It's Official!

Our new retail location will be located at 20 H South State Street, Westerville, OH!!!!!!  The lease is signed, the electric is on....now begins the construction and painting!  We are hoping (desperately) to be open by the end of August or September 1st at the latest, barring any unforseen problems. 

We plan to offer a variety of cupcakes, cookies and small cakes available on a daily basis, along with special order custom cakes like we currently do. 

I will definitely keep the blog updated on our progress.  You won't want to miss the Grand Opening....free cupcakes for all!!!!!  :)

Fantastic News!!!

We are moving to Westerville, to a retail location!!!  We have thought about opening a storefront for quite some time, but we finally found the perfect location.  We'll be located in Uptown Westerville (the old downtown area) on S. State Street.  We'll spend most of August remodeling and getting ready to open, but I'll keep the blog updated with opening dates. 

Wish us luck!!!!  :)

What a great week!

Isn't it nice when you can say you had a great week at work?!  That's definitely what I had.  My orders this week were all so much fun to work on.  AND - we found a great retail location in Westerville that we are sooo excited about!  It's not 100% yet - we have to check on some zoning issues - but if that works out, we'll be going retail!!!!

My first order for this week was for a great customer, Amy.  She always comes up with such fun things for her sons' birthdays.  The hats on these were made out of white chocolate, so they are totally edible.

I also had an order for Emily's 14th birthday.  She's a big fan of the Cake Boss, so I'm hoping that I managed to live up to her expectations.  The cheetah print is hand painted.

This one still needs to be delivered, so I'm hoping Kimberly doesn't pop on here.  She's probably too busy getting ready for the party anyways!  :) 

And cookies to match...

Have a great weekend, everyone!  And check back often for updates on the shop.  You know how much I love posting pics.  If it's a go, I'll definitely take "in progress" pictures as we remodel! 

Farmers Market

Okay, I still have two bakeries to post, but I thought I'd take a break and actually post something that we made! 

Our farmers market on Tuesday went really well.  It was VERY hot, but my tent wasn't trying to blow away, no freak storms moved in, no rain.  :)  I was a little behind in getting ready, so my oldest daughter Tessa came over to help.  She got a crash course in icing cupcakes and I was shocked and impressed with how great they came out!

We also introduced our new Cake Cups.  They are simply cake cut into chunks with icing in between the layers.  However, when Tes and I started working on them, she came up with ideas for different flavors, like Cookies N' Cream or Smores.  Now the wheels are turning.  I think Banana Split would be a cool flavor and this morning, my hubby suggested Strawberry Shortcake.  So who knows what we'll end up bringing next week!

And of course, our cookies from last week!

Don't forget - the Hilliard Farmers Market is every Tuesday from 4pm to 7pm...rain or shine!  :)

Bakery Tour - Chattanooga Cupcakes - my 2nd favorite!

This was my 2nd favorite cupcake place we visited in Chattanooga.  It's almost unheard of, but we actually went back for more cupcakes from this place.  The location helps....it's a quick walk from our boat, across the pedestrian bridge and into downtown.  If I haven't mentioned the pedestrian bridge yet, it's one of my very favorite features of Chattanooga.  I've always loved bridges anyways, but this is the longest pedestrian bridge in the country.  Here's a shot of it from the downtown side of the river.  You can see the Delta Queen docked underneath it, which is where we like to stay. 

Another shot of what the bridge looks like.  I took this picture for my mom, who actually introduced me to Chattanooga.  The crowd of people coming towards us is headed to the park to set up to watch the fireworks (which we got to watch from the deck of the boat, lucky us!).

Okay, one more for Mom.  This shot was taken on the pedestrian bridge, looking down into Coolidge Park, where everyone set up to watch the fireworks.  And you can see my boat, the Delta Queen, off to the left.  People started setting up tents and roping of their sections at like 10am. 

On to Chattanooga Cupcakes.  So we left our boat, walked across the pedestrian bridge and into downtown.  This is the side of the building, and I got so excited when I saw their adorable logo, that I never took a pic of the front.  Go figure.

