Happy 1st Wedding Anniversary!

Wow, where did the year go? It is very hard to believe that just 12 months ago (and 4 days) The Boss and I were tying the knot!

While this post is a little late, it is not because I forgot. Packing up the house, moving over seas, and trying to settle in all while battling a language barrier has proven more time consuming than one first thought. Great examples of such battles are trying to get the electricity turned on, hot water running, and all of the toilets to flush… in French!

Now I don’t want you to think I am belittling the fact that we are celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary by comparing it’s importance to a toilet flushing or electricity, I just want to make sure you don’t think I’m a bad wife who forgot to mention this important date. During this busy time we have reflected a lot on our first year of marriage, and having to temporarily  “camp” in our new home is just one more thing we have learned to laugh about together this year.

I promise to only post a picture montage of our wedding once every 5 years. Technically I didn’t’ do much of a wedding post after the wedding as I was preoccupied enjoying the honeymoon! It will be interesting in the years to come to see home much we have changed! I hope you enjoy my trip down memory lane!

The Preparations:

“The First Look”:

*Due to the our decision to have our beachside wedding in the early evening (mostly to save our guests from the blazing afternoon sun), we had to get our wedding photos done before the ceremony. At first I was very against seeing The Boss before the ceremony, but in the end I think it took the edge off of everyone! So, to make our first “meeting” a little more special for The Boss and I, the wedding coordinator and photographer allotted a little extra time in between preparations and family photos for us to see each other alone.

Then it was time to get going! It was “Formal Wedding Portrait” time!

Okay, so we had a little fun before the “formal pictures”. Below is the wedding party in it’s entirety, sans mustaches, and a good looking bunch I might add!

The Ceremony:

This is it, if The Boss had any second thoughts he’d have to make a break for it now!

Above is my sister and I “Shot Put” high-fiving. It’s a long standing inside joke that we have, and it was just what I needed before she was the last to leave for the aisle with the flower girls!

Mission complete!

So that’s it. Another year come and gone in a flash!

Come back soon as I am hoping to be completely settled in Paris very soon, and I then I can wow you with some French inspired pastries!!

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Princess Barbie Birthday Cake

In the past I have mentioned that I respond to “Call to Actions” with a non-profit organization called Icing Smiles. Icing Smiles is a group that coordinates professional (or skilled hobby) cake decorators with families with a chronically ill child. I explained a bit more about the organization here when I made my last cake for Icing Smiles. Unfortunately with the last cake the young boy had a lot of diet restrictions so the cake I made for him was not able to have fondant or food coloring. Even though the cake tasted great and the family loved it, I still felt bad that the cake wasn’t a super exciting and character-like cake. So this time when I received my call to action I knew I wanted to make it really special!

Princess Barbie, pink, and everything pretty were the words used by the mom to describe the style of cake her daughter would want. So I tried my best to get all kinds of “pretty” on the cake!

Here’s a closer look at the details:

This was my first time using edible paper and edible ink! I was very pleased with the quality from my new cake printer!

This was also my first attempt at making a tiara. Personally, I loved it! Very girly. It wasn’t supposed to super detailed or realistic looking in attempt to keep it looking really playful.

I love ribbon roses!

I like to finish off the back of the cake with buttons. I think it gives it more playfulness.

The cake was a white cake with chocolate buttercream, just as the birthday girl requested! And by now I’m sure the cake is all gone!

If you would like more information on the awesome non-profit organization Icing Smiles, or you would like to find out how you could get involved or give support, you can go directly to their website. I think that their mission is wonderful and would love to help keep it going strong!

Hope you had a great weekend!

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Triathlon Cookies

In this household my bakery goes hand in hand with my involvement in triathlon and running. At first that might sound strange, but before you wonder for too long about how in the world does triathlon connect with baked goods, I’ll tell you. For the majority of us triathletes (yes, even us injured ones) we love our food! And rightfully so. After enduring brick workouts, long rides, and tempo runs where athletes have to follow very strict nutrition plans to have successful workouts, we deserve a little reward at the end of the day! It is this “reward” that often comes in the form of sweets! … well for me anyways.

Earlier in my bakery days I created a triathlon cake that showed off my love for designing triathlon themed goods. Now I’m back at it again, only this time you can ship these these triathlon goods!

Can you say “Triathlon Nom”??

These particular cookies were ordered by a super supportive wife who used this gift/ design as a way to say Happy Birthday to her husband while also taking the opportunity to honor all of the hard work and dedication he has shown in his preparations for his first M-dot 70.3! A great idea if I may say so myself!

