About

   Allow me to introduce myself:

 

   My name is Alexandra. I’m the creative mind and the driving force behind Heart & Sugar Confections. On top of being a designer, a baker and a chocolatier, I’m also an extremely proud mom of one remarkable and handsome boy Vlad (who is my biggest supporter) and the privileged wife of the incredible husband Bruce!

  We are currently living in the hills of Santa Maria Valley about 10 miles east of the Pacific Ocean, California. We share our home with several pets: a cat (Mika), 3 dogs (Charlie, Nana and Baby) and of course, our chicken.

  My life story begins in Kaliningrad, Russia, where I was born and raised. It’s a big seaport city on the Baltic Sea, formerly known as Konigsberg, the city of German Royalty in the Eastern Prussian Empire.

   I spent most of my childhood in a “beautiful, magical and mysterious place”- my mom’s work. At that time she was working as a head librarian in The Kaliningrad Regional Drama Theater. During touring seasons the likes of Bolshoi Theatre, Mariinsky Ballet and other renowned theatre companies were performing at our local stage. Needless to say it was a very inspiring place for an impressionable little girl... My days were spent reading books and trying on stage costumes, playing on sets and sneaking in to dress rehearsals helped “unlock” my creative side and soon enough I was enrolled into Kaliningrad School of Arts at a tender age of 10, the youngest student to date. Although the art classes didn’t turn me into another Malevich (my favorite artist), they most definitely gave me a better understanding of how to use a wide variety of artistic tools and techniques and provided the groundwork for my future endeavors at Heart and Sugar.

 My other passion is food… After completing my studies in Culinary Arts at St. Petersburg, Russia I’ve been very lucky to travel the world, visiting Europe, Middle East and North America and learning from various world cuisines, national food traditions and of course, never forgetting to savor the local sweets, deserts and chocolates. These travels have given me lots of inspiration and great new ideas for my own creations.

  I'm the younger of two sisters. A lot of my fondest and most cherished memories are those I shared with my parents. My dad always made me feel like a princess, he read me my fist book, showed me the Big Dipper in the night sky. From him I picked up love and understanding of nature and the passion for creating something by hand... My mom made me believe that anything was possible and taught me to find beauty in everything.

 

  Every birthday eve, my sister and I would fall asleep to the sounds of the food mixer in the kitchen as our mom worked her magic creating our birthday cake for the following day.  My mom was made the cakes with an incredible amount of love. She put so much of her HEART in them and of course, she couldn’t do it without a bit of SUGAR. The best part of every birthday was waking up in the morning and wondering what cake she had made this year.

  So when my son was born (I guess I should mention, 4th of July 2008 :)) one of the first joyful thoughts I had was: “Wow! Now I can do the same for him!”… And that’s how it all got started!!

 

Heart & Sugar Confections was a long-cherished dream of mine and now I am happy to share it with you! 

                                                                                                                                                      XOXO

                                                                                                                                         Alexandra (aka Sasha)