will win. You can hide, but I am persistent and I will find you.

Pinch me!!

I got em!! I got em!! It's like running downstairs in your pj's on Christmas morning to a the present you asked for in shiny wrapping with a big red bow under the christmas tree. These pictures are so much better than that to me!! Lillie took my expectations and blew them to the next stratosphere!! She is amazing!! I'm obsessed!! I have had them not more then 10 minutes and I have looked at them each 50 times. I can't believe I made the treats that are in these delicious pictures! Pinch me!! Enough talking let's have a looksy shall we!! Get ready for your visual snack of the day! 

It takes getting use to having the camera right in your face. But Lillies my bud so I was ok with the close proximity thing.  So we hurried around and did as much as we could in the little time we had to get all the shots in. It's not easy being cheesy......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted simplicity. My treats are simple. So yummy, but simple. The flavors are distinct not distracting. I find that people miss the mark with dessert sometimes. The dress it up to much, either with garnish or way to many flavor profiles. Your palette gets confused on what to enjoy when there is a sensory overload! Simple is sometimes the best. That's what I love about my cupcakes and marshmallows. They aren't fancy schmancy. If you want that than I am not your girl. Mine are organic in every way from decor,ingredient to flavor profile, but they don't dissapoint, let me assure you of that. They are simplicity at it's finest. The best ingredients and love in every bite. Vanilla based cupcakes across the board. My core frosting flavors are Vanilla, Coconut, and Orange. The vanilla is SOOOOOO vanilla, The coconut is like a hawaiin vacation on your tongue, and the orange is the so very orange. The beauty of vanilla base is that the vanilla only enhances the flavor of the frosting. It doesn't distract you. Enough chatter more visually enjoyment.

 

It's been windy and sunny. So spring colors were my inspiration for this shoot. I am a little bit artsy, so I can do cupcake frosting in any color imaginable. But I am probably going to stick with seasonal colors, except upon special request for an additional charge. Kinda like when you go to the paint store and hand them a fabric swatch and they amaze you with that same luscious rasberry you didn't think was possible!! LOVE IT!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, my inspiration is for this whole crazy thing is above this text. I got a lump in my throat as this picture came up. Who knew that marshmallows would inspire this dream that is actually becoming a reality? My love for coconut began when I moved to Hawaii at 18. I emersed myself in Tropical flavors, coconut being at the top of my list. This is the fluffiest most truely coconut treat you will ever put in your mouth, topped with fresh toasted coconut flakes. My mouth is watering. They are dangerous.

These are mint marshmallows with chocolate drizzle. People, let me just say mint takes over you and cools your throat with just the right amount of bittersweet chocolate to give it that something that makes it all grown up. These are not drugstore marshmallows I am making. These are sweet indulgences that you better prepare yourselves to keep you satisfied and have you wanting more!Prepare yourselve for a new favorite treat, next to my cupcakes!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These days I am all smiles. I feel like I am gonna wake up and all of this is gonna be a dream. I feel grateful each and every day to feel this passion drive and inspiration. I've never felt more alive!! Sugar rush!

Casting Call: Only greedy little gobblins need apply.

Download Track03
So I live in true Suburban America. On any given day, as soon as the sun rises, you see the garages creaking and cars bustling down the street off to the nine to fives. Kids squealing with delight running down the street at 3 o'clock each and every day, and without fail, and the cutest dang kids at our neighborhood parks playing unceasingly with there beautiful sun-kissed cheeks on the playground. So to add to my short list of to-do's, I have to send out a general mass texts/emails/calls to all my cute girls who have ridiculously cute munchkins that I will be in need of there littins for a sugar rush party. There is nothing better than a sweets party!! I will be snappin pics of there chubby little nubs and cherub cheeks enjoying my sweets!! Soon there after posting the pics. I am sure that I will be adding free babysitting to my list of to-do's when I send the kiddo's back to there nest's after giving them limitless access to my treats!  But it will be worth it because the proof is in the pudding as they say when you see happiness in the eye's of a child enjoying a good treat. I can't wait!! Back to work ya'll.

Back it up...

