The Sweet Life!: May 2009

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Cakes of the Week...and their inspiration

Tonya ordered her birthday cake from us last week. She didn't have a particular design in mind, only a few pictures that inspired her. She left the rest up to us (I love when clients do this!).

Here are the pics she sent...

And here is what we came up with...

I think she was happy :-)

This was a cake for a little boy named Kadeem who was turning one!

Cakes for the SALVATION ARMY
Our friend Shawn works for the Salvation Army and ordered these cakes for a big celebration last weekend for kids and parents. He gave us a few designs he came up with and we added our own touch to each ;-)

He was very happy too :-)
Aaaahhh...another week of satisfied customers and happy workers at Cara Linn.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Sweet Elisabeth

This week we are featuring our friend Elisabeth who comes to help us once a week. We're featuring her one, because her birthday is next week, two, she's leaving NYC this week for 3 months and we're gonna miss her like crazy, and three because she wrote this great journal entry you're about to read.

We love her, she is just amazing. Enjoy the blog and be sure and check back next week to see her birthday cake!!!

A Day at Sweet Land

by Elisabeth

Spending time at Sweet Land is always a treat for me. It is full of inspiration, joy, and sweetness to my spirit and taste buds!

Each time is an adventure when I show up and take part in helping Cara achieve her dreams and goals of running such an exciting and fun business.

Today I started out by reading over her study guide for her book, Faith, Cake, & Jesus. Her book and study guide have inspired me to start finding my own destiny and taking action of those dreams.

Cara then welcomed any of my own creative decorating ideas for the cake she was currently making. I helped her make coffee beans out of fondant, which was one of me and Dallas’ suggestions for decorating the cake. I enjoyed watching Cara through her cake decorating process. SOOOO much love and attention went into it. She spent half the day loving on this ONE cake. No wonder they are so anointed!

Cara Linn, Inc. is great at finding creative ways to be resourceful. For example, I cut holes in egg crate cartons for special ice cream cone desserts to protect them while being transported. Who came up with that creative idea?!

Next, Cara and Faith taught me how to dye fondant different colors. We used the fondant for making cake decorations. I rolled some into little balls and cut others into squares. I LOVE fondant! It makes cakes look so beautiful and I love the way it tastes.

Then, “Ready, Camera, Action!” as we all became a production team for Cara’s cake decorating DVD that she will be mailing around the country as part of her cake making tool kit. Cara is a natural on camera. God knew what He was doing when He created her to fulfill His Kingdom purposes. Look out world!

My nearly eight hours at Sweet Land today flew by so quickly and it never felt like work! Every moment was fun and inspirational with the company of incredible individuals who are also great friends of mine.

There is plenty to do at Sweet Land to fulfill Cara’s amazing vision that will one day capture the hearts of people around the world. It is a privilege to lend a hand and see it at its beginnings. I look forward to the day I will be reminiscing about the early days.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Handbag Cakes with Cara Linn

This week we had a small class, but we like small classes because it means we get to hold them in our studio! The atmosphere here is so bright, creative, and inspiring; the perfect setting for cake decorating.

Our studio is also known to many as "SweetLand". We constantly have people, friends, clients, kids, and neighbors coming here. Sometimes they come for a purpose, sometimes for no reason at all. They just like being here and because they leave with a "Sweet" taste in their mouth.

Is it the cake? The pink walls? The rainbows, tutus, or happy music playing?

Well that's all part of it...

but the true sweetness comes from the Presence of God that dwells here.

Our constant prayer here at Cara Linn, Inc. is that people would taste and see that HE IS GOOD!!! And that He would use this place, our product, and US to change people and cause them never to be the same. He's changed US through His sweetness, now we just want to turn around and share it with everybody else.

If this is something you want to experience, stop by SweetLand, you may never be the same!

(Or apply for our Extreme CakeOver...deadline is June 1st!!!)

