Enjoy friends–and note, even though, this is “Mother’s Day,” a lot of these ideas can easily be translated to Valentine’s Day, birthdays and even Father’s Day (that is quickly approaching).

The post Daytime Morning Show: Mother’s Day Brunch Ideas appeared first on Chic Sweets.

Hope all of you are having a great week! Wanted to share a segment we taped for the Daytime (WFLA) morning show, covering Springtime Celebration ideas. It’s always an amazing pleasure to work with the Daytime staff who are always so gracious and patient (especially for somebody that doesn’t go on television too often).

Despite the nerves I have to say it’s always fun when I get on set and I never get tired of it–I seriously could just stand there and watch all the different television personalities–Cyndi Edwards and Jerry Pennacoli–they are so funny!!

Enjoy friends! And if you work from home and have a chance to catch the show on a regular basis, it’s a must. Daytime Morning Show (WFLA, channel 8). In Tampa/Sarasota/Clearwater, it’s on channel 8, after the Today Show.

LINK BELOW (Set to the Chic Sweets You Tube Channel where you can also see our previous Daytime Segments). 

The post Daytime Morning Show: Springtime Celebration Ideas appeared first on Chic Sweets.

So for this post, wanted to try to keep up something different for this year by including dessert recipes that we love. Baking is something I truly enjoy to do and if I can bring myself to do a quick and delicious dessert that I can share with others, nothing makes me more happy.

Limoncello Mini Cakes (or Cupcakes) with Limoncello Glaze

These are absolutely delicious and there is nothing I love more than making an adult-inspired dessert. Sorry kiddos.

Serves: 12 (or 24 if you are making cupcakes)                Prep Time: 25-30 minutes          Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

2  cups All Purpose Flour (unbleached)

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

2 Sticks of (unsalted butter), Softened

Lemon Zest from 1 Lemon (1 Tbsp. at least)

5 Tablespoons of freshly squeezed Lemon juice

1/2 cup of Limoncello

2 cups of granulated sugar

For the glaze

1 cup of powdered sugar

3 Tablespoons of Limoncello

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat your mini bundts pan or cupcake pan with baking spray, or of course, flour and butter work just as well.

2. In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.

3. Cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest for a 5 to 8 minutes, until smooth and light. Stop every now and then to scrape the bowl/paddle attachment.

4. Slowly add one egg at a time, again, stopping periodically to scrape the bowl (I have my mixer at medium speed during this time).

5.  Drop the mixer down to low (unless you want to be covered in a white powdered mess) and add in the flour mixer slowly. I add the flour mixture in three additions (add, scrape bowl, add, scrape bowl), until the entire mixture is well incorporated.

6. Add the Limoncello and lemon juice. Blend again.

7. Bake the mini-bundt or cupcake pans anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes. I find especially, for the mini-bundt cake pans, they really due tend to cook quickly.

For the glaze: Warm the Limoncello in the microwave and then slowly whisk the powdered sugar in. This part is really to your liking–the more powdered sugar you put in, the thicker it will be. Feel free to adjust according to your taste.

RECIPE NOTES

1. Mini bundt cake pans can be found readily at Walmart, Target and even Michaels. Would love hear what other recipes you all of done with them. I’m a little hooked on how adorable they came out.

2. Kid friendly alternative: If you feel inspired to turn this into a kid-friendly lemon cake, just omit the lemoncello and replace with 1 cup of milk (I use 2 percent). For a topping, sprinkle powdered sugar.  

3. I have a bottle of Limoncello sitting in my refrigerator…hmmm…any creative ideas or other recipes I should try? As you can see I’m on a big lemon kick over here! Would love to hear your thoughts!

The post New Recipe: Limoncello Mini Cakes appeared first on Chic Sweets.

This beauty was shot by K&K Photography, based out of Tampa. We’ve known Jeff and the K&K team for some time and we always feel honored when they shoot our table. Their approach to capturing the details is something that I’ve always loved! They even shot one our all time Day of the Dead inspired shoots a few years back!

