CLOSED: Custom Cupcakes by Sarah Are the Only Cupcakes You Need

April 19, 2016 by 11 Comments
Custom Cupcakes by Sarah is a local business that makes your cupcakes to order and personalizes them to suit your event or occasion. Also, they are delicious!

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I usually make a homemade birthday cake for my kids on their birthdays, but this year I decided to try something different. There is a local business that I started following on Instagram a while ago, Custom Cupcakes by Sarah, and they post the most amazing photos of cupcakes, so one day before the first birthday rolled around, I contacted the owner and found out she will make the cupcakes and decorate them to suit the occasion, be it a baby shower, a birthday, even a themed party.

We worked together on this. My kids’ birthdays are 8 days apart, and we were not planning a big party, so even a dozen cupcakes (the minimum order) would be too many for just one celebration for this family of four. So we decided to do half for one and half for the other. I consulted my kids and asked them what their favorite things were, and presented this information to Sarah. “They like video games and cats,” I said. “Hmm,” she said. “I will figure something out.”

And behold, these adorable, hand-crafted, high-end cupcakes:

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They are amazing, right? Before I tell you about the bells and whistles, know that these delights begin with the basic – a delicious cupcake. Sarah Buxbaum spent years perfecting her recipe for the cake itself and the buttercream frosting. She also makes a very tasty gluten free cupcake, and can make allergy-free cupcakes too, and she’s working on perfecting the vegan cupcake.

Okay so then, Sarah creates a custom design to decorate them, cutting out each little piece of this paper creation by hand. Herself. Even the little paper cups they come in! She wants the decor to be durable, something you can save and put in a scrapbook (or in my gamer’s case, pasted to a poster board for show and tell at school). For the cat lover she made this cute little cats, and for the video game lover these are little X-box controllers.

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cupcakes cats

Sarah opened her business within the last year, after spending several years working in the hospitality industry and learning entrepreneurship working in the trenches of a startup business that took off. She got her Thousand Oaks kitchen certified, chose her business name, and does most of her marketing by Facebook and Instagram and in person at events. She will make your cupcakes and deliver them to you (included in the order price!) within 25 miles.

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A dozen cupcakes starts at $36 with only $4 extra for the custom decorations. She makes several different flavors including allergen- and gluten-free options. Decorations are not limited to paper on sticks, though – Sarah does edible flowers, creative use of icing, marshmallows, popcorn, anything you want! Delivery is included in the order price – Sarah delivers them herself. She boxes the cupcakes in a handy cardboard tray inside a box that opens from the front for easy display and removal, and she advises you store them at room temperature in this box (putting them in the fridge causes them to dry out).

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I can tell you from experience that the leftovers from the first birthday dinner stayed fresh for 3 days in the box, and we saved one in the freezer for a week and it was moist and delicious once it defrosted.

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The true test was taste: these cupcakes got unanimous approval and the 11-year-olds each ate two! Our entire family highly recommends this new local business!

Custom Cupcakes by Sarah
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Even the kitty was interested

Photos with white background courtesy of Custom Cupcakes by Sarah. Our family received a complimentary custom cupcake order. All opinions are our own (plus an 11-year-old guest who ate 2 cupcakes so I’m guessing he liked them.)

Filed Under: Around Town, Food, Local Businesses Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Phantom Trail Hike From Mulholland

April 15, 2016 by 12 Comments

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View from above Phantom Trail trailhead, south over Malibu Creek State Park

Spring is such a wonderful time to go hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains. It had been a while since I took myself on a good long hike, so yesterday I chose to return to a pretty section of trail that I went to once a few years ago: the Phantom Trail starting at Mulholland and heading north.

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For an easily accessed trail that takes you away from the world, this is a really good choice. You can also get there from the south end of Liberty Canyon – just park on the road and trek in, passing through a wide meadow and veering off to the right to connect with the Phantom Trail. But I’ve been on that section of Liberty Canyon several times (it’s my go-to for a quick escape) and I wanted to try the other approach.

Parking for Phantom Mulholland

Park at a wide spot in the road on the south side of Mulholland just under 2 miles west of Las Virgenes. The trailhead is on the north side of the street. Switchbacks take you up the shaded hillside – maintenance has just been done and there was freshly cut green brush on the sides of trail – and get you quickly up above Mulholland with a nice view of your car.

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The trail heads north with some mildly challenging climbs but they are short and not too rocky. The main trail winds around to the side of the steepest climbs but you can choose to take the hard way up – and get the better views.

