who doesn't want cakettes?!

Well it's that lovely gift giving time of year again. We did dainty platters last year and while we specialize in cakes; the cookies and treats drove us to drink (just eggnogg of course :)

So this year we figured, let's give them what they want.

Cakettes.

Perfect for your customers, friends or family, we haven't had someone yet who doesn't like these darn things.

They come in two sizes and will be packaged up in this lovely box. We have a large one of 30 pieces (for $45) and the small with 15 pieces ($25).

They will both come with chocolate cakettes, vanilla cakettes and red velvet cakettes. The flavours can be swapped out with some of our inhouse varieties if you want to change them up. No custom flavours though please, just the choices we have in house.

24 hours needed for ordering, give us a shout at 612-9866!

Sam I am.

lots of cakes being shown off tonight.

they are all wonderful however the subject content may be questionable.

you will see both cute and graphic, you've been warned...

Introducing Sam!

I leave specific instructions with the staff, "my camera is on the desk, when you're done, please photograph your stuff".

Cakes, cookies, anything.

Sam's gonna kill me when she see's I've posted this one for all of you to see :)

She's the shy one

But I found it fair and square and when I went to format up some photos it made me smile.

Sam's super-duper talented. She came to us as a baking student, and as we set up shop, I was excited to have her and Melissa (from the Pastry Chef program at Louis Riel)

Sam does cute REALLY WELL.

So cute.

Doesn't that make you want to swoon? C'mon, everyone now....

"awwwww...."

The next one needs some warning though, you will probably NOT coo over this cake. You may vomit. Just sayin...

Ready?....

So fantastically gross!

Isn't it gross and wonderful all at once? We all couldn't stop being grossed out by it. Love it.

She's awesome at figurines.

Check out these two that sat on the top edge of one of our wedding cakes this past summer...

And knowing that one day we would have to do the infamous "fancy shoe" cake, I enlisted her help for this one.

And the Wiggles.

And she had a hand in helping with my favorite wedding cake yet. Hand rolled pearls :)

Thanks Sam!

Guest Blogging!

I am as excited as ted is here to be guest blogging to Pink Little Cake's blog tomorrow. Super honored to have had her ask me, there are some other FABULOUS bloggers and cake artists featured. If you need any ideas for Halloween, click on over and check it out :)

introducing jenn

So in an effort to make our bakery "your" bakery, it helps to know the staff. I did a little blurb on Ted about a month ago and now its time for our dear baker Jennifer. Our fearless maker-of-the-imperial-cookies.

On Fridays both Ted and Jenn get to wear their "special" aprons. I'm not sure when or why this tradition started, but it's a keeper, that's for sure. Ted has his tuxedo apron (a classic) and Jenn has....well, this little gem.
All I know is it's good for dancing...

So what does my dear Jenn do at this bakery?
That whole display case.
That's all her.
Daily cookies, cupcakes, cakettes, brownies, slices, you name it, if it's for sale on a daily basis here, it's because of Jenn. Saskatoon butter cream? That's her. White chocolate macadamia nut cookies? Her. Rhubarb slice? You guessed it.

Invaluable to me; she encourages me, yells at me and offers endless advice, help and support. Exactly what I need.
And when we're done work? We go home and knit together.

And sometimes we let her out to sweep :)

house of cake, day 56

Well, it's official.
We're open.
I guess it's really been official for about two months now. And I never understood how business's thought they could get away with having a "grand opening" well past their opening date. Let me tell you friends, oh how time flies. And dear god, should we have hosted an open house in the first couple of weeks.....not cool...
Just ask Andrea how many times I've moved the damn furniture.

So many kinks to work out! So many things to do, think about, plan for, worry about...it's endless. So dates were planned, dates were moved. Finally found one that would work for the masses and it's in less than 48 hours from now.

So on that note, I'm off to make cakettes. Hundreds and hundreds of cakettes....
Hope to see you Friday :)

word on the street

Hey good cupcake-eating folk. I'm up for air.
Regaining some sanity from what has been a crazy couple of weeks. As you're well aware, we are open for business and baking our butts off.
The exchange is wonderful and the best part of my day is meeting all the locals! So many people down here! It's awesome! And thanks to all of you who have come in as loyal readers and mentioned that you read this... makes my day too :)

Here's a little p.r. that popped up in my inbox from a friend, seems word is getting out! Winnipeg needs more cupcakes! Thanks to whomever that was, I appreciate it!

phew. 'bout damn time...

the good ole days

Well folks, I've gone and done it. A chronic procrastinator and unfinisher of most projects I take on; I proudly have a statement to make.