Thanks again to our lovely couple, Catherine and Peter, The Vinoy and of course, K&K Photography.  And a special shout out of love to my girl Crystal from Cuppy Cakes–one of the kindest souls I know and are go-to person for the special cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies you see on today’s table.

Have a wonderful week, friends!

Update: Don’t forget, we have our Valentine’s Day candy boxes, ready to ship out! This Thursday is our last shipping day! Link on our Home Page.

IMAGE CREDIT: K&K Photography

The post Vinoy St. Pete Wedding with K and K Photography appeared first on Chic Sweets.

One of our final shoots to wrap up 2014 was in partnership with Southern Weddings, a publication and blog I hold near and dear to my heart. They were working on a Holiday Dessert Round Up, and they wanted me to share some of my favorite recipes. I thought this would be hard for me–I mean, I love to bake, but to come up with two recipes I thought readers would connect with, was not as hard as I thought.

Thankfully Shay Cochrane from Shay Cochrane Photography, is an amazing commercial photographer, that I’ve had the pleasure working with on more than one occasion and has an uncanny ability to take my vision, props and work her usual magic. Shay, if you are reading this–thank you–you are an artist!

So on that note, recipes below. Feel free to tweek to your liking. Southern Weddings also has this posted on their blog as well, along with a printer-friendly version of our recipes.

Happy 2015 friends! I hope it’s a great one!

Southern Newlywed Series: Dessert Feature

Heart Shape Strawberry-Nutella Filled “Mini-Pies”

These pies are delicious and once you get a good feel for the recipe, there are endless variations to it, which is really fun (hellloooo–Valentine’s ideas!). The prep time may seem a bit long, but this is one recipe that never “feels” long since the steps are fairly easy. This particular recipe has been tweeked a bit between me and my mom. The two of us love to work on this one, together! We don’t get to spend as much time as we like, together so this time is especially sacred between us.

Serves: 12. Prep time: 40 minutes. Cook time: 23-25 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pie crust dough (feel free to use store bought or if you have time, from scratch. There are some really, easy pie crust recipes out there!).

2 cups of strawberries, cut very small

2 tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon of strawberry jam

1 ½ teaspoons of Nutella

Flour (for the dough)

2 egg whites, lightly beaten, with a splash of water.

Heart cookie cutter, recommend 2 ½ to 3 inch size

Candy coated wafers, for dipping. Optional. *See RECIPE NOTES

Sprinkles, optional. *See RECIPE NOTES

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Take a large, baking sheet and cover with parchment paper, with a very light coat of non-stick cooking spray.
2. While oven is pre heating, start rolling out your dough (with flour) until it is nice and smooth (approximately ¼ thick). When your dough is ready, begin to use your cookie cutter—in this case, you should be able to get out at least 18-20 hearts. I always take scraps, and recombine them to squeeze out a few more if I can.
3. Now in a bowl, take your strawberries (diced very small), sugar, strawberry jam and Nutella, and combine all together. The jam is great in this case because it cuts the tartness of the strawberries for a more balanced flavor.
4. Once you have all your ingredients combined, take teaspoon and put a dollop of filling in the center of half of your hearts (the other half will be reserved for the top of the heart!). The first time I went through this part I was very worried about putting too much filling, or too little, or that they wouldn’t look totally perfect. Do not worry! The beauty of this recipe, and pies, is that they don’t have to look perfect—just think if it as (cough, cough), more “rustic looking!”
5. When you’ve put your filling on top of your hearts, lightly beat your egg wash and with your finger or a small brush and slightly brush the heart border which will act like a glue for the heart topper.
6. Then take the reserved, half of hearts and place on top, carefully. Use a fork to pinch the edges together and make them look all pretty.
7. After placing all your hearts on your baking sheet, I will brush all of them lightly with the egg wash—this gives them that golden, crusty “I should work for Better Crocker” look to them.
8. Before placing in oven, I quickly take my fork and puncture them right in the middle, to act as a vent when they start baking.
9. These will then back anywhere from 23 to 25 minutes, until they look nice and golden. I usually will set my timer to check them out at the 20^th mark and then adjust my time from there, depending on how they look.