The large delivery trucks make a very identifiable noise to warn of the large mass approaching to warn of anything that might be in the way to move. I heard that noise as I hurried from store to store in hopes to find a DSLR yesterday. Shoot Dang!! No luck. I picked them all up and begats!! I couldn't even figure out how to snap a shot. So, in the ripe old age of 30, I am learning that sometimes the best thing to do is to think things through or as the old saying goes, look before you leap. Especially since yesterday I was wearing my 5 inch wedge sandals just so I could wear my ridiculously cute bell bottom jeans that happen to be made for girls with legs that are so long, I don't think these girls have room for an upper body. Considering I do mostly computer research, cleaning and baking, I have no time to get clothes to the tailors, and my forte is cooking not sewing. My goal is to learn to sew, but I don't know how to, yet. So I cuffed the bottom over once pinned it up with my daughters bedazzled bobby pins and still had to wear five inch wedges! So my daughter and my previously mentioned not to be forgotten and probably continued to be talked about in my posts photographer girlfriend and her daughter  go to preschool together. As we were gathering our little chicklets I grabbed her and got some professional advice. Seeing as I am not famous, I will not have a photographer following me around 24 hours a day, thank goodness, but feel the need to have the appropriate camera on hand when I have an inspiration that needs to be captured on film, or more appropriately worded digitally encapsulated. I can't even snap a picture with those babies let alone know what I am looking for when it comes to bells and whistles. So she gave me the skinny on what I needed for my business so I could make my pictures look as delicious as my treats and I felt much better. So hopefully in the next couple of days after I scour amazon and ebay I will have a it in my sticky mits. Which I will try to have wiped clean prior to use, because trust me when I tell you, those babies don't run cheap!!!

Today is busy. Shocked? I didn't think so. I am, in no particular order, deep breathe, ordering boxes and packing material, ordering labels, sorting my photos to post to my blog/website, finishing my website, posting my price list, mapping out LA/Santa Monica for hot spots to hand deliver my products, baking 10 dozen cupcakes, making 10 batches of each flavor of marshmallows, getting my daughter a physical, picking up my business cards, oh yeah eating and breathing. So wish me luck and have a deliciously sweet day!!

It's official. I am obsessed.

Across the Universe Soundtrack - Hey Jude

Ok. So here's the deal. Lately my eye has been encapsulating pictures. Therefore, I must report I cannot stop thinking of getting a DSLR. Camera speak, I have no clue what the heck it stands for. After all, they usually don't use that terminology on the food network. Ask me what it means to fold, braise, temper, or sear and I am your girl. But I digress. So I am taking the plunge. After the usual after lunch ritual of kp, seriously people we are talking 5 dishwasher loads MINIMUM and usually 8-10 trash/recycling take outs per day. I feel I live in the kitchen but truth be told, I would rather be no where else. I think I may have just thought of a great bumper sticker/tee "I'd rather be in the kitchen." Keep your eye's peeled for it. I am off to buy my new camera, silently squealing, and then to Grandmas to let J swim so I can play around with it. They have the most amazing landscaper in there little Palm Springs 60's vibe Tennis Retirement Condo. She does this English Garden theme that makes me want to pick a flower, put it in my hair and blast the whole Beatles Anthology. Hopefully pics to post tonight. I'm getting bored looking at all the black and white text, so I'm certain you are too. Grab a snack and meet me back here later. Keep it sweet. 

If you build it, they will come.

If you So here it is, so early that the birds aren't even chirping and I am getting ready to make my links and price sheet for my website. Random side-note: I was a cheerleader in high school. Everyday I wake up with that nauseas excited tummy like I did the day of tryouts every year. With that nervous anticipation of someone about to take the plunge of getting in front of strangers and hoping to be loved and accepted so that I would make the squad. Only these judges are the general public, and making the squad means having a business that will succeed and blossom. I must admit, I see at as s sign that something big is about to happen. Because even though I felt this way every year before tryouts, I was so full of spirit and cheer, I always made the squad.  I  was a big old chunk of hubba bubbalicious, in other words brimming with bubbliness but not in a ditsy way just happy go lucky. That hasn't changed!!

So the tricky thing about selling "designer" sweets is knowing where to cap your price. I have done a lot of research, and to be quite honest, I find that some of these places that sell what I consider happiness in a wrapper, are ridiculously priced. Some as high as 4.00 for a cupcake!! No offense, if it works for you, swell! I just feel guilty considering I have been taking my stuff around by the dozen for years and giving it away. I guess I need to be a little more business minded. So today I need to make the executive decision and not cheat myself, because, really it is a lot of work, but at the same time I want my treats to be an affordable luxury. Because they are a pure unadulterated bliss!!

So high ho it's of to work I go. Hope your day is full of sugar and sunshine.

Busy as a bee...

