A New Chapter - the katy rose

It's official - we are now residents of Texas! We moved in one month ago today, and among our many experiences -

A tropical downpour...

a visit to the beautiful Heights area in Houston...

new grocery stores!...

and a delicious "zebra" chocolate cake from our realtor...

We love our new town with all it has to offer and our proximity to our son and family; and the church where my husband works has welcomed us with open arms. My catering activities are now reduced to baking for his office staff, so as I partially close the door on For Goodness Sake, another blogging door opens in the form of the katy rose. Come on over to read about new adventures in Texas!

Scouting Out the Competition - Sprinkles

It is always fun to visit a cupcake bakery and especially one of such celebrity as the Beverly Hills-based Sprinkles Cupcakes. When we were in Dallas recently, we made the trek to the The Plaza at Preston Center, an upscale shopping center where the gourmet cupcake bakery, with its sparse, modern decor, has been in place since 2007.

Candace Nelson, owner of Sprinkles, shared her recipe for strawberry cupcakes with the world on Martha Stewart's show and website. Once I tried the recipe, I was hooked on the moist texture and natural taste--no strawberry jello or cake mix--and with a minor tweak or two this has become my Strawberry Bliss Cupcake, second in popularity to my Vanilla Bean Cream Cupcake. One of my purposes in visiting the bakery was to compare the actual store cupcake to my cupcake.

For Goodness Sake Strawberry Bliss Cupcake
We arrived at mid-afternoon, and there were at least 20 fashionably attired ladies crowded inside the tiny store. My husband stood at a safe distance while I carefully chose my cupcakes. As I started taking pictures of the famed cupcake display, the cool young woman behind the counter said, "I'm sorry, no pictures allowed in here." Huh? But, I replied brilliantly in my best whining tone, I've seen pictures of Sprinkles' displays on blogs. "Sorry, company policy." Not quite the welcoming atmosphere I would strive for in my future bakery!


After choosing four flavors and paying $13.00, I waited impatiently until we reached our hotel before taste-testing. In my haste to sample, I forgot to take pictures of my cupcakes.

My review, in order of preference:
Strawberry - every bit as moist and tasty as mine, naturally colored and fragrant with real strawberries; the frosting was equally luscious.
Red Velvet - tender and moist with a hint of cocoa; especially delicious paired with the Cream Cheese frosting.
Lemon Blueberry - a bit dense with a dominant taste of lemon extract; the blueberries were juicy and flavorful; the Lemon Cream Cheese frosting had the same lemon extract flavor.
Chocolate Marshmallow - least favorite--the chocolate cake was unexceptionally flavored; the chocolate ganache was quite bitter, and it is indeed advertised as bittersweet; the marshmallow was a tiny dollop for which I had to search.
The creamy frosting, with no gritty feel of powdered sugar, is worthy of eating alone.

Sprinkles Cupcakes = very good; Sprinkles Bakery = a bit pretentious

Sweet Dreams

Strawberry Bliss
By my estimate I baked approximately 1000 cupcakes in 2008--and what fun it was! If I wasn't baking, decorating, or eating cupcakes, I was dreaming up the next new flavor.


Shower Cupcakes and Sweet Pumpkin Bliss

When I started For Goodness Sake Bakery last year, my dream was to eventually open a cupcake bakery. I envisioned people lined up outside my shop, waiting to buy one of my cupcakes, à la Magnolia Bakery, and Martha Stewart calling me to appear on her show, just like Sprinkles owner Candace Nelson.


Scarlet Velveteen and Lemon Cream

The reality is that I am no closer to a cupcake bakery in 2009 than I was in 2008.

The reality is that I was privileged to bake approximately 140 dozen jumbo muffins, 115 dozen jumbo cinnamon rolls, as well as dozens of scones, cobblers, and pies, for a local Java Dave's.

The reality is that For Goodness Sake Bakery became For Goodness Sake Bakery and Catering as I expanded my menu to cater 12 events ranging from sack lunches to brunches to wedding cakes to full menu dinners.


Mississippi Mud and Vanilla Bean Cream


Hot Fudge Sundae and White Velvet

What have I learned from my first year in business? To listen to my family and to my gut. That I am way too hard on myself. That giving 110% is a good thing. That I need better work shoes. That too much sampling leads to weight gain. That discouragement is OK because tomorrow is another day. That creativity with new recipes takes a back seat to customer favorites. And that catering, which initially held little interest for me, is surprisingly satisfying.


Chocolate Dip Bliss and Chocolate Covered Strawberry Sweet Bites

A slightly different direction for my baking passion is anticipated for 2009, as I focus on the catering side of For Goodness Sake and experiment with gluten-free baking. My enthusiasm is building as I research recipes and prepare menus.


