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#WinterWedding by BCZ

Tis the season! The season for gorgeous weddings… that is! Today we’re featuring the wedding of Alexi Pankas and Stephen Martin on October 4th.

Our Events Director, Amanda, worked with Alexi to perfect all of the details of her dream wedding cake and sweet table. The vision for the cake was elegant and the decision to add a #BCZ Sweet Table added an element of fun!

The cake was the epitome of elegance. A stunning white, 5-tier cake with a striking petal design, finshed with a touch of pearl shimmer. Don’t these two look adorable cutting it, too?! Here’s another, photo in color:

As far as the Sweet Table, Alexi and Stephen were bringing together Italian and Greek family cookie traditions. Wow – can you imagine what a delicious table that was… those two backgrounds are like T H E cookie people!

So… we incorporated each families cookies and gave them our Bella Christie’s Sweet Treats flair. We created more premium and customized items such as buttercream cookies with their monogram, glitter bon bons in the colors of their wedding, and cake truffle pops incorporating their colors and monogram. All of the sweets were a perfect blend of tradition and contemporary. Feast your eyes on the these photos…

Sweetly Yours,
The Bella Christiez Sweet Team

*The first three photos you see in this post are credited to: Caroline Yoon Fine Art Photography .

Holiday Gift Guide

Good afternoon, #BCZ Readers!

This week we want to fill you all in on the details of our Holiday Gift Guide, 2014!

Bella Christie and Lil’ Z’s Sweet Boutique offers only the highest quality and most delectable treats to make this year’s holiday season the sweetest for you and your loved ones.

Q: What exactly do we order when it comes to a #BellaChristiez gift?
A: For starters – Our Gourmet Holiday Bakery Boxes include scrumptious buttercream frosted and assorted Gourmet Cookies, our Famous Decadent Bars, Brownie Minis and Chocolate Covered Pretzels – all put together in a beautiful gift box… topped off with a holiday cookie gift tag that can be personalized with your message or company logo. // Medium (24 pieces) $29.99 and Large (42 pieces) $49.99. You also have the option of choosing from our Gourmet Holiday Treat Boxes and Towers which include the same items above as well as Glitter Bon Bons, Cake Truffle Pops, and Hand Dipped Oreos. // Medium Box (24 pieces) $39.99, Large Box (42 pieces) $59.99, Medium Tower (28 pieces) $44.99, Large Tower (48 pieces) $69.99, VIP Tower (88 pieces) $159.99

Q: What other Holiday Gifts can you order?
A: Our #CustomCookies, of course! The most popular buttercream cut-outs can be customized right into your holiday design then bagged and tied with a beautiful bow. Transform your family photo into a decorated cookie with a personalized message or send out Seasons Greetings from your company to all of your clients with logo cookies. Do you have you own, creative-custom-cookie idea for the holidays? Let us know, and we’ll make sure it gets done, just as deliciously as all the others! // Starting at$9.95 each for 6”-8” cookies and $4.50 each for 4’’ cookies.

Who doesn’t love glitter?! Especially around this time of year? Place an order for our Holiday Glitter Bon-Bons… a unique gift to give to that special someone who has everything. Delicious rich chocolate bon-bons covered in holiday sparkle. // A 4-piece gift box is $7.99 and an 8-piece gift box is $14.99.

…and who doesn’t love a good Chocolate Covered Pretzel? They’re simply sublime! A gourmet assortment of chocolate covered pretzels gorgeously wrapped and ready to go. A 4-piece gift box is $8.95 and a 9-piece gift box $18.95.

Another one of our favorite options for #SweetTreat gifts… Gourmet Apples – our crisp and tart Granny Smith apples are dipped in creamy caramel and covered with loads of toppings and rich chocolate – 8 flavors to choose from, each individually wrapped. // 1 lb apples (4-6 servings) is $11.95 each, a box of 4 Mini Caramel Apple is $14.95 each.

