Dessert Bar None



PHOTOGRAPHER CREDIT: 
Dessert Bar None | Baked confectioners and Sideshow Press stationers accent a smorgasbord of sweet treats with fancy cupcakes, hot cocoa favors, and stenciled brownies
"These days we’re getting so many more requests for casual dessert bars than formal wedding cakes,” says Renato Prolifetario of Baked. Last fall, the Brooklyn-based bakery opened its first shop beyond the Big Apple—on Charleston’s East Bay Street. Known for homemade flavors and hip presentations, Renato’s Southern crew concocted a sweet theme here, perfect for any wedding-related event. (We think they’d be especially tops for a fall or winter fête.) To make the treats even more standout, Charleston’s Sideshow Press gurus added handmade touches to the crafty cupcakes, hot chocolate favors, and spicy brownies. “The extras tied everything together with a cohesive, woodland look,” says Sideshow’s Courtney Gunter Rowland.

Crafty Cupcakes

Cute up sweet treats with simple paper crafts designed in your wedding theme

You will need:
Cupcake sleeve
Woodgrain rubber stamp
White ink stamp pad
Dark brown paper
Ruler
Pencil
X-acto knife
Double-sided tape
Cupcakes
Cupcake flag
Patterned paper
Twigs (2-2.5" tall)


1. Press stamp on white ink pad, then imprint pattern on paper. Start in one corner and work your way down in a column (leaving no gaps) to create a continuous wood-grain pattern. Stamp entire sheet and allow to dry.

2. Measure cupcake from the base to the top of the baking cup. Cut as many stamped paper strips as you have cupcakes to that width.

3. Measure circumference of cupcake and cut strips ½-inch longer. Curl the paper into a ring with ½-inch overlap, and seal with double-sided tape placed on the underside of the overlap.

4. Create a 3 ½-inch long and 1-inch wide diamond-shaped flag template. Trace on patterned paper, then, using ruler as a straight-edge, cut out diamonds with an X-acto knife.

5. Gather (and clean) 3-inch long twigs for flagpoles. Place double-sided tape on the blank side of the paper diamond, fold over twig, and press together.

6. Slip stamped ring on cupcake and stake icing with flag.


Cocoa To-Go

Warm up your guests with a chocolate-flavored favor

You will need:

Small plastic bags
Cocoa
4 x 6" cotton bags
Custom-made wedding stamp
Ink pad
Wood veneer
Hole punch
Numeral stamps
Off-white craft paper


Fill plastic bags with cocoa and tie off. Place aside. Stamp muslin bags with a design from your wedding. Slip plastic bags into muslin bags. Cut wood veneer into tags, stamp with wedding date, and punch with a hole punch. Use muslin bag ties to tie on tag. Print cocoa-making instructions on craft paper and place near bags.



Sugar-Kissed Brownies

Add style to your sweet treats with a stencil and a little powdered sugar

You will need:
One 8 ½ x 11" vellum sheet
Pencil
X-acto knife
Powdered sugar
Teaspoon
Brownies

Draw a design on the vellum sheet in pencil. (We opted for a simple crest
silhouette to go with our muslin bag stamp.) Cut out shape with X-acto knife. Position stencil on brownie and shake a spoon of powdered sugar over the cutout until pattern is clearly formed.