A Plethora of Pretty Cakes

It's been crazy busy lately! So many wonderful and exciting things happening and so many late nights trying to keep up with it all. One day soon I plan to get some sleep! ha ha

In the meantime, I'll enjoy this phase of my life and thank God for the excitement and the adrenaline rush to keep me moving when I should be a zombie from lack of sleep.

Here are several of my recent cakes. It's kinda cool that I really like most of them. As decorators, even if the cake turns out the way the customer wanted, we sometimes just aren't "feelin' it" and when that happens, we just feel kinda "blah". But I've gotten some great orders lately. Bright, fun, and pretty. And well...it's no secret that I like pretty cakes!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Match Made in Cake

I am so excited to share this wonderful news! For a couple of months I've been working with a very talented fellow baker/decorator on plans to merge our custom cake shops and move into a retail location. All of our planning is coming together and we are very excited to announce that we will have plans to open our retail location before the Summer of 2012!

Suzy is an incredibly talented cake artist located in Penndel, PA. She's been featured in several magazines and has won some local awards for her work. Our skills and talents compliment each other nicely and we are very excited to be working together. Please feel free to check out Suzy's work at http://www.CakesbySuzy.com. One of the things I love is that our quality and look is similar. We are truly a Match Made in Cake! 

What does this mean for our customers? 

• We'll  have a showroom complete with displays and a place to do consults and tastings!

• Better Availability! With the move to a shop with commercial equipment, we'll be more efficient. We can focus on our strengths and delegate tasks accordingly. And that means that YOU will get better service AND a better product.

• TWO AWARD WINNING Cake Artists in one location! What could be better than that?

• A merger of our menu's which will give you more options. Over time, this will expand to include some specialty flavors. Stay tuned!

• More price points so that you can come to us for the big events and the small ones.

When is all of this happening?

We still have some details to work out and of course there are several different parties involved. We anticipate that we'll be open before June 1st of 2012, but we'll let you know an actual date as soon as we get it.

Where will the shop be located? 

• We are still negotiating the terms of our lease, but the proposed location is at 315 E Street Road, Warminster, PA. (Bucks County)

• It has easy access to the turnpike, I95, 611, and several other major arteries in the area.

Will I still have to order my cakes well in advance?


Our availability will be better once we merge, but we'll still be a custom cake shop. And custom cakes require advance planning and time. You won't need to order SO far in advance, but you will still need to order at least 2 weeks out for custom cakes. More detailed and larger cakes will need more time. So it's always best to contact us as soon as you know you are planning an event where you will be serving a "special" cake.

Will you have a greater variety of products available?


Over time we will start introducing some new and exciting options. However, our goal in the beginning is to focus on the orders we already have in the books and make sure those customers are well cared for during the transition. After we are settled, we'll start rolling out some new options!

Valentine's Day Cupcake Special

Truly Custom Cakery, LLC is offering a Cupcake Special for Valentine's Day this year! 

• Design as Shown in Photo.
• $2.75 each for Standard Flavor
• $3.00 each for Premium Flavor
• Add. $.25 for filling
• Minimum order 24 cupcakes
• Two dozen standard flavor cupcakes decorated as shown $66.00! 
• Order must be received by Tuesday, February 7th, 2012.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Current Specials at Truly Custom Cakery, LLC

As you know from recent posts, it's been an exciting two years since we opened for business and our future success is contingent on our ability to continue growing and getting the word out to the Bucks County, Montgomery County, and Philadelphia areas. Our goal is to reach the entire Philadelphia area with our Delicious and Award Winning Custom Designed Cakes.

So, every now and again I like to offer a special or two in an effort to spread the word about Truly Custom Cakery, LLC.

 We currently have three specials available!! 

To view these specials in detail, VISIT OUR WEBSITE. 

• We have 3 fixed price cake options for when you want a special occasion cake that stands out from the crowd, tastes AMAZING, but you don't want to pay custom cake prices.
• We have a $25.00 coupon for your custom cake order of $200.00 or more.
• AND most exciting, for a limited time we have reduced our minimum order to $150.00! 

To view these specials in detail, VISIT OUR WEBSITE.

The Highlight Reel

When I started Truly Custom Cakery, I did it out of necessity. I was starting to get a LOT of requests from people to make custom cakes for them. But, without being licensed, I had to turn them away. So, we decided that instead of watching money walk away, it was time to take the next step. It was an easy decision because the laws of our area allow me to work right out of my home kitchen. For a very small financial investment, I was able to get my inspection, license, insurance, and file all the necessary legal paperwork.