And here's a close up of that adorable logo.  I just love how the cupcakes replace the two o's.  So cute!

And when we walked in, I was in heaven.  Honestly, it was a little bright for my tastes, but this was one happy, friendly cupcake place! 

The seating area was really cute as well.  Everywhere you looked there were cupcakes...pictures, knick knacks on the ledges....everywhere!

The quality of their cupcakes blew me away.  And get this...the strawberry cupcake actually had strawberries in it!!!  The peach cobbler cupcake (Arnie's favorite)...it had peaches in it!  I know that should be normal, but its quite often not the case in alot of places we've visited.  My only complaint would be that there is ALOT of icing on those cupcakes, but I had no problem scooping off a bit from the top and enjoying the rest.

A must-do stop if you happen to be in Chattanooga....

All Aboard!

Just in case you were wondering if we did anything other than visit bakeries on our vacation, here's the proof that yes, we did.  On Saturday, we took the Tennessee Railroad from Chattanooga to Chickamauga, GA.  It was about a 2-1/2 hour train ride each way, with an hour and a half layover to check out the small town of Chickamauga. 

We had really high hopes for the train ride.  It sounded like soooo much fun.  Unfortunately, it didn't go quite as well as we expected.  First, we stopped for an hour for them to fix one of the women's bathrooms.  It seemed a bit unnecessary, as there were other restrooms available and they could've worked on it while we were stopped in GA.  Add to that too many unhappy children and unpleasant scenery, and it just wasn't what we had anticipated.  However, when we're on vacation, we try to keep a good attitude, so we definitely didn't let it ruin our day.

Once we stopped in Chickamauga, we decided to find some lunch.  We ate at a barbecue place (my hubby LOVES barbecue..we ate alot of it on vacation, which is a fair trade off for all the bakery stops!).  The food was really fantastic.  I loved my smoked chicken, and we also had fried green tomatoes that were the best I've ever had.  And it was a really cute place too.

And then, on to the bakeries!  :)  The first place I was really excited about...it was called Cakes & Coffee.  I only took one picture of the cute outside, as when we walked in, we realized it was more of a gift shop than anything else.  They did have one full cake, a few cupcakes, and a pot of homemade coffee, but that was it.  Not much of a cake shop.

Luckily, across the street was a place called the Chocolate Cafe.  How could anybody resist going in there?  Somehow, I didn't get a picture of the outside, but the inside was exactly what I have always pictured my own shop would look like.  It had beautiful brick walls and hardwood floors.  In the backroom, there was a large fireplace and an outdoor patio. 

Cute, right?  Almost exactly what I would look for in a shop.  While I really like the "cute" cupcake shops, I'm always drawn to the more natural elements, like brick and wood. 

From here, we made the two hour train ride back to Chattanooga, giving a huge sigh of relief as we exited the train!  :)

Bakery Tour - The Bread Basket

On our first full day in Chattanooga, we headed up the mountain to Signal Mountain.  My friend Sandie owns a cookie shop, so we stopped in there to say hello, then headed to The Bread Basket.  What a cool place!  The outside is incredibly beautiful.  (LOL..there's my hubby again, being dragged to another bakery!)

On our way down, we stopped at a cheese farm, did the tour, and bought some cheese varieties, so we definitely needed some bread to go with it.  The interior of the shop was just as beautiful as the outside.  The staff was friendly, and the bread was delicious!

I love the wicker rack they have with the different mini breads.  I would love to find something like that for the farmers market, so let me know if you happen to come across one!

'Til tomorrow....

Bakery Tour - Whipped Cupcakes

This is an adorable little bakery.  And the best part is, it's located right by the Delta Queen, which is the steamboat we like to stay on when we're in Chattanooga, so its within walking distance.   Well, most things are within walking distance for us when we're on vacation...that seems to be about all we do! 

They have a very cute seating area with this huge foam core cupcake on the wall.  And I love the hanging tissue paper balls.

