Better late than never I always say!

2017 is a fun year for sweet flavor profiles.  There seems to be 3 major categories, so let’s get to it!

Nostalgia (this one’s my fave!):

From root beer, to milk and cookies, I love this trend!  Us Gen X and baby boomers, will remember these flavors from our childhood, and they’re back stronger than ever!  

Root beer floats, remember those? How about a vanilla cake with root beer infused frosting!

Malted milkshakes:  How about a chocolate cake with malted chocolate buttercream with crushed malted milk balls!

Marshmallow:  Homemade marshmallow s’more tarts or pies, marshmallow filled chocolate cupcakes, marshmallow frosting!

Milk & Cookies:  Cookies and cream cake, filling and frosting!  Biscoff cookie butter frosting and filling!

Floral:

With a delicate hand floral notes can be a welcome, unexpected surprise in sweets!

Lavender, rose, orange blossom, and hibiscus.  All completely different from each other yet so unexpectedly delicious when paired with the correct delicate platforms.  A lovely edition for spring and summer!

Spice:

Spice has been a popular trend for a few years now.  Warm, unexpected notes to surprise your palate.

Ginger, cardamom (my fave), pink peppercorn and cinnamon are just a few warm, delicious spices perfect for any season!

Bella’s Desserts offers all of these delicious and trends paired deliciously to surprise and titillate your palate!

Filed under: Bella's Blog by bella
No Comments »

Nature Theme Wedding Cake & Cupcakes

Look at this beauty from Bella’s Dessert. Lauren tell us that this cake topper is a duplicate of the brides wedding invitation.  An up and coming trend is to use an element or a color from your invites and then incorporate them into the design of your wedding cake and cupcakes.  This is also popular for bridal shower cakes.  See more of Bella’s Desserts here.

Filed under: Bella's Blog by bella
No Comments »

Filed under: Bella's Blog by bella
No Comments »

“No one should go without a delicious cake on their special day!” Bella’s Desserts is owned and operated by Lauren Cortesi, whose dessert creations have received local and national acclaim. Located about 45 minutes west of Philadelphia, Lauren started Bella’s Desserts in 2002, growing the business by word of mouth. After the launch of Bella’s Desserts website in 2005, Bella’s Desserts has grown nationally, with orders coming in from across the U.S.

Lauren began her culinary arts journey in the 90’s. She created restaurant desserts and shortly thereafter, at the Painted Table in Seattle, she learned the fundamentals of pastry arts. Over the years, Lauren received special instructions at Le Cordon Bleu Paris, and also from world renowned cake designers Colette Peters, Bronwen Webber and Toba Garrett, as well as the sugar paste flower expert Kim Morrison and sugar artist Lori Ann Blethen of Wildflowers.

Looking for cutting edge desserts? Bella’s has that and more: using everything from fondant, gum paste and chocolate work in their creations. Lauren has brought edible art to the area, and has committed to learning the latest trends to keep up with ever changing demand. Here creations are incredible!  See some pictures here.

Lauren enjoys generously donating cakes to charities, positive causes and schools.  She’s donated cakes to Relay For Life, CancerCare Cupcakes for a Cause, local and private school, and many more.

Filed under: Bella's Blog by bella
No Comments »

Article from ATC:

Bella’s Desserts

Color is an undeniably important part of crafting a holiday dessert spread that pops. With the help of Bella’s Desserts in Glenmoore, PA, a bakery known for their fantastic custom cakes and flavor-packed mini desserts, you’ll have no trouble creating a baked good display that’s something truly special.

Bella’s Desserts petite mini desserts are a fun way to indulge and try an array of confections without going overboard. Mix and match a dozen of their tantalizing two-bite treats such as mini fruit tarts, cheesecake lollipops, or chocolate-covered Oreos decorated to match your holiday theme.

Get in touch with Bella’s Desserts by calling 484-467-1538 or by emailing lauren@bellasdesserts.com.