Over time, I started getting too many requests for what my kitchen would allow me to handle. I decided that it was time to raise my minimum order amount so that I could work smarter, rather than harder. I've done that 3 times since Truly Custom Cakery, LLC opened in November of 2009. Then a year ago, we renovated the kitchen so I could have 2 ovens, move counter space, and more storage in my small 10' x 12' kitchen. Raising my minimums increased the quality of the orders I was receiving from a financial standpoint, but as a result, I've had to turn away a LOT of business. It was a decision made out of necessity. I just can't do it all. And if you could choose between a $75 cake or a $350 cake, which order would you rather have??? No brainer...

BUT... What if I could take those smaller orders too? What about all the people that were my customer when I started and can't afford me anymore? What about the people that taste my cakes and like it so much, call to order, and then walk away when they hear my price? Is it good business to turn them away? Or should I have been growing instead of shrinking my customer base? And how do I combat the feast/famine scenario? It happens all the time. You have a week with more orders than you can handle and you turn away several more. Then, the very next week, NOTHING! Not even a phone call! I'd probably have cakes those weeks too if I hadn't raised that minimum... But, like I said, I can't do it all. I'm just one person.

And therein lies the next question. Should I remain just one person? When is the right time to expand? How do you know when you should take that leap of faith and change your circumstances so that you CAN take all the orders that come your way. When do I say "YES" to all the Pastry Arts students that ask to intern with me?

And of course, if I do move forward.... HOW? I mean, the economy is pretty lousy! Do I get a business loan and take a chance at a brick and mortar shop? Isn't that a bit risky in this economy? And then I'm not a stay at home mom anymore. Which I really would miss! Do I build a garage out back for my husband and convert my existing garage into a shop? I could have displays, a workroom, a place to meet with clients, and a place for staff/interns to work! But all that takes money and a loan... When is the right time to move in that direction?

And of course, all my insecurities... Am I good enough, am I ready, would I get all the business back that I turned away, would I be able to pay the loan back, would it be worth it? WILL I FAIL?

And it is always worse when you look around. I should know better. In the last few years, Cake Shows have made the custom baking/decorating business EXPLODE! People are flying out of the woodwork to try their hand at it and succeeding! And not only that, but they have blogs, facebook and twitter accounts, pinterest, flickr, and a whole bunch of other stuff I know nothing about. And they have followers. LOTS OF THEM, thousands of them! And it's no wonder. Some of the work these people put out is phenomenal! It's breathtaking, astounding, and downright intimidating!

When I look at some of their work and see that they charged $12.00 for ONE CUPCAKE and the order included about 100 of them plus a super fancy cake and they have only been in business for 1 year, I start to doubt myself. SERIOUSLY! OH, and they do it out of their home kitchen... And they have about 10,000 followers on facebook...

And here come more doubts... am I doing things right? Why don't I have 10,000 followers? Do I engage my fans properly? Do I come across as a snot? Am I not thanking my customers and fans enough for their loyalty? Etc.. etc.... etc....

It doesn't take long to make yourself feel like you are doing everything wrong. I was chatting with a friend of mine this morning and she reminded me of something. That "when you compare yourself to others, all you are seeing is their highlight reel too". 

I needed that! People look at my work and see what I've accomplished. They don't see my insecurities, fears, doubts, and struggles. They just see the final product. And when we compare ourselves to others, we are ONLY seeing their highlight reel. We don't know what they went through, their fears, challenges, finances, or insecurities. We see the best of the best. What they want us to see. As if they'd walk around town in their underwear. There's always more going on than what you can see. And often, that more, is layers deep.

I know that the Bible tells us in II Corinthians 5:7 "that we walk by faith and not by sight". AND I do have faith in my Savior and I know my eternity. What I do not have faith in, is myself and the economy. So if you are a praying person, I covet your prayers. Somethings gonna have to give and I just don't know what or how.

And a BIG thank you Kristie, for reminding me not to compare myself to someone else's highlight reel. I love you Chickie!

Holiday Baking Projects!

The holiday's are always crazy busy at Truly Custom Cakery, LLC. Not just because of the cakes, shopping, and parties, but because of Truly Custom Crunch. It's a good busy and I certainly can't complain. I'd much rather be running in circles with too much work than to not have enough. In this economy, each and every order is a blessing from above.

Each holiday season that goes by, I say things like, "If next year is busier than this year, I don't know what I'm gonna do." And each year, I'm amazed at the volume of orders and the incredible help I receive from my staff, friends, and family. I'd be nothing without them.