My poor husband...he is SUCH a patient man.  When I got home and uploaded pictures, I realized that he's in a bunch of them, always ordering for me, so that I can look around.  I'm lucky he's such an amazing travel companion!  :)

The bakery case is pretty cute too.  They have plastic trays that have the perfect size circle cut into them so that the cupcakes stay nice and don't fall over.

Stop in tomorrow for another tour.  I think I have like five more to post.  I haven't been on a scale, but I'm assuming I need to start dieting off the cupcakes!!!  :)

Back from Vacation!

I surely wish I could say I was happy to be home, but that would be a total deception.  :)  I love vacation with my hubby.  If you have followed my blog for any amount of time at all, you know that I'm slightly obsessed with visiting bakeries and cupcake shops while we're gone.  I prefer to think of it more as research than obsession, as it sounds more sane.  :)

I can't possibly post all of my pictures in one post, so I'll post a bakery a day.  Our first bakery stop was The Cup in Knoxville, Tennessee.  We came across it by accident...just saw a small billboard at an exit we were getting off at anyways.  The shop is totally adorable.  They have another location in Knoxville as well.

I have to admit too, that I've taken most of my pictures with my camera phone, so they may not all be fantastic, but hey, you'll get the idea.

The inside was really cool as well.  I really like a minimalist approach to decor, and they pulled that concept off perfectly!

I would love to say the cupcakes were amazing, but the best I can give them is pretty good.  They were definitely fresh and not piled with a ton of icing.  They were simply a very good cupcake.

'Til tomorrow.....

Vacation

We will be closed for vacation from Thursday, June 30th through Tuesday, July 5th.  We're spending the 4th in my very favorite place...Chattanooga, TN.  Hopefully when I get back I'll have lots of bakery pictures to post, as that's one of my favorite vacation activities!  :)

We will also not be at the farmers market on Tuesday.  There just won't be enough time to get everything ready.  But we'll be there on July 12th!

Happy Independence Day!!!

On the Menu for June 28th

Today is the farmers market!  We'll be there from 4-7pm tonight.  On the menu is:

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gingerbread Cookies
Decorated Sugar Cookies
Banana Bread
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
Lemon Cupcakes with lemon icing
Chocolate Cupcakes
and two other type of cupcakes that I haven't decided on!  :)

See you all there!

Slacking Again...

Yes, I've been slacking again on keeping up on my blog!  Life just has a way of interfering with things sometimes, but get ready for a heck of a catch up!

I'll start with this week's cakes.  Julie was a joy to work with.  She was organized and knew exactly what she wanted.  I made two cakes for her mother's 70th birthday.  The purse cake was made to look like a Jessica Simpson handbag.  Hopefully she liked it!  :)

And the sheet cake to match:

Princess Brynn celebrated her 1st birthday today.  The cake is a 14" round chocolate cake with cookies n' cream filling.  The carriage is strawberry swirl cake.  The pretty little crown is made out of white chocolate, as are the shoe and the jewels.  Happy Birthday Brynn!

And an interesting wedding cake for Leah and Justin.  I have never done a cake quite like this one.  I wish I coud post credit to the original designer, but the picture I received didn't have any watermark on it. 

We had such an interesting week at the farmers market last Tuesday.  The weather was absolutely beautiful at the beginning.  A little hot, but the cupcakes made it there without melting.  Maybe that's because I was FINALLY smart enough to put them in a cooler!  Duh!  My granddaughters came to visit in their new adorable little outfits...

Not long after the grandkids left, the skies darkened and the scariest storm I've ever seen moved in.  The sky was growling...no, seriously, growling.  It was a constant sound, unlike any type of thunder I've ever heard.  The wind kicked up and tents started flying like crazy.  We got our stuff contained, then my daughter and her girlfriend took off to help others with their tents.  I'm pretty sure a few of these tents didn't survive...

Needless to say, we're hoping for better weather this week!  :)  Although the rain doesn't seem to be in a big hurry to stop. 

Okay, enough catch up for one day.  I leave for vacation next week, so nooo cake orders.  Which means I'll have time to post again.  Probably.  :)