Welcome back lovelies!
I want to start off by giving a little disclaimer that I am not a good writer. My brain likes to jump around while I am writing so I tend to sometimes be all over the place. Hopefully you will be able to follow along with any of my blogs, but feel free to ask any question and I will do my best to clear anything up! We may now continue our regularly scheduled program ;)
I hope you all are having a wonderful day and a nice weekend! In Anderson it is up in the 70 degree weather so I am taking advantage of it and spending as much time as I can outside. For todays blog I'm going to be talking about my cupcake order I made yesterday for my best friend's brothers birthday (what a mouthful to read lol.) I also have some exciting news to mention of an upcoming new item soon to be released...
Yesterday I got the honor of making special birthday cupcakes for a close friend of mine. My best friend, who I will reference as "bud", has a younger brother who is turning 17! Now I've known bud since I was 13 and now we are 20, so that means I've known her little brother since he was 10, and let me tell you I for sure feel old! I've been making cupcakes for her family's birthdays since I met her and before I even decided to pursue this as a career. Her go to favorite is always my snickerdoodle cupcake! I remember one time her dad got GiGi's cupcakes for his birthday one year, and let me tell you I have not let him live it down since (her dad is really silly so we like to pick on him!) He apologized and hasn't made the same decision since. Their family says my cupcakes are the tastiest, softest, cheapest, and not as tooth achingly sweet. Now don't get me wrong GiGi's cupcakes are amazing gourmet style cupcakes that taste good too! They make normal sized cupcakes into like mini personal cakes, so you get a lot for your money. I recommend giving them a try if you love cupcakes, but for me it is definitely something I could not tolerate all the time. I can normally handle about half of one before it becomes too much for me to eat. My target with my cupcakes it to have simple yet classy regular and gourmet flavors that aren't too sweet so you can enjoy the whole thing! I try to have equal cupcake:icing ratio. I hear a lot from customers that they really enjoy that the most about my cupcakes. You can get equal frosting and cake all in the same bite. After the whole GiGi "incident," I have become their personal event baker! Nice title right!?!?
Bud stopped by the other day to pick up my menu and price sheets to take back to school so her friends can see all that I offer. She informed me that she is going to have her brother pick a flavor that he would like to have for his birthday and have me make some cupcakes. I obviously told her "No I will not do that!"... Just kidding!! I got very excited and told her "Heck yes anything for you guys!"
Later that night she texted me and told me that he is requesting the Neapolitan cupcake, but with a special request added on. I got excited because I'm always down for a new challenge and giving people their dream cupcake. Normally my Neapolitan cupcakes are a vanilla cake, chocolate and strawberry swirled buttercream, and finally topped off with glistening sugar crystals. He specially requested to have chocolate cake instead and swirl vanilla and strawberry buttercream. I mean yeah, I can do that! Bud was so nice and tipped me an extra $3 to help support her local small business :)
She needed the cupcakes by a Friday for a later in the day pick up. I typically like to make the cupcakes a day before they are needed because I normally deliver them in the morning, but since she was picking them up at night, I made them the day of. I currently work and stay at my grandma's house to help her out, plus she enjoys helping me. I clean and sanitize everywhere in the kitchen, make sure I've got cleaned and gloved hands, hair is back and out of the way, utensils are all clean, and wearing a mask. I do deliver cupcakes but I also allow if you want to pick them up yourself from my "home office/kitchen." I deliver free to anywhere in Anderson, then if it is anywhere outside of that I add on a deliver fee for gas, and that varies on how far and where I am delivering.
