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- about -
Welcome to Creative Confections!
Hi! I'm Laura Michele. I am passionate about all things creative. In addition to being a chocolatier and baker, I am a jazz/pop pianist, singer and piano teacher, a writer, and a salsa dancer. I am a certified Orff Schulwerk teacher; I taught music and creative movement to thousands of children in my 24-year career in the Palo Alto school district, specializing in arts-curriculum integration. I also created a staff development program teaching kindergarten teachers how to integrate music and movement into their classroom curriculum.
How I Got Started with Confections...
Following in my mother's footsteps, I made elaborate character cakes for my two children each year on their birthdays. When I started making cakes for grown-ups, I had an idea to take people's photographs and render them in chocolate to put on top of the cakes. At first the process took many hours, as I did not understand how to control the chocolate, so I sought to learn more about this temperamental medium.
In September, 2019 I took the Professional Chocolatier course at the online school, Ecole Chocolat. Not only did I learn how to better work with chocolate for my portraits, I also learned how to temper the chocolate and make bonbons with various fillings and decorations. I soon became obsessed and fell madly in love with chocolate making. I have spent countless hours since, taking various advanced courses from distinguished chocolatiers such as Chef Kalle Jungstedt, various chefs in Barry Callebeaut's The Chocolate Academy and many more. You can often find me, notebook in hand, surfing chocolate-making content in online chef forums, YouTube and social media, or reading one of my many chocolate making books.
My Sweet Creations...
I am an outside-the (chocolate)- box thinker. I love inventing unique flavor combinations for my chocolates and my cakes. I take my flavor combinations seriously; I obsess for days about creating the perfect flavor combination of fruits, herbs, nuts, spices etc. When designing a cake, I imagine and diagram the layers with various flavored soaks, fillings, icings, fondants and/or toppings, until, keeping the recipient in mind, I arrive upon a combination that makes me jump and shout! Then, choosing from my myriad of different sized and shaped cake pans, I get to work!
My planning process is similar for making chocolates. I spend days pondering and imagining different flavor combinations, drawing diagrams of bonbons with contrasting yet complimentary flavors, shapes colors and painting techniques, until I feel I have a cohesive "collection" of chocolates. Then my excitement goes through the roof and I get busy!
I become positively giddy at the oportunity to combine cake and chocolate making, like when I can put a personalized chocolate portrait on top of a carefully constructed cake or when I get to make unique chocolate decorations to adorn my cakes. Each cake and each collection of chocolates translates to hours and hours of planning, designing, purchasing, making, baking, constructing, packaging and delivering (and, of course, several days of cleaning!). I love every moment of the process (except maybe the cleaning...).
As a human who cares deeply about other humans and maintaining the planet that graciously provides us with our place of residence, I am strict about ensuring that all farmers who grow my ingrededients are paid a fair, living wage. I am also adament about using organic ingredients as well as compostable packaging.
It is an honor and a privilege to be able to take my creativity, my passion for chocolate and my love of cake baking and create the confections of your dreams for you!
How I Got Started with Confections...
Following in my mother's footsteps, I made elaborate character cakes for my two children each year on their birthdays. When I started making cakes for grown-ups, I had an idea to take people's photographs and render them in chocolate to put on top of the cakes. At first the process took many hours, as I did not understand how to control the chocolate, so I sought to learn more about this temperamental medium.
In September, 2019 I took the Professional Chocolatier course at the online school, Ecole Chocolat. Not only did I learn how to better work with chocolate for my portraits, I also learned how to temper the chocolate and make bonbons with various fillings and decorations. I soon became obsessed and fell madly in love with chocolate making. I have spent countless hours since, taking various advanced courses from distinguished chocolatiers such as Chef Kalle Jungstedt, various chefs in Barry Callebeaut's The Chocolate Academy and many more. You can often find me, notebook in hand, surfing chocolate-making content in online chef forums, YouTube and social media, or reading one of my many chocolate making books.
My Sweet Creations...
I am an outside-the (chocolate)- box thinker. I love inventing unique flavor combinations for my chocolates and my cakes. I take my flavor combinations seriously; I obsess for days about creating the perfect flavor combination of fruits, herbs, nuts, spices etc. When designing a cake, I imagine and diagram the layers with various flavored soaks, fillings, icings, fondants and/or toppings, until, keeping the recipient in mind, I arrive upon a combination that makes me jump and shout! Then, choosing from my myriad of different sized and shaped cake pans, I get to work!
My planning process is similar for making chocolates. I spend days pondering and imagining different flavor combinations, drawing diagrams of bonbons with contrasting yet complimentary flavors, shapes colors and painting techniques, until I feel I have a cohesive "collection" of chocolates. Then my excitement goes through the roof and I get busy!
I become positively giddy at the oportunity to combine cake and chocolate making, like when I can put a personalized chocolate portrait on top of a carefully constructed cake or when I get to make unique chocolate decorations to adorn my cakes. Each cake and each collection of chocolates translates to hours and hours of planning, designing, purchasing, making, baking, constructing, packaging and delivering (and, of course, several days of cleaning!). I love every moment of the process (except maybe the cleaning...).
As a human who cares deeply about other humans and maintaining the planet that graciously provides us with our place of residence, I am strict about ensuring that all farmers who grow my ingrededients are paid a fair, living wage. I am also adament about using organic ingredients as well as compostable packaging.
It is an honor and a privilege to be able to take my creativity, my passion for chocolate and my love of cake baking and create the confections of your dreams for you!