Sweet Bites Cupcakes and Pink Blackberry Pearl Sweet Bites

Is the cupcake bakery an unrealistic dream? Perhaps. But as long as the excitement remains, the dream is alive!

Chocolate Fudge

Scouting Out the Competition - 1 Smart Cookie

One of the more pleasurable aspects of starting my own bakery is what I like to call "research". Here's how it works: I search online to find bakeries either locally or in the vicinity of my travel destination. I visit them to view their shops and equipment and to see how their products are displayed. And I taste-test by purchasing one of each item that is comparable to what I sell--cinnamon rolls, muffins, scones, brownies, cookies, etc.

It's one of America's dirtiest jobs, but I am compelled to do it.

Ever since I read this newspaper article about 1 Smart Cookie, a local bakery, I knew I had to go check it out. I went at absolutely the wrong time of the day, 4:30 p.m., not the prime hour for a bakery. But in spite of the sparse inventory, I found a good mix of baked goods to sample. The cookies were reasonably priced for a gourmet bakery, and the young man serving me was pleasant and helpful. I happily made my choices, waited as long as I could (till I got back in my car), then consumed an entire sugar cookie before I reached the end of the block.

This is one of 1 Smart Cookie's featured extra-thick sugar cookie cutouts. The star is one of hundreds of shapes available. I like the funkiness of the irregular shape.



The next photo shows the texture, which is slightly chewy, not crumbly like a shortbread; it is soft enough to bite into easily but still substantial--a surprising consistency for such a thick cookie; the taste is not overly sweet and no detectable spices; and it has none of the shortening aftertaste I associate with most commercial cookies. The icing is real icing--very tasty with a slight almond flavor. And the all-important sugar cookie aroma is present, not buttery but an indefinable sweet dough scent.



Below is the array of goodies I purchased--snickerdoodle, chocolate-chocolate chip, lemon sugar, oatmeal, and a lemon bar with a nice streusel-ish topping--all tasted just as good as they appear in the photo:



Based on previous samplings of local bakeries, 1 Smart Cookie wins hands-down. In spite of being purchased late in the day, the cookies still had a fresh taste. And they didn't have that chalky taste present in many bakery products. They tasted homemade, thereby achieving my golden rule of baking: bake for others as you would have them bake for you.

I appreciate good competition--it motivates me to stay on my toes (and to wear stretch pants.)

What Do Bakers Do On Their Day Off?

They watch their garden grow.


They beg their roses to bloom.


They make homemade ice cream.


Then they eat it.


They read other people's blogs!
Here's an interview with the delightful Julia
from A Slice of Cherry Pie

And they wish they could be Molly
of the beautifully written Orangette.

They search for recipes. As if they didn't have enough already.

They read books! OK, they read cookbooks.


And unbelievably, THEY BAKE!


A good vacation is over when you begin to yearn for your work. ~Morris Fishbein

It's nice to have a day off. But I know I love baking when, even on my days off, I can't stay out of the kitchen.

Panic-citement

One of the things that has surprised me the most about building a business is that baking for profit is even more satisfying than baking for "pleasure". In fact, the pleasure is magnified. It is magnified because of the panic that accompanies it (somewhat like the panic/pleasure of a roller-coaster ride). Some days the panic becomes sheer terror.

On those days, my head spins with "will it bake right"--"will I finish on time"--"will it look right"--"will they like it". I hover anxiously near the oven to make sure my cupcakes are rising or the muffins aren't burning, or the juice hasn't bubbled over on the cobbler crust.


The cobbler always bubbles over.
More often than I'd like, the cupcakes fall.
But I haven't burned a muffin. Yet.

Another cause for panic is the customer request: "Can you make...?" to which my answer is always "Certainly, no problem!" Confidence on the outside, fear and trembling inside the apron. But always with the panic is the excitement of the challenge, the creative process of inspiration, planning, and implementation, and the anticipation (and anxiety) of the presentation.

Sometimes I wonder if panic and angst will always be part of my baking ventures. But the utter joy and satisfaction I find in the process (and yes, even the terror) is worth every nail-biting moment. And the worry keeps me from gaining too much weight from sampling the goods.

