The Cupcake Episode

I do a lot of market research in my, um, "spare time."

Short of wearing a wig and a heavy veil, I have been clandestinely and methodically staking out local bakeries to see what's out there, how much it costs and how good it is.

There are some great bakers out there making a living and doing a great job of marketing themselves.  My goal is to figure out if there's room for me and if I can really compete with the stuff that people are already buying en masse.

So, I recently traveled to a nearby metropolitan hub to continue my research, and by way of two local cakeries, purchased a total of 21 cupcakes. 

For those who are perhaps not paying attention - that is a LOT of cupcake. 

It's much MORE cupcake when the cupcake you're eating is not all that great...sadly, the sugar rush that ensued after what I'm calling the Cupcake Episode, was not worth it.

My research partners and I (that's my two sisters-in-law) took our armfuls cake to a local coffee shop, sat our selves down with a couple pencils and girded our palates for the onslaught of crumb and cream.

What I learned:

First: Red Velvet Cake is just as disgusting as I remember it, and putting a boatload of cream cheese icing on it will not make it taste any better.  WHY do people like this cake????  I will be working on recipes to make this inexplicably popular cake palatable, as opposed to chemical, which is what we got from these cupcakes.

Second: CAKE is NEVER an every day food - - even when it's small - - so it should NEVER be an everyday experience. 

One dozen of the DRYEST cupcakes I've ever put in my mouth, cost me over TWENTY dollars and who knows how many empty calories!  Look...I'll pay you 5 bucks for a cupcake that is (big!) and truly delicious.  But a dry, crumbly, tiny cupcake with a splooge of icing on top is not worth a whole 2 bucks.  It just isn't. 

Make it good.  Make it worth my calories.  Make it affordable. 

Third: Icing has to be worthy of the cake it goes on and vice versa.  Every cupcake we tried had overpowering icing on it.  It was even a little grainy at times, and I know that I know that I know that some of the icings didn't have real butter in them. 

So the cupcakes were ok.  They were not remarkable.  But I applaud the bakers who are making a marketable product and keeping the lights on. 

The bottom line for me here is simple.  I am competition, there is definitely room for me, and I can never, ever eat this many cupcakes at one time again.  Ever.

The Ongoing Saga of Saturdays

Here at Bake Lore, we affectionately call cake pops Saturdays - because of the extreme cuteness of my three-year old and his obsession with high-quality baked goods. 

He coined the phrase, and I just love it.  It makes me smile everytime I hear it.  So when I had someone actually call and request them by name - that was great.  Aside from playing to my motherly girlishness, it also gave me the opportunity I've been waiting for to try the products from Chocoley Chocolate.

I bought two pounds of their dipping and enrobbing formula - "Badda Boom Badda Bing" - love their name for it!  And compared to Wilton's candy melts and the candy coating in the baking isle, this chocolate is like a different world!  Smooth, way tastier and just a gorgeous finish. 

2 dozen "Saturdays"
buttery yellow cake, vanilla butter cream with white chocolate coating

Bye bye, "rustic" look - hello smooth and sensational:).

I highly recommend!  I will be purchasing more from this company in the future - - possibly to cover a dozen Saturdays for YOU:).

The Fender Stratocaster - - of Cake

Once again, I find myself at the end of a huge project with very few words...so I'll share with you the pictures of one of the best cakes I've created to date.

Here's the guitar-lover's rock-star cake.  The Fender Stratocaster, a la Bake Lore, 100% hand crafted from the tone knobs to the pickups and tuners:

That's my model - my old strat from college, and a great instrument!

My Dad, the best guitar player I know, and I know quite a few.
I was pretty much in cake heaven when he was so happy with the final product.

So that's it!  The whole thing is made out of gumpaste, cereal treat, fondant - and of course, cake and butter cream.  There are only small bits of cardboard and floral wire holding things in place, but otherwise, you could eat the whole thing! 

Happy Birthday to one very lucky little boy!

