August 17, 2009

'My Sweet & Saucy' Shop Review

'MY SWEET & SAUCY SHOP'
REVIEW






































6400 Stearns Street
Long Beach, CA 90815

562-397-9190

When the lightbulb came on in my small brain that I wanted to do a wedding cake and use fondant for the first time, I began googling around for tutorials. I happened to stumble upon a very, VERY cool blog.

Melody was studying to be a teacher when she up and decided to go to cooking school (I love those kinds of stories). And PLEASE, take a look at her now: http://www.mysweetandsaucy.com/

Her wedding cakes and dessert spreads are absolutely gorgeous and from an hour & a half away, I've become a huge fan! Her stuff looks both beautiful AND delicious-- an amazing feat! When I learned that she was opening up her own shop I knew I'd have to drag the Ipod out on a Sunday (like I had to twist her arm- HA!) and make a day of it.

And thus began the Great Baked Goods Massacre of 2009...


So gather 'round, children, and let Ol' Mandi tell you of the cakes that were slaughtered and lost on a hot summer day... the day of August the 9th...

*Ahem*
Ipod & I visited The Sweet & Saucy Shop and I tried to act cool and collected like I don't stalk Melody. And while I do not stalk Melody, I DO stalk her blog. There I said. Stalk it yourself, people! Look at those pictures!! HOLY FREAKING DELICIOUS, BATMAN!


We walk in & the shop is incredibly lovely & simple and the girl behind the counter is very nice & helpful. She was trying to explain to me what everything was & I wanted to be like, 'Um, yeah. I'm one of Melody's blog readers? I already KNOW!' and continue to file my nails. BUT I played it cool. Whatever. ;)
She was really very nice.


Then I spotted Melody's mom. She is soooo absolutely adorable and sweet! What I almost said was, "Oh my gosh, it's so wonderful to meet you! I've heard so much about you! I read Melody's blog and I just love how supportive you both have been to her and what a beautiful family working together, now that your partners and you just make people feel so comfortable with your kindness and warm spirit--" and then I would start crying. Because that's what I do. Cry at the most weirdly inappropriate times, especially when I'm overly tired. So I didn't. I said, "Hi, I'm one of Melody's blog readers. It's so great to be here."



Then I spotted Melody. My roommate gave me a weird look like 'Uh, you came all this way. Aren't you gonna say hi?'


HELLOOOOO!!??? AND NOT PLAY IT COOL!!!??? Puh-shuh!!! Melody & I have a mental connection people. Bakers are like that. She knew I was there. And it had absolutely nothing to do with the couple who came in for a wedding consultation or the fact that I didn't want to bother her. Nothing at all.


Then Eric, her husband, came out & we chatted with him for a few minutes. Everyone was just so nice! They all just want her to succeed. It's really very, very endearing.


So! Long-winded story short... what did I get? And for the love of monkeys in Uganda, did it taste as good as I'd imagined...??? Inquiring minds want to know!!!



I bought a TON of stuff. Like... one of everything.


Then Ipod & I went to Fritto Misto on the way home cause Ipod hasn't stopped talking about it since she went months ago. Very cheap and VERY delicious.



The 'Pod had Gnocchi Garganzola. It was WONDERFUL. (And keep in mind, Ipod's four major food groups are: chicken nuggets, ketchup, coke and sweet tea).


WOW.


(She picked out the tomatoes so she could "decide when she wanted to eat them.")


I had Pasta Pancetta. When I took a bite, millions of fairies were born.

DELICIOUS.



But this was an appetizer for the main event.

And the main event was getting restless!!!



It's not right for a sugar cookie and a chocolate peanut butter cakeball to be left alone.

It's not right I tell you!




So we took them out & let them breathe a bit.

Here we have:

Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcake (YUM)

Candy Bar Cupcake (YUM)

Red Velvet Cupcake (YUM)






Chocolate Cupake with Peanut Butter Frosting (DOUBLE YUM).

(I dropped it on its' side- hee hee- whoops).


Sugar Cookie (YUM).




The chocolate peanut butter cakeball pop.



Herrow!




THEN WE GOT HOME & PARTOOK OF THE GOODNESS THAT IS 'MY SWEET & SAUCY'!!!



Cakeball Pop.

Do you see the moistness?

Do you see it?

DELICOUSNESS.



Sugar Cookie. Royal icing with lemon. I prefer almond in royal icing cause that's part of my childhood (and I'm nauseatingly sentimental) but this was delicious regardless. So many pretty sugar cookies are thin, crispy and taste like pooedly oodely. This was actually a real, live cookie!



CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CUPCAKE.

I LOVE YOU.

I LOVE YOU.

I LOVE YOU.



Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcake DOWN!!!

(It fell over when I continued to cut out little slivers 'just to taste.' Yeah right).

Candy Bar cupcake, chocolate ganache in the middle.

By the way, these cupcakes were WAAAAY better than 'More' in Chicago. They taste homemade-- not frou-frou homemade-- but REAL homemade in the BEST way. They are moist & creamy & beautiful. You don't need bells and whistles. Just a darned good cupcake.



All kidding and joking and weirdness (I can't help it) aside, Melody has a great shop here and her stuff is really fantastic. If you're looking for moist cake and flavor, it's definitely worth a trip to Long Beach.


So Miss Melody & Family, congratulations and good luck on such a wonderful place! You should all be incredibly proud. Everything was delicious. I hope to be back again real soon! :)


5 comments:

My Sweet & Saucy said...

You totally made my night! Thank you so much for the fabulously nice post! Today was a hard day for me and I am so exhausted with everything, but this really made me smile and remember why I'm doing it, so thank you a TON!

Dave said...

WOAH!!! Is that Melody that commented?!? awesome.

Mandi. You are hilarious. I LOVE when you talk about pooedly oodely. Not enough people talk about pooedly oodely. Seriously.

MandiCrocker said...

Melody, SO happy to have made your night!! What you're doing is my dream as well so to see someone out there doing it is completely inspirational to ME! :) I know what it's like to get three hours of sleep trying to get it all done & know that you're not alone! You're amazing & you're ALREADY doing it & succeeding! YAHOOEY!! :)

Robs, YES! And I KNOW! How cool is that!? My cool points just went up by a billion! (And that's good cause I've been seriously lacking these days). ;) And don't worry... I will ALWAYS talk about poodely oodely. :) Love you!

April H. said...

Oh my! I think we should all have cupcakes for breakfast today:)
This is such an inspiration. It is so refreshing to see someone living out their dream and being really good at it.

Darci said...

Correction: iPod has FIVE major food groups: the previously stated chicken nuggets, ketchup, Coke and sweet tea...PLUS the accidentally ommitted corn dogs.

I got to partake of the leftover demolished particles a little later in the day and as a person who believes a cake can NEVER have enough frosting (like, I'm polishing off a can a la Goldie in "Death Becomes Her" even as I type), I have to give Melody's peanut butter frosting the grade of "BEST peanut butter frosting FRICKIN' EVER." And that buttermilk vanilla cupcake? Oh yes. Buttermilk cupcakes??? Whoda thunk? Deeeeeelish. I'm very picky, because I also think NO ONE bakes better than my sister. So well done and good luck to "My Sweet and Saucy!"