March 31, 2012 • 5 notes
Beautiful.

Beautiful.

March 25, 2012 • 14 notes

Featuring some of the yumminess that we sell in our shop!

March 20, 2012 • 2 notes

As of 3/19/2012, Sweet Hearts Patisserie is open! While I don’t remember much of what I did yesterday (I do remember vaguely making cookie dough balls for gingersnap cookies and making some yummy brownies), today I learned how to (and how not to) frost a cup cake. It’s a lot harder than it looks. You have to keep your hard surprisingly straight up and down and not as curved as I thought. It’s still a work in progress but I will get the hang of it, I have faith.

I learned another what NOT to do today as well. When making cookie dough do NOT use the whisking attachment on the kitchenaid appliance. Use the paddle, otherwise you’re in for it. I made a fairly simple sugar cookie dough recipe today and I mistakenly used the whisk attachment and sadly ended up wasting time scraping dough off every wire and I still didn’t get it all. Don’t be a fool like me. Know which attachment to use before hand!

March 18, 2012 • 1 note

Saturday was a macaroons type of day. The caramel that Kristen made served as the filled for the macaroons featured in the pictures. Friday and Saturday I focused on relearning how to measure ingredients. At the patisserie, we use digital scales to measure our ingredients instead of using cups and such (sometimes we use those but mostly we stick to the scales). I’m finally getting the hang of it which is awesome! 

It’s also exciting that I’m learning to use the different equipment too, like the electric whisker. I found out that whisking heavy cream can make butter though so a word of caution to all my followers and those who are reading this. 

So Friday and Saturday I helped to make sour cream pound cake and devil’s food cake for petit fours. I also helped to make pastry cream.. when making pastry cream, always go the low and slow route, constantly stirring the mixture of cornstarch, sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla or else you will get a lumpy mess. :)

March 14, 2012 • 1 note
On Monday, we started some of the prep work for the bakery so Kristen had me make a simple chocolate ganache! I say simple because it mainly consisted of three ingredients, dark chocolate, heavy cream and butter. First we had to bring the heavy cream to a somewhat boil (since you don’t actually want to boil heavy cream, more like you want to simmer it so small bubbles form) then you mix it in with the dark chocolate pellets. There is definitely an art to mixing the two together though, as Kristen taught me. You want to start mixing small circles in the middle of the bowl until the chocolate becomes creamy then work your way outward, otherwise you’re going to be mixing for a while and it won’t end up as silky smooth. Once you get that creamy texture, then you add in the butter. You don’t want to mix too much though because too much air will get into the ganache. 

On Monday, we started some of the prep work for the bakery so Kristen had me make a simple chocolate ganache! I say simple because it mainly consisted of three ingredients, dark chocolate, heavy cream and butter. First we had to bring the heavy cream to a somewhat boil (since you don’t actually want to boil heavy cream, more like you want to simmer it so small bubbles form) then you mix it in with the dark chocolate pellets.

There is definitely an art to mixing the two together though, as Kristen taught me. You want to start mixing small circles in the middle of the bowl until the chocolate becomes creamy then work your way outward, otherwise you’re going to be mixing for a while and it won’t end up as silky smooth. Once you get that creamy texture, then you add in the butter. You don’t want to mix too much though because too much air will get into the ganache. 

March 11, 2012 • 1 note

Here are some pictures of the progress (and some noms we had as rewards for our labor!). We’re a little bit behind schedule due to some technical difficulty but we are tentatively opening this upcoming WEDNESDAY 3/13/2012 so please come in a visit us!

EDIT: We are now opening MONDAY 3/19/2012!!! Sorry for the mix up! 

March 5, 2012 • 2 notes

Tentative Menu

Beverages Menu

  • Coffee
  • Tea
  • Espresso
  • Cafe au lait- espresso with steamed milk and some foam
  • Cafe creme- espresso with high proportion of steamed milk
  • Cafe chocolat- cafe au lait with chocolate sauce
  • Cafe caramel- cafe au lait with caramel sauce
  • Cappuccino- espresso with steamed milk and lots of foam
  • Hot chocolate
  • Sparkling Lemonade
  • Bottled beverages

Breakfast Menu

  • Yogurt Parfait
  • Breakfast Pochette (veggie or sausage)- eggs, potatoes, peppers, and onions in a puff pastry dough
  • Quiche

Lunch Menu

  • Pre-made sandwiches
  • Quiche

Pastries

  • Croissant
  • Pain au chocolat- croissant with chocolate inside
  • Almond croissant- croissant with almond paste inside
  • Muffins- blueberry, healthy, maple walnut streusel
  • Danish

Sweets

  • French macarons
  • Petit fours
  • Cupcakes
  • Eclairs- vanilla, chocolate, pistachio, coffee, strawberry, lemon, caramel, raspberry rose
  • Religieuse- stacked cream puffs
  • Cake truffles/pops
  • Tartlets-mini versions of tarts listed below
  • Tea cake- Fresh fruit, orange cranberry, lemon, pumpkin chocolate chip
  • Cookies- shortbread, chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, oreo, gingersnap, sugar cookie
  • Brownies
  • Baci brownies- brownies with hazelnut praline filling
  • Blondies
  • Mini Bundt cakes- lemon, red velvet, pumpkin
  • Madeleine
  • Napoleon- vanilla, apple, chocolate, strawberry, hazelnut praline

Cakes and Tarts

  • Flourless chocolate cake
  • White Chocolate raspberry cake
  • Hazelnut chocolate mousse cake
  • Fresh fruit and Cream cake
  • Lemon ricotta cake
  • red velvet cake
  • Amor Chocolat
  • Tiramisu
  • Caribbean coconut cake
  • Tart au citron
  • Coconut passion tart
  • Fresh fruit tart
  • Chocolate Noir tart
  • Whiskey Caramel Tart
  • Banana Cream Tart
  • Peanut Butter Mousse Tart

NOTE: Some of these will not be for sale at the same time as others. We will feature some weekly or when Kristen chooses to feature them. All of them will, in fact, be delicious. 

March 5, 2012 • 1 note

First post, so exciting!

Thus I start on this endeavor! I knew going into this that this was going to be an exciting, new adventure for me but starting a blog about interning at a bakery was the mastermind idea of Kristen D’Angelo, my new boss and owner of of Sweet Hearts (let me see if I spell this right) Patisserie here in Annapolis Maryland. I’ve only been in to see it twice and both times I’ve went it’s been absolutely adorable. 

 The inside is beautifully decorated in soft lavender colors, soothing to the eye (which is part of the reason why the blog is the same color). It makes a person just want to pop in, if just to enjoy the decor. Of course, if you want to buy a delicious treat to go along with our long list of different beverages, we’d be more than happy to help you out!

I’d love to go more in depth about what the inside looks like but you should just pop in and visit us when we open or better yet, follow me when I start talking about all the interesting things I learn about as an intern.

Soon this will be full of cakes!

(Soon this will be full of cakes, pastries, cookies and sandwiches!)

March 5, 2012 • 3 notes

Here are some pictures of the new place of our location 1410 Forest Drive Annapolis, MD 21403. We open roughly March 12th! Hope to see you all then!