FEATURED on "The Wedding Chicks"

One of my wedding cakes is included with a wedding that is featured on "The Wedding Chicks" blog... Check it out HERE!

Lemon buddies... like muddy buddies but lemony

I finally found a teaching job about a month ago and have, therefore, been a blogging slacker!  In the spirit of being busy and needing fast, easy recipes, I made some "lemon buddies".  They are a chex recipe like muddy buddies,  which is also called puppy chow, or white trash...but the lemon version is lighter and more sophisticated.

First, here is the original muddy buddy recipe.  It's very rich and very addicting... 

9	cups Rice Chex®, Corn Chex® or Chocolate Chex® cereal (or combination)
1	cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2	cup peanut butter
1/4	cup butter or margarine
1	teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2	cups powdered sugar

1.	Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.
2.	In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.
3.	Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

And here is the lemon recipe... 

9	cups Rice Chex® cereal
1 1/4	cups white vanilla baking chips
1/4	cup butter or margarine
4	teaspoons grated lemon peel
2	tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2	cups powdered sugar

1.	Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.
2.	In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chips, butter, lemon peel and juice uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.
3.	Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; gently shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper or foil to cool. Store in airtight container. Both take only 15 minutes from start to finish!

Cookies cookies everywhere

I got my first real order for 50 baby-shower cookies from a girl at Ben's company.

There were a few things I learned: 1) a batch of cookie dough makes about 3-dozen cookies, so make a batch and a half for 50 cookies 2) The price I came up with is right, I will no longer under-value my time; these were very labor intensive 3) No matter how much my hand hurts from squeezing, don't let Ben decorate any cookies; it's harder than it looks 4) Chocolate flavored fondant actually tastes good 5) Making cookies is fun! ...well, I already knew that one.

The baby shower colors were brown and purple and I was sure I could find ribbon to match but Michael's and Jo-Anne fabrics had pink&brown, blue&brown, yellow&brown, orange&brown, green&brown but absolutely NO purple&brown!  So, I just got purple ribbon and brown ribbon...

I thought the finished product looked quite trendy and the place to sell trendy things is, of course, Etsy.  So, everyone can now buy custom decorated cookies from "The Shy Cookie" on Etsy and I will ship them to you! Click Here!

Fall Flavors

Tis the season for everything pumpkin... lattes, donuts, frappes, ice cream, beer... and I LOVE it!

In honor of my favorite season and flavors, I decided to make some new cake recipes that will include pumpkin, apple-spice, and salted caramel.  YUMMM!  Any other suggestions?

First up, PUMPKIN spice cupcakes.  (picture to come soon... I can't find the camera)

"CriCut" cookies

I decorated a couple cookies with shapes cut out with my "CriCut Cake".  I used one of Wilton's "sugar sheets" and was rather disappointed.  They don't say the sheets are compatible with the cricut, but I don't imagine them working all that well with their little punches either.  I'm not sure if any of you have seen these punches but you have to buy one for every shape you want to make, that would take up A LOT of storage space.  Wilton has never let me down before, but I think they missed the mark with this one.  The sheets are too darn brittle; I guess I will just keep rolling out my own gumpaste for the cricut; it's cheaper anyway.

COOKIES!

Maybe I should specialize in cookies... I could do this all day!

There were a few different things I wanted to make for my portfolio.  First, I made some DC cookies since we're in DC now and that would be a cool thing for DC themed weddings or even business meetings.

Then, I decided to practice some cookies inspired by my sister's wedding theme and colors (kind of; I used more of a blue than a teal).

And last but not least, I thought it would of course be awesome to have "the shy cookie" spelled out in, what else? ...cookies!

Cake Pops! (Day 2)

After the cake cooled, the next step is to DESTROY the cake!  This is the only time a cake decorator will not have a heart attack when a cake is turned into crumbs.  Then, you add icing to the crumbs, form them into balls, and stick sticks in them.  I put the cake pops in the freezer at this point.

The next step it to dip the cake pops and add sprinkles or decorate them however you want.  I just rolled mine in sprinkles and, since I wasn't really making them for anyone, I made them to match my wedding colors...

Next time I make these I will make them smaller, the amount of cake I used was too heavy for the stick.  I would also like to try decorating them in different ways!

Cake Pops! (Day 1)

One of my former students reminded me today that I have been meaning to make some oh-so-trendy cake pops to keep up with the times, so here we go...

