If you are anything like us, you love playing hostess. Delectable hors d’oeuvre, great conversation, and of course dessert. With the right touches, it’s the making of a perfect evening. Luckily, we recently got together with Matchbook Magazine and the industry’s crème de la crème to create a dinner party to thrill any guest. Read ahead for a few tips on how to make your next dinner party the social event of the year.

A cup of ice cream for dessert just won’t cut it anymore if you’re out to impress your guests. These days a dessert table does a lot to add to the ambiance of a party. Color code your desserts to match any theme, and pair them with specially made name cards informing guests of what they’re about to indulge in!

Offering guests desserts on a stick makes for a fun and easy to eat after dinner treat. Bite sized options are nice for those who may have over-indulged on their entrees!

The finishing touches go a long way when it comes to making a lasting impression. Creating a theme and keeping it consistent is key. Make sure your theme begins with your invites, and is apparent throughout. From your table wear, to your flowers, to your desserts.

We would like to thank Matchbook Magazine for bringing us together with all of these fabulous and talented vendors:

Event Production: Be Inspired PR

Photographer: Jessica Claire

Flowers & Decor: Dolce Designs

Planning: Sterling Social

Dessert Table: Cupcakes Couture of Manhattan Beach

Invitations & Stationery: Momental Designs

Scent Station: Kamilyin

Rental Furniture: Found Rentals

Lighting: Lighten Up Inc.

Plate: Paloma’s Nest

Champagne: Nicolas Feuillatte

Other Rentals: HD Buttercup

While last week was full of weddings, this week seemed to be the weekend of baby showers! From hot pink cupcakes, to gender reveals, our girly side came out in full force this week. Take a look at some of our favorites.

One of our most popular photos of the week, these Peony cupcakes were made of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, white chocolate petals dyed hot pink, adorned with silver sugar beads.

 This cake was designed to welcome baby Aubry into the world. The cake was first covered in pink fondant with polka dots. The babies head was made by molding Rice Krispie treats into a ball then covered it in buttercream and fondant. The tissue paper was made by rolling out extremely thin gumpaste.

These Parisian themed baby shower cupcakes were a lot of fun for Stephanie. The handmade poodle garnishes were her favorite to make! They were chocolate and vanilla cupcakes that were also adorned with peony flowers, pink eiffel towers, baby bottles, and the baby girls’ initial: “C.”

This Minnie Mouse cake was for little Lexxie’s 1st birthday. She also go Minni and Micky cupcakes!

Gender cakes are all the rage these days. Here is a good idea for one! Surprise your guests by having a party & revealing the sex. First, have your doctor write the sex of the baby onto a piece of paper, then take that paper to your favorite bakery (preferably Cupcakes Couture)! Have your baker bake the note with the sex of the baby on it into the cake, and use gender neutral designs. Reveal the sex of the baby to everyone by cutting the cake, then celebrate with a sweet treat!

It’s Monday and that means it’s time for another review of last week’s sweet treats! It was a busy weekend in the Cupcakes Couture kitchen as we prepared the perfect desserts for multiple weddings and parties around Los Angeles. Here are a few of our favorites from the weekend:

First, a gorgeous wedding in the courtyard of the luxury beach venue, Shade Hotel here in Manhattan Beach, CA. The couple chose to have five different flavors of petite cupcakes placed on a modern, simplistic cupcake tower: Chocolate Obsession, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Red Velvet, 24K Ginger, and Sea Salted Caramel. The top tier of the cupcake tower was a red velvet cake. The bride wanted the cupcakes to take center stage with beautiful all white flowers and candles on each side of the black, white, and silver display. Below, are some photos of Stephanie Franz setting up the magnificent dessert display.

The white wedding cake below has a special story to it…not only because it was someone’s wedding day, but because the guests didn’t know it! It was a surprise wedding held at a private Malibu residence. The guests thought they were going to a bridal shower and that the nuptials were to come later. Little did they know, they had shown up for the actual wedding! This chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and white cascading flowers was as last minute as the wedding, but we think it turned out beautifully.