Yesterday was finally the day I got to make the birthday cupcakes and I always look forward to baking days...they bring me into my happy place. I've been baking since I was 12 and haven't stopped since. I always know it's a good day if I get to be in the kitchen baking. Everything everywhere else could be going wrong, but while I'm baking, none of that even matters. It's a nice break. I got up, did my cleaning and sanitizing of the kitchen and me, preheated my oven, and it was go time now! First thing I always do is start getting my cold ingredients out to get to room temperature (Ex: eggs, buttermilk/milk, butter, etc...) I want all of those to be ready for when I need them, especially the butter for making the buttercream smooth. I started making my famous chocolate cake recipe, which is so hard not to eat the batter because it smells so good, and everything went smoothly. I lined the cupcake pan, filled them, and off into the oven they went. I've always got a system and flow while I'm in the kitchen baking. I make the cake, do the dishes, dry those dishes, put them away, and then get out the next set of dished I'm going to need. I get it from my dad, we are "clean as you go" type of people. Once those come out of the oven I immediately get them out of the pan and onto a cooling rack to stop cooking. Off into the fridge they go to cool down while I get started on my buttercream! As I mentioned above, I get into the zone while baking. I basically go on "autopilot" and if I get interrupted then I get thrown off and forget what I was doing. Most of my family knows that and just let me be till I am done, but occasionally we have to have the interruptions. That is fine and all, I just have to remember where I left off. Now that it is time for the buttercream, I break out the big guns...the stand mixer! I love my stand mixer and would do anything to protect it...I mean it. It makes life so much easier. I sometimes use a hand mixer but it never amounts to my stand mixer. I toss in the in butter and let that cream for about 5 minutes till it is much lighter and fluffier in volume. Once that is achieved, I start adding my powder sugar in batches. Make sure it is added in batches or you will have a snow storm in your kitchen. Powder sugar is equivalent to glitter...it gets everywhere...and will stay with you. Also make sure you mix on low speed till most of the powder is mixed in then start whipping on high speed again. Normally once I've added about half the sugar I add in my desired flavorings. In this case, I needed half vanilla and half strawberry, so I waited till the end to add the flavors. I always add in a splash of heavy whipping cream to make it light, airy, and creamy. Just continue mixing on high till you get the achieved consistency and flavor. Once the buttercream was all made, I divided it into two batches. I flavored one batch with vanilla, and the other with fresh strawberries! I am not a fan of artificial flavoring, so you will never get that in my cupcakes. Only fresh! Next it was time to swirl the buttercream, I fill the piping bag on one side with one frosting and the other with the other flavor. I love they way swirled frosting looks! I grab the cupcakes out the fridge and make sure they are cooled down so the icing will not melt. I put them in their cupcake container before I pipe the buttercream so I don't have to worry about messing up the frosting trying to put them in their container. I start piping the icing on with a large star tip, giving them a nice two layer swirl. I absolutely love piping the best. Watching all the hard work and vision come together. To finish off these lovely cupcakes, I sprinkled on the sugar crystals. They add that extra "pizzazz" factor if you know what I mean! I was so happy at how these turned out and I couldn't wait for bud and her brother to enjoy them. Now that they are all piped and ready I put the container in the fridge till pick up. I tried to put a nice little note on the container saying, "Happy Birthday! (old fart) love, madi" Instead I accidentally wrote, "Happy Birthday Day! (old fart) love, madi" I didn't even realize it till I went to take them out to her. I thought it was too funny to fix, but I explained the confusion. Bud thought it was funny as well.
I sent her a picture of the final product and she loved them. I told her they taste lovely too ;) When it was time to take her out the cupcakes I explained the note and she was so excited to take them home to her brother. We didn't chat for very long because I had obligations back inside and she was already behind in getting home due to traffic. Overall it was another successful order and another happy customer! I classify that as a win.
I plan on next week getting back into my "test kitchen" and testing potential new seasonal cupcake flavors. We already got one that is approved and waiting patiently till we test the other to release it. There is a sneak peak of the flavor on my Instagram and Google (@cupcakesncanines) if you want to try and guess the flavor. My testers absolutely loved the new flavor, so of course I'm going to have to bring it to you guys! I can't wait to see how the others go. I love test kitchen days! It's like experimenting in a science lab and it is a great feeling if it turns out.
Are you ready for me to mention about the new item??? If you've stayed this long then your a true fan/customer and I greatly appreciate it!!! Here is your reward; here, within the next couple weeks, we plan on releasing a much requested item. The one thing I hear the most from you guys is, "Your buttercream is amazing! I could eat it plain!" Well, you might just be getting your chance. Taking the best part of the cupcake home...
That's all I'm going to say for now, but we are so excited to be able to finally release this to all of you lovelies! It's been a work in progress for a couple months now, and it's been hard to keep it a secret.
That is all for today's blog! I hope you have enjoyed, was able to follow along, and look forward to more of the journey in the future. I love sharing the process with you all and growing together! I would love to hear any suggestions or comments you guys have. Feel free to reply, text, call, or email me Monday-Sunday 9:00am-9:00pm!
xoxo, Cupcakes & Canines
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Email: cupcakesncanines@gmail.com
Phone: (765)606-0980
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