The "IN BETWEEN" Stage...

I call the time  between Christmas and Wedding Season, the "IN BETWEEN" stage. This is typically the time (for most cake designers) when it is a bit slower in terms of cake and cupcake sales, but this is also a VERY BUSY time for me.  During this time,

1)  I hold all my wedding cake consultations, starting from October -November, and then once again from January to March. I really, really enjoy this part of my business. I enjoy meeting with couples and seeing their  ideas and drafting up designs for their wedding cake. Every cake I create, I try to bring a personal element of the client into the design.  Plus, the bridal couples enjoy eating cake.. that's the FUN part.

2) Inventory... this is when I go through my kitchen and all my wedding cake orders and see what I need to order for the upcoming busy wedding season. Sometimes, if I need a special cutter or mold, I need to order it at least 6-8 weeks in advance to make sure I get it on time. Sometimes a special piece of equipment comes as far as the UK.

3) This period is also the time when I typically attend bridal or trade shows. Right now, I am busy prepping for the upcoming CKNL trade show in April. It usually draws in around 16-20,000 people in a weekend. I sell on average around 600-800  cupcakes in one weekend. Last year, I had a smaller booth and I was tripping over stuff all the time. So this year, I rented a much larger booth, plus totally revamped my booth design. Sorry, no hints, I will post pics of my booth after the show.

4) VACATION... need I say more. With my husband working in the oil patch, the spring break up tends to be around April, which happens to land before wedding season. As a result, our family tends to take a family vacation at that time. Gives me time to recoup after standing on my feet for 3 long days at the trade show and relax just before the wedding season. Sleep and days off are not an option from May until September. Last year, we went to Punta Cana...

Our Business Philosophy...

At Just Like Gram's, we are really "picky" about our cakes. We use only the finest ingredients in everything we make. It is our philosophy that...

• Our cakes are made from scratch using fresh, high quality ingredients. I use 100% butter, flour, sugar, fresh eggs, Dutch cocoa, buttermilk, no artificial flavorings ( I use Madagascar Bourbon vanilla bean paste for my cakes).

• We do not use box mixes and our desserts contain no artificial ingredients or artificial flavorings.

• All our cakes are baked fresh just for your event. We do not pre-bake, ice and freeze our cakes in advance.

• We offer 2 types of buttercream: Italian Meringue Buttercream and Traditional Buttercream.. both made from sweet creamy butter and premium Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla. 

• Our fruit fillings are made from real pureed fruit. All my fillings are made fresh from scratch. We do not use sleeve fillings. These are pre-cooked fillings found in a sleeve that you just squeeze out. All our fruit is locally grown, and we handpick our raspberries from our own garden. 
  

• We cover all our cakes with a thick layer of creamy butercream before the fondant is applied. This serves several purposes. First, it tastes delicious. Second, it protects the cake and keeps it moist and fresh. Third, it makes for a perfectly smooth presentation so that your cake will look as beautiful as it is delicious.

• We DO NOT BELIEVE in the heavy use of  food coloring in both our cakes and buttercreams. Therefore, we do not believe in making tie-dye cakes or vibrant colored buttercreams. We feel heavy use of colors in our products is artificial and unhealthy causing staining of skin and teeth. Therefore, we cover our cakes in colored fondant (which does not cause staining) which can be easily peeled off if desired.

• We believe in supporting our community and we purchase our ingredients locally whenever possible. 
  

Why do we do this? Well... we think real ingredients just plain taste better? Plus, it's better for you and better for the environment.

2015... A NEW YEAR!

It's 2015... and thought I would start a fresh new year with making it a weekly goal of BLOGGING. I can dream and set goals, RIGHT?  It's was an EXTREMELY tough year last year filled with family illness and deaths, thus the lack of BLOGGING. So, let's start off the new year with a fresh face.

This year, we started off January with several cakes and the first wedding cake of the year. 

Tartan and Sugarpaste Thistle Birthday Cake

FROZEN theme cake created as a birthday gift for my niece.

Pretty Pink Rosette Cake with purple sugarpaste butterflies.

First wedding cake of 2015. Small wedding cake with matching cupcakes adorned with black sugarpaste blossoms.

It's a Bittersweet Affair...