RECIPE NOTES:

1. Don’t have strawberries? Don’t worry! Just eliminate the strawberries and substitute with one of your favorite jams that you may have on hand in your pantry.
2. Pie on a stick? At “Step 4,” after you have put the filling on half of hearts, gently place a lollipop stick at the bottom of the heart—be careful when pushing the stick so it doesn’t come through. Anything on a stick always creates that “oohhh…ahhh” factor!
3. There is nothing I love more than chocolate and strawberries. After your mini pies have cooled, I take one (1) bag of white, candy coated wafers, melt as directed and half dip my pies, then add sprinkles. I recommend, Merckens white candy melts. For sprinkles you can use holiday inspired (as shown), Valentine’s Day mix, or your own special mix.

White Chocolate Hot Cocoa

Serves: 12 cups. Prep time: 10 minutes. Cook time: 2 hours

Can you think of anything better than pies and white chocolate hot cocoa? Nope. I couldn’t either. During the holidays, when it’s late at night, my family isn’t much into drinking coffee so we started making this recipe and it’s always a great hit.  This also gives me a great reason to take out my crock pot/slow cooker which receives no love from me, for most of the year.

Ingredients:

1. 16 ounces of white chocolate (if you can, try to go with a premium brand)
2. 4 cups of whole milk
3. 4 cups of heavy cream
4. 2 tablespoon of pure vanilla
5. ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg
6. 2-3 cinnamon sticks
7. Garnish ideas: whip cream, crushed peppermints, white chocolate chips, nutmeg, caramel sauce and Pirouettes (Pepperidge Farm is my favorite). *See RECIPE NOTES

Steps:

1. Place your white chocolate in the slow cooker along with all the other ingredients. I keep my slow cooker at the “hot setting” and once the chocolate starts to melt, I drop down the “warm setting.”
2. Cover and simmer for at least two hours, stirring every 20-25 minutes, or so. There will be skin that will form at the top of your hot cocoa, just take a whisk, stir and it will go away.
3. This can stay warm for up to several hours.
4. I’ve been asked this before, but you can substitute the whole milk with a low fat version if you wanted to lighten it up a bit.

RECIPE NOTES:

1. When serving, I will take my garnishes and put them in small bowls and guests can help themselves. I love this part!
2. If you would like to spike your hot chocolate, I recommend going with a nuttier flavor like a good Amaretto, Bailey’s or Brandy. They have very fancy vodka’s now, but with this recipe I find that the nuttier base goes lovely with the hot chocolate.

The post Nutella Heart Shape Pies and White Chocolate Hot Cocoa with Shay Cochrane Photography appeared first on Chic Sweets.

Okay, so finally had a moment to go through images from before summer started and wanted to stop an share a wedding we had the pleasure of working with Laura Helm of Ashton Events. Laura is a wonderful planner that I’ve known for a few years and it’s been so great to see her business grow leaps and bounds! This wedding took place with an amazingly gorgeous couple at The Junior League of  Greater Lakeland’s Sorosis Building.

This was the first time we did a dessert table there and I loved everything about this venue and it was also great because the space gives you a clean canvas to really create something unique. In this case, vintage, timeless touches were everywhere along with blushes, pinks and accents of peacock hues…royal blues, deep purples…if you know me, there is nothing I love more than a couple that is open to a unique color palette!

Extra thanks go to my friends over at Rad Red Creative. Besides being fantastic artists, they are absolutely the cutest team. Ever.

Enjoy friends! And best of luck to all the teachers, schools and families out there!

IMAGE CREDIT: RAD RED CREATIVE

And we got to style these lovely cupcakes from Sweetie’s Cakes!

The post Ashton Events Wedding with Rad Red Creative appeared first on Chic Sweets.

Now that I’ve gone through my big rebrand not that long ago, made changes to my business structure and to our core, I’ve learned to recite a phrase often my head…

I’m busy enough for me.

