Last week I ventured over to Bloomingdales in NYC to catch a glimpse of Amy Atlas signing her sparkling brand new book Sweet Designs: Bake It, Craft It, Style It. I must tell all of you that I was so inspired by Amy who is gracious, soft spoken and unassuming. She greeted me with a warm hug and and a huge smile, and I got that feeling that you feel when you catch up with an old high school friend.
Of course, if you’ve been following The Jewish Hostess, you know that Amy Atlas has offered a free SIGNED copy of SWEET DESIGNS to the most creative dessert bar submitted to our site. As a special treat to the winner, AMY ATLAS has ALSO offered to feature our WINNER on her famous blog, http://blog.amyatlas.com! 

So keep sending your dessert bar pics to marlene (at)thejewishhostess.com! Winner to be picked by the end of May 2012.

Check out some of the gorgeous decadent DESSET BARS sent in by our hostesses HERE.

Keep checking for new dessert bar posts every day!

Some of Amy’s sweet tips at her Bloomingdale’s dessert bar presentation:

1. Firstly, choose your color palette, and a theme. For this dessert bar, Amy collected all of her husband’s pink and navy men’s ties, (and purchased some extras from Bloomies), and easily laid them across the width of her dessert table. Its a great reminder that sometimes the coolest displays can come from mundane items that stare us in the face every day.
2. Its ok to mix fine china with glassware and colors from opposite ends of the spectrum. Just stay true to your theme and shape patterns within the table.
3. White platters are an easy basic. They are so easy to dress up to match your theme. Line them with patterned paper that you can buy online, or print up on Etsy.
4. A vertical element is essential for visual interest. We don’t want our tables looking like flat pancakes as a first impression when our guests enter the room.
5. Always create visual interest. Use one cake plate with a dome, and one without.
6. Of course, keep low lying desserts within reach of your guests. We don’t want the entire cupcake tower toppling when someone reaches for a low lying creme puff that’s stationed way in the back.
7. Shaped your candy and printables to mimic the theme. Here, Amy used the triangular and diamond argyle pattern on her hubby’s ties as pattern inspiration.
8. Symmetry of the table is so important for the WOW factor of your table. Take a step back and make sure that the desserts are distributed evenly heigh twise and quantity wise on both sides of the table.
9. Colorful edibles such as rock candy will add fantastic interest to an empty vase, various containers, or as a punch to your candy platter. Have fun, and search your supermarket’s candy shelves for visually interesting sweets.
10. Think out of the box. Be adventurous! Put strawberry mousse in votives, use wine decanters as a vase. Instant tower cake plate! Glue a cake dish right on top of a pretty candlestick and voila!
11. Check out more pics from the book signing at Bloomingdales with Amy HERE!

that’s me! photo by Judith Rae

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