We’re also offering Individual Holiday Treats…

Caramel Pecan Popcorn $5.75
Santa Bag Stuffed with Assorted Mini Pretzels (8 pieces) $10.50
Large Chocolate Dipped Pretzels $2.50
Chocolate Dipped Oreo $2.75 each
Chocolate Dipped Oreo, 6-pack gift box $16.95

One more gift idea and that’s all she wrote… Our fun Cake Truffle Pops are the perfect few bites of a rich and creamy cake covered in chocolate and garnished to dress up any party. Prices, below 🙂

$1.75 each Drizzled
$2.50 each Glittered
$3.25 each Elaborate
8-piece gift box $17.25
12- piece gift box $25.00

All gifts are customizable to be themed for Christmas, Hanukkah, or Neutral – just let us know when you place your order. To place your order, give us a call at 412-772-1283 or e-mail bellachristiez@gmail.com.

Sweetly Yours,
The Bella Christiez Sweet Team

It’s Beginning to Look a lot like…

Good morning, BCZ Readers!

Thanks for stopping by =) It’s getting to be that time of year, it’s getting colder – the days are getting shorter and we’re getting excited for the holidays. We can’t believe how fast time has flown, it’s already the 2014 Holiday Season! And naturally, we’re celebrating with all things custom-sweets. It’s so much fun to see the orders that come in every year, they’re different every time! And… oh-so-creative.

In prep for the holiday season, we wanted to give you all the necessary details for placing orders, times we’re open – times we’re closed and what to expect from now until January 1st.

Thanksgiving is coming up and we hope you’ll be spending the day with your family and good friends, fill yourselves with stuffing and green bean casserole (or cupcakes that look like them ;-), see picture below). And while you’ll be celebrating – so will we. Our doors are closed Thursday and Friday, November 27th & 28th. Normal hours on Wednesday… the day before TurkeyDay and regular hours resume the Saturday, afterwards.

We’ll fill you in on Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanza/etc. coming in December. But! As a rule of thumb: place all orders for your special holiday parties – AS SOON AS POSSIBLE =) The earlier we get your orders in, the better! The last day to place orders for Thanksgiving is Monday, November 24th.

Before we go today – wanted to introduce you to our newest holiday-related creations… The Cookie & Cupcake Trays. How convenient for festivities, eh? Please also see our Thanksgiving Flyer 2014 for inspiration for orders and pricing!

bella christiez, pittsburgh bakery — Cupcake Tray

Sweetly Yours,
The Bella Christiez Sweet Team

Station of the Month: Liquid Nitrogen

Doesn’t Liquid Nitrogen just sound cool?! Literally, sometimes we can’t get over it either. Let’s just dive right in, what exactly is a Liquid Nitrogen Station and what does it have to do with a Pittsburgh Bake Shop?

Well, thanks to co-owner, Kadee – while in Miami, she taste-tested a Liquid Nitrogen Shot. After one too many shots (*wink) and laying beneath the night stars – she thought to herself “We could totally incorporate this into our Sweet Treats at Bella Christie’s & Lil’ Z’s!” And there you have it, the Liquid Nitrogen (bakery version) was born!

Q: So what all can you enjoy if you have a #BellaChristiez LN Station at one of your weddings, mitzvahs, corporate parties, birthday parties (or really, any party or get together!)?

A: Flash Frozen Treats: This popular station flash freezes an array of your favorite treats, such as marshmallows, apples, bananas, and brownies. Frozen treats can be dipped in chocolate, caramel, peanut butter, biscoff, or “Nutella”. Guests can choose to dip their treat in one, two, or all three dips for our famous “Triple Nitro Dip”.

Ice Cream / Ice Cream Sandwiches: Delicious hand crafted ice cream. Our fresh crème anglaise base is flash frozen using liquid nitrogen right in front of your guests’ eyes! Your guests will choose from vanilla or chocolate ice cream, then they can select from an assortment of toppings and sauces to create their prefect dessert! We can also create an ice cream sandwich using chocolate chip, oatmeal, or M&M cookies or peanut butter, HoHo, or triple chocolate brownies!

Frozen Cocktail Sorbets: For adults only! Cocktails are flash frozen into delicious cocktail sorbets. Clients will choose and provide 2-3 “signature” drinks to be flash frozen. Popular drinks are Cosmopolitans, Mudslides, Strawberry Lemon Drops, White Russians, or create your own! NOTE: Non-alcoholic beverages can also be flash frozen. *Alcohol/drinks will be provided by the client or venue. Kids’s cocktail sorbets: Kids can bring their soda-pop, juice, or Shirley Temple to the liquid nitrogen station to watch it become a refreshing sorbet!