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Other portions of the trail are pretty overgrown – they are absolutely beautiful and beckoning but make sure you do a tick check when you’re done with your hike.

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Right now the wildflowers are in bloom and in the sections where the trail dips into little valleys, mature mustard plants light the way for you like beacons on a runway. Yellow daisies (actually it’s a common sunflower – who knew?), mariposa lilies, and of course poppies and plenty of others light up the hillsides everywhere you look.

IMG_5256Mustard flower runway

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I hiked north up the Phantom Trail and turned west in the meadow where if you go straight you go up into Liberty Canyon. Along the ridge to the west you dip into more colorful little valleys and then up at the crest there are amazing views of the mountains beyond.

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I think this is Ladyface but I’m really bad at identifying these peaks. Could be Ballard Mountain too. Anyone know?

I hiked in for about 2 hours, stopping a few times to find geocaches or to take pictures or to nurse my eye (bending down to pick something up a random stick stabbed me in the eyeball. Fortunately I think it will be fine.). I decided to turn around when I came to this steep downhill stretch:

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Even though I am perfectly capable of this short descent, I didn’t want to push my luck. Had to be safe and sound and back to pick up the kids from school. So, I took the road less likely to lead to injury alone in the wilderness – I went back the way I came. Without stopping, it took me an hour to return to the trailhead.

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Cairn says you’re going the right way

I measured the distance on Google Maps and it looks like in total I hiked less than 4 miles! But it felt like a lot more! I didn’t see one other human on the trail the entire time I was out there. It was a really nice break from my busy life – nobody out there but me, the lizards, birds, and bugs.

(Side note – my friend Andrea just published a post about hiking and included some pictures of me geocaching. A little dorky but her post has great pix of Griffith Park and I love to spread the love of hiking!)

 

Filed Under: Around Town, Photographs Tagged With: , , , ,

EVER Skincare 30 Day Challenge Results

April 13, 2016 by 3 Comments

Back in February I told you I was taking the EVER Skincare 30 Day Challenge, in which I would follow a skincare regimen not once but twice a day. Yep. Cleanse, exfoliate, nourish, and hydrate, in the morning and in the evening before I go to bed, even though I am lazy.

30 day challenge

Thirty days is the recommended length of the challenge because that gives you enough time to form a new habit. In this case, I’d be adding a whole new event to my day, plus adding steps to my usual wash-and-moisturize-that’s-it routine.

So how did I do?

Skincare Twice a Day

Well, I was pretty good at sticking to washing my face (and the rest) in the morning. After all, if I don’t wash my face before I leave the house I feel undone. So I had that one down.

But doing it at night when I am already exhausted was indeed a challenge. I was faithful for the first week, and then I started to skip it here and there, but I will give myself the credit that I deserve. Now I am changed. I wash my face at night as a rule, but skip it on occasion. That is way better than I used to be, so I consider this challenge met.

Implementing New Steps

I have sensitive dry skin, so my specialist, Bianca Sanderson, advised me to do the exfoliation step with REVEAL Biomimetic Peel Pads only a few times a week. Even then, my skin did go through an adjustment phase, when the impurities were coming out and being swept away over a stretch of about a week. During that time when my skin felt dry and bumpy, I added a thin layer of the rich Hydralift cream under the final Hydralight moisturizer in the morning.

4 simple steps, AM & PM, for real, visible results. #EVERInspired #realresults

A photo posted by EVER Skincare (@everskincare) on

There have been plenty of days and evenings when I want to be lazy and skip the intermediate steps, but I was on a challenge, so I made myself stick to it. And sure enough, now I reach for the peel pads or the YOUTHFUL Quattro Peptide Face & Eye Serum without even thinking about it.

How’s My Skin?

I didn’t expect to see a difference in my skin in only 30 days. I see my skin every day, so any change is gradual. But if you look at my before and after photos side by side, I think there is a difference. My eyes certainly seem brighter!

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I did the best I could here with the lighting and camera angles. The point is, my skin feels better. That exfoliation phase really brought out the fresh clean skin under what was on the surface, and overall it feels less dry than ever before. Continuous skincare is something I hadn’t made a priority, but now I do!

The EVER Skincare kit is meant to be a 60-day supply, but I think it will last longer because I don’t have to use a lot of it. So I guess this is just how I take care of my skin now.

Curious? You should try it. EVER Skincare, with Bianca Sanderson. Tell her I sent you.

 

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