Back from LA LA land

Our little Kenna on top of Beverly Hills

It feels like forever since we've been able to get away. With the new studio open and the mad rush of orders that have been coming our way, we are so grateful to have awesome people work with us so that we can take a breather...Our days get pretty hectic and sometimes we barely see the inside of our own house...but instead of taking a break at home, we decided to fly south and take our Kenna on her first airplane ride! We spent the week with our wonderful friends, relaxed on the beach, played in Disneyland and at the Aquarium of the Pacific and ate some good food!

Although, we tried to keep the trip all pleasure and no business, we love to see what other shops are doing and what their products are like so we took some time to visit some local favourites.

Our first find was right in Thousand Oaks, where we were staying. We got to meet and chat with the lovely mother and daughter owners of the Cupcakery. Their shop is super cute and their cupcakes are of the very classic American sweet sugary icing kind. They were almost sold out when we got there, so we grabbed what was left and shared them with our friends!

In Beverly Hills, we finally got to try the famous Sprinkles cupcakes. The space was small and super busy, we didn't get to take any pictures inside, but we tried 3 of their cupcakes. Ken has to try red velvet everywhere we go! He gave it a thumbs up.

Also in Beverly Hills we tried a place called Famous Cupcakes. There was the friendliest cashier there and he let us try free samples of their mocha latte. I liked it...so we bought a couple other flavours to try...though I only took one bite of the peanut butter and Ken took only one bite of his red velvet. That's my best friend Myra posing with the Kardashians (who have posters all over the store)!

Just down the street was Paulette Macarons. This shop was so fresh and the macarons...Swoon! I don't offer Macarons because I'm not a pastry chef, but I occasionally make them for our dessert tables. We joke in the studio that because they are not at all like the perfect Parisian Macaron (and I really mean not at all) that we would call them street macs. I blame my oven for me not being able to produce good macarons! LOL. Oh well, that's why there's places like Paulette's who can make them like they're supposed to. (More photos coming soon)

Finally, we went to a place suggested to us by our friends Haley and Michael Shandro. It's a franchise called Nothing Bundt Cakes. Since we were heading to a friends for supper later that day, we decided to buy an 8" cake. It said it would serve ~8. There was 6 of us and we didn't even eat half of it (true Whimsical fashion regarding serving sizes-I love it). We also LOVED this cake. We bought it at noon and dinner wasn't until 6pm...we were still heading to the beach so the cake was going to have to sit in the hot car all day, so I asked for a frozen one in hopes of being able to preserve it as best as possible until we went to dinner. OMG! Ridiculously good. I'll be dreaming of that cake until we get to another city that has this little shop. We do make bundt cakes in our studio now and then (well Eddie makes them) and this place has just pushed me to make ours even better now.

Just a side note for food...if you ever get to Manhattan beach (lovely by the way) head over to the North End Cafe. Food was out of this world. Guy Fieri had just done an episode on this place and our friends also recommended we eat there. So glad we did.

Fresh Carbonara Pasta & their famous Kahlua Pig Monte Cristo


Also, if you do go the Manhattan beach and find a pair of glasses washed up on the shore...they belong to my hubby Ken who got struck by a big wave and lost his glasses to the Pacific Ocean. haha! Sorry hun!