Here at Les Enfants, every so often we come across somebody who blows our minds. Alana Jones-Mann falls very firmly within that description.
Alana’s stunningly detailed cake creations have earned her over 28,000 followers on Instagram, and it is very easy to see why. Her gorgeous treats are backed up by a wonderful blog, that features recipes and ‘How To’ guides for each of these fantastic bakes, and other DIY projects too.
Alana works as a stylist, baker, blogger and general craft goddess in her beautiful home in Los Angeles. She has worked for a wide range of impressive clients and has had her work featured on countless lifestyle and wedding sites, including The New York Post, ABC News and Martha Stewart Weddings. The last feature was particularly exciting for Jones-Mann, who admits:
“I’ve always been obsessed with Martha Stewart. When I was a kid, probably about Fourth grade, I would sprint home from school to stop the VHS recorder and watch the full Martha episode from that day.”
Alana suspects that her crafty nature was inherited from her mum, who used to create fantastic props for her birthday parties.
“Once I had a Lion King birthday party and she made these enormous trees from bunched-up craft paper. We have 12-foot ceilings in our living room and they reached the ceiling. The branches turned into vines that went all throughout the house, so that it looked like a jungle. Each kid had a branch, and they had to follow the vine to see where it went, and at the end of the vine was their goody bag. That’s how they entered the party.”
Her favourite projects include some of our favourites too, her famous cactus cupcakes, agate slice cookies and gemstone cupcakes. The agate cookies in particular fascinate us! They are completely hand painted, and have a gorgeous sugar crust. This focus on detail is evident in so much of the baker’s work, and her hand finishes are just gorgeous.
Give the cookies a go yourself by following the recipe right here.
One of our favourite projects is this stunning Otomi Embroidery Cake. The stunning pattern was inspired by Mexican embroidery, and was created using fifteen different colours of home made buttercream. Alana carved into the finished buttercream using a tooth pick to create the hand stitched finish.
We are also head over heels for her most recent DIY piece, these gorgeous handmade crystal soaps. These are made even better for the fact that we came across some very, very similar soaps in a designer store recently for £15 each, and now we know how to make them ourselves!
Well, we have a lot to get on with. Mainly shopping for glycerin soap base, soap dye, sugar crystals and making 15 different shades of buttercream.
If, like us, you have been inspired by Alana, check our her website, and don’t forget to follow her on instagram, facebook and pinterest!