Most of the "easy" recipes I have seen require a box mix and a can of icing, but I'm going with the "from scratch" method.

To start out, you have to bake a cake and I am experimenting with another new recipe. The recipe I decided to try is the "Perfectly Chocolate" chocolate cake on the back of the Hersey's cocoa container. I figure "Since 1894" they must have perfected the chocolate cake by now.

I like this recipe because it is very easy and requires no heating or melting of chocolate.  You just have to add a cup of boiling water but you can stick that in the microwave.  The cake turned out light, fluffy, moist, and oober-delicious.  It looks as though I was correct with my assumption.

The cake has to cool before making the pops, I and I don't have everything I need to decorate them, so I will continue this adventure tomorrow after a trip to Michaels ;)

Review The Shy Cookie at WeddingWire

Once I have 3 reviews, I can put the "WeddingWire Rated" logo on my website...

On our way to fame... well, in a small-town sort of way

Is that a "The Shy Cookie" cake on the home page of another business's website?  Sure is!

www.bradleyjamesphotography.com

Waiting...

I'm officially on the waiting list for the "Old Town Alexandria Farmers' Market"!  Unfortunately, that list is 2 years long... *sigh.  Maybe I should bite the bullet and pay $850 to get a booth at the DC bridal show?

Rental Kitchen part 2

We went this morning and looked at the rental kitchen.  The place looks like a house with nothing but kitchens in every room.  There where people working in every kitchen when we got there around 7am.  Apparently, they are always busy in the morning.  One group was from a cupcake company who has a storefront in town but no kitchen... they bake in the rental kitchen in the morning, and then take everything to their retail store; interesting idea.

The kitchen I would be renting wasn't AMAZING, and it has a steep staircase which would be scary with decorated cakes, but it will do, and it will be legal.  Now, all I need is customers!  I am going to look into a possible bridal show or magazine to round some people up.  I am also working on getting a spot at the Old Town Alexandria Farmers' Market which runs year-round every Saturday from 5:30am to 11:00am.

If you have any other ideas about where I can sell things or find customers, let me know!

New Recipes

I decided to start trying new cake recipes with all of this free I have.  Yesterday I made a yellow cake with butter and butter milk (can't be good for you).  This was my first time baking at my new apartment so I discovered my gas oven bakes hot; the cupcakes were a little over-done in only about 10 minutes.

I also ran out of space in my cupcake pans so I used paper liners by "cupcake creations" that I got at Hobby Lobby a while ago.  They say on the package "...there is no muffin pan necessary when using these baking papers".  Having tried this before with regular cupcake liners, and making a HUGE mess, I did not believe them for a second.  They also say "...grease proof" meaning they will keep their color.  Again, I didn't really believe it because the only liners I have seen that keep their color are coated with foil on the inside and these were not.

Much to my surprise, they really did work without a pan and they did keep their color after baking them.  I would love to have more of these if you're trying to think of a good Christmas present for me :-D

So, the yellow cake turned out alright.. I think it would be better if they were baked a little less (the hot oven thing really caught me off guard).  I sent them to work with Ben to see what the taste-testers have to say.

The recipe I would really like to perfect before Thanksgiving is pumpkin cheesecake.  I think I can sell a lot of pumpkin and pecan pies at the farmers' market in November and the pumpkin cheesecake would be a great addition.  Now that I have a place to bake, the next step is getting a spot at a market!

Rental Kitchen

I talked to a guy today about a rental kitchen.  His business is called "Homemade" and I'm not 100% sure what they do besides renting out their kitchen but they are wholesale only.  Anyway, he told me if I want to start my own business, I need to get a business license, a food handling license, a safety inspection, etc.  OR, he said I can still do what I want to do and work under his company and use their licenses.  However, I am not sure what this will mean for advertising as "The Shy Cookie".  He also said he can give me access to wholesale ingredients by adding whatever I need to his usual order... another plus.

Ben and I are going over to look at the kitchen tomorrow morning.  I need to get some business before I will even be able to use the place.  I was also thinking about baking as much stuff as I can in 4 hours (that's their minimum rental time) and taking it to the farmers' market to see what happens. hmmmmm

Curley/Pinkerton Wedding

This is a cake I did earlier this summer (June 25th) for my friends Megan and Chris.  We started designing this cake on a snow day we had off from teaching back in January.  The basic design stayed the same but we added a little more style over the months.

