Wow, THE Academy Awards! Last weekend we attended 2 different gifting suites at The Academy Awards. It was a whole lot of plotting, marketing, last minute details and oh, LOTS of baking. Here’s what we took with us….

Another all-nighter produced lots of mini cupcakes for guest to indulge in. We took our vanilla throwback, chocolate covered strawberry, haute hostess and raspberry red velvets. They were a hit! They were so well received, for a minute we actually considered renaming our raspberry red velvet cupcake the “oh wow”. It seems everyone that popped one in their mouth responded with a joyful “Oh WOW”. We took boxes of 4 cupcakes, one of each flavor for guests to take home. We had contributions from a few people who really helped pull our “swag bags” together. Chico bag was amazing in contributing 100 eco-friendly bags screened with the Two Parts Sugar’s logo! These bags are awesome. They are made of 99% recycled material and are super roomy. We also had contributions from Sugar Cat Studio providing 100 sets of cupcake wrappers to be included in our “swag bags”. Lastly, Dazzle & Chunk provided the cutest cupcake necklaces.

I was able to take my big brother Juan who has contributed so much to the business with his technological smarts and creative ideas. Also, my sister Maria who contributes occassionally with baking and recipe ideas and sister Alicia who helps with all the extras. How fun to be able to share this experience with them.

I’ve been getting some questions about the people we were photographed with…No, I didn’t get shots of Brad Pitt, or Hale Berry with our cupcakes… Was I disappointed about that…NO. What I did get out of this experience was more than I could ask for. I met some really grounded and amazing people. People who loved our cupcakes and who were really interested in the story behind Two Parts Sugar and what we stand for. I have to mention a few people who really stood out to us: Jackie Tohn, American Idol finalist and recording artist and actress…she has a great sense of humor and is awesome. Another favorite is Ben Decker, actor, fashion model, song writer and super fun guy. Lastly, Jordan Johnson, singer, songwriter producer, also a sweetheart. We have generated some business from this event, including requests for samples from other gifting suite organizers and magazines, and requests for our cupcakes at other awards shows! It was a lot of work, but well worth it. It really was an exciting experience and just so fulfilling to have everyone really enjoy what we brought to the table.

               Ben Decker                      Jordan Johnson

If you are interested in placing an order, you can contact us here. If you are interested in more information about our business or would like to have us at an event you can view our media kit here.

Here are the results…needless to say we are thrilled with the outcome!

Best Traditional
1st Place:  Big Man Bakes “Red Velvet”
2nd Place:  Blue Cupcake “Sweet and Salty Vanilla”
3rd Place:  Southern Girl Desserts “Red Velvet”

Best Original
1st Place:  My Delight Cupcaker “Breakfast Cake”
2nd Place:  Jus Minis “Caramel Banana”
3rd Place:  Two Parts Sugar “Chocolate Covered Strawberry”

Best Overall
1st Place:  Jus Minis “Caramel Banana”
2nd Place:  My Delight Cupcaker “Breakfast Cake”
3rd Place:  Two Parts Sugar “Chocolate Covered Strawberry”

So there you have it…we took 3rd place in the Best Original category and what we were most excited about was taking 3rd  (out of 54 cupcakes) in the Best Overall category. Congratulations to all the bakeries who attended…it was an accomplishment just baking all those yummy cupcakes and presenting them along side all of your beautiful displays. To all the other bakeries who placed…awesome job! Again a super-duper big giant thank you to everyone who helped….you all played a huge role in our success.

A little while back we were contacted by a woman who requested some cupcakes for a company fundraiser. Everyone was contributing something to raffle to help raise money for The Haiti Earthquake Relief. She thought our cupcakes would be a perfect fit. We love to participate in things like this and immediately jumped on the opportunity. We donated 3 dz cupcakes in an effort to help raise some money for this organization. I later heard back from her and she said they were a hit. They were able to raise $1,200.00!

We are thrilled to have been a part of this fundraiser…it’s kinda why we do what we do, after all they are just cupcakes. Don’t get me wrong, they are definitely not JUST cupcakes….I mean they are my passion, my livelihood, my life. But when you look at the big picture, there are so many other things that are more important. We can’t wait until we are able to help in bigger and better ways. Until then, we will continue to help out the community and other non-profit organizations as much as we can. Who knows, maybe one day we will be able to start our own charitable non-profit organization!

