Think Spring!

It's mid-April - I'm hearing birds chirp more, buds are starting to appear and I'm thinking spring. In excitement for the coming season that lasts a mere 2-3 weeks up here in Maine, I created a new cupcake called "Think Spring." It's a vegan lemon cupcake with berry filling, topped with vanilla icing, a blackberry and some lemon zest - and it is yummers!

These cupcakes were my first experimentation with a "filled" cupcake, which seems to be all the rage right now. I used a cupcake corer from Williams Sonoma, and I must say, if you want to fill your cupcakes, get a cupcake core; it makes the job so much easier and much less messier! They're only $5 and are nice and compact and easy to clean. 

Filled Think Spring cupcakes, pre frosting

So I baked up the Think Springs last Saturday with an upcoming cupcake job I'm doing for a friend's graduation party in mind. I've had a bunch of taste-testers and have heard that they're awesome and that they don't taste vegan. It's interesting that people always need to qualify food as "tasting vegan" or not "tasting vegan." Vegan just means there are no animal products in whatever the product is - it doesn't mean that the cupcake contains ingredients the majority of us aren't familiar with. I'm sure most of us have had margarine in some form, flax seed, flour, sugar, fruit juices, applesauce...all normal things, I promise :o) But when someone says, "This doesn't even taste vegan!" I take it as a compliment. I think that vegan baking got a bad wrap at some point because a lot of vegan bakers didn't understand the world of substitutions and the chemistry going on in our ovens, and so a lot of vegan baked goods came out tasting grainy, seedy, bland, or dry. This certainly does not describe what I've been baking up! 

You may have noticed from my other blog or the From Scratch and Sniff Facebook group that I recently got engaged. We got engaged a few weeks ago before the ring was actually ready. On Tuesday we got the call that the ring was ready, and after returning home, I was surprised with a second proposal. My fiance had been doing a photo-shoot with the Think Spring cupcakes and asked to borrow the ring so he could get a shot. He came up behind me in the kitchen with the ring sticking up out of the top of the cupcake, and proposed again. And of course, I said yes again! Then we shared the cupcake, after he put the ring back on my finger. It was perfection. 

In it for the long haul....

I had a discouraging realization this week. I've started developing a "business plan" for myself which had a few beginning steps:

1. Develop a strong menu of 10-15 items that are fully vegan.
2. Rename business, develop a new look/logo, and packaging.
3. Go through the steps to get my apartment kitchen licensed & products FDA approved.
4. Obtain business insurance.
5. Begin visiting local businesses to get product sold in various places around the city.
6. Eventually, rent out a commercial kitchen and start doing local and shipping orders.
7. Dream - open a store front.

My good friend Kelly found me an article posted on the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners (MOFG) website by Cheryl Wixson who does workshops on how to get your kitchen licensed. The article is called Licensing the Home Food Processor Kitchen and goes through a lot of the requirements needed to get your kitchen licensed. Unfortunately, after reading this, I realized I would need to literally re-model our kitchen....which is in a rented property. I don't have a 2-bay sink, no dishwasher, no screen door, no granite or steel counter tops, and the floor is probably less than desirable. Huge let down. I sat on the couch close to tears as I realized my plan was now wrinkled quite a bit. My incredibly supportive and generous fiance asked if we should move. He said we could try to remodel this kitchen ourselves. And then he told me we would do whatever it took to have my dream fulfilled. What an amazing guy - I am so lucky!

I don't think we should move yet; between the two of us, we've moved 6 times in the last 2 years and it's getting really old. We also love our apartment despite the kitchen's "flaws" and the fact that the bathroom is wicked narrow/tiny and only has a stall shower. We love the location, that we have a driveway, that it's fairly quiet, and that we have an incredibly sweet landlord who lives in the building.

So plan b: find a commercial kitchen now or just sit tight, be patient and wait. I found a local commercial kitchen which rents for $10/hour, but I'm not going to jump into it right now. I think I'm just going to work at perfecting my products and will call on friends and family to promote my business, name, and quality products to everyone they know. Word of mouth is a powerful thing and I think it can get me far. I have some incredibly supportive friends who will call me rather than buying a cake somewhere, who will taste-test and give me real feedback, and who help me brainstorm through problems like these! I'm also going to look into going to some MOFG conferences focused on kitchen licensing and businesses planning. It'll be a great way to gain some new ideas/skills and to meet some locals with similar goals.

In the kitchen, I've been fervently baking each week and perfecting many of my recipes. Yesterday I baked up some vegan Nom Nom Carrot Cake Cupcakes with faux maple cream cheese icing. I took a few with me to a bar to meet friends and they were certainly a hit!

Vegan Nom Nom Cupcakes, photo by Justin Lewis, filmaperture Photography

A friend has also asked me to do an event for her in May, so I'm really looking forward to working with her to develop some new flavors. I will probably experiment with a vegan lemon cupcake with berry compote filling, topped with vanilla bean frosting with candied lemon rind. Reminding myself that although there was a set back, it's minor in the grand scheme of things and I will still see this thing through!