Last week, I headed to Edmonton for another "pick up supplies and get ready for fall" trip. I also spent some time visiting my sister and her family, before we headed all together for a trip to Medicine Hat, Alberta to visit my uncle and grandmother. 

This was a difficult trip... you see, my grandmother, who is 87, is suffering from dementia. It has been hard to see her health declining over the past 5 years. I am EXTREMELY close to my grandmother. She is the ONE who shared her love of baking with me and taught me over the years all her secrets and knowledge. She was not only my mentor, but my best friend, confidant, baking "soul mate", and second "mother". She was there for ALL the important times of my life from infant up until now. It was finally during this visit, that I realized the Gram I knew was "gone", she had failed to recognize me. We can no longer talk recipes or baking or just chit chat in general. THAT IS GONE!!! The best I can do is to sit beside her in silence and support her.

Just before I left, I was given her coveted bread pan and  prized collection of cookbooks. I have tried to look at them, but I CAN NOT... it is just too painful. You see, I have NEVER looked at those cookbooks ALONE, it was always in the company of my grandmother. I am just not ready yet to look at them by myself. Perhaps.. one day. Below is one of my favorite photos of both my grandmother and I, on my wedding day 15 years ago.

Onto more cheery things, we created this beautiful rustic country theme wedding this past weekend. Wedding cake was rusic iced, and adorned with burlap flowers, lavender and baby's breath.

Here is another view of the cake table. I ABSOLUTELY love this the cake display. The bride chose this antique cupboard to display her wedding cake along with a burlap and lace table runner. A big shout out to Flowers by Charene for the gorgeous work decorating the venue.

Blue & White Skull 'n Crossbones Baby Shower cupcakes for a baby boy.

Just a  few of the cupcakes we delivered to The Canadian Grind this week. Below are Triple Chocolate Cupcakes and Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes.

A Sculpting We Will Go...

Well... it's been ANOTHER busy week here. With the usual cupcakes, we also created some wedding cupcakes and two sculpted cakes. On ANOTHER note, remember last week when I was discussing the idea of a storefront. Well.... there has been a slight development. My husband and I decided that in fact we will ONE day, (and I mean ONE day) we will have a storefront that will house both our business'.  One half will be devoted to our environmental business, and the other half will be my cake shop. NOW, when will this be? Not for a while.. we have to find the right location, or maybe even build a place. Right now, it's just been in the "planning" stages, but will keep you posted on any new developments.

Here are the cupcakes and cakes of the week...

Created this 21 window VW bus for a couple celebrating their 10th wedding aniversary.  Cake was all hand sculpted and the figurines were modeled from sugarpaste.

Another hand sculpted Toronto Maple Leaf Corset cake created for a client's husband's birthday.

Carrot Cupcakes and Vanilla Cupcakes with White Chocolate Seashells.

 Red Velvet Cupcakes topped with sugarpaste flowers and Lemon Zest cupcakes topped with candy lemon wedges.

Here we go.. doing it again!

Here we go again, blogging for the second time.. think if I set aside a time each week i.e. Sunday mornings when it is quiet, I can get this done. Anyway, this week we were busy completing cupcakes for The Canadian Grind (a local coffee/craft shop) in Fort St John. We also had a large 60th birthday cupcake order (no pics.. sorry), plus a wedding cake. 

As I said in my last post last weekend, business has been REALLY busy this past year.. which is GREAT, but it can have it's downside. Even though I have been super busy, I have been in a bit of a rut (business rut, that is). I need to make some decisions, but don't know which direction to go. Since I have become sooo busy lately, it has been harder and harder to keep up with orders and unfortunately I have had to turn away sooo many people (which I really hate doing!!!)  People keep on telling me to hire help (easy, right???). Well, NO! I tried that, but since we are located 25 minutes north of Fort St John, people seem to think that is too far to travel. AND, I don't need someone full time, just a couple of hours 3x a week. Unfortunately NO ONE will travel and work for that, so I am STUCK! 

Open a business in town????? Hmmm... that is nice idea, but right now I have kids at home, an acreage to maintain, my husband's environmental business to help run.. you see the pic? Plus, during the school year, my kids go to a rural school that is outside of town. They catch the bus at 7AM and then I have to drive and pick them up from the bus stop at 3:30PM. I would have to close up shop in the afternoon to pick them up. Sorry.., you can't run a business like that.

