While we plan to take a new direction in 2012, we will still strive to include every last bit of Sweetness into our new approach.  We are still wrapping our brain around the order of operations here, so your patience is much appreciated.  We hope you will join us on the meandering journey to find balance, goodness, whimsy, and most all Sweetness.  

This cake was inspired by the bride’s time volunteering at Ten Chimneys. (In fact, the bride first heard of Sweetness by Alice when we did the cakes for their Ten Chimneys Day celebrations.)

“Ten Chimneys, the estate lovingly created by theatre legends Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, is open to the public as a world-class house museum and national resource for theatre, arts, and arts education.” It is a beautiful place. You really should go check it out!

The bride found inspiration in the beautiful surroundings on the Ten Chimneys property including beautiful dogwood flowers and a lovely cross-hatch design. We kept the tiers quite simple and let the design details steal the show including a gorgeous gold ribbon with a cross-hatch detail, hand-painted, gum paste dogwoods, a vintage inspired gold plated cake plateau. My favorite part of this cake was the vintage cake topper the bride’s grandparents lent her from their wedding 50 years ago. As you can see the topper has a stunning, art deco feel which also ties into the Ten Chimneys details perfectly.  Between the Ten Chimneys estate and the love of her grandparents, she hoped the cake would create a sense of “lasting relationships, graciousness, and vintage elegance.”  I think this cake achieved those thing and more. Many congrats to the lovely couple!!!

These second two photos are courtesy of the very talented Nicholas Norbert of Nicholas Norbert Photography. I love how vivid the colors are in his photos versus mine, especially in the eggplant table linen. You can definitely see why it pays to have a professional like Nicholas capture your wedding day! Please check out his website and blog!

This was another cake from this summer that I wanted to be sure to share.  The details of the cake were a culmination of the details from the couple’s invitation, the venue, and their color scheme – including some fun and playful curved lines accented by small dots in green and gold added unique details and a festive feel to the cake.

The couple’s reception was at Cuvee in Milwaukee’s Third Ward.  Cuvee is absolutely one of my favorite venues in town due to its perfect mix of urban cool and elegant simplicity. What made it so perfect for this particular wedding were the gold polka dot dividing walls between the champagne lounge and the reception room which we echoed into the cake’s design. I also loved the green and white tissue paper pomanders which the couple hung from the exposed beam ceiling.

And I cannot forget to mention this cake’s flavor! It may sound a bit much, but I assure you all the flavors perfectly meddled to be a mouth watering, delectable dessert. Each cake slice contained one layer of chocolate cake, a layer of vanilla cake and a layer of red velvet cake separated by one layer of cookies and cream buttercream and another of chocolate buttercream. I wish I had a slice right now!

I apologize for the extreme lack of posts.  It seems August and September are the new Junes in terms of weddings.  Meaning fall weddings are just as busy if not busier than summer weddings.  Whew!  I have plenty of cakes to post about from summer to fall, but seeing as I am short on time I will post about one of my favorite cakes of the year.

The bride knew she wanted some grand in size, yet simple in design.  We incorporated the wedding’s color scheme – pink and grey and also included the couple’s monogram designed especially for their wedding day.  I adored the simplicity of it, yet the various stripes still created some visual interest.  And my absolute favorite part of this cake was the flavor a dark chocolate cake with chocolate chip cannoli filling.  It is a perfect combination, trust me!

A HUGE thank you to Jennifer Brindley Photography for providing us with the lovely image of S and A’s cake.  Check out Jennifer’s Photography blog as well (this wedding was featured on September 4th and the pictures are STUNNING!!!).

While Sweetness maybe taking a step back next year, we still have plenty of cakes on our plate for this year. And so many beauties, they just have to be shared!!!

Photo by Rebecca Eby - Studio Noveau

This cake is hands down one my favorites. Not only was the cake one of my favorites, but the couples overall styling of their wedding made it all the more fabulous. During my undergrad years (back when I thought I should be a nurse, and then a teacher, but before my pastry years) I was quite fond of Martha Stewart and all her simple, beautifully styled projects. This particular cake was actually inspired by a photo the bride tore out of one of Martha’s magazine. It was a cake I had seen in Martha Stewart’s Wedding Cakes book and was absolutely drawn to it the moment I bought the book.  The cake was created by Ron Ben Israel, one of the world’s best cake designers. We modified the design to buttercream and made a few more adjustments, L found the most lovely pedestal stand and then L and R added their touches of the antique armoire, gorgeous favors, and perfect “Just Married” draping signage. Doesn’t it look magazine ready?

Photo by Rebecca Eby - Studio Noveau

Photo by Rebecca Eby - Studio Noveau

Photo by Krystal Muellenberg - Krystal Muellenberg Photography

Sweetness has to thank the AMAZING photographers that shot this “magazine ready” cake! L and R had two photographers to capture their day and I am so grateful that they shared these stunning images with me. You really MUST check out both of their websites and blogs – Rebecca Eby of Studio Noveau and Krystal Muellenberg of Krystal Muellenberg Photography. Both extremely talented and lovely to work with as well. I am so excited to have these images as a part of my portfolio! Thanks Rebecca and Krystal!

Over 7 years ago I made a very difficult decison to attend pastry school.  I left behind a city I was comfortable in, a good paying job, and the family that I love.  I was following a dream and hoped that with the right dedication and hard work I would someday be able to open a small bakery or cake shop called “Sweetness.”  Fast forward several years, a few very challenging jobs, and countless numbers of hard work I was given the opportunity of a lifetime to start my dream cake business.  Being granted a dream come true is something I know doesn’t come around very often and for that I am forever grateful.

