It’s no secret to anyone that knows me that I have an obsession with Sangria. A hot sunny day, lounging by the pool with your favorite peoples enjoying pitcher after pitcher of deliciousness…what’s not to love? I’m constantly on the hunt for the next great recipe, I search, I taste, I brainstorm. Once you have an idea of how to build balanced flavour combo it’s as easy and pour, chop and serve.

This summer I stumbled upon a gem of a recipe. I started thinking about the sangria’s I’ve had while out, at peoples house and recipes I’ve read about. From there the wheels started turning and I was dead set on creating the best possible lemonade sangria. I’m a huge fan of lemonade to begin with (pink being my favorite) and love turning it into punch like goodness.  Few summer ago me and my sister came up with/stole the recipe from my friend and took credit for ”crunk punch”: a mixture of lemonade and vodka but that’s another story.

I started breaking down the pieces of what would become my perfect sangria. I took my favorite flavour combo, lemons and raspberry, picked a wine variety that would hold up, a nice chardonnay, and started mixing from there. Baking is a very particular and meticulous matter and that generally carries over to other applications of my life but when you see how quickly a pitcher of sangria goes in the company I keep you’ll understand why measurements sometimes get thrown out the window to cut back on time. Measurements may be loose but I never cheat on presentation.

I hope you enjoy this delicious and refreshing sangria as much as me and my friends have!

Cheers

xo Jules

Pink Lemonade Sangria

750 ml bottle of Chardonnay (any one that you enjoy drinking)

Frozen lemonade concentrate (I like minute maid)

 250 ml Sprite or 7up

3 ounces Chambord (black raspberry liquor)

1 Lemon

1/2 pint raspberries (fresh or frozen)

Empty the lemonade concentrate into a pitcher. The instruction call for you to fill up the container 4 times with water and mix with the concentrate but I use 3 cans of water and fill up the final can with sprite. Add the entire bottle of wine and stir.

Slice the lemons by hand or on a mandolin, the goal is to have nice circular slices of lemon, and add to the pitcher. Then add the raspberries. By using frozen raspberries you help avoid diluting the sangria with melted ice, but a few ice cubes won’t hurt to keep it cool.

Finally add your chambord. The first time I made this recipe I used a 1 ounce shot glass to measure my chambord but more often than not I eyeball it.

Chill and enjoy.

Note: Keep in mind sangria can be made a day ahead just avoid adding the fruit until the day of. The lemons will hold up but the rasppberries will begin to fall apart. Also you can substitute pink lemonade for regular lemonade. And the lemons can easily be sliced a couple days in advance. When replenishing the pitcher with more freshly made sangria you can always reuse the fruits left behind from the previous batch.

As I was doing my usual web search for inspiration I stumbled across this gem here. I heard of cheese rounds in place of cake for a wedding cake a while back and thought it was so genius and inventive! Who doesn’t like cheese? Think about all the varieties of cheese and how different all of their rinds are? This particular wedding cake up top is in fact a cake created to look like rounds of cheese, but look how beautiful an actual stack of cheese rounds is?

Rustic and vibrant with the selection of fresh fruits; such a stunning focal point and so unique. 

It’s images and idea’s like this that really bring a new light to the endless posibilties of wedding cakes.

Don’t be scared to dream big ;)

xo

Jules

I was very excited for the opportunity to make Alessia’s baptism cake, her parents are very close friends of my sister and they are just the sweetest people. With just a week to go me and Alessia’s mom, Daniela, finally got a chance to sit and brainstorm some ideas for her cake. This definitely wasn’t my first time making a cake for Daniela, but this one was definitely extra special.

We started off by looking at some designs that had caught her eye, nothing she was totally in love with or set on but just idea’s to get the ball rolling. From those pictures I started to get an idea of the directions we were going in: girly (white, pearl, soft and pale pinks) a certain style of cross she wanted on the cake, 2 tiered. We looked at more pictures to see what decorating techniques she liked and didn’t; ruffles not so much and a cascade/big bunches of flowers also a no. We both really liked the look of a quilted pattern with small flowers in the crossing and keeping the top and bottom tiers different.

 I had remembered seeing a picture of Alessia with a floral headband on and I thought it was the cutest thing. So for the trim I suggested a soft pink fondant ribbon along the base with a large peony with pink pearl finish. To avoid the top looking empty we decided on a small bunch, 3, of the peonies on top of the cake.

After deciding on the design of the cake we moved on to flavour selection. Now there are the standard flavours I offer, those listed on my website, but I also do custom flavours. My personal favorite cake is the lemon raspberry I always recommend it to people who are looking for something not to sweet, not chocolate or vanilla and are avoiding nuts. I love the tanginess of lemon and could eat the filling with a spoon for days, if I had zero self control. It goes wonderfully with the tartness of the fresh raspberries and the sweetness of the cake. It’s refreshing, not too hevy and screams spring. Flavour 1, done! For the second flavour we decided on chocolate banana caramel, which I had made for her baby shower, all the ladies loved it so we felt like it was a safe bet. Plus this way she had two very different flavours of cake to offer her guests.

 Alessia Marie on her Baptism day

xo

Jules