I had fun getting to know our 3 students, Tonya, Nathalie, and Anjone and was excited about the way their cakes turned out! They have all done their share of cake decorating, but I think each of them left here learning a few new tricks and knowing that, makes it all worthwhile ;)

Nathalies "Celadon" Purse

Tonya's Sequenced Clutch

Anjone's "Louie"

Cara's Zebra print Purse

JOIN CARA FOR ONE OF HER UPCOMING CLASSES!!!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 – Brooklyn, NY
Level 3 – FOCUS ON DESIGN - $109
6:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Location: Cara Linn, Inc. Studio

Sunday, June 14, 2009 – Brooklyn, NY
Level 1 – CAKE DECORATING 101 - $89
1:00pm – 3:30pm
Location: Cara Linn, Inc. Studio

Saturday, July 11, 2009 – Brooklyn, NY
Level 4 – CAKE CONSTRUCTION - $149
1:00pm – 4:00pm
Location: Cara Linn, Inc. Studio

Saturday, July 25, 2009 - Manhattan

Special Class - Learn How to Sculpt a Motorcycle Cake

To Register: http://www.meetup.com/new-york-city-cake-decorators/

1:30pm - 4:00pm

Location: TBD

Monday, May 11, 2009

Sweet and Chic in Chicago

Well anytime you see two girls carrying a pink box in an airport, chances are it is us! We just got home from our quick weekend getaway to the Windy City and of course, we HAD to bring along one of our cakes to Faith's Cara Linn cake deprived family.

Faith's brother Blake graduated from UIC, which was our reason for the Getaway.
He is on his way to achieving some big things in life, which is why we thought the money bag cake was appropriate. Watch out for this guy!

Way to go Blake!!!

Faith's and My first adventure when arriving to Chicago was visiting lots of Cake and Cupcake Shops. First stop...Cake Girls, as seen on Food Network and WE's
Amazing Wedding Cakes show

Faith's brothers Christian and Blake were our amazing (and handsome) tour guides. I think they had fun taste testing as well ;)

Our next stop was Bleeding Heart Organic Bakery, the owners of this place have also been featured on one of FN's Extreme Cake Challenges.

They had interesting menu choices like Hibiscus flavored cupcakes and Chocolate Covered Bacon. I have never seen that before

We tried their Pink Velvet and Red Velvet Cupcakes. They were both pretty dry in my opinion, I was a bit disappointed. Maybe I should have gone with something more risky like the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bacon!

I will say I did like their bright colors and Cupcake shaped tables. That was fun, and their cupcakes were only $3.25 each, which isn't bad for an all organic bakery.

Next we visited a place called Molly's Cupcakes.
Molly's was founded by a guy named Johnny, whose third grade teacher was named Molly. Molly used to bake her students cupcakes anytime they had a birthday and was nice enough to pass down her recipe to Johnny.
Supposedly they are the "best cupcakes ever" and much of their profits are donated to schools in the community.

Were they the best cupcakes ever?
They weren't bad, definitely some of my favorites of the day.
We tried the Blueberry Cupcake with Rasberry filling and their Rich Chocolate Cupcake with Peanut Butter filling and Butterscotch chips .

The blueberry cake was excellent, I wasn't crazy about their buttercream--it tasted a little like grocery store buttercream--and the cupcakes cost $4!!! That is more expensive than NYC.
But the cupcakes and filling was really good.

Fourth Stop was Swirlz Cupcakes.
This place was probably my favorite - it is a lot like Sprinkles in CA. For only $3.50 you get a really beautiful and delicious cupcake in lots of creative flavors. They even have Vegan options.

At Swirlz, we tried the Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream (Sweet, Buttery, and Moist...SO GOOD),
The Banana Cupcake, which was laced with real Nutella, topped with Nutella Buttercream and a dried banana chip (this was probably MY FAVORITE!)
and last we tried one of their Gluten free Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate covered Strawberry Buttercream on top.

Last stop was a place called Sensational Bites on North Southport Ave. They have tons of desserts, cupcakes, tarts, and truffles. www.sensationalbites.com
At this point, we were all sugared out, we didn't even try anything. But the cafe is super eclectic and really nice. If you're ever in the area, definitely check it out!

So after our Chicago Cake Adventure, we focused on some less sweet, touristy things--being this was my first time in Chi-Town.

Me in front of the Trump tower

This picture was taken for my dad and brother Neil, who have always been big Cubs fans. Neil was a bit bummed I made it to Wrigley Field before him, but I didn't get to go inside, so I guess I'm not that cool, Neil!