The NotWedding

I know I've kept you all wondering for the past month, but they're finally here: pictures from The NotWedding 2008! Later today, I'll post pictures of the details of the entire event, but for now I wanted to share with you the Home made goodies I made for the dessert table at the wedding.

Oh, ya know, just something I whipped up at the last minute. No big deal.
All images copywright Mala Hyder Photography

The NotWedding II

The NotWedding 2008 was held this past November. It was a big wedding staged in order to show you what some of the best local vendors can do to make your big day unforgettable in every aspect. There were five brides and five grooms who were the stars of the ceremony, and each bride and groom couple embodied a different style or flair for a wedding. Here are the knitty-gritty details and pictures from the event:

Opera Nightclub in Atlanta allowed us to transform their early 19th century opera theater into a beautiful venue for the ceremony.

Joy Thigpen styled the event and created the table settings for each one of the five brides.
Brown Linen & Co. handmade all of the name cards and the signs used throughout the wedding.

Olive provided the wedding dresses for the brides, as well as the bridesmaid dresses they changed into after the ceremony.
Groom Studio styled all of the grooms.
The brides also wore beautiful headpieces by Oh My Deer Handmades,
and shoes by Sole Journey.

All of the flowers for the wedding were provided by Twelve. You've got to check out more of their stuff.

The elaborate 'bird-themed' hair and make up was created by Paul Mitchell.

Jacob's Reverie and their team of talented musicians and production specialists took over all aspects of music at the wedding, including the unforgettable ceremony music.

The ceremony was officiated by Tyler Thigpen and Sean Grant, and included a surprising spoken-word segment.

The reception began with a bridal party dance choreographed by iSalsa. After that, guests were invited to dance, enter to win free prizes, get pictures snapped in the photobooth, and enjoy desserts provided by yours truly...
Cakes from the Coal!

You may be kicking yourself if you didn't get to attend this time, but don't fret- plans for The NotWedding 2009 are underway!

Apple- Caramel Cake

Caramel apples, in my opinion, possess bountiful flavor that should not be limited to a sticky confection on a popsicle stick. That's why I decided to capture the flavors of a caramel apple in this Apple- Caramel Cake. The cake itself was delicious, filled with fresh apples that gave it a lot of moisture and went nicely with the cinnamon I added in. It's topped with thick homemade buttercream icing, and drizzled with caramel. You carnival junkies out there won't be disappointed!

the Office.

There's nothing like an office birthday party... You know, the ones where you celebrate all of the "November Birthdays" and everyone is just excited about the prospect of stopping work for twenty minutes to eat cake in the break room... There's just nothing like it.

A couple weeks ago, Capin Crouse invited me to cook up a sweet little cake for their office birthday celebration. I wanted to make something tastier and more elegant than the run of the mill sheet cake. This is what I came up with.. I love using fresh flowers, and I think the big Mum on this lemon cake with raspberry filling really gave it a fresh, classy look.

Happy birthday, November birthdays!

mmm.. brownies.

It's final exam time around these parts, and being the ardent and diligent student I am, I sat down for no more than 10 minutes to study before I realized I would need a delicious baked snack to get me through the next 10 minutes of studying. I succeeded in passing about two hours of my time baking these tasty cheesecake-swirl brownies...and then I went to bed.
What a feel good treat for such a tough evening of work!

Enjoy!

Sam & Cristin sittin' in a tree...

This past summer, pretty little Cristin Capin became Cristin Serio, and asked me if I would cater dessert for her rehearsal dinner. I love to be at rehearsal dinners because of all of the excitement and anticipation that is in the air. Plus, Cristin has gotten to be a good friend of mine through the years, so I was thrilled to be a part.

Here are some photos of the cake table I designed for them, including some of Cristin & Sam's favorite cake flavors...

Photography by Jenny Spires
Name Cards by Brown Linen & Co.

And they lived happily ever after...

Thanksgiving

Now that all the hustle around Thanksgiving is over, I can finally share a little bit of what I was doing for the holiday-- baking, of course! I had the task of planning dessert menus for three different holiday dinner parties... so I spent the majority of the day elbow-deep in pie dough and cake batter. I'm definitely okay with that, as I could choose a hunk of homemade apple pie over a pile of turkey and all of its tryptophan any day...

