As Valentine’s Day approaches, Sacramentans may be in search of something sweet to impress that special someone, and The Sacramento Press found just the place to go when a store-bought box of chocolates simply won’t do. Sacramento native Melissa Johnson took her love of all things sweet and launched an online dessert magazine that features what she said are the Web’s most delicious sweet treats. Best Friends for Frosting offers an eclectic collection of recipes and trends that are gathered from the hippest, freshest dessert blogs in a forum that offers bakers one-stop shopping. Johnson said she started baking when she was a little girl and dreamed of opening a bakery. She started a blog

Whether you are hunting for speckled eggs or spending time with loved ones, don’t forget to stop by local eateries for their special Easter desserts this weekend. Get ready for the cuteness overload. Freeport Bakery 2966 Freeport Blvd. Freeport Bakery has a beautiful display of Easter decorations and a variety of creative and beautiful cookies, cupcakes and large cakes. You can purchase bunny, duck or Easter egg cookies in a bag, box, on a tray or by the piece. You can also purchase rich chocolate or golden buttermilk cupcakes, topped with buttercream or chocolate frosting and Easter decorations.  Each cupcake is $2.95. There are a variety of cakes available on their Easter menu, i

Saturday, Cafe Au Lait will host Sacramento’s Bake Sale for Japan to raise money for victims of the recent earthquake and tsunami devastation in Japan. The Bake Sale for Japan is a national bake sale held on April 2 at bakeries, restaurants and other places featuring baked goods. Milena Pointer, who works as a nanny, and is one of the also an organizers for the Sacramento bake sale. Pointer viewed videos of the destruction in Japan and said she wanted to find a way to help. “If it happened to us, if it happened to America, we would need help,” Pointer said. “Any person with a heart would feel like they like they need to do something. The difference is some people act on that feeling, an

Ginger Elizabeth Hahn, owner of Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates, taught two sold-out classes Saturday to more than 70 students on how to prepare "French Desserts from the Orchard." The classes were held in the L Street Lofts penthouse across the street from Hahn's store. The students learned how to make four different desserts, all focused on fruits available to the Sacramento region. Hahn said this time of year is always good for fruit desserts, and this year especially. "This is the best plum season we've had in four or five years," she said. The first dessert was a cherry clafoutis, a cherry and flan-like batter dessert. Infusing vanilla bean into the cream, pitting cherries, and achiev

Several years ago, Ginger Elizabeth Hahn opened her wholesale chocolate operation, Couture Chocolates by Ginger Elizabeth, on nothing but a $5,000-limit credit card. After a name change to make it simpler, and a lot of dedication, her Midtown store Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates is now one of Sacramento's premier chocolate boutiques. Hahn studied under famous chocolatiers like Jacques "Mr. Chocolate" Torres, Daniel Budd and En-Ming Hsu, and opened her store at the age of 24. Today, her store produces about 3,000 French-style square-cut truffles per week (22 kinds in all), cakes and a handful of other chocolate-based foods. Hahn grew up in the foothills, but it was a course at Culinary Insti

Saturday morning I contemplated whether or not I should eat breakfast. My stomach was inexperienced with grub crawls, the Eat Your Art Out Crawl would be my very first. I settled on eating something small. Luckily I lived close enough to walk to the captain meeting place and by the time I had gathered my team's bags and badges, my stomach was growling. Of the 18 restaurants and dining establishments in the Crawl, I had eaten at all of them but five.  My team, Team Snuffleupagus, started at Brew It Up! where a fruit platter and blue cheese kettle chips awaited. This was a good warmup for the digestive system, not too heavy, and easy to eat. Lucca was one of the restaurants I hadn't tri