The Tiffany blue cake with polka dots was for a baby shower (possibly the cutest baby shower of all time)!  Both tiers of the cake were red velvet with cream cheese. It was then covered in Tiffany blue butter cream and spattered with white sugar paste polka dots. The animals were designed to match the same animals on the crib!

The final cake was for one lucky six year old girl’s Alice in Wonderland themed party. The bottom tier was a devil’s food cake with vanilla frosting, the middle tiers was a vanilla cake with strawberry frosting, and the top tier was a chocolate cake with  Nutella frosting. We covered the whole thing in a light pink fondant and gum paste sugar flowers.

We received great feedback from our last blog where we took our readers through the steps of building a beautiful wedding cake for our bride, groom, and their guests. Because of the interest in the behind the scenes action here at our store, we thought we’d show you the process of a few more of the cakes we did over the weekend! Hope you enjoy watching Stephanie and her brilliant pastry staff create these unique masterpieces!

This Jack Daniels cake was made for Cupcakes Couture fan, John’s 30th birthday. Stephanie carved the Jack Daniel’s bottle shape out of Devil’s Food cake, filled with German chocolate frosting, and topped with coconut caramel frosting, which was then covered in sugar paste. Stephanie was able to print the specs for the Jack Daniel’s bottle with eatable ink and then trace over it for the customization. The cake then made the trek all the way to Big Bear for the party!

Our next cake was for a music lover. Take a look at what Stephanie was able to create for him!

For music lover, Marcus’ 40th birthday party, his friends thought this cake would be most fitting! Stephanie helped make their dream a reality by building this record player cake out of vanilla cake with lemon frosting. She used black-dyed sugar paste to cover the cake and create the attached pieces, and then painted on silver luster dust to create the amazingly realistic metal look on the tone arm. In addition to the cake, Marcus was surprised with red velvet and tuxedo, and black and white cupcakes topped with musical  notes and guitars, as well as salted caramel popcorn.The soiree was held at the Redbury hotel in Hollywood and was surly a night to remember!

When this LA county firefighter’s wife called in for his 40th birthday cake, she told us that she wanted flames and lots of them! Armed with an airbrush and orange eatable paint, Natalie was able to create these bright flames made of sugar paste and attached them to the lemon cake with strawberry frosting. Next, we molded a fire hat out of rice crispies and painted the number 1305–his firefighters number–onto it before applying the finishing touches. Happiest birthday to you, David. Thank you for all that you do keeping us safe here in LA!

Creating a beautiful cake is quite a process. It takes multiple days and an entire team of skilled pastry chefs to create something with details that suit the event and the style of the client. Today, we though it would  be fun to take you through the process of building a cake from start to finish. This cake particular cake was designed for a vintage, rustic country-style wedding on a crisp December’s day at a residential venue in Pasadena, CA. It is made up of three layers: strawberry/lemon, red velvet, and strawberry cheesecake. We hope you enjoy learning and taking a walk in the shoes of a Cupcakes Couture pastry chef!

Assistant pastry chef, Natalie, is hard at work creating the flowers for a three tier wedding cake.

She carefully uses the airbrush to create the bright orange hue on the cake’s sugar paste flowers

Our sweet pastry cook, Betty meticulously cuts, shapes, and bouquets the flowers to prepare them for the top of the cake.

Executive Pastry Chef, Stephanie, begins attaching the flowers on the first layer of this three layered cake.

The finished product: a perfect country themed accent to someone’s perfect, special day.

Happy 2012, cupcake lovers! This year is already off to an exciting start and we can’t wait to share with you what great new things we have planned for our store. 2011 was an amazing year with so many great experiences and excitement, but 2012 is already shaping up to be one of our best years yet! We wish we could tell you everything, , but for now you’re just going to have to sit back, relax, and enjoy a cupcake.