So what to do??? Move to town, relocate not ONE business, but TWO businesses (my husband's business needs a shop and large area for equipment and machinery), change schools for my kids AGAIN. HMMM....NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. A lot of people tell me, "Oh, just wait until the kids are out of school and  that go at it." Hmmm... I will be 50+ then and, I don't know about you,  but I don't really want to be start ramping up a business, that's when I want to start slowing down.

So you see.. that is where I am at! I have been pondering, pulling my hair out, losing sleep and wracking my brain out for a solution, and STILL haven't come to a solution. So while I STILL ponder a solution, here are some of the cupcakes/cakes of the week.

 Red Velvet and Lemon Tart Cupcakes for The Canadian Grind

 

Chocolate Cookies n Cream and Strawberry Cupcakes for The Canadian Grind

This summer has been nothing but RAIN, RAIN, RAIN, RAIN. Every weekend for the past month has been raining. Delivering wedding cakes in the rain is not the greatest, however,  I box all my cakes up so that way they don't get wet. This weekend was no exception... just prior to delivery, we were experiencing thunder and lightening. Up here in Fort St John, about 50% of the weddings are outdoor tent weddings.   Needless to say, with this year's weather conditions, tent weddings have been less than ideal.   During a heavy downpour we delivered this 3 tier fondant ruffled wedding cake to an outside country wedding north of Fort St John located in the local fair grounds. Fresh purple flowers were added to the cake upon delivery. The reception tent was beautifully decorated with log accents, wooden accents, white linens and additional purple flowers. It looked lovely! It had a definite "country" feel!

I'm BACK!!!!

Yes... after several months of MIA, I am back again. No, I did not stop making cakes, just stop blogging. Been SUPER, INSANELY BUSY since March and finding time to write in a BLOG seemed just ONE MORE THING to do. Right?  Pretty sad excuse, huh??? Well, lately I have been thinking that I HAVE TO MAKE TIME to blog again. Another reason, is that to me my life seems pretty boring and redundant. Really, all I do is make cakes, look after my kids and hubby's business and take care of an acreage. Week AFTER week AFTER week AFTER week.. you get the picture. So here we go again. I am hoping to BLOG at least 1-2x a week.

This has to be ON RECORD one of the MOST BUSIEST'S years on record for me. The demand for cupcakes have taken off and I seem to do more of them than cakes. Unfortunately, with increased business I have had to turn down sooo many orders.  THERE IS ONLY ONE OF ME!!! Can't do everything, right?  The month of July was no exception.. Here are just a "few" of the cakes and cupcakes we did this month.

We created this square cake and cupcakes with dark purple blossoms for a wedding in Rolla, just outside Dawson Creek.  

This 3 tier all white cake was adorned with artificial flowers provided by the bride. The wedding day was EXTREMELY hot, with even hotter temperatures inside the wedding tent. I was very worried that it would melt after setting it up, however, I later received an email from the bride saying the cake had survived and she loved how it turned out.  The bride wrote,

``I just wanted to say that the cake was absolutely, amazingly couldn't ask for a more delicious gorgeous cake. Job well done you are truly an artist :) thank you so much very appreciated.``

Created this 4 tier all white wedding cake wrapped in black ribbon topped with a sugarpaste hot pink bow and draping ribbon. The bride provided a bling brooch to decorate the bow. We received these comments:
The bride wrote me: "Thank you, it looked beautiful and was delicious :)" . One of the guests even commented, "Yes this cake was incredible!!!!! Beautiful and tasted great!!"

This was the biggest cupcake wedding I have created yet. We created  300 cupcakes and a small round wedding cake. Each cupcake was decorated with a small sugarpaste plaque featuring the bride and groom's initials. I was a bit worried I wouldn't have enough room for all the cupcakes. As you can see, the cupcakes covered every inch of the table.

Hunter Orange and Camo Colored Bridal Shower Cupcakes

Bridal Shower Cupcakes decorated with Hot Pink Sugarpaste Blossoms and sprinkled with Silver Dragees

 Baby Shower Cupcakes with Pink and Purple Polka Dots

Every year for the past 5 years I have been making birthday cakes and cupcakes for a regular client. He calls every year and orders treats for his girlfriend. This year I created these birthday cupcakes with Dark Purple Sugarpaste Blossoms and Miniature Daisies.