New Year, Same Blog

Hello readers!!

Welcome to 2015!!  What a crazy end of 2014 we had!  You guys loaded us up with orders (thanks!) and we spent most of December baking for all of your holiday needs.  Dozens of cookies, cupcakes, and loaves of bread (yes bread!) went out this holiday season, and we couldn't be more humbled by the love and support you have shown us.  What a way to end the year!

Aren't Christmas cookies the best, though?  So yummy, so sweet...so bad for you!  Yeah, we might have eaten a few too many cookies this holiday season.  Do the pants feel a bit tight, or is the washing machine mis-set again??

Crazy enough, our New Year's Resolution is to get into better shape.  We go to the gym, but our goal is to do it on an increasing basis (not just when Penguins hockey games are on so we can watch the game for once), and to cut all added sugar out of our daily diet.  Yes, you read that right....cut sugar out of our diet.

Sanity Police: Ma'am, you do realize you run a bakery, correct?
Me: Yes officer, I'm aware.
Sanity Police: And you do realize most bakeries use sugar in their day-to-day operations?
Me: Wait, what?!?

It hasn't been easy, we'll tell you that.  When you cut something out of your life, you begin to realize just how much it was in your life to begin with.  Sugar's in EVERYTHING!!  And we decided to cut out artificial sweeteners too, which rules out diet drinks (including juice), and even some "healthy" dessert options.  If it wasn't naturally found in the product to begin with, we're not touching it.  We've been eating a lot of fruit...a LOT of fruit.

Sometimes fruit doesn't cut it, though.  Sometimes you need something that you baked for dessert.  And we found a fabulous recipe we thought we'd share with you today.  It has no added sugar!!  And it tastes really yummy!!  Seriously, jot this one down!!

Banana Walnut Cookies
(no added sugar.  Yield: 12-18 cookies)

• 3 extremely ripe bananas, mashed up
• 2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 cup raisin (optional)
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Combine all ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

^That, folks, is the easiest recipe you'll see all day.  You dirty one bowl.  And we mashed everything together with a sandwich baggie over my hand, so we didn't even use a spoon.

We'll be honest, we're not always a fan of banana-flavored things.  We trade the banana Runts candy like we're on the stock market floor.  But after not having anything sweet for dessert in almost 2 weeks, this was like mana from heaven!  So delicious, and really simple to make!

Autumn is Here!

Hello fellow sweet treat lovers!

Can we just tell you how excited we are about autumn?  Don't get us wrong, we love the summer, and the beach, and the fireworks, and half-melted popsicles.  Mmmmm, popsicles.  But we love autumn.  The flannel shirts, apple picking and cider drinking (warm apple cider is amazing!), pumpkin carving, carol singing...wait, not that last one!  The weather is still nice, there's no snow on the ground, and the crunch of leaves underfoot reminds you just how beautiful everything looks outside.

Yes, autumn is our favorite.

And so far, we've had such a busy autumn schedule.  We had two orders last weekend for two separate weddings, another fantastic order for next week (look for pictures soon!), and we are talking to 3 brides about possibly baking for their big days.  Brides, you are so on top of things right now!  Way to go!! :)

On Tuesday we had a lot of fun helping the city break a World Record...a cookie-themed world record.  Reason #2,689 why we love this city!

Giant Eagle hosted the cookie dunking event (the first time in a long time we haven't hated the company), and it was so incredibly random it was wonderful.  Two cookies, a napkin, a cup of milk...and a world record shattered.  The previous record for number of people simultaneously dunking Oreos together stood at 1,700 (why this record already existed is still a complete mystery to us), but Pittsburgh managed to set the new record at 2,152.  Something new and fun to add to the resume, right under ninja.

We're also already gearing up for our annual Christmas Cupcake Sale in December too.  We hate thinking about Christmas too far ahead...but sometimes early prep is good.  We won't say too much more in this post, but it's something to keep in the back of your mind when you're stuck figuring out gifts for those barely-know co-workers.

Until then, enjoy the weather, Pittsburgh!  Make sure you stomp on a few extra-crinkly leaves!!

Big Dreaming

We're a few weeks late with this, but we wanted to talk to you today about our New Year's resolutions.  Not our personal ones, mind you, but our bakery resolutions.  It's good to look forward into 2014 to see what we should be aiming for, right?  Well here are 3 resolutions Pittsburgh Sweet Relief has for this coming year.