It's Fruit, Baby

Hello?

Anyone still out there?

*cricket chirpping*

Sigh. 

Well, then I guess no one will have to drool over this amazing fruit tart that I just made. 

I thought that might get your attention!  TADA!

Gorgeous, huh?  This is for a baby shower, for a mamma-to-be who *gasp* does not like cake.  Well, I'm here to calm all those cake-hating fears with good news: Bake Lore is your one stop bakery pastry wonderland.  That's right...from scratch pastry dough, tenderly cooked pastry cream, gorgeous fruit and an apricot glaze Julia herself would be proud of.

Now I'm off to finish the guitar cake...and a million Saturdays...and a million other things. 

Mmmmm...fruit tart...

Cake Frenzy

Yes, it's that time again.  I'm in another cake frenzy.

I'm up to my ears in gum paste work and butter cream icing.  (And I'm a little behind on the gum paste work due to my son's overwhelming urges to eat, lick, or otherwise destroy my awesome sugar sculptures.)

I'm working on a BIG cake for an awesome birthday party - that would be a life size replica of a Fender Strat - that's an electric guitar for those of you who might have been living under a rock for a few decades. 

Then there are Saturdays - that is, cake pops - which I'll be using my new shipment of Chocoley brand dipping chocolate.

Then there is a mess of cupcakes and a big old Green Lantern cake...and last but not least a gorgeous fruit tart with the world's best from-scratch pastry cream. 

photo credit

So...all that to say...I'm a little busy, and I'm gonna have some great pics for you soon!!!

Whole Wheat Sugar Cookie

Oh, come on!  Give it a chance!

Be adventurous - especially since this is NOT all that adventurous.

The go-to sugar cookie has been revamped in the Bake Lore test kitchen - aka, my house - and though it probably deserves some tweaking, I'm pretty sure I have a solid new recipe. 

Can you see a case full of these cuties greeting
you when you come in the shop??

Soaked whole wheat flour, of course - lots of butter and demarara sugar - eventually I'll use sucanat...just as soon as I can find a good vendor that doesn't eat me alive on shipping. 

Andrew, Bake Lore's official taste tester has declared them to be "yummy!"  So these little puppies will be fulfilling my end of a give away I did a week or so ago on my facebook page.  I hope they get good reviews! 

What's a Bakery Without Bread?

What's a bakery without bread?

This is the question a fellow entrepreneur asked me while discussing the profit margins I'm fighting in my market research.

Sadly, I am not undertaking a philanthropic venture - privately funding my quest to see that the world,  or at least the world of Southern Indiana - is eating properly prepared grains and celebrating with truly remarkable cake. 

In order for this to fly, I gotta be makin some dough - that's the cash kind, not the yummy, gooey, phytate-free kind:). 

My underlying passion for nourishing baked goods means I use very high quality ingredients.  And darned if I am going to give up the hunt for reasonably priced supplies at the first sign of trouble. 

I am not trying to start just another bakery.  I think my cakes speak for themselves as a cut above the competition.  And I am gaining a reputation for extremely high quality breads and cookies as well.  They don't just taste good.  They offer nutrition you cannot find in the grocery store or even in most bakeries.  My soaking method is as important to the taste and texture of my products as it is to the nutriton. 

It's a tragedy to me that the food we need to be healthy is so often cost prohibitive for people.  Or it's so far away we can't reasonably expect to access it regularly. 

I'm trying to offer extremely nutrious baked goods - as well as out of this world cakes - that are accessible to those of us who love to live rural and affordable to those who can't fork over a million bucks for sandwich bread. 

So if you're of the persuasion - please pray that I find the right vendors, the right supplies and keep moving forward. 

No one ever said pursuing your goals would be easy.  Let's face it, if it were easy, everyone would do it!  A bakery isn't a bakery without bread.  And Bake Lore is no bakery without high quality, whole food ingredients - so I will keep looking, researching and I know I'll find what I need to keep it affordable AND profitable!