This year, I made 39 batches of Truly Custom Crunch. It might not sound like much to you, but when each batch has 2lbs of brown sugar, 1lb of butter, 2 cups of popcorn, and 3 cups of nuts and 3lbs of chocolate, you KNOW that things were crazy around here!

I was amazed that I went through about 125lbs of dark chocolate! My husband liked to joke with me and tell me I needed to join a support group. ha ha I'd agree if I'd have eaten it all!

Anyway, here are some photos of what left my kitchen this holiday season. I have to admit, I was REALLY glad when it ended. BUT despite being busier than I'd ever been, things never went more smoothly!

5oz package of Truly Custom Crunch.

 Truly Custom Crunch comes in 5 sizes and I also offer custom packaging. The little bear is holding the 5oz bag. The packages below are 2.5lbs with a custom label and a special box of dark chocolate snowflake cookies for this custom order. In less than 48 hours I was able to roll, cut, bake, ice, and package more than 800 snowflake cookies. Toward the end I was so batty I was dancing around like a crazy person. It was tedious work!

Icing 800+ cookies in my mini cookie marathon.

This is a custom order of corporate gifts for a local pharmaceutical company.

66 custom packages ready for delivery. My truck never looked so pretty!

While all that Crunch making was going on, I was also filling cake orders. I was a little worried about having to shift gears but in the end, it worked out really well. The change of pace from mass production to focusing on details and "pretty" work, was good for me. Otherwise, I think I might have gone batty. Generally, I worked on Truly Custom Crunch from Sunday through Wednesday/Thursday. And then the other days, I focused on baking, filling, and decorating.

This little Snowbabies 1st Birthday Cake won 2nd place in Cake Central's Hoilday Cake Contest.

 

I think this little Santa is my favorite sculpted figure from the Holiday's. I don't even particularly like Santa stuff but I just LOVE how he turned out.

Baby Shower Cake in a "Nesting" theme.

There were 50 individually wrapped cupcakes for this order. Each cake got its own little box to be used as favors for the shower guests.

Candle Cakes always re-appear during the holiday's. I love this one with the "Snowballs for Sale" theme.

And a more "mature" candle cake for the adult crowd.

My Delorean Cake. I LOVE how well this car turned out. I have to admit I was a little nervous about the doors "shutting" on their own. But they held up to delivery amazingly well

And aside from the cakes and the crunch, I did a few other projects. Call me crazy....

Christmas Cookies

More Christmas Cookies

Every year for Christmas I give out special "treats". This year I made plain pound cakes and blueberry pound cakes in little ceramic loaf pans. Each gift bag included both flavors of pound cake and the Truly Custom Crunch.

Of course I HAD to make melted snowman cookies. I mean... it's tradition at this point! This year I made them on dark chocolate chip cookies.

Homemade Marshmallows! My first time making them and they turned out pretty good! I made 3 flavors. Plain, Rum, and Kahlua. The Kahlua are particularly yummy in hot chocolate!

Cranberry Apple Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes. These were sooooo yummy. I made them for our Christmas Eve Brunch. So glad the holiday's only come around once a year!

Playing with Sugar...

There is so much excitement and mystery in trying new techniques. Especially when you like to learn as you go. One of the things I have found that I really enjoy, is playing with sugar. HOT sugar.

And yes, I've gotten LOTS of burns. But I keep going back to it and trying new things.

My most recent project was for a 21st Birthday. It's a hand painted, poured sugar, champagne bottle surrounded by gift boxes. It's VERY feminine. And it was a lot of fun to deliver.

 

 Here are some other cakes that included poured sugar work.

The beer bottle and shot glass are poured sugar on this cake

The ice is sugar too!

A close up of the Beer bottles and melting ice.

If you haven't tried working with poured sugar or Isomalt, but you want to try. I recommend starting with edible gems.

They are a great place to start without being too overwhelming. You can see how HERE.

Cranberry, Apple, Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

I recently saw a recipe by Paula Dean for Apple Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes. They looked soooo good. BUT, lately, my palate has matured to a point where I like a LOT going when I bite into something. I don't want to be overwhelmed by a single flavor.

So I decided to mix it up a bit and make Cranberry, Apple, Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes! And MY OH MY! I made 3 dozen and in 4 days my husband, the boys, and I ate them ALL!!! They were delicious! 

 I used Paula's Recipe for the Bread/Roll. Then I mixed it up a bit. The recipe seems like it has a lot going on, but bear with me. It's not that bad. While your dough is rising, you can work on preparing your filling. And then while the cupcakes are baking, you can prepare the icing. We'll be having these for Christmas Eve Brunch this year!