I’m busy enough to keep my head afloat and my heart happy. Busy enough to still take that 1-2 days off work, and hang out with Preston or volunteer at my boys’ school. Busy enough that when my husband comes home I can carry a conversation without being distracted about work…the million things I still have on my every growing to-do list. And don’t get me wrong. Not every day is perfect and there may be some periods where I let myself sink into the old habits again, but then I go back to what really matters to me and it’s always the big wake up call I need.

So before I take this blog post all over the place, I would love to share part one, of our Spring season which is winding down for us. From weddings to snippets of corporate events, we did it all! Thanks as always to my husband Steve (always the man-behind-the-scenes), and to Karina, my assistant designer, we were non stop! Enjoy my friends! And I hope 2014 has started off great for all of you!

Bridal Showcase: Perfect Wedding Guide. We only do a sprinkle of bridal shows a year, and Perfect Wedding Guide is one of them! I always use the shows as my excuse to do whatever my sweet ole’ heart desires. Ha!

 Gold and Black Vintage Dessert Table: This was our first wedding of the season. Carolyn our bride, is an amazing person and client. I was sort of obsessed with the venue, our first time at the Casa Monica in St. Augustine. And I loved the fact that Carolyn made sure to connect her vintage style and the color palette to the room and it really worked it so well. Also thanks to my cupcake girl, Crystal the owner of Cuppy Cakes for always bringing it with her delicious cupcakes which were a hit.

Photography Credit: Melissa Enid Photography

PS–Um…could Carolyn be more stunning?

And one picture from me…

Ashley Brooke Designs/West Elm Pop Up Shop Event: And one of my favorite partnerships from this Spring, we partnered up with Ashley Brooke Designs and their pop up shop at the West Elm in Orlando. Ashley is a force to be reckon with, with impeccable sense of style that translates through her design work. If you are looking for any unique gifts, stationary…she is your girl.

Neiman Marcus Spring Trends Event: One of my favorite corporate clients, Neiman Marcus. We’ve worked with them for a few years and we love to provide our tables as a way to launch their Spring season. Hmmm…can you guess what color trends are happening this year???

I’m going to wrap up our Spring season round up in two blog posts, so stay tuned next week for a few more updates and pictures.

And….before I forget, Mother’s Day is right around the corner!!! If you are looking for any last minute ideas, we have some great options in our online shop! Shop link on our home page. Have a great week friends!!!

The post Hello my friends…it’s been awhile…. appeared first on Chic Sweets.

YAY! Quickly I want to announce the winner for the Valentine’s Day Giveaway. Thank you so much for everyone that entered–you have no idea how much I  enjoyed reading everyone’s Valentine Day plans and favorite memories!!! If you didn’t win this time–don’t worry! We definitely have plans to do another one SOON! Have a great weekend everyone!

The lucky duck is…..Jessica Hurtado! Jessica be on the look out for an email from Chic Sweets. Congrats!!!

 My favorite valentine memory will forever be the day my daughter Julianna was born. February 14th 2011! We had a great 1st pregnancy just lots of fatigue. Delivery went smooth just some cramps. She was a week late and I just knew she was going to come on Valentines. She always gets two gifts, a valentine and a birthday gift and her sister gets one too. I always try and make it special for the both of them and my husband as well.

The winner was determined via drawing on Random.org. Thanks to B is for Bonnie Design and Ashley Brooke Designs for teaming up with us!

XOXO-Natalie

The post And we have a Winner for our Valentine’s Day Giveaway! appeared first on Chic Sweets.

Color has always been a huge part of my design work so when it came to adding cake pops to our online shop I really wanted to do something that stood out and felt different. I’ve taken some of my all time favorite color palettes and created selected sets which I LOVE. Corals….blacks…mint…reds….oh my! On top of the select sets, we’ve also added glitter cake pops which are just about the prettiest things you will ever see. Below are a few glimpses into our sets. Of course, as always, Shay Cochrane is our girl for all of our product photography. Every time she works, she really just blows me away.

