Sweet Designs: Bake It, Craft It, Style It [Hardcover]

Amy Atlas (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 24, 2012

Bake it, Craft it, Style it! Amy Atlas, home baker, crafter, and party planner extraordinaire, shows her readers and fans how to create fabulous sweets tables for adults and kids, combining easy recipes, dressed-up store-bought treats, and craft ideas, to make dessert a fitting grand finale to any gathering. Amy Atlas gained an international following when she introduced the concept of meshing baking and crafting to make beautiful sweets spreads. She has designed tables for Brooke Shields, Electrolux with Kelly Ripa, Gayle King, Martha Stewart Weddings, Mindy Weiss, and O Magazine. Since 2008, hundreds of thousands of readers have flocked to her award-winning blog, Sweet Designs. Now they'll learn how she does it for the first time in her first book filled with brand-new tables, original recipes, do-it-yourself instructions, and dozens of tips and secrets.
Sweet Designs includes 15 chapters filled with more than 100 recipes for every kind of irresistible treat, plus over 75 easy, affordable DIY craft projects to make them even more special. Each chapter features an amazing dessert table that reflects themes Amy's clients most often request: a favorite color, design, flavor, destination, passion, or holiday. Amy tells readers how they can make just one item, mix and match items from different tables, or make the dessert tables as shown.

Each chapter explains how to:

• Bake It: Recipes for making decadent sweets of all kinds, including cakes, cookies, pies, brownies, mousse, truffles, popsicles, ice cream bars, and drinks.
• Craft It: How-to's for creating Amy's signature popcorn cups, candy bar wrappers, paper pinwheels, banners, candy bags, and more, plus simple instructions for accessing her one-of-a-kind patterns and templates on her website.
• Style It: Designer secrets for arranging sweets, choosing patterns, accessorizing a pedestal or serving dish, and mixing textures and colors.
• Shop It: Pick up sweets from the corner store to pair with home-baked desserts and a chapter-by-chapter resource guide for finding the less common ones.
• Display It: Dressed-up serving vessels, backdrops, dessert tags, and other simple display touches to create the whole dessert table or make a single treat stand out.
• Switch It: Creative ways to swap the colors and desserts or platters to better suit your needs, grow them down for the kids, minimize your time with easy-does-it tips, and more.

For every maid of honor who needs to plan an epic bridal shower (and then later the baby shower), every mom who needs to put together a birthday bash her kids will never forget, and every Scrabble aficionado who wants to throw the game-night party to end all game-night parties, Amy serves up that elusive "wow factor" to make every celebration an event to remember.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Amy Atlas, dessert designer extraordinaire, shows you how to create your own stylish sugarscapes for any occasion. Whether baking, creating, or designing, it's inspiring the way she showcases sweets."
--Bakerella, author of Cake Pops

"I think I have met my match. Amy not only knows her candies, but she knows her cookies, cupcakes, sweets, and crafts too. She takes her sweets to a higher level where they take center stage."
--Karen Tack, author of Hello Cupcake!

"Amy Atlas is the dessert guru. She's taught me that the dessert table is the pinnacle of any event. She's an inspiration to all bakers!"
--Tori Spelling

"The celebrity event planner--best known for her decadent dessert tables--transforms a batch of sugar cookies into something special."
--People

"Sweet Designs: Bake It, Craft It, Style It. I say, Buy It! Amy was the first and true innovator of these amazing displays of deliciousness."
--Mindy Weiss, celebrity event planner

About the Author

Formerly a lawyer, Amy Atlas left her job and started Amy Atlas Events, specializing in lavish dessert tables for all kinds of parties. Referred to as The Sweets Stylist, Goddess of Goodies, and Queen of Desserts, she lives in New York City with her husband and two children.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (April 24, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401324401
• ISBN-13: 978-1401324407
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 1.3 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (102 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #57 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Crafts & Hobbies > Decorating
  • #95 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Baking > Cakes

More About the Author

After gaining an international following for creating the very popular dessert table trend, Sweet Stylists and Party Planner Amy Atlas introduces her first book, Sweet Designs: Bake It, Craft It, Style It. Atlas has been featured on The Today Show, Anderson, and featured in magazines such as O Magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, People, The New York Times, InStyle, Martha Stewart, Good Housekeeping, and many more. Atlas also runs the award winning blog, Sweet Designs. She has created sweets tables for Brooke Shields, Kelly Ripa for Electrolux, Martha Stewart Weddings, O Magazine, and now she's sharing her styling secrets and her best sources.

Renowned for bringing fashion and a designer's flair to the dessert field, Atlas has created a guide that is both cookbook and craft-book in one, the first of its kind. With 15 chapters and over 270 never before seen photos, over 100 recipes, and 75 DIY crafts to give a party that elusive "wow" factor, SWEET DESIGNS lays out--from the candy aisle to the finishing touches--how to "bake it, craft it, and style it" to add designer touches to family celebrations and create a sweets centerpiece for an event people will be talking about for months to come.