Mmm, oh yes – how tasty do all of the above sound? If you want your event to stand out from the rest, our unique liquid nitrogen stations can help! These special treats are created right before your eyes through a flash freezing process using liquid nitrogen at -320*! This Sweet Treat Station is extremely popular – so we advise you booking, as soon as you know you want it – months in advance.

Sweetly Yours,
The Bella Christiez Sweet Team

Halloween is here!

All Hallow’s Eve – the kick-off of the holiday season! We’re still enjoying the crisp, cool fall weather, looking forward to a night of dressing up and trick or treating with our children, family or friends. It’s a fun time of year! Which means it’s even more FUN for us in the bakery!

Custom Halloween Cupcakes/Cakes/Creations couldn’t be more fun to bake and make. We’ve featured a few ‘fall related’ wedding cakes these past blog posts – but now, we’re really shifting into the Halloween spirit!

Have you ever visited us in Aspinwall? (Our first of 2! locations) After walking through the big pink doors, to your left you see a display table – full of our latest creations. And these next weeks, all we are seeing is custom Ghost & Boo cookies, pumpkin-shaped rice krispie treats & candy corn, and chocolate bar goodie bags.

We also just did a Halloween #SweetTable for a party. Frankenstein & Pumpkins were amongst the sugar cookie portion of the display. Ghosts, scary – hairy purple & green monsters lined the cupcake part of the table… and our most note worthy piece to finish off this B.C. S.T. was he 3-tier Frankenstein + Skeleton + Pumpkin Cake! From the bottom up, each layer custom iced-fit to its character.

Adding zest to this Halloween season – we have carmel apple, apple chai, and salted carmel flavored options! And even though we aren’t quite to Thanksgiving, just yet! …we are starting to make our famous pies! Blueberry, triple berry, pumpkin, apple and pecan. Did we forget to mention? Those pie-flavors come in pie-pop devours, too!

Before we go – stay tuned to our Social feeds next week – we’ll be featuring our Halloween-themed favorites!

There are more pictures, below*

Sweetly Yours,
The Bella Christiez Team

#EmployeeSpotlight: Anastasia – Head Pastry Chef

Good morning, Bella Christiez Readers!

It’s that time again – Our Employee of the Month Spotlight… this time around we are featuring, Anastasia – our Head Pastry Chef. The passion behind her craft goes beyond – “It’s science, its art, and much more! I love that I can focus on creating and building something that brings others much joy!” Anastasia says.

Anastasia originally enrolled to go to school for fashion merchandising…

Q: Did you go to school for pastry arts or did you just have a passion for it?
A: I originally enrolled to go to school for fashion merchandising, realized I would not be happy in the long run, and decided to give my favorite hobby of baking/cooking a whirl. I am so glad I did. I love what I do! Plus this new fad with cats on clothing, I could never get behind.

Q: How long have you been creating pastries?
A: I have been professionally baking for about seven years. I tried to cook when I was little, had no direction, quit… and revisited the craft in high school.

Q: What is your past experience with pastries?
A: I have been lucky to learn a lot everywhere I have worked around Pittsburgh. I have worked in a small bake

house, grocery stores, café/bakeries, and catering. Breakfast to dessert, every day baked goods to dietary friendly (vegan, gluten free, sugar free).

And then we asked Anastasia what her favorite pastry was to make… “There are a few favorites but gourmet cheesecakes are my absolute favorite! My favorite to EAT, pain au chocolate!!” Which we can all surely tell you, not only are they her favorites to make – they’re our favorites to eat, so delicious.

Q: Do you experiment often with different styles and techniques?
A: When I can, I’m always willing to learn, exercise my skills and grow!!! What’s great about Bella’s is that there is always something new and creative thrown my away.

We love that too – it’s not everyday you get someone to ask you to make an upside down wedding cake… we totally agree with Anastasia – we’re always honing our skills, someone comes in with something super creative and different, almost everyday!

We asked Anastasia what her daily schedule looked like and how she fit her Pastry Chef-awesomeness, in…
“First, {I} greet everyone with a good morning, grab some coffee, then start to organize my daily production and get to baking!”

