Saturday, January 29, 2011

Fun Week

I love weeks like this, when all the cakes have a fun theme!  This is for one of my favorite customers.  He brews his own beer and collects beer glasses, so this should be perfect for him.


I thought it might be fun to make Jeff a set of matching cookies, so I came up with these:


And Krista ordered a treasure chest cake for Kholton's 3rd birthday, which I loved doing!!!  Everything on it is edible...the gems and coins are made of chocolate!


Also had a platter of cookies for an insurance agency this week:


And I think that about wraps up this week!  It's been a nice surprise to have January busier than it normally is, although I did still have to break down and get my tax information done.  :(  I think tomorrow we'll get some Valentine's Day pictures posted...it's only two weeks away!  Enjoy your weekend!!!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

New Valentines Cookies

I've been going through a little bit of cookie withdrawls, so I decided to work on a new Valentine's Day set.  I wanted to incorporate all the things needed for a 'romantic evening'!  :)


I belong to a really awesome group on Flickr.  We're doing a cookie exchange, so I also worked on those cookies.  And while I am just dying to post them, I can't until the recipient receives them....and I still can't until everybody gets their cookies and we guess who made what.   But it's killing me not to post 'em!  :)

We have a new venue (or new to me) in town called the House of Bounce.  I've done quite a few cakes for parties there recently, but never an actual bounce house, so this was new!  From the pictures online, it looks like a great place to have a party.  Heck, I wouldn't mind having an hour myself to play in there!  :)


I'm really looking forward to this next week.  I have some interesting cake and cookie orders, so it should be a fun time!  Check back for pictures!  :)

Monday, January 17, 2011

Slooow January....

January has always been my very slowest month for cakes.  It gives me time to get my taxes done, get caught up on house work, all things I don't really want to do!  :)  So needless to say, I dread January!  LOL!

I did have a couple of fun orders last week.  One was for Leah's 25th birthday...I really liked how the cake came out.  Her husband was really great to work with.


I also did some cookies for a baby shower.  I added the little flowers as a last minute touch.


And a cute soccer themed cake for twins.  I don't know why soccer is always a hard theme, but I really like the way the soccer ball turned out on this one!


And since I have some spare time, I've been able to play around with some hand made cards.  I love Valentine's Day...all pink and red and hearts and cuteness!


Have a great week!!!!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Change of Location?

I've been offered a very interesting opportunity, to combine resources with an existing bakery in the Clintonville area.  If I decide to do this, I'll be working out of that location from now on.  I would love some input from my existing customers, future customers...well, anyone really!  :)  Would Clintonville be more/less convenient for you as far as pick up?  I know it's a long haul for many of you to get out here to me, although I sincerely appreciate that you've been willing to drive so far!  Another advantage would be the retail location...we'd actually have items for sale individually, so you can pick up one or two or a few cupcakes or cookies, a slice of cheesecake, that type of thing. 

I would really love any feedback you'd be willing to share!  Feel free to comment here or email me directly at brenscakes@yahoo.com

Since I'm still recovering from this never-ending cold, I haven't been spending alot of time in the kitchen.  Okay, NO time in the kitchen.  But it seems long overdue to post a pic or two, so here's a couple from Valentine's last year.  We're digging into the archives!  :)

I sent these to my daughter when she was in her advanced military training.  I figured she'd love to see any pattern other than camoflauge!


These were mailed down to the grandkids last year:


I love Valentine's Day goodies.  They're so fun to create.  While I haven't been doing any actual work, I do have plans for some really cool cookie sets for this year, so maybe by next week I'll have a NEW picture or two!  :)

Enjoy your day!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Still Recovering

Well, its a week later, and I am STILL recovering from this cold from hell!  I literally cannot remember the last time I was sick like this.  But I am definitely on the road to recovery, so I am going to concentrate on being grateful for that!