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Two Parts Sugar is headed to the Academy Awards. Okay, Monica, breathe. It’s still amazing to me how this even happened.

So, back in November I received a call from a man that literally changed my outlook on life. My family and I were dealing with some personal issues that made me feel like my world was falling apart. I don’t think I can even begin to tell you about the intensity of running a start-up business, not to mention balancing it with a husband, a household, and three children. Needless to say it can be overwhelming. This particular day (keep in mind I had a 4 day old baby at the time…so emotions/hormones were all over the place) I had a breakdown. I didn’t know if this business was what was right for me or our family…I was having second thoughts.  I gotta tell you, I think that way a lot…no, really, A LOT. But, at the end of the day, I think about the smiles our creations bring to peoples faces, the opportunity to give back, and really, I just LOVE doing what I do. Also, it seams as though when ever I am super swamped with work, or having a “moment” of doubt, something fantastic happens. Well this time, it was a phone call.

A few hours after my “meltdown” I get a phone call. I answer the phone…the man on the other end asks for me. I say hi and he starts in with a proposal for a booth at the Academy Awards. I just kinda brush it off and explain we are still somewhat of a start up business and do not generate the capital to fund an event like  this. He then puts me on hold to speak with his business partner. He gets back on the phone and says he may be able to “work” something out. Long story short…WE ARE GOING TO THE ACADEMY AWARDS!

We will be participating in the Academy Awards Gifting Suite and supplying our yummy goodies to the “stars”. We will also be putting together some “sweet” swag bags which will include some goodies from Kitchen Couture, Sugar Cat Studio, and Dazzle and Chunk…we will share with you soon! We are so grateful for this opportunity and cannot wait for the event!

For all of you out there…bakers or not, please realize the lesson here. When you feel like your world is falling apart, realize good things can still happen. If you are doing something you absolutely love, don’t give up on your dreams. My dad always said “if it were easy, everybody would be doing it.”

Where to even begin…..the beginning? So, we got word the 2010 LA Cupcake Challenge was coming up and immediately we began to plot on our flavors and presentation. We originally had an idea to coordinate one of our flavors with The Real Housewives of Orange County. We were able to get in contact with Jo De La Rosa and put our efforts in to full swing. We pitched our idea to her and it didn’t quite fit her personality and who she is today. She was super sweet and we all came up with another idea in order to incorporate a little bit of who she is and combine it with our yummy cupcakes. Thus the “Two Parts,” one part “naughty,” one part “nice” was born. We came up with flavors that we thought were representative of both “parts”.

Our “naughty” cupcake was our chocolate covered strawberry, a rich chocolate cupcake topped with fresh strawberry buttercream, sprinkled with fresh cut strawberry pieces and then we dipped that little sucker in chocolate (although we were running out of time the day of and some ended up with just a dollop of chocolate as opposed to the dip). Our “nice” cupcake was what we call the Vanilla Throwback, which was basically a play on my all time favorite cupcake growing up….rainbow chip. It is a moist vanilla cupcake infused with vanilla bean, topped with our vanilla bean icing with rainbow chips mixed in (ahhh…the memories of my first grade cupcakes). Fun right? Well, we didn’t stop there. Michele from Kitchen Couture who has created a line of aprons to be sold exclusively through our site (*coming soon) designed the cutest apron to go along with our theme…it was of course reversible with one part reflecting the “naughty” side and one the “nice”. Wait, there’s more…Alison from Sugar Cat Studio designed some super cute wrappers for our cupcakes too (1,400 to be exact!!!).

Speaking of the 1,400 wrappers, we also did our trademark toothpick toppers…that’s one for each of the 1,400 cupcakes we made. Let’s do the math here…1,400 toothpicks, double sided= 2,800 cirles that need to be printed and cut out…glued together and then this year we decided to add some bling, that’s 1,400 mini pearls/black rhinestones glued to each topper…yikes! We made 3 stands for each of the two flavors which were adorned in the same fabrics/embellishments as the apron and wrappers. It was a lot of time consuming and tedious work, but we loved how it turned out!

