Sweet Stuff - Christmas edition

Happy Holidays!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderfully sweet holiday! My son is almost 3 so there was a lot of excitement this morning after seeing everything that Santa left at our house. Santa even shopped at Simply Sweets and left some treats in everyone's stockings.

I love Christmas and I love cake plates and plateaus so I have a collection of several plates that I'd like to share in this Christmas edition of Sweet Stuff. The first is a Burton and Burton plate that I received as a gift last Christmas - you may have noticed it in the picture from our cookie decorating party topped with chocolate marshmallow pops. I love the peppermint design!

The next plate is one that I received as a gift the year before. The stand is decorated with a holly leaf design and the top is a snowman.

The last plate was a gift from a boss from my previous job. My favorite type of cake plates are those where are character (a snowman for this plate) is part of the stand holding up the plate.

Cake plates don't need to be used just for cakes! this year we used on for marshmallow pops and to serve breakfast breads.

A gift basket filled with Simply Sweets chocolates

This large holiday gift basket was ordered by a Gilbert dental office as a gift to a staff who shares their office. This basket was filled with Simply Sweets Peppermint Crunch Bark, Snowday Bark, snowflake chocolate dipped graham crackers, chocolate dipped oreos that spelled "JOY", cookie cutter treats, chocolate dipped marshmallows, chocolate dipped pretzels, chocolate dipped peppermint sticks and chocolate spoons.

These small gift baskets were made for some of my husband's coworkers and were filled with a sampling of Simply Sweets treats including the popular Simply Sweets Peppermint Crunch Bark.

Christmas mini cupcakes

Christmas mini cupcakes, originally uploaded by Simply Sweets.

These Christmas mini cupcakes were ordered for a childrens holiday party. The chocolate cupcakes are topped with gingerbread man, bows, candy canes, Christmas trees, stockings and holidays lights. This customer also ordered some yummy chocolate chip cake and 1 dozen chocolate dipped pretzels (which she received free using a coupon from our newsletter).

PINK snowflake cupcakes

The cupcakes were ordered by Amy, the girlfriend behind Always Busy Woman and if you know her, you know that she loves pink! These treats were ordered as holiday gifts.

Have you seen the premier issue of the Always Busy Woman publication? Simply Sweets is one of the many great businesses listed in directory that caters to women - you can get your copy at locations throughout the Valley including several AJs grocery stores.

A holiday gift basket

This mid-sized gift basket was ordered by a repeat customer of our who ordered this to give to a the couple who she works for. The basket was filled with peppermint crunch bark, chocolate dipped pretzels, chocolate dipped spoons, chocolate dipped graham crackers, chocolate dipped peppermint sticks and 2 fondant covered monogram stocking sugar cookies all wrapped in a fabric lined basket embroidered with "Merry Christmas".

Simply Sweets holiday gifts

We've been busy with lots of orders for holiday gifts and we delivered our final order today! Our biggest sellers were chocolate dipped pretzels, chocolate dipped peppermint sticks and chocolate dipped spoons. Many of our individually wrapped items were ordered by our customers to be added to small gift baskets for friends, coworkers and school classmates. I've tied 100's of bows during the last 2 weeks! Many of our customers took advantage of our 10% off coupon that we distributed at the many holiday shopping shows we attended or the coupon for FREE bundle of chocolate dipped pretzels that was in our holiday email - if you're not on our email list, make sure you sign up to receive future coupons and hear about Simply Sweets news and events.

Many of our customers also ordered a box of the Simply Sweets peppermint crunch bark - often for themselves! Its so yummy! We'll have several new barks available in the new year.

These holiday tins were filled with individually wrapped chocolate dipped oreos and graham crackers topped with sparkly white snowflakes.

pink and purple birthday cupcakes

pink and purple birthday cupcakes, originally uploaded by Simply Sweets.

These were ordered for a Grandma's birthday celebration with family. She loves all things girly so the pink, purple, flowers and butterflies were perfect. 2 of the cupcakes are stamped with "Happy Birthday" and 5 cupcakes were used to spell her name.

Cookie Decorating Party

We hosted our 2nd annual holiday childrens cookie decorating party at my home last weekend for our friends. There were about 25 kids ranging in age from 1 to 8, everyone had a blast, and there are still sprinkles on my floor! I baked the cookies ahead of time and gave the kids piping bags filled with colored royal icing and trays full of fun sprinkles. We also served appetizers and Simply Sweets treats. Also, everyone went home with a Simply Sweets party favor - cookie cutter treats and chocolate dipped spoons (these are great with a cup of hot cocoa).

Welcome Baby Jayden

This 2 tier baby shower cake and chocolate party favors were delivered to the Arrowhead neighborhead of Glendale. The cake is done in brown, white and blue with sugar booties on top - I love the color combination. The favors are white chocolate dipped pretzels sprinkled with blue nonpareils.

Holiday Marshmallow Bouquet

This bouquet was ordered for a holiday gift exchange. I love these polka dotted pails and I decorated the marshmallows in holiday colors and a micture of white, milk and dark chocolate. Jenifer, of Samaha Photography, ordered this treat for her book club holday meeting and there's an even better photo on her blog.