I am trying to play a bit of catch up these days.  Is it just me or is summer just flying by?  Whew!

While there are many wedding cakes to write posts about, I wanted to share a couple of cute cakes that we’ve done recently.  I like that the cakes are personalized and have meaning for the clients.  I truly appreciate that our clients trust us to share in their events.

This first cake was a collaboration with a lovely mom.  Her daughter, C, graduated from high school and is very much looking forward to her future.  Her mom requested that we steer away from the traditional, school colors/diploma kind of graduation cake and go a unique route.  C is a very talented artist and her mom shared some of her amazing artwork; beautiful illustrations of lilies, cherry blossoms and photos of her and her bike.  C’s mom also wrote me the most touching email including some of C’s favorite things.  After looking over the email and images, we took a quirky approach to include all of C’s favorite things — her coveted sock monkey riding her stylish, white bicycle surrounded by the lovely lilies and the colorful, garden gnome peeking out from behind the floral.  And lastly, gum paste cherry blossoms cascading down the cake tiers.  While an outsider might not be sure what to make of it, it was a one of kind, personalized celebration of C’s interests and talents.  Congratulations Miss C!  Best wishes for your very bright future!!!

I typically don’t share the cakes I do for family and friends on my off days, but this one was too cute not to share.  My darling, Goddaughter Tess was baptized last month and her mama asked me if I could make a cake for the celebration luncheon after the christening.  Tess’ mom has wonderful style and I thought she might appreciate a nod to Tess’ gorgeous nursery.  The gum paste floral have a bit of modern, simple feel to them which I love.   And I certainly think these flowers could make any wedding or birthday cake look fabulous as well!!!  Just a few clusters on the sides of a tiered wedding cake in any color scheme would make for a simple, yet modern cake.

Happy Summer!  I will be back again soon with some lovely, summer wedding cakes!!!

When I met with D and S last year they knew they wanted to incorporate birds into the their cake and I was ecstatic!  I knew their cake would be not only be meaningful to them, but also be visually beautiful and unique.

The very, pale blue buttercream was the perfect hue to display the piped and dried birch branches.  And of course, the show stoppers for this wedding cake were the hand-painted, gum paste birds.  I must admit it was quite intimidating to attempt to create these gorgeous birds for avid bird watchers out of sugar dough.  Each bird D and S chose was more beautiful then the one before.

It should also be noted that the cake fit perfectly into their venue, The Schlitz Audubon Nature Center.  While I think this cake could look great anywhere, but the Audubon Center is absolutely the best place in the city to showcase a cake decorated in hand-painted, gum paste birds and dried birch branches.   Don’t you agree?

And last, but certainly not least – the FLAVOR!  Don’t get me wrong, I like all of the flavors created for my clients, but this cake was really a spectacular choice – spice cake with a whipped, orange infused, white chocolate ganache, finished in vanilla buttercream.  The layers of flavor perfectly meddled together for a simple, yet unexpected ending to a perfect meal.

The photography is compliments of the lovely and very talented, Anna Page.  Anna Page Photography is pure perfection.  It is easy to see why her work is being featured all over the place – in magazines and on the very best, wedding blogs.  Thank you for sharing your beautiful photos with Sweetness by Alice, Anna!

Hello All!  Happy Summer…Finally!  We are knee deep in buttercream these days and hardly find time to leave the kitchen, but wanted to share some lovely photos taken by Reminisce Studio by Miranda & Adam.  The talented, husband and wife team, Miranda and Adam were gracious enough to send on these photos from some weddings we did together in the past and I am truly grateful.  As you can easily tell – they are true professionals with a wonderful eye for detail!  Thanks so very much, Miranda and Adam!  Please be sure to check out their website!

During a design meeting with J a few months back, I mentioned to her that her wedding details seemed “Preppy Chic” (in a very good way).  She replied that her sister said the exact same thing.  Many of the wedding details had a classic feel to them; from the navy and kelly green color scheme to the gold framed table numbers.  And then there were some other details that exuded an elegant classiness to them, including paisley patterned invite.  Each and every detail sounded wonderful and well thought out.   I was excited that the cake’s design would fit right in the mix.

The top and bottom tiers were kept quite simple with a small tri-dot detail, allowing the center tier to be the show stopper which included portions of the paisley pattern in a bright, kelly green.  The cake was presented on a matching kelly green cake base which looked so crisp against the white, linen tablecloth.

And let’s not forget about the delicious cake inside this beauty!  Guests at this wedding enjoyed our moist, chocolate cake with chocolate mousse or a lovely, lemon chiffon cake with strawberry buttercream.

This particular reception was held at The Grain Exchange, one of the many wonderful venues where Bartolotta Catering showcases their exquisite food and service.  It is an absolutely gorgeous venue, with the most fantastic natural light in town!  I mention the light because typically when I set up a cake, the lighting not ideal for great pictures and I leave disappointed that I wasn’t able to capture the beauty of the cake.  (Please note that I probably should not blame the lighting because my below average photography skills are probably to blame.)  When I left the Grain Exchange, I was finally I was pleased with my images!  I think it can all be attributed to the lovely light that streamed down from the incredible windows lining the very top of The Grain Exchange.

Many congrats to J and K!