Does she bake at home? “Yes, I love to bake and cook at home! It is always interesting to see what I can create out of all the random ingredients I have laying around the kitchen!”

And, of course – we had to ask… what is your favorite part about working at Bella Christie and Lil’ Z’s?

I think the group of people working at Bella Christie’s is pretty special! I am happy to be a part of such a hard working and deserving team. I also enjoy what I get to create, I do not think I will ever get bored of our menu and ever evolving offerings!!!

And before we go… here are some fun questions we ask Anastasia – cheers to getting to know all about her!!

Q: Who is your celebrity crush?
A: Hands down, I Love Harrison Ford! …Favorite celebrity chef is Michael Simon!

Q: If you could live in any other country for 2 years where would you go?
A: I think about this all the time! I would love to live in France on a working farm! Although I want to travel the world my top places to visit are France, Greece, Austria and Italy.

Q: What are your favorite Pittsburgh restaurants?
A: So many to choose from, but a few I will always go back to:
Breakfast: Coca Café, Lunch/Dinner: BRGR, Dinner: Casbah, Dessert: Milkshake Factory!\

That’s a wrap, folks!

Sweetly Yours,
The Bella Christiez Team

*All images pictured are Pastry Creations by Anastasia.

#FallWedding, Congrats Amy & Andrew!

Good morning, Bella Christiez Readers! bczwedding, custom cake, pittsburgh Thanks for stopping by today =) How is your October getting its start? We hope rather sweetly – with pumpkin flavored everything. It’s one of our favorite times of year to bake. We love creating fall and halloween-themed custom cookies, cakes, cake pops, & sweet tables. And do you remember when we talked about fall weddings a few weeks ago? Fall weddings, are amongst the ‘favorites’, too!

Today we’re featuring one of the most recent nuptials of the brand-new season: Amber and Andrew Good married at Buhl Mansion in Sharon, PA – Thursday, September 25, 2014.

Mr. & Mrs. Good choose a simple fall-themed wedding cake to bake… 3 tiers with white buttercream icing, and real fondant pumpkins for a little decor. Add on some of those custom fall caramel apple bites and pie pops. Pie Pops – we’ve never talked about those… but yes – dreams to come true, we have all different flavors for the season: blackberry, blueberry, pecan, and of course apple and pumpkin. Amber & Andrew’s wedding was quite the inspiration. You can pick from any fun-fall flavors to make your custom cake or cupcakes — pumpkin cake with a cinnamon cream cheese filling, vanilla cake with a pumpkin mousse filling, or apple cake with an apple compote filling. Yum! Thank you, to the newlyweds for letting us share their BC Wedding Story… we were so excited to talk details and blogging with them – we’ve decided to amp up our featured Weddings on this here blog =) Stay tuned to the feeds and make sure to hashtag #BCZWedding anytime you see our Sweet Treats at a ceremony, and visit us back here… maybe your any-themed Wedding will be here, within these pages. Yours Sweetly, The Bella Christiez Team

Donut Station, Best in the Nation

Oh yes – you read us right, we have a Donut Station! …fully equipped, open for travel and popping out hot & ready donuts, right there – in front of your eyes. She’s quite the site to see, we can assure you. And this amazing invention can be yours, anywhere – Weddings, Mitzvahs, Anniversary Parties, Baby Showers, Bridal Showers, Birthday Parties, Graduation Parties, Corporate Parties, Holiday Parties… whatever type of gathering you can dream of, we can create delicious fresh donuts!

The flavors we come up with are just marvelous, too… pretty much anything your #sweettreat heart can desire – glazed, cinnamon sugar, peanut butter cup, oreo, almond torte, sprinkles, coffee cake crumble, and a ton more!

The Donut Station is actually so popular that here at Bella Christie’s… we’ve had to recently add another Donut Station to our inventory! During Wedding Season, both stations are completely booked (so reserve them early, folks!).

Q: How did the inception of such a fabulous portable Sweet Station arise?
A: When the owners first started getting into this business they noticed that at Weddings and Events people were more inclined to eat mini desserts. So they started researching everything mini …and found mini donuts. Then, they promptly found a cart to use for easy, on-location manufacture and also had travel capabilities.

