Baking, Baking, Baking in the Oven.......Hey hey hey

I have been a baking fool this evening. I received 3 last min. orders today for this weekend. I am not complaining. I don't mind making a little money and practicing my recipes to achieve the ultimate efficiency. I have my cake and frosting ratios down to a science now. I have been toying with recipes for almost 2 years now (for all of you in my close circle, you remember Claire's Cupcake Creations :-) ) I feel great about how every recipe is turning out. Even my Harmony Chocolate with its rising issues is still a huge winner. I am just such a perfectionist when it come to my craft that the rise has to be the perfect height. My hubby says that the rise is fine but I am always aiming higher.

The above pic is of my 76 Dalmatian. The 76 is for the best year ever, 1976. The year that I came into this world. Well, since my work is done early I am going to bed, I have an early AM pick-up.

Peace and Harmony.

Equipment, Equipment, Equipment

I headed to Dayton today to look at equipment with one of my good buddy, Rita. The two of us at Wasserstroms acted like 2 kids in a candy store with a pocket full of money (although we did not have any money). It was really fun to look at all the equipment and plan out what is needed. It really amazed me at the wide price range of all the equipment. Honestly there were convection ovens that looked like they were exactly the same except for a window and different legs and there was a $1000.00 difference. Most of my estimates were dead on though. Chaka and I are going to hit the Cincinnati based store this weekend and then hit Chrisco and one other place. All in all it was a fun productive day that ended with a wonderful slice of peanut butter fudge ripple cheesecake that had me re-thinking my ban of peanuts on my menu. Peanut butter is such a comfort food but it is a HUGE allergen. We shall see.

Peace out

If at first you don't succeed, TRY, TRY, AGAIN

Batch 1 FAILED the test. The cupcakes did not rise at all. They shrank more with the increased baking soda. They still tasted great but I got more shrinkage that I expected. Oh, well, I will try again tomorrow. I will need to do a little more technical problem solving before I bake. My original recipe achieved great rise but my new and improved lighter more flavorful recipe does not give me the muffin top that I love on a cupcake. I know what I changed so I guess I will have to re-balance the recipe.

Peace out until the AM.

Rise baby Rise

Over the next day or so I am going to work on the rise of my Harmony Chocolate and carrot craze cupcakes. Since I perfected the flavor of both, I lost some of the lift that I had before. I am hoping that I can fix this by increasing the leavening agents in both. But of course I have to figure out which leavening agent to increase. So on goes the technical problem solving thinking cap. I have missed using my food science thinking cap. I need to do a little research so I have dusted off all of my baking science books from the CIA. Hopefully I can figure this out in just a few batches. I will post pictures of the experiment. I am thinking that I can increase the baking soda and I will get the results that I need on the chocolate but I will see. So I am off to the lab aka kitchen...........

Peace for now.

We're off to see the wizards

This week is full of setting up meetings. I am really behind on all of my Harmony calls so this week is do or die week. I need to meet with Garth and get the layout for the store, then I need to hit Chrisco and 2 other architects to talk about design, then it is off to several restaurant equipment stores to decide on equipment, then I need to call several distributors and packaging companies to decided on my packaging. I am pretty sold on one company but they are kinds pricey. I also need to see if they will customize a box and what their minimums might be. To top it of, I have to find a cupcake tree that will hold 100+ cupcakes for the Akers event next week. That is right, I will be baking 250 cupcakes next Friday for the Akers Angels event. I am excited but I am also quite nervous b/c we just discovered that the kids are home from school that day. Chaka is going to have to work from home or the cupcakes will not get made and iced on time. As of right now I do not have any orders this week, so that is somewhat of a good thing. I will keep you posted about our progress.

Peace for now.

Hangin' with my girlfriends.......

Nothing to report from this weekend. My hubby and I talked more about Harmony and our timeline. He thinks that we will be open before x-mas, I say Jan 1 or so. We will see. No baking this weekend, just cleaning and hangin' with the girls. We gathered to see Tyler Perry's Why did I get Married? It was such a good movie, even better b/c I had good company.

her are more photos from last weeks orders. The carrot craze and death by chocolate were a huge hit. I am kinda pooped and I have a toothache so I am going to rest before I start on my order for tomorrow.

Until later, Peace.

Things that make you go mmmmmmmmmm

I have been toying with the idea of not selling any of my mini treats ie. cookie lollipops, my choco- chip cookies, gallon of milk brownie and my irresistible sweet potato cheesecake. I took a completely unscientific survey of a few of my friends (@ 15). All 15 people said that it would be a HUGE void in the world if I did not share my other treats. So it looks like I am going to listen to the masses and keep mini treats on the menu!!! Yeh, more work for me.......

The above is a picture of my M&M cookie lollipops. I made 4 dozen of these for one of my "girlz"! She decided to celebrate her sisters b-day with these crowd favorites. The finished product was actually wrapped in a clear treat bag with pink and green (AKA) colors. They were too cute but I forgot to take pictures ( have to get better at remembering).
One of my fondest childhood memories was making these treats with my mom. She is such da bomb baker. I wish that she still baked but she is fit and mostly cake free in her 50's. I guess that is why she looks like she is 30something. I love that I have good genes :-) Once I get the baby weight off (I just had a baby in April) - yeh, I know you think I am crazy for starting a business with an infant in the house but this is all apart of my journey- back to my thought, once I get the baby weight off I will look like I am 18 again ;-) I will post pictures when that happens.

Anywho, I am going to have a cuddle night(another childhood tradition that I am sharing with my kids).
Until tomorrow, Peace.