3.31.2010

Real Business: Sugar Pine Cakery

This past year I had the pleasure of working with a fantastic baker, Allison Sayles, to help develop her logo and brand for her cake and sweet treats business, Sugar Pine Cakery. I haven’t yet had the pleasure of tasting one of her creations because she lives in Tahoe City, but hopefully I will someday soon. One of the unique aspects about Allison Sayles and the cakes that she creates is that she uses all natural and organic ingredients.

I was able to help Allison create a brand for her company that represents what she is about.

Quality, organic, delicious, and rustic cakes and sweets.







HOW IT ALL STARTED


Allison has been cooking and baking for as long as she can remember. Her mother was a great cook and always made everything from scratch so naturally she did the same. After working in many kitchens and bakeries she decided to go to culinary school and discovered that not only did she love to cook but she REALLY loved to make cakes and other sweets. Allison has been a Pastry Chef for many years and also worked in a busy restaurant kitchen. She has always made wedding cakes and special occasion cakes for friends and family. Soon people she didn’t know were calling her for cakes. By word of mouth she had become quite busy with wedding cakes, birthday cakes, and also cupcakes. She has always loved to bake and thought it was about time she started on her own in 2009.

ORGANIC


It was a natural progression for Allison to start Sugar Pine Cakery. Eating mostly Organic and living in a very health conscious Lake Tahoe area, she automatically started to bake with organic and locally grown ingredients. She purchases all her berries and fruit for the cakes and sweets from local farmers’ markets when they are available. In a few months this coming summer she plans to have a booth at the farmers’ market to sell all her tasty treats. Allison describes the style of her cakes as "Rustic".  She uses wholesome ingredients and never freezes her cakes. Allison says, “There is something about a good old-fashioned cake that you just can't resist”.

WHAT IS HER FAVORITE?


Well, there isn’t just one. She loves all the cakes, sweets and treats she makes.  But, she especially loves anything lemon or citrus. Allison says, “It feels great baking things that people feel good about eating. I love seeing the cakes finished and decorated and knowing that they are part of some ones special day. I am very excited about incorporating gluten-free, dairy free and agave sweetened cakes into my repertoire. No one should go without some thing sweet to eat!”.

ON THE HORIZON


For Allison, starting Sugar Pine Cakery has so far been very exciting. She is looking at a very busy wedding season and hopefully adding a booth at the farmers’ market with lots of yummy organic sweets and treats. Her hope for the future is that people will be able to one day purchase her baking in local establishments and be able to taste the  love, devotion, and quality ingredients that goes into her baking.











Allison has been a great client to work with and I feel proud to have helped her in the development of her brand. I wish Sugar Pine Cakery the best of luck with it’s future adventures.

If anyone is interested in contacting Allison, you can email at: sugarpinecakery@gmail.com

3.12.2010

Rainy Day

Even though it is raining, today it is turning out to be a very productive work day for me. I am working on quite a few projects right now including logo design revisions, a 50th birthday party invitation, a program for a wedding that is rapidly approaching (15 days Crystal!!), and gathering print quotes for new projects. I love taking Ponzo for walks on Friday's but it's raining out and he doesn't like going out in the rain. The rain started to get me thinking about the things I love about winter and I realized that spring is almost here so I should enjoy this rainy day as much as I can before the season changes. In addition to enjoying my cuddly pets, my coffee, and Pandora on this rainy day, here are a few more things I love about winter!


Umbrellas - http://www.thelilbee.com/2009/06/cute-brellas.html

Baby Beanie - http://www.etsy.com/shop/malindi

Hand Woven Shaw - http://www.etsy.com/shop/SRdesign

Winter Wedding -http://www.stylemepretty.com/2010/02/11/winter-wedding-by-jessica-claire/

Personalized Stationery - www.redstamp.com

Grilled Cheese Sandwich - www.foodgwaker.com / http://userealbutter.com/2009/11/17/grilled-steak-sandwiches-recipe/

3.05.2010

Family Silhouette

I have been inspired lately by a recent trend of beautiful silhouette designs. Silhouettes have become a popular design technique that you might find popping up in vintage wedding themes or a classic twist on home decor. Here are a few images I've seen featuring silhouettes.


I found the gorgeous vintage silhouette wedding theme above featured on Style Me Pretty. I also found a great post from Country Living that shows how to get the classic silhouette look in your home with a fresh twist. There is blog I stumbled upon called Simply Silhouettes which features all things silhouettes and they have a shop with adorable silhouette products.

All of these beautiful pieces of art inspired me to create a silhouette display of my own family.

1. First I used Photoshop to turn images of my husband and myself from our wedding, our cat, and our dog into silhouettes.


2. Next I added the silhouette images to a frame and used a yellow background to match the sunny yellow color of my basement/soon to be studio.


3. I printed out the three silhouette images if Gino and I, Sam, and Ponzo on linen cardstock to give it a nice texture.

4. I had previously purchased three 12 x 12 art canvases to use for another project that I never got around to so they came in hand for this project. I could have also framed the 8.5 x 11 pieces of paper.

5. My studio will feature yellows, greys, black, white, and maybe some soft greens. I decided to use black fabric over my canvas squares to make the silhouettes pop on the yellow wall.


6. I found out the strangest thing today, I don't have a stapler at my house! So I used zip dry to attach the fabric to the canvas and to glue the silhouettes to the fabric. I think a stapler would have been much easier. Note to self: my office needs a new stapler.



7. Finally I attached three equal size black satin ribbons to the back of the canvas squares and they were ready to hang.


Here is the finished product, proudly displayed in my studio!




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