It takes two #BellaChristiez Sugar Fairies to run this sweet station. They’ll be behind the bar, smiling with their pink uniforms on and all sugared up and ready to create!

Q: What’s a cool, fun-fact about our beloved, Donut Station – that’s Best in the Nation?
A: The donut station needs to be setup a couple hours in advance… our Sugar Fairies need to allow some time for the station to fully heat it up in order for the donuts to fried into perfection and ready as soon as it’s dessert time!

Would you like to reserve our Donut Station for your next big event? Give Amanda a call at 412-772-1283 =)

Sweetly Yours,
The Bella Christiez Team

Lawrenceville Highlights

Good morning, @bellachristiez readers!

Thank you for stopping by, we’re happy to have you this morning. Today we are digging into all things our Lawrenceville location. We’re talking about what makes it special, what makes it unique & we’re also sharing a few quotes from our employees that work there.

“My favorite thing about Lawrenceville is that it is a revitalized and young community filled with welcoming people who bring so much more charm to our Sweet Boutique!” -Jon B., Bella Christiez – Lawrenceville, Employee.

Q: What’s our featured baked good?

A: Well – we like to specialize in Gluten Free Treats, Vegan Treats, and made-to-order sandwiches. Creating those Gluten Free and Vegan Treats is super important – there are so many folks suffering from gluten issues and it’s great to have vegan options for those who live by a strict Vegan diet… they need sweets too! Chocolate covered pretzels, rice krispie treats and candy can all be found on display (and for sale!) at our Lawrenceville location.

“Our customers walk-in our Lawrenceville location and immediately fall in love with how unqiue our sweets are setup. They are even more impressed once they taste how good everything is!” -Kiera B, Bella Christiez – Lawrenceville, Employee.

Q: What else is amazing about Lawrenceville?
A: We have – count em – one, TWO – floors =) On the bottom we have our Sweet Boutique store front. Walk in and choose from all sorts of sweet treats… we have coffee, breakfast pastries, and made-to-order sandwiches for your morning and mid-day foodie routines. After you grab your sweet treat – head on up the stairs to our dual purpose room – also used for parties and business meetings! Long tables, chairs & privacy.

“I love working in Lawrenceville because I have lived here my whole life and it is so great to be a part of one of the many ‘up and coming’ businesses that is responsible for its new livelihood.” -Carly M, Bella Christiez – Lawrenceville, Employee.

Lawrenceville is also the only location that has donuts, ready and hot – every single day! Located in one of Pittsburgh’s trendiest districts, with free on-street parking and the city’s only FryDaddy Station known-to-man.

Q: What’s a FryDaddy Station?
A: Think of the best carnival sweet you’ve ever had and that is what the FryDaddy Station is! Fried Oreos, twinkies funnel cakes – as far as the sweet-eye can dream! Before we leave you today – don’t forget to call us in Lawrenceville to schedule your party or business affair, upstairs 😉 412-687-1265.

Sweetly Yours,
The Bella Christiez Sweet Team

Yelp’s #BurghBash

Well, we are super excited to be participating Thursday’s #BurghBash! The Pittsburgh Public Market will host one of the most massive FREE events! And we’ll be participating – throwing complimentary all the way! You’ll be sure to see one (or two!) of our Sweet Tables set up at this shindig.

We’re super excited to be involved! Ms. Carlson was nice enough to be a sponsor and we were glad to accept it!

Q: So what do guests do?
A: Throw on your favorite Pittsburgh tee or sport those black and gold colors then head down to the Pittsburgh Public Market on Thursday, September 18 from 8 to 10pm.

DJD PGH will be spinning tunes while the crowd sips on some adult bevvies and samples delectable bites from the best local businesses. We’ll have a live artist, pinball, and screen printing

In addition to free food and drinks from local vendors, attendees will enjoy a variety of entertainment – from live art demo’s created by Baron Batch to gaming from Bradish Street Pinball and beauty bar courtesy of Metamorphosis Salon. A $5 suggested donation at the door will benefit Pittsburgh Public Market.

Photos to to continue on Social Media – follow along, @bellachristiez on Twitter and Instagram and ‘Like’ us on Facebook.com/bellachristieandlilzsweetboutique.