It's 10:45 and I am finally done for the day! I am enjoying a big glass of milk and a pb and j. It seems that being around cupcakes and marshmallows is bringing out the kid in me! I started at 5 so it's been a long productive one.I was up and at'em at 5 am. Out the door for some Vanilla extract at 5:45. Back home and mixing cupcake batter by 6 am. While that was mixing I was making frosting and deciding which colors I thought would photograph best for my shoot today. It just so happens that my good friend turns out to be the best photographer ever.  And you could just say that is an understatement.  Don't worry. I will have the photos to prove it on thursday and will be posting them as soon as I get them in my sticky little fingers. But if you just can't wait, check her out at www.lilliebphotograpy.com

I love her sunshine and her creative eye. She brought over her yummy little cupcake of a daughter, Mila who showed herself to all of my daughters toys and trinkets and kept herself busy busy. I have been vibing the 70's lately so naturally Cat Steven's was playing in the background as Lillie buss led around my house opening all the windows flooding the house with all the wonderful natural sunshine we get here in So Cal. She is an amazing natural light photographer. I had a semi vision of what I wanted, but I trust her judgment 11o percent and gave her the creative freedom to do what she does best and make my food look good!! She is incredible and I can't wait to see her work. She also shot a few pics of me. Fingers crossed I looked good for my bio pic and my website!! I must say sleep is a vital necessity when you are trying to get a business plan together. So the rest of my day was kind of boring but I'll make it short but sweet.

Picked up Jaiden. Off to the bank to open a business account. Off to public recorder for fictitious name. Back to bank to show fictitious name. Over to grandmas to get the wiggles out of Jaiden with some pool time. PS my daughter taught herself to swim. Off to Costco to price out some ingredients so I don't have to make anymore 6 am supermarket runs for Vanilla extract, eggs, or whatever else you can throw in a mixing bowl. Back home sweet home for some much needed nourishment k.p. duty and bedtime rituals. Some on line research for pricing and marketing, some me time and here we are. Now it's off to bed for another big day tomorrow. Sweet dreams.

Get it Girl!!

So if it were up to me, I would dream up the plan and wake up and it would be ready to go. This is not to say I am not down with the blood sweat and tears philosophy. This is important. The hunger and the drive is what makes people good at what they do. Let me rephrase, all the "little" to do's and legalities would be done. You know, business cards, licenses, fictitious names and yada yada. I could talk, bake, and do the rest 25 hours a day, if I didn't have to eat and sleep!

I had to take a step back today, I went taking some samples out to test the waters and kind of had a scary and exciting moment. I was in one of my favorite stores I love to go in for color and fashion inspiration. So I decided to take in some of my yummy treats, considering it's always a good idea to generate a buzz at a buzz-worthy store right? Well, much to my delight, a birthday girl came in. Perfect!! So I offered her a treat. "You made these?" "Yes. These are my new business venture. Sugar Sugar Coconut."  "Well, where can I get these designer marshmallows? Where's your card? What's your website?"  All I could offer was my blog and my email. So my hubs was right, baby steps. Keep it professional. And no pun intended, don't bite off more than you can chew. But all the legalities are in order and I am on my way!! Yahoo!!

Tomorrow my friend Lillie is coming over to shoot some pics. She is an amazing photographer. I know that she will breathe life into my food. I am so excited!! I am also really excited to invite the cute neighborhood kids over to be photographed enjoying my yummy treats. I doubt they will turn it down. I'm exhausted but in a good way. I have so much excitement I wake up burning with a fire to do do do!! So I am just going with it!!

Photos are coming and my next two investments for my business/pleasure two which words seem to become molding in my vocabulary are a camera with lens, sorry I don't know the "proper" terminology yet, and a few more stand mixers, probably one in a cute color and a few industrial size. My daughter says ours are making marshmallow monsters. Can't be good for the motor!! Well, I got an early morning so, nighty night. Sweet dreams.

 

Up Up and Away!

So here we are. I just turned 30 in November. My daughter will be 5 in May. I have a beautiful colorful life. I love to sing dance and create. I took up cooking when I was pregnant with my daughter. When I started to get comfy with cooking, I got the courage to bake. Then I was really excited! My house was filled with the amazing smells and warmth of rolls, cookies, and sweet treats. When I was pregnant with my daughter all I wanted was sugar. Now, that's all she wants. Figures!! She gave me the drive to want to bake. What a blessing. She has always been obsessed with marshmallows. So an idea came to me to make homemade marshmallows. That's when Sugar Sugar Coconut was born. It's been a whirlwind, but I have a tight grip on the wheel and I am enjoying the ride!! Feeling the fire and excitement that finding your purpose and niche brings. So follow me on this journey. It's gonna be sticky, sweet, and delicious. So I hope you saved room for dessert!