Twice-Baked Cherry Pie

When I was a kid (not a kid-at-heart, but a real kid) Mom used to make birthday cakes for her friends. Between laundry & ironing and making three meals a day and taking care of the house, she didn’t have a lot of time to bake. A cake mix saved the day for her, and she usually made a yellow cake or a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Nearly every time she made a cake (for someone besides our family), she would have trouble with it sticking to the pan and it would inevitably come out in pieces. She would do her best to artfully cover the cake with icing, while bitterly railing about the fact that “every time I make a cake for someone else it has to stick!” and how it always came out perfect if it was staying at our house. I would philosophically tell her that no one really cared as long as it tasted good and secretly wonder why it upset her so.

I suspect that Mom’s time constraints took their toll on her extra-curricular baking by causing her to hurry. Hurrying is a deal breaker in the kitchen.

Since starting a baking business last year, I have had ample reason to recall those early memories. An excellent example is a recent order for a cherry pie.

I consider cherry pie to be my trump card in the world of baking. I found a recipe many years ago that produces a near-perfect replica of my Granny Mitchell’s cherry pie—tart cherries in a sweet almond-scented filling, all encased in a golden flaky crust. I’ve never had a failure in a cherry pie. That is, until yesterday.

I planned to bake the pie and deliver it, warm and fragrant, to the restaurant. Everything went fine—I even took a picture of the pre-baked pie as well as the finished product, visualizing a triumphant blog post anchored by pictures of a magnificent pie.

Here is the pie waiting to be baked into glorious perfection.

What proved to be my undoing was the same problem that faced my mother so long ago—I got in a hurry. Baking is an art that should never be sandwiched in between appointments, and that’s what I tried to do. Poor scheduling caused me to pull that exquisite pie out of the oven before the juice, sugar, and flour had a chance to bubble into the ideal gel that encompasses and complements the tart cherries.

Here, the pie looks done, but the deceptive façade masks the watery filling beneath.



Yes, I said watery. Hours after I delivered the pie to the restaurant, I returned to deliver some other goods, and I happened to look at my pie displayed inside a glass dome. Where one would normally see a glistening ooze of lovely pie gel, there was a pool of reddish-pink water. Ewwwww. I snatched up the pie to take it home, telling the astonished but tolerant owners that I would bring them another one in the morning.

When I got home, Mom, bless her heart, took one look at the pie and said, “You just need to bake it a little longer, it’ll be fine.” So that’s what I did, and 20 minutes later the pie was fine and tasted quite delicious in fact. So we kept that one and ate it. I made the restaurant another cherry pie--took my time and baked it properly.

Lesson learned? Don't hurry--a good thing to remember about many things.

Bakery is still burgeoning.

Put Some Clothes on that Candy!

"Sexy" doesn’t just describe an attractive person anymore—it seems to be the new slang word for anything that is new and exciting—from cars to wines to ad campaigns. Sexy is the new “innovative”. So I guess I wasn’t surprised to find this title for a recipe in a church cookbook:

Sam’s Sensual Spice Cookies

Now most church cookbooks will have recipes like “Sinful Fudge” and the ubiquitous “Better Than Sex Cake”, but sensual?

With that in mind I attempted to photograph Pecan Praline Fudge (recipe below) as both “sexy” and “wholesome”. Here are the results:

Sexy

Wholesome

So food is now “sexy”. I wonder what my Granny Mitchell would think about that...
 
Pecan Praline Fudge

1 stick salted butter
1-1/2 cups white sugar
5 oz evaporated milk
1 - 12 oz package  semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 - 7 oz jar marshmallow creme
1/2 oz praline liqueur
1 cup pecans, chopped

Line 9-inch baking dish with aluminum foil and set aside.

In 2-qt heavy bottom pot, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add sugar and evaporated milk and blend well. Bring to rolling boil; reduce heat and simmer approximately five minutes, stirring constantly and being careful not to scorch.

Remove from heat and stir in morsels, vanilla, marshmallow creme, liqueur and pecans. Stir until mixture becomes creamy and slightly thickened. Pour into pan and allow to cool before cutting into 1-inch squares.

I'd Like to Thank the Academy...

Is there anything wrong with getting your acceptance speech ready? I daydreamed today about building my dream house. The funds for the house will be supplied by my baking business, which is still in development. Somewhat like an actor at an awards show, I'm already planning to win.

Baking is my joy. Now that I'm trying to make a business of it, I find that the aspects of creating the business are way too much fun. Composing pricelists, photographing my creations, designing a website to advertise and a blog to journal--these enterprises are enjoyable and time consuming. One activity often leads to another idea, another path, another development--and more time consumed.

Visualizing success is something I do well; so well, in fact, that by now I should be fabulously successful. My challenge lies somewhere between planning the success and celebrating the success--in the myriad of details that are such a pleasurable diversion from the completion of just one project.

In the meantime, baking continues to be my joy. I just hope I have enough time for it...