A few behind the scenes from our photoshoot…hey…we got some great lighting in that garage!

And now for some amazing images from Shay…

All together now…it’s great…to be…a Florida Gator…(chomp, chomp)

Now for the fun part–I’m a sucker for a great giveaway and collaborating with some of my favorite people only makes me more HAPPY!  You have until Thursday, February 6 at 12:00 p.m. (EST) to enter! *US residents only and winner will be determined via drawing on random.org.

I’m giving away a dozen Valentine’s Day cake pops plus a few of these other wonderful goodies!

1:  A set of 10 Ice Cream Valentine Note Cards from Ashley Brooke Designs. LOVE HER and her blog is amazing mix of lifestyle tips and fashion–a must follow.

2: Essie Nailpolish in forever yummy and watermelon. Two of the best colors. Ever.

3 and 4:  “Love Others Well” gold foil print and a set of six Choose Joy pencil Set from B is for Bonnie Design. How gorgeous is this print??

5: Red Velvet Cupcake scented candle from Target. It’s sitting right next to me and I’ve opened it up several times while typing this post. Just to inhale it. Sooooo good.

6: A dozen Valentine’s Day cake pops from yours truly! YAY! Makes the perfect gift!!!!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post with your most favorite Valentine’s Day memory! OR if you even want to share what you are thinking about for this upcoming Valentine’s Day, that is fine as well!

If you would like additional entries…

• Tweet about the  giveaway mentioning @ChicSweets and #CHICSWEETSSHOP
• Facebook about the giveaway linking to our Facebook Page. (you must like the page first, so you can tag properly!)
• Repost the Giveaway picture (above) on Instagram and follow @chicsweets21 and these amazing two shops @ashleybrookedesigns AND @bonniejoymarie. Tag #CHICSWEETSSHOP

Very, very important!!!! Don’t forget to please leave a separate comment for each entry!

Okay, Ready…Set…and GO!!!!!!!!!!!

XO-Natalie Clamp

The post New Products added to our Shop and a Special Valentine’s Day Giveaway! appeared first on Chic Sweets.

So I do have a mega-post I plan on sharing of things that worked/didn’t work for me in 2013, basically my way of looking back at the year and what I need to do personally, and professionally to continue making what matters happen. BUT before I do that, I’ve been dying to share so many glimpses into the past few months–a few of our dessert tables, candy projects and some behind the scenes outtakes. I typically hold off on posting these pictures to my site’s gallery because they are from my I-phone and sometimes taken when I’ve lacked quite a few hours of sleep. HAHA! So sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and take a peek at what we’ve been up to!

Happy New Year everyone!

Chevron inspired dessert table with Julie Perez from Chic Designs and Fabulous Events. It was a “surprise gift” for the bride and groom, courtesy of Julie. Love this!

LOVED the branded candy boxes we did for our Chic Sweets (online shop). One of my favorite parts of this year.

And speaking the our Chic Sweets’ shop, we have big plans to add cake pops this month, something that I’ve held off for sometime. Thanks to Shay Cochrane for the fab photos!

Halloween time and at Tech Data over in Clearwater they kept us busy! From over 300 candy filled pumpkins to cauldrons…our hands were cramping!

Road trip to Chapel Hill…why not? One of my favorite tables we’ve EVER sponsored for the ladies of Southern Weddings. I’m hoping to share a bit more about this soon!

Moroccan inspired dessert table with Brooke Palmer of RSBP Events. Camel included. Seriously. I can’t make this stuff up.

Gold glitter dusted cake pops for NACE Tampa Holiday Party at the Floridan in downtown Tampa. Great times with my cohorts. And one of our last big orders before we took off for the holidays.

And finally, words can’t describe how much I love this picture. More the thought that all my Dad wanted to do was help and I can’t help but wonder what Steve is thinking here….hmmmmmm….

The post Wrapping my Head Around 2013… appeared first on Chic Sweets.