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Super-cute picnic cupcake made by Sweetology staff
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A view of the front counter
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Co-owner DeAnn Bingaman bids you welcome to the cupcake lab
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"The Makery," minus excited kids and/or adults
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An upstairs party room is all kelly greens and support beams
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Your mission, should you choose to accept it
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Candies to put on your cake, cupcake or cookie - or just to shove in your face
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A wall of cookie cutters
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Sprinkles: they haz them
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Making leaves to surround flowers
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Mixing color into frosting
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A spooky cake that you can recreate, if you like
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The professionals at Sweetology can make some pretty amazing stuff
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Beverage options
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From left, a murderers' row of food-blogging talent: Stef "Cupcake Project" Pollack, Amy "Eat It, St.Louis!" Burdge, Michelle "STL Cheese Girl" Marcus, Elizabeth "Eating Local in the Lou" Cowie, Dee "Sauce Magazine" Ryan, Stef "Iron Stef" Tolle and Christina "Dessert for Two" Lane
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The tools of the trade
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Amy "Eat It, St. Louis!" Burdge did a series of festive pastel cupcakes
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A golf cookie created by Elizabeth "Eating Local in the Lou" Cowie
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Kneading fondant
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Stef "Iron Stef" Tolle made a cookie inspired by Japanese ocean-art "Hokusai" paintings. Very cool.
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Stef "Cupcake Project" Pollack got very elaborate with this sequential creation
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A festive neon sign in the coffee/wine lounge
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The black rose of amor, sculpted in a fit of Byronic passion by some guy or other
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I ran out of cookie. Does this count?
Raven and Lestat had been planning their wedding so very carefully. The hearse, the spooky organ music, and even the black confetti – every detail had been considered to make their goth nuptials both chilling and meaningful.
Rather than serve wedding cake at the reception, they opted for another popular choice: cupcakes. Each little dark chocolate cake would be crowned with a replica of the wedding bouquet: black, buttercream roses.
Is that so nuts? That a pair of goths in love would want black roses on a cupcake?
The prevailing happiness at decorate-your-own-dessert party place Sweetology somehow brought out the darkness in this observer. Images of balloons, clowns and fuzzy bunnies naturally give rise to macabre thoughts of hunchbacks, axe murder, and shambling, undead former Florida Congressman Claude Pepper. You know how it goes.
But then, the first St. Louis Food Bloggers Night at the six-month-old Ladue shop was an open invitation to let our desires, dark and otherwise, burst from the gates.
The most compelling room in this café/party center/candy shop/funplex is surely “The Makery,” where the mischievous can create dessert art.
In this chamber, you receive a dizzying array of options. Will you decorate a cookie, a cupcake, or a six- or nine-inch cake? Will you then grab fondant, a tub of frosting, or a piping bag of frosting to decorate your carbohydrate? What color will you make your frosting? You can mix it up yourself from a full palette of choices. What flavor will you make your frosting? You can put drops of flavoring into the frosting in flavors like (deep breath) cinnamon, orange, coconut, mint, lemon, mango, banana, raspberry, malt, cherry, rum, and strawberry. If you use a piping bag, which tip will you put on the end? What shapes will you draw? Or what message will you spell out? How about sprinkles or glitter in a gajillion colors? Pre-made shapes like robots or monsters? Candy toppings?
You get the idea. Experts on the premises help you through each choice and step. There are dessert cookbooks full of professionals' ideas to crib, too.
More casual stopovers may also be effected at Sweetology. You can drop in for a gourmet cupcake, some bulk-bin candy (the chili lime mango chocolate balls are killer), a cappuccino, a glass of wine, and other fortifications.
At this week's convocation, a formidable group of area food bloggers made some groovy desserts. The get-to-know-you, organized by Amy Burdge of Eat It, St. Louis!, also featured Dee Ryan of Sauce Magazine, Stef Tolle of Iron Stef, Stefani Pollack of The Cupcake Project, Michelle Marcus of STLCheese Girl, Elizabeth Cowie of Eating Local In the Lou, and Christina Lane of Dessert for Two.
The ladies, used to developing new recipes for their respective blogs, had a knack for precision. Check out the slide show for their cute creations.
If there is a goth wedding in the offing, Sweetology co-owners Kara Newmark and DeAnn Bingaman (below) will surely be invited. Special thanks to them for a fun night.
Sweetology
9214 Clayton Rd.
314-736-4800
Hours:
Tue – Thurs: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Fri – Sat: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Sun: Noon – 4 p.m.
Closed Mon.