If you don’t have one of our scrumptious cupcakes on hand (shame on you), hopefully these fun cakes will do! With all the many reasons to celebrate this week, these people had even more reasons! It was birthday overload here at Cupcakes Couture. Here are a few of our favorites!

This adorable ducky cake was made for a baby boy’s baby shower. It was red velvet, and Chocolate/Vanilla cake covered in sugar paste, decorated with polka dots in blue hues, and topped with a “rubber ducky.” Luckily this rubber ducky was eatible…it was made from rice crispy treats, and covered in fondant!

It seems our name proceeds us and has made it all the way across the pond! We were pleasantly surprised to hear a UK resident on the other end of the phone when this order was made! It seems his twin nephews had a birthday coming up and he wanted to send his love in an extra thoughtful way. We were happy to help!

This gorgeous cake was made for a woman’s Gluten-Free, Soy-free grandmother. The flower represented her favorite colors and each one took over 45 minutes to craft before placing them on top. The cake is our gluten-free vanilla, with raspberry jam and chocolate frosting, covered in buttercream and topped with white chocolate embellishments and gold dragees. Happy birthday, Gaga!

With Tiffany turning the big 3-0, her loved ones knew she needed a special cake, so a special cake we did make! Inspired by our famous Love Spell couture cupcake, this was a raspberry jam filled blackout cake, covered in delectable white chocolate frosting, and topped with gold gilded raspberries, mini chocolate cigarettes, and gold dragees.

For Shade Hotel guest, Heike, they special ordered a red velvet cake covered in buttercream and white chocolate shavings. The cake was topped with gold leaf, and a pink and white chocolate cigarette.

Seaons greetings!! While we officially launched our winter menu on December 6th, we realized that it was not formally announced on our blog! So without further ado, we present to you the stars of the Cupcakes Couture 2011 winter menu:

Glitz & Glamour: Roasted vanilla bean cake topped with Tahitian vanilla bean frosting.

Availability: Everyday

Chocolate Obsession: Chocolate blackout cake with velvety chocolate frosting.

Availability: Everyday

Cinnamon Roll: Cinnamon cake filled with caramel pecan center, topped with cream cheese frosting.

Availability: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

Pumpkin Spice Latte: Pumpkin spiced cake topped with creamy latte frosting and pepitas

Availability: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday

Hot Chocolate: Blackout cake filled with liquid chocolate center topped with toasted marshmallow.

Availability: Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday

Lady in Red: A holiday twist the the traditional

Red velvet cake topped with fluffy cream cheese frosting. Availability: Everyday

Winter Mint: Flourless fudge cake filled with mint fudge and peppermint buttercream frosting (gluten free).

Availability: Everyday

Milk & Cookies: Vanilla tres leches cake with chocolate frosting and a chocolate chip cookie.

Availability: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

Cookies & Cream: Chocolate cake, crushed Oreo mousse, cookies & cream frosting and house-made Oreo.

Availability: Wednesday, Friday, Sunday

Apple Cobbler: Vanilla cake filled with caramel apples, topped with vanilla bean frosting and dipped in cinnamon streusel.

Availability: Wednesday, Friday, Sunday

Gingerbread: Ginger molasses cake topped with vanilla frosting and a house-made gingerbreadman

Availability: Wednesday, Friday, Sunday

Couture:

Bailey’s Blackout Crunch: Bailey’s soaked blackout cake, praline crunch center, topped with Bailey’s caramel frosting.

Availablity: Wednesday, and Friday

Peitite

Eggnog:  Eggnog infused cake topped with creamy vanilla frosting and spiced streusel.

Available: Everyday

Snowball: Blackout cake topped with coconut frosting and rolled in shredded coconut.

Availability: Everyday

We hope you enjoy our winter menu as much as we do!! Come try one of our new flavors this week!!