Atlas shows how to find inspiration for breathtaking dessert tables almost anywhere--whether it's from Coco Chanel tweed, a checkerboard, a buzzing bee, or a preppy tie. The results are stunning layouts and decadent treats sure to please both children and adults. Readers can tackle an entire spread, or pull out select treats or crafts (like mini-apple pies that work fantastically as a hostess gift or signature candy boxes that add panache to family movie night). Atlas also includes ways to "grow it up" or "grow it down" depending on the formality of the event, a guide to all of her sources, as well as styling tips to get similar results when crunched for time. SWEET DESIGNS is the next best thing to having Amy Atlas in the kitchen with you!

PRAISE FOR SWEET DESIGNS
"Amy Atlas is the dessert guru. She's taught me that the dessert table is the pinnacle of any event. She's an inspiration to all bakers!" --Tori Spelling

"Coming from someone who not only loves candy, but collects it too, I think that I have met my match. Amy not only knows her candies, but she knows her cookies, cupcakes, sweets and crafts too. She takes her sweets to a higher level and puts them on a runway where they take center stage. Amy looks at candy the way I wish I could, in an organized color coordinated fashion. And if you look closely the end result is not only amazing, but very doable. Sweet Designs is chock full of great decorating ideas. You can go the whole nine yards or choose snippets for your next fete!"
-Karen Tack, Author of Hello Cupcake!

"Amy Atlas, dessert designer extraordinaire, shares her secrets in SWEET DESIGNS and shows you how to create your own stylish sugar scapes for any occasion. Whether baking, creating or designing, it's inspiring the way she showcases sweets."--Bakerella

"Amy has transformed the way we all see desserts. No wedding (or event!) is complete anymore without a whimsically sweet and delicious dessert table to top off the night."
--Carley Roney, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Knot

"Personalized dessert tables have become such a big part of weddings and celebrations. Amy Atlas is known for creating fun and colorful tablescapes of sweets. This book is full of inspiration and amazing DIY tips and tricks to help couples make memorable candy/dessert bars on their special day."
-Darcy Miller, Editorial Director of Martha Stewart Weddings and Celebrations Expert

Sweet Designs: Bake it, Craft it, Style it. I say "BUY IT!" There is no one sweeter than Amy Atlas except for her Fabulous dessert tables! Amy was the first and true innovator of these amazing displays of deliciousness! Thank you for sharing your talent with us! - Mindy Weiss, Celebrity Event Planner

"Amy Atlas has revolutionized the dessert category, bringing style, sugar and innovation to everyone's favorite course." --Colin Cowie

"Amy's dessert displays are always the talk of the party, returning every adult to a state of childhood glee while making every sugar fantasy come true for the little ones. SWEET DESIGNS is the next best thing to having Amy at your own affair."
--David Stark, President, David Stark Design and Production

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars HUGE books of dessert and candy bar secrets May 2, 2012

By C. Stone

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Amazing. That one word is the only one you need to describe this book. I got this Amy Atlas book in anticipation of my May 2012 wedding (we're doing a dessert bar in lieu of the traditional wedding cake) and was floored when it arrived. First, IT'S HUUUUGE! Page after page of full colored images and instructions - it's a tome! Second, there's so much more infomration than I had expected - TONS of recipes, resource guides, and DIYs. Three, it's not just rehashs from Atlas's blog - there are lots of mew ideas and projects. Last, the instructions and DIYs are so simple and easy to follow. Wonderful book.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Bake it, Craft it, Style it...indeed!!!! April 24, 2012

By Cris

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is full of "eye candy", it will definitely get your creative juices flowing! A must have for anyone who loves to host parties...so many ideas you can use for any style party from children to adult themes. Full of recipes, DIY crafts, uses for candy, backdrops...etc,

Pictures galore (we all love beautiful picture in books.)

If you don't know Amy Atlas, she will become your favorite chic to follow- [...]

Thank you Amy for creating this book, so much inspiration for this party planning beginner!
And thank you Amazon.com (for a great price and super fast shipping)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic April 27, 2012

By D. Esparza

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've been eager to buy this book ever since she announced on her blog that she was writing one! It certainly lives up to all that Amy promised it would be. Every dessert table in this book is broken down in terms of baked goods (including recipes), design elements, craft instructions and tips for changing it to make it work for your event, budget, etc. She also includes lists of tools and products that she uses, provides templates for craft items, and gives contact info for all the resources she uses to buy the items for her tables. The photographs are beautiful and the book is substantial. What you get for the price of this book is definitely worth it! I'm actually very surprised it isn't more expensive! Amy is obviously very thorough in the planning and execution of her dessert tables, and that has translated beautifully into this book! I HIGHLY recommend it!