Behind the Scenes at Amy Atlas Events with The Knot Magazine

I'm here today with another behind-the-scenes at Amy Atlas Events. Today we had a shoot with The Knot for their magazine issue next year. We took a lot of sneak peek photos, but I can only share a few for now since the story isn't out yet. I'll share the rest of the photos when the issue hits the stands next year. This was a REALLY fun shoot and I was thrilled to have my friend and amazing stylist Randi Brookman Harris on set with me. I have to say...we knocked this one out of the park and you are all going to be thrilled when you see the final product. In the meantime, here is a sneak peek...

If you follow me on twitter, then you probably knew that we propped all over Manhattan for desserts and props for the shoot. We first hit the west village to visit Pure Dark, a chocolate shop that makes insanely good nature harvested chocolate.


Here I am with our intern Rachael. We were trying to finish up Friday's blog post as we were propping around the city. That mac is attached to my hip.


Here is a peek at their incredible chocolate bark. The island bark is my personal fave.


Next stop was the fabric district to pick up some fabric options for the shoot. Here is my gal Carmen cutting some fabric for us.


The pooch from the shop. He was too cute not to share with you.


Walls of fabric rolls. Oh...so many options!


Next stop was the Upper East Side to visit one of my fave chocolate shops Vosges Haut-Chocolat. Vosges specializes in gourmet exotic chocolate bars like Applewood Bacon Milk Chocolate and Sweet Indian Curry Coconut Chocolate. We left with amazing goodies!


Here are our bins at the loading dock of the studio this morning. This is the less glamorous part of setting up.


A peek inside the studio as the photographers start setting up.


Here I am getting some items ready for the shoot.


Some of the props we used for the shoot.


Here are some more props. The blow torch and chalkboard paint came in handy.


Here I am piping pastry cream onto a dessert. It was pretty delicious!


Here I am getting some desserts ready.


Kelly from the Knot, Randi and I checking out the shot on screen.


Randi and I after a long day's work. We were pretty happy with the results!


Here is the Amy Atlas team, Randi's team, and The Knot team. Yes, I am a big cheeseball and forced us all to take the shot. After, we enjoyed lots of treats. Cannot wait for you to see this story next year!


xoxo-a

Guest Dessert Table + Ask Amy

I'm loving today's guest dessert table feature from Glory of Glorious Treats. Glory sent me these pictures early this week and I've been dying to share them with you. Glory created a strawberry theme party for her niece's 9th birthday party. I love the fondant strawberries, the custom cups, and the fresh strawberry favors with strawberry ribbon. Wonderful execution, Glory! Glory was also kind to share her strawberry cream cheese frosting recipe here.

Speaking of guest dessert tables, a few people have asked me why I promote other people's work on my blog. The truth is, I like to promote small businesses. I've been pretty lucky to have my business take off in just a few short years and I'd love to impart what I've learned along the way. I get a lot of inquiries from people who are starting their own businesses about how I started. I'll have a lot to say about this in my new "Ask Amy" section, which you'll all see on my new blog in a few weeks.

In the meantime, I'll give you my first tip. Take the time to evaluate if you really have a business. I can't tell you how many times my husband said his famous quote "Is it a hobby or a business?" All of you starting a new business know what I'm talking about. He gave me tough love in the beginning, but I'm grateful for it now. He had me present a real business model to him as if he was an outside investor. This forced me to really think about whether I had a business. Thankfully, at one point, things clicked and we both knew it turned from a hobby to a business. Don't think there weren't bumps along the road. There were and still are. I'll get into that another day.

In the meantime, here were the first things that I thought about...

(1) Who is the customer or market?
(2) What is the product or service?
(3) Where is the business based and does location matter?
(4) How can the business be executed profitably?
(5) What's the barrier to entry and why is the business sustainable?

Can you answer those questions for your business? Food for thought over the weekend... I'll be back to show you some behind-the-scenes next week (right now I'm blogging in a cab while propping for a magazine shoot and we're off to our next stop!) Have a great weekend everyone!

The Great Fondant Debate

{All cupcakes above are from Amy Atlas's dessert bars.}

Everytime I meet with a client, I hold my breath because I know the discussion is coming. Usually it's a battle rather than a discussion. The debate of buttercream vs. fondant. Every client wants buttercream because they have all had a bad experience with the tasteless and often rubbery texture of fondant. We've all had that experience, right? Having styled both buttercream and fondant cakes and cupcakes more times than I can count, I always breathe a sigh of relief when my client picks fondant. I know I'll gain some criticism for this, but I'm sticking to it. Many don't realize it, but good bakers will use better tasting fondant like Fondarific, a company that makes vanilla, chocolate, and fruit flavored fondant. Now don't misunderstand me...I adore buttercream. I make buttercream cupcakes all the time with my kids. I'll serve buttercream cakes when I'm entertaining in my home. I'm also not saying that fondant tastes better than buttercream. But if the cakes are being transported in any way, you can bet I'm going to lobby for fondant.