The upside to being down for a week with a cold...lots of time to read.  Since alot of you who follow my blog are bakers, you'll find this book interesting:


My Life from Scratch, by Gesine Bullock-Prado

If you haven't read this one, I strongly recommend it.  Gesine is actually Sandra Bullock's sister, although the book doesn't concentrate on that aspect hardly at all, other than it's an interesting fact.  As I read this, I found that I had alot in common with the author.  Gesine's mother was an opera singer born in Nurnberg, Germany.  My grandmother is from Stutguard (did I spell it wrong, mom?) Germany and has always truly loved opera.  Gesine seems to be a bit sarcastic and anti social, and let's face it, so am I.  :)  The book is extremely readable and informative at the same time.  Not to mention, it has some pretty good recipes scattered throughout as well.  I went to her blog and it looks like she has an actual cookbook coming out in April, which I will definitely purchase.

Oh, and I wanted to share this picture.  We had this taken of the grandkids in St. Augustine, at one of those old-time photo places.  Isn't it cute?!  Its one of the few pictures I have of them all looking at the camera and smiling at the same time!


On that note, I am going to crawl back onto my sofa with a book and resume my recovery!  :)

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Chattanooga, Tennessee

As previously stated, I LOVE Chattanooga.  I love everything about it...the mountains, Sugar's Barbecue Restaurant, the pedestrian bridge (my fave), the cool shops, the gorgeous downtown, the fantastic aquarium.  I am just a huge fan!  :)  So we stop there for an overnighter whenever we can, usually on our way back from Florida. 

This time, we were both a little under the weather with colds from the grandkids, so we didn't do as much walking as we normally do.  But we stayed at our favorite place...the Delta Queen!


The ship is docked now, as required by Tennessee law in order to be used as a hotel.  But it's just beautiful!  It's docked right downtown Chattanooga, very close to the pedestrian bridge, so you can easily get over to the downtown area.  Once we get there, we normally park the car and walk everywhere we want to go.

The view from our room was incredible.  To the left is a wonderful view of my pedestrian bridge.  The rooms are small, and there's no TV, no phone, which we actually love.


The interior is filled with antiques and history.  You could spend an entire day just wondering around, reading plaques and scrapbooks about the ship and who has stayed on it.  It has a grand staircase that sooo makes me want to put on an evening gown and heels so I can float down those beautiful stairs.  (And there are NOT many things that make me want to wear heels....ever!!!)




And I have to add, that they have by far THE most comfortable beds I've ever slept on in a hotel.  Seriously!


Once we dragged ourselves out of that amazingly comfortable bed....hard to do when you're sick and it's so warm and cozy....we went to find at least one or two bakeries before heading home.  I can't enter a town, ever, without finding a bakery!  :)  We stopped by The Cake Gallery and picked up a cupcake to split there.  Pretty good cupcake, but they keep them cold, which is my least favorite way to eat a cupcake.  I guess I could've waited for it to warm up, but I was hungry!  Great flavor though, and a wonderful fudgy filling.

We thought we might like to find more of a breakfast type of bakery, so my hubby found this place, the Vine Street Market:

This is one of the most charming bakeries I've been to in quite awhile.  They didn't offer alot for breakfast, but we did get two fantastic muffins, steaming hot right out of the oven.  They were amazing!!!  Their lunch items sounded so good, we really wished we were going to be in town another day just to try it.  But the interior was so comforting and earthy...very close to what I want when we finally open our shop!


Notice the fire place off to the left of the counter?  I just love that!  We sat and had our muffin and coffee and would've been quite content to spend most of our day there!.  But alas, it was time to head home!  We need to get back to work...to save up money for our next vacation!!!  :)

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

St. Augustine, Florida

We spent New Year's in St. Augustine, FL.  It is such a gorgeous town!  They still had lights up from Christmas, so it was just gorgeous in the evenings!



Normally, once we head to St. Augustine, it's kind of "our" vacation time.  But we did decide that since the grandkids are getting older, we'd bring them down just for the day, so they could enjoy a change of scenery as well.  While Arnie took the two older ones to a living history museum (more fun than it sounds!), Grace and I toured town in our rented stroller, charming everyone that went by.  (Okay, more Grace than me!)