I have a bakery.

I've stared at these two pictures to have them burned into my brain. We'll look back at them and say "look how young he was" and "remember when it was painted black?".

Below- "that's my Nana's step chair" and "we partied hard that night, remember? it was my birthday".

I hope you come to see us, 85 Arthur.
Watch your inbox and the blog for the opening day announcement.
We'll also have a kick ass grand opening party.
Because really, when am I ever going to do something this big again?

house of cake, day 5

Nothing like charming hostesses to greet you at the door....
I'm really happy that the rest of the newer pictures I have do not have snow in them...
(these are from a week or two ago)

So.
The delay.
All for the bathroom.
Building takes a longer time than I anticipated, but it's done. In all her largeness, the bathroom is done.
(seriously, the sucker is about 1/6th of my entire bakery)
Ridiculous! It's bigger than my bathroom at home!

To my kids I'm pretty sure there is nothing as exciting in the whole world than touching things they are not supposed to touch. So you can just imagine the squeals of joy I get when I say " get your boots on, we need to go to the bakery".
As it is full of things you shouldn't touch.
The yelling of "put down that cookie" will come in a week or so...
A whole new world of "don't touch that"...

That's Tom on the left, Jeff on the right, talking about taking off tiles, putting back said tiles, prepping for drywall, unprepping for drywall (loooooong story), plastering, painting...renos are fun, no?

house of cake day 6

I think I have the perfect location.
I adore it.
Claire and I spent a couple of hours today down in the area. Hit Ragpickers, Antiques and Funk, and the three level one on Princess that doesn't have a name. And is never ever open when I try to go. Until today. Awesome. Oh and the shop of course.
Here's Vanna featuring all the shelving I bought off of Westwin, which is sadly closing.

Oddly enough, I've had people show me pictures taken in front of the shop. I'm thinking photo op galore....if you're down in the area taking wedding pictures, please pop in, I'll give you cupcakes to feed each other :) how cute is that. I love seeing the appreciation that people have for the area, saw two photographers today on our walk, looking up, angled, getting that rickety old fire escape in with the sun barely glinting behind it. Appreciating the detail of the day. Arched windows, brick and tyndal, leaded glass, old lights.
Heart warming and beautiful. I can't wait to be surrounded by it everyday.

I love my staff.

As I look at this picture it makes me want to listen to "hands" by the raconteurs, so I found it on line and am doing so.
Such a great band. And that whole world wide web thing, that's not to shabby either...

They make me think back to the summer, cooking out at camp and listening to them nice and loud in our massive camp kitchen.
Which in turn now makes me excited to be listening to them nice and loud in our big new bakery. I'm so excited to make play lists for work.

This picture also makes me laugh, as I watched Blake try to make fondant today.
Good lord.
That was entertaining.
There's definitely a learning curve to baking, especially things besides chocolate chip cookies, but nothing that a little practice can't teach. When I think back to how long it used to take me to do things and how badly I iced cakes it seems laughable. Hard to believe I should build a bakery around it. But here we are today, teaching him the ways of the butter cream, fondant, red velvet cake...

house of cake, day 3938

Did that title catch your attention?
Three thousand nine hundred and thirty-eight.
Completely random, but it's kind of what it feels like. December 1st seems like years ago already.

The building permit has been issued.
A huge victory, at least in my mind. I'm sure people go and get building permits all the time. But not me.
I bake cakes.
Nope, no permits for that here. I mean, I can follow a recipe. I know how to properly wash the dishes. I managed to get 100% on my food handlers certificate. But have been working thus far without a permit. Perhaps I should make my own. Issue it to myself. And then I can charge some ludicrous fee for it while I'm at it :)
gotta love fee's....

permit granted.
The permit was granted!
I've been having nightmares about it. Knowing its a long process, fearing it doesn't get approved, then we have to hire someone in a trade that costs hundreds of dollars an hour to convince those granting the permit that they should. And then it gets delayed. And backlogged. And delayed some more.
But no, we have progress!
Sweet sweet progress.
It feels as though a huge burden has lifted. If you local folks are anything like me, this winter has been a little long already. And cold. The lack of sun plays funny tricks on my mind, makes me lethargic, not wanting to get out. I hide in my house, caught in the vicious cycle of laundry, cooking and brewing coffee. Out only for supplies and to work, hurrying home to hide yet again.