Ingredients for Roll:

• 2 cups 2% milk
• 1 tablespoon (.5oz) active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup butter (room temperature)

Ingredients for the Filling:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) of room temperature butter
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of AllSpice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 cups finely cut chopped Granny Smith (or other tart apples)
• 1 cup of chopped cranberries

Ingredients for the Icing:

• 4 oz Cream Cheese (1/2 of an 8oz block)
• 1/4 cup of softened butter
• 1 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt

Directions for the Roll:

• In a small saucepan or a microwave oven, warm milk to about 110 F.
• In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in the milk.
• Add salt and two cups of flour and beat for two minutes.
• Beat in eggs and butter.
• Stir in the remaining flour a half cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about five minutes).
• Place the dough in a large bowl and cover it with a towel.  Set in a warm place and allow to rise for 40 minutes or until approximately doubled in volume.

Directions for the Filling:

• Mix together the brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, salt, and allspice in a mixing bowl until smooth and combined. 
• Using a spoon or spatula, fold in the apples and cranberries.

Assembly:

• Divide the dough into two parts. Using 1/2 of the dough, roll it out into a large rectangle. 
• Smooth the filling over the dough. Avoid the outer edge or you will have a mess. 
• Roll the dough up to encase the filling and create a large log. 
• Then take a very sharp knife and cut the dough into 3/4" rolls. 
• Place them in paper lined cupcake tins. 
• Repeat with the remaining 1/2 of the dough. 

 Bake: 

• 350 degree oven for 15 - 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

NOTE: this is a messy and juicy process. It creates a sticky mess while assembling and while baking. During baking, the apples and cranberries create quite a bit of juice. It is best to place your cupcake tins on a cookie sheet for the baking process to catch any juices. I DO NOT recommend using colored foil papers for this process as the liquid will remove the color from the foil and create a technicolor mess.

Directions for the Icing:

• While the Cinnamon Rolls are baking, beat together the cream cheese, butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla, and salt until smooth and creamy. 
• Drizzle or slather the tops of your cinnamon rolls in the cream cheese icing after they have cooled a bit but are still warm. 

REMOVE your cinnamon rolls from the cupcake tins before they cool completely to ensure that the cooled sugar does not glue the cupcake wrappers to your baking pans. 

And ENJOY!!! 

Homemade Marshmallows!

 If you are anything like me, you've purchased marshmallows at the store your entire life and never gave much thought to "how" they were made. If they ever crossed your mind, the thought was fleeting. 

Standard Homemade Marshmallows

So when I saw a post a few weeks back about homemade marshmallows, I decided I HAD to try making them. I mean really, if that blogger could do it, I certainly could. Right!

So I set out to find the recipe I wanted to use and settled on Alton Brown's Marshmallow Recipe. I like his for several reasons. First, he has a video posted with the recipe so you can actually WATCH him make them first. (This eliminates the "duh" moments) And secondly, he's very scientific and I know I can trust his recipes.

So here is the recipe I used. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-marshmallows-recipe/index.html. I do recommend you watch the video he has posted.

Marshmallows are STICKY. In fact, so sticky, that I believe you will lose about 1/5 of your mix to the mixing bowl and spatula because you won't be able to get it off. Thank goodness for hot water! With that in mind, imagine how hard your mixer will be working. I DO NOT recommend you make homemade marshmallows with a hand mixer. The mixer will burn up and leave you with a sore hand and a sticky, soupy, mess! I also have to say that if you have a smaller KitchenAid stand mixer (about 4.5 qt), that you keep a close eye on it! I used my 6 quart and it got HOT and you could hear the strain the motor was under.

Now, if you want to get fancy, you can take those yummy marshmallows and using chocolate and other treats, you can fancy up your marshmallows to use them as gifts for the Holiday's.

Dark Chocolate and Toffee Marshmallows

Peppermint Crunch Marshmallows

Dark Chocolate Dipped Marshmallows. In the mug are Kahlua and Coffee Marshmallows! 

 Okay... so I know the next question... Kahlua and Coffee?!? Yep, and I'll share that variation shortly. Just think about some yummy grown-up Hot Chocolate with those little babies on top. mmmmmm Yummy!

Also coming shortly, how to make those cute Melted Snowman S'Mores.

They are AMAZINGLY good! I mean... I'll likely give them as gifts this Christmas good because they are better tasting than ANY S'More I've ever had in my life! I've even given several out as taste tests. It's so much fun watching the faces and hearing the noises that come from people as they enjoy!


 Happy Baking!