Filed under: Bella's Blog by bella
No Comments »

Town Dish article:

Bella’s Desserts

Offering a full menu of tiered cakes, specialty cakes, cupcakes, mini desserts and confections/cookies, Bella’s Desserts in Glenmoore “is owned and operated by award-winning cake designer Lauren Cortesi, whose dessert creations have received local and national acclaim,” according to the bakery’s website.

Cortesi opened her bakery in 2002 and, through word of mouth and strong marketing savvy, now bakes cakes and desserts for events around the country. Her chocolate, vanilla and carrot cake gluten-free options mean that even a gluten-free bride can enjoy cake on her wedding day. By Appointment Only. Glenmoore, (484) 467-1538

Filed under: Bella's Blog by bella
No Comments »

Every year I am so excited to start digging in and researching the coming years’ wedding cake trends!  I collect information from spring fashion shows and of course Pantones’ color palettes for the upcoming year (everyone from fashion to graphics designers anxiously wait for these every year to base their collections on).

In the past, Pantone has usually released a “color of the year”.  Last year there were two colors, and this year there is a whole palette of colors!

Bella’s Desserts in the process of creating an entire collection using some of the colors above, of wedding cakes for 2017 (more to come!).

Our observations on cake trends for 2017 are:

Drip Cakes

Cake by Crumbs Couture

OK, favorite style alert!  Drip style cakes are a down under invention.  What started for me as a fun celebration cake style, has turned into a trend for 2017 wedding cakes!  From fun, colorful and whimsical, to a single color, texture explosion (you all know how much I love texture!), this trend is taking America by storm!  Usually a ganache drip, with many different accoutrements such as meringues, chocolate whimsys, macarons, candy, sugar flowers and more!

Metallic/Geode

Cake by My Sweet & Saucy

Here is a gorgeous example of metallic and geodes all in one cake!  Metallics are still on trend for 2017, and I love the look of a splash of metallic!  You can make any color shimmery and shiny, and of course the geode trend is HOT in 2017!  From a small sugar geode as seen as the topper on this cake, to a full blown top to bottom geode, nature is in!

Naked/Semi Naked

What is the difference you ask?  The picture above shows a naked cake, where the edges of the cake are completely exposed.  A semi-naked cake has a whisper of frosting on the outside, but you can still see the edges through it.  You can garnish with fresh fruit or greenery!

Textured

This popular trend is still HOT in 2017!  Mix and match textures, with color or without this is a beautiful trend!

White on White

This trend which harkens back to the 50’s is still hot in 2017!  Elegant and sophisticated.

Painted Cakes

Cake by Cocoa Lane Sweeterie

Beautiful hand painted cake are still in!  From a detailed painting or just a wash of water color, this is definitely a trend that is here to stay.

Dessert Bars

We love dessert bars, and have dozens of choices!  Add a sweet little cutting cake, and everyone is happy!  From mini desserts, to donut bars, ice cream trucks, and S’mores stations, anything goes!  This is a great idea for weddings that turn into all night dance parties, gotta keep feeding your guests, am I right?

Each year gets more exciting for the cake designer and the bride.  Gone are the days of having one type of wedding cake!  You can have almost any style, or why not 3 cakes?

Happy planning!

Filed under: Bella's Blog by bella
No Comments »

See this cake?  I have had so many orders, inquiries and compliments on it, and I have to say, I love it too!

I learned how to make this cake and so many other techniques from an amazing online sugar art school called The Sugar Geek Show, run by the amazingly talented, much sought after teacher, multi national and international cake award winning, beautiful mom and wife, Lizzo Marek.

I discovered Liz on Facebook a couple of years ago, and was able to start learning live via Periscope 1 1/2 years ago.  At the time she had a school on Patreon, but with the help of her hubby Dan, and the passion of wanting to teach, the two developed their own online school.  Sugar Geek Show is jam packed with tips and tricks of the sugar art trade.  Her work was always so daunting to me (she’s an amazing all around artist, a gift, sadly I was not blessed with naturally), but through her teachings I feel like I can achieve things I never thought I could before!  From sugar, chocolate and sculpting, to how to make buttercream, she has it all!  Check out this tutorial on how to make purple fondant from scratch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qszElwao-H4

Then watch this sneek peek of how to make a Harry Potter Golden Snitch Cake!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpIbxhoQE04.