We also made a stop to the new cake shop in town.  The name of the shop is "Sugared Bliss", which I love!  The owner was very nice, and her prices are way too reasonable!  $2.00 for a huge cookie.  I hope she raises her prices soon.  She makes THE best snickerdoodle Arnie or I have ever had.


I really love her decor, as well.  We visit alot of bakeries, cupcake shops, cake shops, etc in our travels, and I just don't care for the overly "cute" type of place.  Personally, I love the earth tones and simple elegance...a man would be comfortable sitting down to get a cup of coffee here without feeling like all of his testosterone is seeping out! 



We also passed by "Luli's" cupcake shop.  I did go in and get a cup of coffee but didn't get a cupcake.  I got one last time I was there and remember it as being pretty good.  But I'm trying to watch my calories a little, so I'm holding out for excellent!



Arnie and I are still trying to recover from our trip.  One thing you forget about when you don't have small children around anymore...germs!  Arnie and I are never sick...its an extremely rare thing.  We both came home sick as dogs.  All three grandkids had runny noses and coughs, and I think they aimed them in our direction every time.  :)

Tomorrow we'll do Chattanooga, TN...my very favorite place!  I seriously plan on living there someday!  :)

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

On to Jacksonville, FL

From Savannah, we headed down to Jacksonville, FL, to visit the grandkids, as that is the main reason for our trip!  We brought them down Christmas gifts...it was nice to be able to actually see them open them instead of mailing them down like we normally do!  The next day we picked them up and took them to one of our favorite places....the ZOO!!!!  I love the zoo!  :)

I promise I won't post a million pics of my ugly mug, but hey, I need one of me with the grandkids, right?  From left to right is Mercedes, Grace, Grandma, and Andy. 


This is my favorite picture of Grandpa and Grace:


A very rare photo of all of them looking at me and smiling at the same time!  It felt like a small miracle!


And my favorite thing about the zoo, other than the grandkids, is always the Larakeets!  They are the sweetest little birds, and I could just look at them all day with their gorgeous plummage!

Tomorrow I'll post St. Augustine, Florida.  What a gorgeous city!  And we stopped at two bakeries, so I have cute pictures of those to share as well!

Happy New Year!!!!

Okay, a few days late but better late than never.  I hope everyone had a fantastic New Year's!  We certainly did.  We spent ours in St. Augustine, FL, enjoying the 74 degree day, so we have nothing to complain about.

And, we're just back from a week long vacation.  So you know what that means, right?  Yup, the dreaded vacation photos!  I'll only post a few a day, so hopefully you won't be run down with boredom!  :)

The first place we stopped on our way down was Savannah, GA.  We spent two nights there....NOT enough time to enjoy Savannah!  We did the Historic AVA walk, which is voted one of the top ten in the country, and we can totally see why.  Here's a few shots from our walk...




Savannah's historic area is made up of all of these "squares", which are really, really cool.  They have a ton of parks in the center of the squares, each with different sculptures, fountains, etc.  And people really utilize them.  It was so nice to see so many people out, enjoying the parks, spending time with family.  It was a little cold (in the 40's) but at least the sun was shining!


After our AVA walk, we did a walking Food Tour.  We did one of those in Lexington, KY on our last vacation and are now convinced that every time we go to a new town, we're going to see if there's one available.  On this one, we got to eat in Paula Dean's restuarant (we got to choose one item from the buffet to try...I had the mac n' cheese, which was amazing...my hubby had the pulled pork, also amazing..and I am NOT a buffet eater!).  I was entirely too busy stuffing my face to take pics of any of the restaurants we stopped to though, so I am a little bummed about that.

But we did come across this neat cake shop on one of the side streets.  She's only open by appointment only, so we didn't get to try anything, but it's a neat looking shop!


Well, off to catch up on phone calls, emails, bills, etc.  Tomorrow I'll post a few pictures from Florida and a few of the grandkids, of course!  :)