The week leading up to the event all three of my little ones were sick, so it was in and out of urgent care all week long (as they could not all just get sick the same day…had to be every other day to keep me on my toes ) Needless to say between family life and business it was a crazy week. The night before my husband tended to the kiddos while my sister finished up last minute details, and I headed off to the kitchen to start baking. Start time: 10:00 p.m. …finish time, literally to the wire…1:00 p.m. I had not realized how long it was going to take to dip each of those cupcakes…eeeek! So, about half of them missed their dip in the chocolate pool and were drizzled instead. Lesson learned. Oh, and…all our our liners began to peel away from the cupcakes, at that point there was really nothing I could do about it. I have to be honest…it looked so awful I was ready to throw in the towel. I thought about everyone that had contributed and realized quitting was not an option. Then, I remembered we had those gorgeous wrappers from Sugar Cat Studio and they would disguise the flaw! I headed home, we loaded up, I kissed the girls and we were on our way (2 hrs later than planned). I had planned on getting there extra early to choose a good spot and have everything up and ready well before the doors opened….oh well.

We arrived and parked in between Fairy Cakes Bakery and Meringue bakeshop. I was thrilled with our spot because I follow them both on twitter and had been wanting to meet them. So far, so good. We started assembling our display and quickly realized it was taking much longer than planned. We were still putting out cupcakes when everyone started rolling in. It was so busy. I don’t remember last year being such a mad dash. We were a lot closer to the door this year, so I think that may have had something to do with it. Feedback was great and I’ll admit I was very nervous this year, much more so than last year. When it’s your first go around, no one really expects anything…we had been in business for only 3 months, so if we hadn’t placed, it’s not like anyone would notice. This year we have lots more customers and cupcake pals, so the pressure was definitely on. I just decided I would not let the pressure get to me…we had a fun theme going and just wanted to have a good time. I finally met all these people I felt were friends due to our connections on Facebook and twitter…Elise: The Cupcake Activist and hubby, Nichelle from Cupcakes Take The Cake (Rachel was there too but I didn’t have the privilege of meeting her), all the participants, my neighbors Kerena and Kristen, and lots of facebook fans. It was really pretty neat.

The cutest Two Parts Sugar fans ever

I am now realizing as crazy as this event is for all of us bakers participating, I love it! It is so much fun to meet other people as passionate about this business as we are. All the attendees are awesome and so friendly I can’t say enough good things about everyone attending. And, I have to tell you this is definitely a group effort….I couldn’t have pulled it all together without the help of my hubby running to get me all the last minute things I needed and for being SO patient…My genius of a brother for all of his creative ideas…My sister (coworker) for all the tedious details she helped finalize…My mom for helping me with the girls and keeping me sane…Michele from Kitchen Couture and Alison from Sugar Cat Studio for really pulling the whole look of our display together. YOU GUYS ROCK! All in all we had a blast and can’t wait until next year!

I also want to personally apologize for not delivering on our special guest Jo De La Rosa….We literally found out on our way to the event she was not going to be able to make it due to personal reasons. We appreciate her participation and wish her all the best.

I just received a text from a family friend reminding me that one of my favorite times of the year was here yet again…Girl Scout COOKIES for sale! I immediately thought cupcakes. Then I thought I want to help her daughter with cookie sales. I wanted to put together a Girl Scout cookie cupcake box to offer to our customers. I initially thought of translating the cookie into a cupcake, such as taking our already delicious chocolate cupcake and infusing mint flavor into it…thin mint!  Well, then I realized that wasn’t helping the Girl Scouts any….DUH! I had to actually use the cookies in the cupcakes (or I’d be left with lots of boxes of cookies, and I am trying to loose that baby weight)! So, that being said we will be offering a box of one dozen assorted flavors of cupcakes made with yummy Girl Scout cookies $30.00 per dz (assorted flavors) February 21-27. Be sure to pre-order so that we are sure to purchase enough cookies!

thin mint…chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache frosting topped with crushed thin mints samoas…coconut cupcake topped with chocolate frosting toasted coconut and samoa pieces tagalongs…chocolate cupcake topped with peanut butter icing and tagalong pieces lemonades…lemon cupcake topped with lemon cream frosting and lemonade pieces

Meet Jade! She is 6 years old  and her goal is to sell  100 boxes, she has sold 38 boxes so far…and she needs to turn in her orders by Friday February 5th! So, place your cupcake order and help her meet that goal! You can also order a good ‘ol box of cookies from her for $4.00 per box by contacting her mom Aracely.