Candy Cane Cake

I love this cake! This customer wanted a candy cane themed cake for a children's holiday party that she was hosting. She wanted a 2 tier cake so that it would be the centerpiece. Another advantage of a 2 tier cake is you can select 2 different flavors to offer your guests. This cake is iced with American buttercream, decorated with fondant accents, dotted with starlight mints and topped with 2 candy canes. This cake was delivered to Scottsdale and I knew I was at the correct house when I pulled up - the front yard was a candycane lane. Inside was even more decked out including a large rotating tree covered with glass ornaments.

customer feedback:

Dana,I just wanted to thank you so much for the beautiful cake you made. It was exactly what we wanted. The candy cane theme was just so whimsical and fun. The cake was really delicious and everyone just loved it. You are truly talented i will be coming back again and again to Simply Sweets. Thanks Again, D.

Ornament exchange

I attended a holiday ornament exchange party and I brought some Simply Sweets desserts to share - ornament shaped glace sugar cookies (which I forgot to take a picture of), blue and sliver mini cupcakes, and holiday marshmallow pops.

Happy Birthday mini cupcakes

Happy Birthday mini cupcakes, originally uploaded by Simply Sweets.

These mini cupcakes were created for a birthday celebration. 2 dozen minicupcakes spelled out "Happy Birthday Dan" and the remaining cupcakes were toped with stars.

City scene cake for a Spiderman themed birthday party

This city scene cake was created for a boy's 5th birthday celebration. The cake is a 2 tier cake covered in buildings and the cake board has sidewalks and a street. The mom purchased a Spiderman candle to go on top and placed a few cars on the street. This customer is an awesome children's birthday party planner and goes all out with her parties - the house was decorated in spiderman, they had a spiderman jumpy, a custom video of spiderman where when he takes off his mask its the birthday boy and Spiderman even showed up to the party! The cake is a 2 tier 6 inch and 9 inch sqares of chocolate sourcream cake with vanilla mousse filling.

This is another repeat customer and Simply Sweet created Bradley's 4th birthday cake which was a 3D pirate ship cake.

3rd Birthday ocean themed cake for a Little Mermaid fan

This cake was created for a girl turning 3 who is a big fan of Ariel from the Little Mermaid. We created an ocean theme with a rock coming out of the water for Ariel to be placed on top. The mom provided Little Mermaid figurines that were placed on the cake. The cake was decorated with sand, shells, kelp, and small flowers to create the scene. This cake is a 9 inch square which serves approximately 26-28. The cake was white sourcream with pineapple and cream filling.

We also created the birthday girl's second birthday cake - its always exciting to hear from our repeat customers and watch how their interests change over the years. Her second birthday cake was a jungle scene because at the time her favorite book was The Jungle Book.

Holiday gift basket for a hostess gift

Holiday gift basket filled , originally uploaded by Simply Sweets.

This basket was ordered as a hostess gift and was filled with holiday glace sugar cookies and chocolate dipped oreos.

Purple and Blue birthday cupcakes for Kaley

Purple and Blue birthday cupcakes for Kaley, originally uploaded by Simply Sweets.

These cupcakes were ordered for a sleep over party for a girl's 9th birthday party. The cupcakes spell out her name, have her age and the remaining cupcakes are topped with flowers and butterflies. The cupcake color scheme is blue, purple and white and the cupcakes were lemon poppy seed.

Construction themed chocolates

These chocolate dipped graham crackers with yellow construction hat were ordered by a construction company who was putting together 65 small gift baskets for a thank you lunchean. The graham crackers are dipped in milk chocolate and the hat is white chocolate tinted yellow. These would also work great for party favors for a kid's construction themed party or Bob the Builder.

Pink and Brown themed polka dot cake

This cake and favors were ordered for a baby shower celebration that held at the Melting Pot restaurant in Scottsdale. This is a 1 tier version of our very popular pink and brown 2 tier baby shower cake. The favors are chocolate dipped oreos with pink baby carriages.

Inspiration cake:

Come and see us this Friday at the Always Busy Women Holiday Boutique

And the winners are....

The winners of the Simply Sweets gift certificates are.....

Jenifer Samaha

Davina Jones

Jenifer was smart and she put a note about our contest on her blog, Samaha Photography.

Congratulations to our winners and thank you to everyone who participated in our drawing.

Win a Simply Sweets Gift Certificate

We are giving away TWO $40 Simply Sweets Gift Certificates. We want everyone to know about our great holiday gift and entertaining ideas by growing our mailing list. Here is where the drawing comes in. You invite your friends to sign up to join our mailing list. When they fill out the form, they should mention your name (How you heard about us). Each time your name is mentioned, you will be entered in a drawing to win a $40 Simply Sweets Gift Certificate. And for every new subscriber to our mailing list, they are also entered to win a $40 Simply Sweets Gift Certificate. All subscribers must be located in the Phoenix metro area to be eligible. Hurry, this offer ends November 30, 2008 and winners will be announced on the Simply Sweets blog December 1st.

Click HERE to sign up for our mailing list

*only one email address per person to be eligible
*we do not sell or share our subscriber list
*note - this applies to our email mailing list (not a subscription to our blog)

Fall leaves sugar cookies

These cookies were ordered by a customer who sampled our glace sugar cookies at the Two Sisters Jewelry Boutique holiday home boutique show and she ordered our fall leaves cookies for her Thanksgiving celebration. I made some extra for my own family Thanksgiving celebration.

Turkey minis

These turkey mini cupcakes were ordered by one of our best cupcakes. 24 mini cupcakes were iced yellow and orange and topped with a fondant turkey. We delivered these to Scottsdale last Friday for an early Thanksgiving celebration.

This customer also received a bag of 12 chocolate dipped pretzels FREE taking advantage of a coupon in our Fall specials newsletter. If you're not a subscriber you should sign up now and you may win a $40 Simply Sweets gift certificate!