Here's a few reasons why...
(1) Buttercream in the summer is a nightmare. I mean a real nightmare. No matter how much the buttercream is set, it instantly loses it's shape when exposed to heat. If you are transporting anything with buttercream, it makes it that much worse.
(2) Everything sticks to buttercream. Once, we were serving buttercream cupcakes and somehow black sweater hair made its way onto the precious vanilla buttercream cupcakes we were serving. That was an interesting lesson in troubleshooting. Thankfully, we had lots of other treats to serve.
(3) As I discussed here, all of the adorable cupcake wrappers that are on the market now are better suited for fondant cupcakes. Often buttercream will leave cupcake wrappers looking greasy and messy.
(4) We have more flexibility in incorporating our design onto fondant. Take a look above at a few examples of designed fondant cupcakes we've used on our dessert bars {I limited it to cupcakes for this post, I'll save the pictures of fondant cakes for another post}.

If you're a huge buttercream lover and can't be convinced to go with fondant, then try these tips...
(1) Refrigerate your cake/cupcakes so the buttercream is very cold.
(2) Limit the amount of time your buttercream is exposed to heat. Time it very carefully.
(3) Stay away from the dressing up buttercream with cupcake wrappers until lined wrappers hit the market (hint, hint to my cupcake wrapper manufacturer friends).
(4) Use fondant sparingly and incorporate buttercream in places where it won't get messy or melt. For example, place a fondant chip over a small dollop of buttercream on your cupcakes. Alternatively, infuse buttercream into the center of your cake/cupcakes with a bismarck tip.
(5) Ice the cake or cupcakes on site, if possible.

I hope this insight is helpful for all of you bakers, stylists, and planners!
xo

Guest Feature

We're working on a few fun magazine shoots this week so I'll be back with behind-the-scenes on that next week. In the meantime, I've been getting so many guest feature submissions and many are stunning. I know you all want a mix of our behind-the-scenes and guest submissions so I'll try to give you a nice balance. I may have to start posting 2x a day to get all the material out there on the blog, but don't think I'm quite there yet with my schedule:-)

Anyway, I squealed with delight when I opened up an email from Kathleen of Twig & Thistle yesterday. She created a Matryoshka Nesting Doll-inspired party for her sister Allison's baby shower. I love how Kathleen was able to take a Matryoshka nesting doll concept and execute the details so perfectly. Check out more details on the party here and here.
PS - We found out her sister just had the baby today! Congrats!

Feminine Dessert Table for a Sweet Baby Girl

I'm back with pictures of our dessert table for a darling mom-to-be's shower. Yesterday, I posted some behind-the-scenes pics of us getting ready for the event. William Brinson stopped by to capture some shots of this lovely party. Want some deets about the event?

It was for a first-time mom, who is having....you guessed it a girl! The party took place at Park Avenue Summer, which is located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. If you live in NYC or are visiting, this should be on your list of go-to restaurants. The name and decor of the restaurant changes with each season. In the summer, the restaurant is filled with gorgeous summery yellow decor, which was perfect for our pink and yellow palette. Their food will also satisfy the most discriminating palate. It can be somewhat pricey so save it for a special occasion if you're on a budget.

Some sweet details about the event...

(1)Since the mom-to-be loved peonies, we found peony-patterned fabric and wrapped the fabric around peony arrangements. Remember when I twitpic'ed this picture? I was shopping for fabric to wrap up the vases. It is a simple and very inexpensive way to instantly dress up your vases.

(2) Since the mom-to-be wanted a feminine vibe for the event, we created a damask pattern. We brought that pattern into a custom backdrop, vessel liners, trail mix wrappers, strawberry mousse shot glass labels, and even the trays that lined the mimosas. We also brought in a striped and cross-hatch pattern to make the table feel a bit more playful since the party was for a baby shower.

(3) The desserts on the table varied from gourmet desserts such as raspberry truffles and parisian macaron to homemade treats like chocolate dipped oreo sticks {fun, right?} and trail mix with pink and yellow m & m's.

(4) Also, a few lessons I learned from this event...
(a)If you triple line your linens, it will make it very hard to steam out those wrinkles, especially of you are working with silk taffeta.
(b) If you are using custom cupcake wrappers {like these that we found on our shopping trip here,} then make sure the frosting of the cupcake is higher than the cupcake wrappers or else your wrappers will be greasy. We couldn't use them for this event, but we'll be sure to use them in the future.

I hope you enjoy the peek into the party! Also, be sure to scroll to the bottom to see the winner of the Event Blossom 100 candy jar giveaway.











































I know you are all waiting for the winner of the Event Blossom 100 candy jar giveaway. The winner of the giveaway is Paper Doll Designs. We'll be in touch with you to arrange your candy jar delivery through Event Blossom. Congrats!