1. Build an Epic Cake
We've made some pretty awesome cakes in the past 18 months of business (hellllllloooo, who could forget that we made this awesome cake...twice!) but this year we're thinking bigger and better.  We're thinking lots of tiers, lots of colors, lots of whimsy and imagination.  Honestly, we're thinking we want to go a little crazy here!  Our goal by December 31, 2014 is to have successfully made a truly amazing cake for someone that beats everything we've previously done!

Oh, and if you're on the fence about whether you want a big crazy cake for your birthday party/wedding/graduation/retirement/shower/etc you should drop us a line.  We're gonna offer huge discounts to the first person who lets us try this out for their event.  Monumental discounts.  So contact us.

2. Increase Our Business
This is a no-brainer, but it had to be said: obviously we want our business to grow.  We want more of you guys to fall in love with everything we have to offer.  This requires more dedication on our end, though.  2013 was a crazy year: We changed jobs, made new friends, sort of reinvented ourselves.  Personally, it was great, but all the time we devoted to training for a 5k was less time we had to devote to building our business.  It still grew, thanks to the wonderful support of all of you, but this year, we want to focus back in on what we love: baking wonderful things for you, and telling everyone about it.  Easy peasy, right?? :-)

3. Perfect Something New
In the past year we've learned a lot of new tricks to the trade.  We've learned a pinch of salt can go a long way.  We've learned that macaroons will always continue to be difficult for us to perfect.  We've learned that making flowers out of gum paste is a really relaxing way to spend 6 hours.  We've learned 365 days later we still don't like doing the dishes.

This year, though, we want to take something, learn it, and perfect it.  You know our staples are cookies, cakes, and cupcakes, and we don't feel like there's anything wrong with that.  In the past year we've dabbled with cheesecakes, bread, pies, and pastries, and we've learned lots of secrets to all of them.  Now it's our turn to step it up.  We're going to perfect the art of something, and add it to our repertoire.  We're going to make the effort to continue to educate ourselves about the baking world, and not stop until we've become successful at something new.

Big goals for 2014, we realize that.  But if you don't aim high, you don't achieve big things, right?? :-)  Anyway, these are our goals.  If you see us, hold us accountable.  Maybe we'll give you a cookie if you help us hold up our end of the bargain.

Polar Vortex Round II starts this week.  Get those fuzzy socks back out, it's gonna be a cold one out there!!

Orders, Orders, Orders

Is there such a thing as too much of a good thing?  When you're starting your own business does that even exist?

This past week has been INSANE for this small bakery.  We feel like we're just now getting the chance to take a deep breath and clean up our kitchen.  Last week we had 5 (count 'em!) orders, and none of them were small by any means: 3 dozen personalized cookies, a birthday cookie cake, a toffee bacon cheesecake, a red velvet cake for a party, and 2 1/2 dozen cupcakes, including some gluten free ones.  Whew!  By Sunday, this was kind of how we looked:

It was a great week for our business, though, there's no doubt about it.  Not only did we make some nice money baking all this up, but we got to catch up with some old friends on a few of the deliveries and make some new friends on others.  Starting your own business is all about making connections and letting the world know you're there and open for business, and we certainly completed that mission this past week.

One of our favorite treats from this past week has to be our order for vanilla bean and butterscotch cupcakes.  A customer randomly emailed us asking for a last minute order, and it's been awhile since we had anyone asking us for these.  If you've never sampled this before, take a look, it's a beauty...

Sometimes the best treats are the simplest combinations.  We're not breaking any taste barriers here with this combination, but man if it isn't one of the best.  The understated vanilla bean plays off wonderfully with the homemade butterscotch, which, secret, we sometimes eat straight out of the bowl if there's any extra left.  If you've been thinking about ordering some cupcakes for awhile but have been unsure about what to order, might we recommend these?  You really can't go long, and it's a hidden delight on our cupcake menu.

This week we have some more orders coming up, including some more involving bacon.  You people and your pork products!! :-)  Keep looking to our Facebook page for more goodies, and perhaps a small flash sale later this week.  If we can get our act together!

Have a fabulous week, friends!  

Lis

Catching Up with the World

Maaaaaaan, has it really been a month since we updated??  Sometimes time seems to warp forward at an alarming rate.  Doc, where is that flux capacitor?  We need to jump back in time immediately!

Until our Delorean arrives (and we're not holding our breath) we figured we would update all of you loyal readers with what is going on in our baking world.

We haven't been updating recently because one of two scenarios were taking place:

     1. We were slow on orders, so we were busy catching up on our social life
     2. We had so many orders we couldn't keep it all together

We're currently dealing with option 2.  In the past 72 hours we have baked a cheesecake from scratch, 3 dozen cookies, and a large birthday cookie cake.  On top of that, by the end of the week we will have also made a red velvet birthday cake and some gluten-free cupcakes.  Whew!  Is it too early to start hiring some additional kitchen help?  We may need it if this kind of ordering volume keeps up.