Roses are SO last year, send your sweetheart something sweet from your heart!

Available now for pre-order: 1 dz sample box to include 4 each of our raspberry red velvet, haute hostess, and vanilla cupcakes, complete with Valentine’s Day decor. Available for $30.00 pick up (Costa Mesa) and $35.00 local delivery. Place your order soon as this special day is quickly approaching!

We have been doing a lot recently trying to bring some new things to the table. From filling orders, to blogging, tweeting, getting the new site up and running, and a few more tricks we have up our sleeve…..we’ve been pretty busy. So, we decided to recruit some help.

Meet our newest team member Alicia! Yes, she is my sister. Alicia is 21 and mother to my beautiful niece Adrienne. She is a wonderful Mommy and full time student. She is just getting her feet wet with this whole cupcake universe and I think she will quickly realize how amazing and popular these goodies are. Alicia will be handling a lot of the “paper work”. She will be introduced to the world of Tweets and blog posts and will be answering your emails and helping with deliveries! We are super excited to have her on board and know she will bring some great things to the table. We would love it if you sent her some words of encouragement to show her how amazing this cupcake community is.

Be sure to keep checking back with us as many exciting things will continue to unravel!

If you missed, you sure missed out! We ran a giveaway for 2 dz custom cupcakes from Two Parts Sugar, complete with custom Super Bowl decorations….but that’s not all, we also threw in a “Sporty Couture” apron from Kitchen Couture….AND 2 dz custom cupcake wrappers from Sugar Cat Studio!

AND THE WINNER IS: 

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Chrissy Says: 
January 19th, 2010 at 5:47 pm   edit

Just darling – and yummy I’m sure! The apron a must have!

I follow you on FB too and Twitter

Cheers

CONGRATULATIONS CHRISSY! It looks like you are in OC…so we will be hand delivering your cupcakes to you the day of the big game!

We had so much fun hosting this giveaway…a big THANK YOU to all who participated!

Listen up all you football fanatics, cause this is one giveaway you won’t want to miss! Two Parts Sugar, Kitchen Couture, and Sugar Cat Studio are teaming up to bring you the ultimate Super Bowl party package.

Enter to win 2 dozen gourmet cupcakes from Two Parts Sugar, complete with custom made Super Bowl decorations….a “Sporty Couture” apron from Kitchen Couture, and 24 custom cupcake wrappers from Sugar Cat Studio! You could win everything you need to make your Super Bowl party one your guests will not soon forget.

Super Bowl final four

“Sporty Couture” arpon

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment here telling us who you think will be going to the Super Bowl..that’s it! Want this Super Bowl party package REALLY bad? Well, you can earn another entry by Tweeting about our giveaway …earn another entry by posting about our giveaway on Facebook, earn yet another entry by blogging about our giveaway, and finally, earn one last entry by going to Kitchen Couture and checking out their awesome aprons, come back here and leave a comment telling us which apron you liked best. That’s 5 entries for a chance to win!

When is the deadline to be eligible to win? All entries must be submitted by no later than Saturday, January 23rd (the day before the final four teams will play to go to the Super Bowl).  If your team wins on Sunday January 24th and is moving on to the big game, then you will go in to the drawing to win the ultimate football party package!

When will the winner be announced? All friends & fans whose team wins on Sunday will be put in to a random drawing.  The winner will be drawn and announced on Monday, January 25th.

When will I get my prize? The prize package will be delivered by February 4th to the lucky recipient.

Is there any cost to me for winning? None whatsoever (but we would really appreciate it if you told your friends and family where all of your fabulous football goodies came from)!

GOOD LUCK!!!