In the last two years I have tried out a few other online sugar schools, but I just felt I couldn’t use what they had to teach in my business, even Sugar Geek Show 1 1/2 years ago, was beyond my reach.  Just over a year ago, The Sugar Geek Show was revamped, and Liz added from the basics to the extreme, and I have been a subscriber ever since.

Whether you are a home baker that loves to play, or an experienced cake artists that always wants to be on trend, I highly recommend you subscribe to the Sugar Geek Show!

Filed under: Bella's Blog by bella
No Comments »

I love this!  Great info for people planning their weddings, or getting engaged over the holidays.

1. Weekends with a Monday holiday
While you may be able to score a discounted rate from the venue to have your wedding on a Sunday night, since most people have the Monday holiday off, you’ll find that flights and hotel costs skyrocket on these weekends. Keep this in mind when picking one of these, as some guests may have to decline coming because of the extra travel costs.

Memorial Day
Weekend of May 27-29, 2017
Weekend of May 26-28, 2018

Labor Day
Weekend of September 2-4, 2017
Weekend of September 1-3, 2018

Columbus Day
Weekend of October 7-9, 2017
Weekend of October 6-8, 2018

2. Thanksgiving Weekend
This may seem like a great time to have a wedding, since a lot of people travel over Thanksgiving, but it can be a very tough time for a wedding. For one thing, prices for travel and hotels go up during Thanksgiving. The other reason is that people usually spend this holiday with their family members. So if you have a lot of guests who do not live locally, they may not be able to attend.

Thanksgiving (always a Thursday)
November 24, 2016
November 23, 2017

3. New Year’s Eve
A New Year’s Eve wedding may seem like a fun idea. What better way to celebrate the end of one New Year and the start of another than with a wedding? Beware of high prices at venues and from vendors if you plan to do this date.

New Year’s Eve
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Monday, December 31, 2018

4. Religious holidays
Be sure to keep in mind the dates of religious holidays when picking a wedding date. Even if it’s not a holiday you observe, scheduling your wedding during Lent, Passover, or Ramadan, for example, may limit guests from coming due to cultural obligations.

5. Super Bowl Sunday
If you’re planning to do a Sunday wedding, cross Super Bowl Sunday off your list of options. And if you do decide to have it on that Sunday, be sure to have lots of TVs accessible for the die-hard fans.

Super Bowl Sunday
February 5, 2017, in Houston

6. Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th is known as the day of bad luck. If you’re even a little bit superstitious, you may want to skip this date for your wedding or even rehearsal dinner.

Friday the 13th
January 13, 2017
October 13, 2017
April 13, 2018
July 13, 2018

See more at Brides.com

Filed under: Bella's Blog by bella
No Comments »

The part of my business that I’m working on growing is the wedding side.  Guess who’s getting married now, and will be for the bulk of the next 4 years?  You guessed it, the Millennials.  I have already started seeing a trend, which I think is indicative of what is coming down the pike.  Millennials aren’t interested in the parent’s way of doing things, their are mighty independents who want to be different, and more laid back than us old folks (read non-traditional).

Some people might find this disrespectful, I find it exciting!  It means I need to up my game, I need to stay in the know of what’s trending for weddings and special events, it means I get to try new stuff (I’m glad I have a 14 year old that keeps me in the know!)!  I have three weddings this year that are all mini desserts!  I love it!  I’m hoping as these guys step up and I get to meet more, they will see the beauty in avant garde cake designs (like the ones I have been so passionate about.)

So with that, here is a great article from Bake Magazine, of what’s to come:

http://www.bakemag.com/Trends/Bread-Winners/2016/3/What-do-millennials-want-from-bakeries.aspx

Filed under: Bella's Blog by bella
No Comments »