Our favorite order so far this week has been a candied bacon toffee cheesecake.  It was a first for us on many levels: We'd never candied bacon before (now that we've had candied bacon, though, we're not sure we can go back to regular bacon), we've never made a cheesecake for a customer, and we've never chopped 2 pounds of toffee candies for a dessert.  It took a ton of prep work to pull off this birthday present, but we are so proud of the finished result.  We dropped the cheesecake off for an office party, and were told within the hour the cheesecake was gone and people were asking for a contact number for the bakery that created such a ridiculous treat.  Can you blame them, though?  Just look at this beauty!

For now, we're heading off to do some inventory of our supplies.  Look at us, sounding all official-like, "doing some inventory".  It's kind of thrilling.

Have a fantastic end of your work week, folks!  We'll talk to you soon!

We Want To Send You Cookies!

Sometimes things are too good to be true!!  In this case, it's not.

If you read the title, you might be pinching yourself with glee.  Cookies!  Free cookies?!  What in the world is going on?

Here's the deal, and it's very very simple: we want to send you cookies.  One batch of cookies, which usually amounts to 2-3 dozen cookies.  We will mail them, but you'll have to pay for shipping above $5 (higher mailing costs = faster mailing times = fresher cookies)  Keep reading if you're interested.

Rules for Free Cookies:

1. You must be somewhere in the United States.  We're not sending cookies internationally.
2. The cookies can be made for any time between November 1, 2013 and January 31, 2013.  If you don't cash in on the free cookies before then, you lose out.  Sorry.
3. You cannot resell the cookies.  Even if it's for a child's lemonade stand (if you live in a place that lets you have a lemonade stand in December). 
4. If the cookies are mailed, we will cover $5 in shipping, the rest is up to you to cover.  You can pay through PayPal, or send us the money in the mail.  We will not ship your cookies until we receive the funds!  We also won't bake the cookies until you OK the shipping charges. 
5. You have until 11:59pm on October 15, 2013 to submit a request for free cookies. 
6. We will not take special requests for dietary needs for these cookies.  They contain sugar, eggs, flour, butter, and vanilla.  They are made in a kitchen that also regularly uses nuts, especially almonds and walnuts.  If you have a severe nut allergy, we suggest you do not request some free cookies
7. The Catch: (isn't there always one?)  It's not too bad...as we already stated, if you're too far away to deliver the cookies personally, we will ask you to cover shipping charges.  If you are a local delivery, we will give you a dozen or so business cards that we would ask you hand out.  No, we're not going to double check that you did, we're doing this on the honor system, but since we are baking you free cookies we would remind you that you do, sorta, owe us one...
8. By submitting your name into our free cookie campaign, you confirm that you have read the above rules, understand them, and meet the requirements mandatory to submit your cookies.

 

How To Request Free Cookies:

• Click on this link and fill out the information.  It's seriously that easy!!

 

 

How To Win:

• Multiple people can request cookies for you...brides, if you have a cookie table, have all your bridesmaids write in...they don't want to be stuck baking all these cookies themselves
• Don't cheat (we'll see if you enter more than once...we'll be watching)
• Have a good reason for asking for the cookies.  It doesn't have to be a charitable reason, but if it's funny, and honest, and we like it, you can win.

 

That's it!

 

Best of luck to everyone!  We're excited to fire up these ovens for a good reason...

Open the Floodgates!

Since Pittsburgh has been receiving SO many flash flood warnings these past few weeks, we thought it would be funny (funny ironic, not funny hahaha) to bring some flooding into our own bakery.  We decided to flood some cookies.

Now our guess is the majority of you read that last sentence and pictured us dumping some delicious cookies into a bucket of water.  Why in the world would we ruin perfectly good cookies like that?  No, flooding cookies is a method used to ice certain cookies, usually sugar cookies, and it's something we love to do and never seem to make time to do it.  Well we made time finally and flooded up a storm...er...maybe it's the other way around since storms cause flooding.

...anyway...

If you've never flooded cookies before, it's a fairly straight forward process.  There are a few things we suggest to all first-time flooders:

1. Use sugar cookies (they bake with a flat top, which is essential to get a good cookie iced this way.
2. Use simple shaped cookie cutters.  You'll see in the pictures below we used a random assortment of woodland creatures (thank you Ikea!)  DO NOT USE CRAZY COOKIE CUTTERS LIKE THIS IF YOU'VE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE.  Stick to hearts, or squares, or another geometrically simple shape.  Trust us.
3. Practice makes perfect.  It will take you probably a few cookies to find your groove. Do not despair if your first few look like your kids finger painted all of them.