Vegan Baking Explorations

This past weekend was the weekend of baking blunders and victories. My friend Amanda's Lady Gaga themed birthday part was on Saturday and I wanted to bake her a vegan cake that was splendiferiously Gaga inspired.

My plan was to bake a 6 layered cake, each layer a color of the rainbow, layer orange cream between the layers, cover the cake with fondant and create either a Gaga crown or a roller derby skate from gum paste for the top (Amanda's a Maine Roller Derby Girl with the Port Authorities- go check them out!). That was my plan.

However, plans can go awry. Although I've changed to a vegan diet for the new year (check out my other blog, The Vegan Explorer), I haven't quite gotten a full handle on vegan baking yet. I started baking at 9:30am on Saturday - first mistake, waiting until the day the cake is due. The first cake was a total disaster. It didn't rise well, it formed a strange hard sugary crust, and tasted awful! EW! I fed it to the trashcan after attempting to fix it twice.

Push the clock forward to noon. I start debating, do I stick to my vision and try again or do I make my no-fail Vegan Italian Polenta Cake instead? It was a toughie. I decided to go for it again, I'm no quitter! So I reformulated my recipe and started over. The layers were thin and a little bit sticky, but tasted great so I kept going. Fast forward to 4:30 pm. All of the layers are completed and cooled, time to start stacking and create my vegan orange butter cream. Ut oh, here comes trouble. How do you make "butter" cream without butter?? Well, the first attempt was a disaster. Somehow it started separating and just looked gross. The second version was a little better but not perfect...though I used it because I was running out of time.

Rather than take the time to roll out fondant for a cake that was already sort of uneven and time was running short (it was already 6:30), I made a vegan vanilla icing (thanks to the help of one of my boyfriend's cookbooks) and my boyfriend helped with icing the outside of the cake. He did a beautiful job of evening out the cake.

Still, I was totally deflated. I didn't think this cake would taste good and I just wasn't happy with the quality - it was not my usual highly polished work. My boyfriend convinced me not to pitch it into the trash and we left for the party. I'm really grateful that he got me to bring it because it seemed to be a big hit! Amanda and her friends appeared to love it and dubbed the cake "Gayke" - love it.

The Gayke!
Photo by Justin Lewis, filmaperture Photography

The Gayke's rainbowy layers!

Photo by Justin Lewis, filmaperture Photography 

On Sunday, my boyfriend and I had our second annual Hot Chocolatey Crafty Night and I thought I'd bake my Polenta Cake. I made the cake, which turned out beautifully, but when I went to make the glaze (a recipe I made without really writing down what I did...a no no for me!) it came out horribly. I went through three versions until I got something I was mildly happy with but for some reason it did not come out the same way it had the first time (and I ended up scalding myself with boiling hot marmalade in the process and am now donning two blisters on my face and one on my finger - boyfriend medic to the rescue!). I still need to figure out what happened  - yes it was still good, but it was not the same glaze I'd made a few weeks before. Gah! Frustrations!

And through all this frustration, my boyfriend stuck by my side. He was incredibly supportive, encouraging, made me laugh, pitched in to help, played doctor to my wounds, and helped me realize that it really is okay to mess up sometimes. I don't have to be perfect and I can learn through making mistakes. He certainly is a good guy :)

Sugar Cookie Madness

And oh yes, they have driven me mad! I've recently decided to professionalize my sugar cookie decorating by switching to royal icing. The icing I was using before was just a simple icing made with confectioners sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla. The stuff isn't very versitile though and it doesn't harden quite as much as royal icing (which is akin to rubber cement).

So- of course I jumped online for tips and I must tell you, the ultimate online teacher has got to be Sweetopia. Her tutorials and tips are incredibly helpful and she truly helped me get on my feet! Don't get me wrong, it was still hard to learn how to use royal icing, and I've nowhere near perfected the process, but her website got me started and I recommend you check it out if you have any interest in cookie decorating.

I've upgraded my cookie decorating tools, going from ziplock bags with varying sized cuts made in the corner, to Wilton's piping bags and tips. GOOD move. It is SO much easier to decorate with tips; I can't believe I did it any other way, but at the same time I'm pretty proud of what I was able to accomplish without them! I'm still learning how to control the flow and I don't have a Kopykake projector like the Sweetopia blogger so I need to perfect my free-hand skills or find a cheapie overhead projector somewhere- good luck.

I recently had an order for 45 baby-themed cookies for a shower and although they turned out really nice it was really stressful- one of those if-anything-can-go-wrong-it-will kind of orders, you know, I lose half a batch of cookies to the floor, underestimate the amount of confectioners sugar the order will take, realize I'm out of the correct sized cellophane bags and have to make an emergancy run to Target, and the cost to create them, not including the hours and hours they took, pretty much cancelled out how much I earned. Phew! It was tiring, but really good practice and I'm proud of the outcome. I'm not diving into any more cookie decorating anytime soon (I say that, yet I've got snowflake decorated gingerbread cookies on my Christmas cookie list, so, yeah...).