On that note, good luck to everyone who is reading and has a big race, long run, or training ride this weekend. Remember, there is always cookies at the end, so just keep going!

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DIY Wedding Out of town Guests bags

Being at the beach this week has made me reflect on my wedding last July. We were married on the beach, and that was what I always wanted!

Right after the wedding I posted several posts about the wedding, mostly the wedding details. You can find them all here in “The Bird House”. I didn’t post all of the wedding details back in July only because I didn’t want you to burn out from reading wedding posts!

As you may know, I love creating desserts, but I also love taking care of all of the party planning details! One detail that I absolutely wanted (and so did the Boss) were “Out of Town Guest Bags”. These are traditionally left at the hotel for family and friends who may have traveled from out of town to the wedding. The bags contain things of convenience and/or snacks that one might forget to pack.

Since we had a destination wedding, essentially ALL of our guests were out of towners! I made one bag for each hotel room and stuffed it with more beach festive things. The bags in our case were more like “Thanks for making the trip” bags!

First I started off with buying the bags from Creative Packaging (I don’t have any connection with this company, I just have had zero problems with them, they are fast to ship and I have not found anyone cheaper!). Also, I bought a few cute ink stamps from the local craft store, and had left over 2” wide ribbon from another wedding project.

I stamped away and my Mom tied of the bows.

Then we did a run through with one bag to make sure the all of the goodies actually fit in the bag! Maybe I should have thought of this earlier, but it worked out just fine!

We only stuffed one bag because we had to travel with a lot of wedding stuff and it was WAY easier to pack the paper bags while folded up tight and stuff the other contents into boxes were they fit. My sister and I stuffed all of the bags in our hotel room as guests showed up during the week!

By now you must be wondering, “what did they put in the bags?” Well, we were staying at an all inclusive beach resort, and most guests were staying for 5 days or so. What would YOU want in a loot bag on the beach? I thought it was pretty straight forward:

* Reading material

* Snack food (be honest, you can’t get Swedish Fish at a resort in the Dominican on your own)

* SPF Lip Gloss

* Pool toys

* Pain killers (remember it was an all inclusive resort AND wedding week = lots of celebrating)

As our guests arrived, The Boss and I would make every effort we could to find them at check in or soon after and say hi and give them their welcome bag. Our guests LOVED getting a little something upon arrival, and even more so thought it was a great way to be welcomed and start their stay!

So even if your guests aren’t traveling to a destination wedding or even cross country, maybe you should think of having a little surprise for them upon arrival. It doesn’t have to be an entire treat bag, maybe just a snack bag of Swedish Fish with a tag that says “We’re glad you are here”.

So there you have it. “Out of Town Guest Bags” they are so simple yet so meaningful. What do you think? Would you have liked to receive a little something upon arrival to your last wedding?

Have a great weekend everyone! See you Monday.

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Nautical Cookies

Recently a friend of Bertie’s Bakery Blog inquired about a possible cookie arrangement for her sister’s family who were proud new boat owners! Since custom made cookies are definitely a part of my world here at Bertie’s Bakery I was excited to take on the project!

After much deliberation over the cookie design and what nautical symbols to choose, I came up with these. I love the traditional nautical colors, and was really pleased with how the cookies turned out!

Hopefully the new boat owners felt the same way. In the event that they do not like the colors or designs, I imagine they would have been distracted by the great taste and texture of the cookies!

I think I like the lighthouse cookies the best :)

What about you, would you have enjoyed this package showing up on your doorstep?

As always, thanks for stopping by!

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Novelty- Tiered Entry Takes the cake!

Last but not least. I had three entries in the National Capital Area Cake Show this past weekend, and this is the final one! If you missed the first two, click HERE for the cookie competition and HERE for my wedding cake entry, and since it’s Friday, if you really want to kill some time click HERE for the album that shows all entries into the show.

This cake was entered in the “Novelty-Tiered” category, and it was my take on a whimsical tea party. I really enjoyed making all of the different elements to this cake, especially the tea cups!

Here’s a closer look at all of the details:

Looking at all the details, I think I liked the pink tea cup on top the best, with the purple polka-dots coming a close second!  I’d love to hear your feedback though!

Since it’s Friday, I figured a more photo-full post would be best over lots of wordiness. Most importantly, hopefully I inspired you to go find some cake…and eat it too! Many of you might have a “long run” or “long ride” tomorrow anyways, so go for it… go find something sweet to eat!  And even if not, go enjoy some cake!

Have a great weekend!

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