Hold on to the safety rail folks, this coaster is back on its way up...

house of cake, day 5?

Well, clearly, this post will have no pictures of cakes or baking tips. My apologies. My intent was to write once a week about the fun times I am having while we set up shop.
And fun times indeed! (as sarcasm doesn't translate well thru reading, I want to note that was sarcasm).

I'd like to dedicate this post to our building inspector, or whoever it really is that prints off a building permit. One of which I still do not have, so the bakery sits. Cold. Alone. Wishing it was full of love and vanilla and happy little cupcakes. And I would also like to point out, for the record, that that little ms. above did not obtain a valid building permit for that fort.
(Just sayin, not reporting)
....hey, she's four. Let the kid build a fort.

I'd like to point out, as well, the importance of fort decor. While it's critical to ensure all snow used is only white (not sure how many times I've said those words in the past week), the whiteness certainly lacks that je ne sais quois.
So we've embellished.
Prettiest fort on the block.
Well, the only one, but with this lovely weather our street has many passer by's, and I was delighted that each one commented on our fort. Very Wolseley of them :)

So, off I go, to help with the triple sink delivery. Keeping on doing all the background stuff. Lots of paperwork, incorporating (!), licenses and purchasing. That part is fun. Hit up some antique stores and flea markets last week. My shop is in a building that's over 100 years old, so a lot of care and thought is going into the decorating. But that's a whole other post....off to the sink!

ahh...piece of cake...

I'd like to start one of the first blog posts of 2010 with a candid talk about business
(I'll throw some photos for all of you who don't, can't or decide not to read what I write.)
(pout)
(no offense taken really, some blogs I just peruse the pics too ;)

These are some of the latest cakes, my photo editing/playing skills are getting better!

So 2009 blew the pants off of this little bakery. And if you read along, you know we are planning on opening up shop. Man alive, can I tell you the truth? I am not a business person.
Baker?
Yes.
Creator of vintage 1980's cartoon characters in fondant and then putting them on cupcakes?
Yes.
Knowing that you need a permit to put up a sign?
Did not know.
Knowing if your best bet is to get a toner based printer or a laser jet one?
Also do not know.
This "did not know" list is endless by the way. Everyday I learn more. And by "learn" I mean am exposed to a whole world of things I didn't even know existed in the first place.

It's all good though. I'm excited to learn. Learning can be fun.
I just hope for a not too steep learning curve and for patient co-workers.
The co-worker part is not even an issue though, taken from the king of cake decorating (in my books anyway) as Duff says...
"I hired the most talented people I know....my friends"
One thing I can sleep comfortably knowing is that the people I am investing in and am hiring care. The whole decision to grow, to keep moving and basically to expand, meant that I'd have to hire help.
How can I convey to others the importance of this place? It's mine. My creation. My reputation. My time and energy spent for the last couple of years of my life. I need this to take me into retirement (not this exact job, but by creating my own work, I have my own destiny in my hands....) I would love to pass it along to whoever wants it in thirty years and sleep well at night knowing this foundation I'm building today is strong.

And like I had said, I'm investing in people who can appreciate that. I can sleep soundly as we lay that foundation. One less task or thing to worry and think about.
Which right now; is exactly what I need :D

house of cake, day 4

I have found a new favorite store.
The Restore.
Sigh.
A pillagers paradise. Oh the treasures! We spent about two hours there on Saturday, contemplating hand washing sinks (pedestal or wall mount?), filing cabinets (none of which had keys) (bought one anyway and I'll call Macgyver later) and tying pegboard to the roof of our car. Not the best idea in -34 weather, but then, when is a good time? If it were summer we'd be complaining about the mosquitoes...

My lovely husband holding my new pegboard. That cheesy smile says it all...."why are you taking pictures of me? just pick a damn cabinet"...
He loves helping :D
I'd like to do the pegboard up all Julia Child style, outline all the items in their designated spots. Have you seen Julie & Julia? Quite cute. Better than I expected.