The theme of Megan and Chris's wedding was nautical for their love of the water and boating.  This is reflected in the compass rose on the front of the cake (that was also on their invitations) as well as the scroll work that was shaped like waves.  Megan made her own topper to look like her and her groom... it was VERY cute!

To start out, this cake was 4 tiers of 3 different flavors and 2 shapes (round and hexagonal).  The bottom tier was chocolate cake with fudge and raspberry filling, the second tier was white cake with lemon cream filling, and the top 2 tiers were red velvet with cream cheese filling.

While I worked on icing and decorating the tiers, my husband, Ben helped with the compass rose.  This part of the cake was a piece of fondant cut into a circle and painted with icing gel coloring.

This cake was scary to deliver because it was extremely hot and humid outside in eastern North Carolina.  We had to turn the AC on in the truck ahead of time to cool it down before taking the cake.  I had assembled the top 2 tiers and the bottom 2 tiers before leaving the "bakery" (aka Megan and Chris's kitchen).  When we got to the venue I placed the top tiers onto the bottom tiers, finished decorating the middle tier, and placed the topper.

I LOVE this cake... it looks like it came from a magazine :)

I also made a grooms cake for Chris.  The flavor was carrot and it was decorated with a replica of his boat "Twice as Nice" and 2 scuba divers who are now "life-long buddies".

Shoop/White Wedding

A friend from my hometown of Berrien Springs, MI asked me to make her wedding cake on August 19th, 2011 and I was, of course, very excited to do so.  She wasn't exactly sure of a design she wanted but her wedding colors were fuchsia and teal with a country chic theme.

After looking at her wedding website, I noticed the reception venue had no air conditioning.  Those of you who work with icing know how easily it can melt... even in a Michigan summer.  I was concerned that a traditional wedding cake might self destruct in the heat so I made a few suggestions to the bride and she chose a naked wedding cake.  That's right, a wedding cake with no icing!  This cake still had icing between the layers just not on the outside where it could risk sliding off.  I actually used just as much, or more, icing on this cake than others I have made.

It might sound easy to just fill a cake between the layers and not "decorate" the outside, but it was very challenging.  One of the main purposes of icing is to fix your mistakes, cover cracks and holes, and make not so level cakes look level.  In the process of baking 9 layers I only had to redo one... all thanks to Wilton's "cake release" that stuff is AMAZING!

After baking the cake, I filled the layers with buttercream icing using a piping bag and a big star tip.  I also added a support system of internal pillars.

I never completely assemble a tiered cake until I am at the venue, but transportation is still the worst part of any wedding cake order.  It was especially challenging since we were guests to the wedding and needed to keep our clothes clean.  I held the smallest top tier, my sister looked after the middle tier, and the biggest tier rode in the back.  Grandma held the fresh flowers that would later be put on the cake, and a huge thank you goes to my sister's fiance, Chad for his amazing driving skills on Michigan's infamously bumpy back roads!

Once we got to the venue and found the cake table, we started to assemble.  First stacking the tiers, then adding the flowers (that grandma cleaned before hand) and positioning the topper.  Once the cake was all put together, I could finally breathe and step back to admire it.  The cake turned out great and matched the "country chic" theme and venue perfectly!

 

Thank you, Katie, for allowing me to make such a nontraditional cake for your beautiful wedding!

"The Shy Cookie" will offer...

Emergency cakes! "...for forgotten birthdays, fall through bakers, and angry wives; when you really NEED a cake!" (Thank you Megan for the quote that explains this service so well.)

Basically, if you need a last-minute cake for whatever reason, I will stay up all night to make you one. There will be an added percent of the regular price.

The Business of Business

I want to advertise "The Shy Cookie" in bridal shows, on wedding planning websites, etc.  So, I'm trying to figure out how to register my "trade/fictitious name" and if I need any type of license.  This is difficult because I will be doing business in VA, DC, and MD and they all have different rules.  VA requires you to register in each county or city which for me would include Fairfax, Alexandria, Falls Church, and Arlington.  It is also difficult to figure out if I need a license since I will be baking in rented kitchens that are already licensed and already have inspections.   Any help/knowledge is MUCH appreciated!

Blogging "The Shy Cookie"

I started this blog to record the events that will lead to my eventual success as a cake decorator and bakery owner.  This blog will include cakes as I decorate them, steps I'm taking to get my business going, and any other possibly entertaining stories.  ENJOY!