I adapted an already delicious pumpkin pie recipe from Daily Olive for the day... I threw in a slightly different blend of seasoning, and sweetened with honey. In my entire twenty years of living, I have never had a piece of pumpkin pie (obviously, my parents are foreign..), and it was interesting to bake a dessert without any preconceived notions on how it was supposed to taste. The feedback I got from pumpkin pie connoisseurs assured me that I was able to retain its authentic, American taste.

The pie had the perfect combination of spices, was not too sweet, and the crust was flaky and buttery.



I ended up making too much pie dough for the pumpkin pie, and so as to not let it go to waste, I threw together this delicious apple pie. My dad had brought me homegrown apples, and they turned out to be perfect in this classic pie...


This guy was a Pumpkin Spice cake with Honeyed Cream Cheese Icing... need I say more?

Any Thankgiving dinner- or meal, for that matter- is not complete without some sort of chocolate... For this particular meal, I made my Chocolate cake with Dark Chocolate Fudge Icing, topped with hand dipped strawberries.

Can't wait to see what Christmas has in store....

Cinnamon & Sugar Pecans

Does anyone else wonder why pecans are so prominent around Thanksgiving? I mean, what is it in us that makes us crave Pecan Pie as soon as November rolls around? And why is it that all of a sudden pecans appear by the ton in grocery stores around this time of year? Maybe I need to research the crop cycle of pecans...

Anyway, I was very much suckered in to this pecan craze at my last trip to the grocer. I picked up a pound of them without any real intention to bake a pie or do anything specific with them... which resulted in me making Cinnamon and Sugar Pecans... they were a sweet snack, and made the kitchen smell amazing as they baked.

Next year?... I'm rebelling and giving cashews some attention.

Cinnamon & Sugar Pecans

1 lb pecan halves
1 large egg white
1 tbsp water
1 cup white sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Grease cookie sheet.
2. Beat egg white and water until foamy.
3. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
4. Dredge pecans in egg mixture, then toss in sugar until well coated.
5. Spread nuts on cookie sheet.
6. Bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Busy Little Baker...

I don't know what it is about the fall, but I seem to be surrounded by friends celebrating birthdays! I've been relishing all the opportunities to cook up tasty desserts for these celebrations, and last night was no different...
Here is a homemade Chocolate cake with Dark Chocolate Fudge Icing, topped with Chocolate Covered Strawberries... definitely not for the faint of heart!

Banana Cookies

After baking mass amounts of Chocolate Banana cake for the NotWedding this past week, I found myself with an excess of bananas on hand. As much as I can appreciate potassium, I'm not the kind of person to eat a bunch of bananas unless they're married with chocolate or pecans or something else that ultimately diminishes their nutritional content.

So after looking through some recipes, I came across one for Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies... they turned out to be fluffy and almost cake-like, which I loved. They were a tasty and fun way to do something different with bananas!

Happy Birthday, Maggie!

A friend of mine celebrated her birthday this week, and requested a particularly delicious cheesecake as her birthday present. I came up with a white chocolate cheesecake with an oreo cookie crust, topped with a red raspberry sauce, homemade whipped cream, and chocolate.

Here's one of the few pictures i was able to snap before the whole thing dissappeared...

Sneak Peek!

Well, the NotWedding is over, and it was a huge success. Dozens of talented vendors really worked hard to make it a memorable event.

Pictures from the wedding will be released and posted on here soon, so stay tuned for that... but to ease the suspense that I know is just oozing from your being, here are a few pictures of the samples I cooked up for the event:

Pumpkin Cake with Caramel Frosting

Chocolate Banana Cake with Mocha-fudge icing

Lemon Squares with Lemon Creme Icing

Tuesday Afternoon

And so the preparation for the NotWedding begins...

I spent the majority of my afternoon filleting and shaving lemon skins in order to create little yellow flowers for a garnish.

I was starting to think I was crazy to be spending so much time on something that people will just pick off before they eat the dessert anyways, but these turned out so cute that I think that the labor was worth it.

Better late than never...

A few months ago, Abany launched the first annual Brown Linen Market. It was a great gathering for girls and guys to come shop, listen to some good music, and eat some good food.

I was pretty stinkin' excited when she asked me to help out with food and, of course, dessert.

Here are some pictures from the event, photographed by Callie Murray.

chocolate mocha cake with a dark chocolate ganache

cherry-chocolate swirl cheesecake

creme puffs with a chocolate drizzle and raspberry reduction



baked tortilla chips with a blackbean salsa