Freshly baked sugar cookies!

Icing! Icing! Icing!



Duckies and Elephants, Oh My!

Speaking of Christmas cookies- I've got about a week or so break and then it's back at it! I'm making 6 different types of cookies and shipping them all over the country to family and friends! Reports and photos to follow, I promise :)

Stay warm and have a happy Thanksgiving!

Kitchen Upgrades

As I've increased the volume of baking I'm doing each week, it's become apparent to me that it's time to upgrade some of my common kitchen tools. Oh darn. I'll have to go shopping.

My extremely generous aunt recently mailed me several Amazon.com gift certificates after cashing in her AMEX points and realizing she couldn't figure out how to use the darned things (we're still working on getting her into the 21st Century- stand by). As I'm sure you all know, Amazon is a catchall for, well, everything. I typed "Baking" into the search and found my own little Utopia.

My first big box o'baking bliss arrived several weeks ago, much to my excitement! Among my many goodies were three new paintbrushes from Wilton. Now, don't get me wrong, I am a huge Wilton fan. I think the majority of their products are well made, visually appealing, and really easy to use. But I am sorely disappointed by these puppies; I used them twice before they found their new home in the trash can.

The brushes were purchased to assist with decorating my hand painted sugar cookies. In my brushless days, I was using a Ziploc bag filled with icing as a pastry bag, but smaller details were really tough and I needed something with more control. The first brush use was great; I was able to fill in small details and add real character to my cookies. After using them, I of course, took them to the sink for a good washing. As soon as the pretty purple-painted wooden handles hit the hot water, there were little paint chips all over my sink. Not was I was expecting.

I used the brushes again to decorate sugar cookies for The Bully (photos are in a previous posting), but I again found the paint chipping off, this time in large chunks. I had to maneuver carefully to make sure none of it landed in the icing- no extra flavoring needed!

Needless to say, I do not recommend buying Wilton's set of three brushes, no matter how cute they look in their packaging. As for me, I've recently stumbled upon Sweetopia (thank you, Kelly) and I'm going to try her methods of sugar cookie decorating before I run out to get more brushes. And if I do get more brushes, I'm trying out acrylic brushes from the paint section at A.C. Moore. Hopefully a safer bet.

Follow-up to The Bully Premier

I had a blast at The Bully premier on Wednesday, October 20th at SPACE Gallery. The night started with a performance by local band South China (check them out if you have yet to hear them- they are just incredible) and then filmmakers Derek Kimball and Matt Konkel of Last House Productions premiered "The Bully" followed by a showing of their film "I Want You to Know." The turnout for the event was fantastic- I'd say at least 100 people showed up.

The night before the premier I sat in my kitchen for three hours painting sugar cookies with scenes based off the film's promotional poster.





It was exhausting, but they came out much better than I expected and my boyfriend was flitting around them all night with "ooooo's" and "ahhhh's." I packaged them up in cellophane bags tied with black ribbon.

There were 14 in all and I almost sold out :) In addition, I whipped up a batch of Ginger Cookies and Mud Puddle Cookies. I packaged them in 3's and sold quite a few, though it seemed like the Mud Puddle's were most popular. No wonder- they're covered in dark chocolate ganache! Everyone who bought from me was sure to come back multiple times to tell me how good the cookies were. This is the first "event" I've ever sold merchandise at and I'd say it was a big success! In all I raised $25 to support getting the film into the international film festival circuit.



I'd really love to do another event like this again- just have to keep my eyes open for opportunities. Since the event, I've had 2 orders placed and two more pending ones, so I've got a big baking week coming up!

The Bully Premiere

I hope everyone is planning to attend the premiere of local filmaker Derek Kimball's new film, "The Bully" on October 20th at SPACE Gallery. The teaser for the film looks incredible, and based on Kimball's previous work, this is sure to be an event you don't want to miss!

In addition to the film viewing, Kimball's film "I Want You To Know" will serve as a prelude to the premiere and two local bands are slated to perform. All of the proceeds from the night will benefit getting the film into the international film festival circuit, and so I'm happy to say that I'll be selling film-inspired cookies at the premiere with 60% of the proceeds going to the cause!

I'm planning to make large sugar cookies painted with various images from the film's promotional poster as well as some other flavors. I'd love to come up with a "Bully" cookie too!

I've been a bit bummed lately as sales have been slim to none. I've realized I need to find a way to advertise myself to more people but haven't come up with a plan yet. I had hoped that word of mouth through friends would work- but it's not really drumming up much business for me. We are approaching gifting/family dinner season though, so maybe something will pan out. If anyone has any other ideas for me, I'm all ears!