If you have some cooled sugar cookies, you're pretty much ready to go.  Oh, but first you need some royal icing.  Of course, searching for "royal" anything this week brings up nothing but William and Kate's baby. 

 

No, Google, we DON'T want to read another story about this.  We actually just want a recipe we can share with our readers for royal icing.

If you've never made royal icing before, click here for a super simple recipe.  Ours is slightly different (and slightly better in our humble opinions), but we don't like to give trade secrets out on the world wide web.

The trick to flooding cookies is to build a dam to stop the icing from spilling over the side of the cookies.  And what do you build the dam with?  Why icing, of course?   This is where you will need some practice if you don't have a steady hand.  Be patient, it will become easier.  And you will find that not all of your cookies look awful after they've set.

So once you've dammed up the cookies, they look like this, nice and yummy and ready for flooding...

We think that's a bear cub.  These Swedish cookie cutters are questionable, though.

To flood, you take the same royal icing, water it down, and drip it carefully into the center of the cookie.  The hope is that your icing will spread around the top of the cookie but not overflow thanks to the wonderful white-walled icing dam you have built.

Here we're watching the icing spread.  If you're impatient like we are (who has time to slowly watch this spread??) or if there are little nooks and crannies you just can't seem to get the icing into, you may have to help it along.  You'll find tools that work for you, but we often suggest starting with a tooth pick.  Just be careful the white icing outline stay in tact.  

You will eventually get it to spread over everything, and it will be finished and ready for drying.

Once everything's spread across the cookie, it's a good idea to look for any air bubbles and pop them as well.  Again, we suggest a toothpick, but find what works for you.

If you get really fancy, you can start to add details to your cookie that will help define it better.  Below we took a snail, added a swirl, and gave it a little more character than the bear cub up above.

Once it dries completely the snail will be the cutest little thing.  You can add other items too, sprinkles, candies, you name it.  It helps to really make flooding cookies a ton of fun.

So now go practice!  Take an evening and try it out!  Let us know what you think, and how successful it was.  And if you happen to be using the same Ikea cookie cutters...give us a call!!

Happy Wednesday!!

The Weekend Warrior

What a crazy weekend this is shaping up to be.  Lots of baking.  Lots of bakery-ing.  Little time to blog about it.

Yesterday was my first actual decorating class, and boy was it interesting.  For those of you who don't know, I've never taken a baking/decorating/business class in my life.  I am what the French call "Le Self-Taught".  But since I'm trying to open up a bakery, and convince people to buy my goods, I feel I should do everything in my power to get as much training, practice, and information I can about baking, decorating, business, etc.  So I signed up for a beginner's decorating class.

I was a little hesitant to sign up for this class, because, let's be honest, I do know my way around a kitchen.  I can fill a pastry bag and decorate cupcakes and cookies and cakes.  I can make delicious icing, in a million different flavors, and easily ice a cake.  I can roll and dye fondit, spread it on a cake, and decorate fun designs all over the top.  So a beginner's decorating class seems a little...redundant.  But, at the same time, I have to be humble with my skills: everything I've learned, I've taught myself or Googled "How to..."  What if I learned something incorrectly?  Or could do something more efficiently   I needed to start at the beginning, to make sure I didn't miss anything.

How many holidays did I celebrate with my cookie cutters this weekend?

The class was pretty dull, because it was the first one.  We learned how to fill pastry bags, how to make icing, and how to ice cookies.  Pretty slow.  But next week we're going to start in on some actual skills: creating leaves and vines on a cake, torting a cake, making a floral display.  None of which I've actually done.  So I'm trying to keep an open mind, because I do believe there are some things I can learn from this class.

Last night I had a huge blessing, for which I couldn't be happier about.  Ever have a pretty stressful week where you think, "Honestly, can I NOT catch a break this week?"  That was my week.  I was feeling pretty bummed out, and then a good friend came to me with several gifts.  Not only did she decide she wanted to donate supplies to my Christmas fundraiser (flour, sugar, powdered sugar, butter, etc.) but she needed me to make 150 cupcakes too.  Yay!!  Business, and supplies, and a way to keep my mind off of the craziness that is my life.  Talk about major blessing!!

Now it's time to study, and study hard.  My ServSafe exam kicks off in less than 24 hours, and I'm nervous about it.  It could either go really well, or really awful.  A lot of it is common sense (for example, do not put food in chemical bottles), but then there are all these small details I need to remember, like the distance shelving units need to be from the ground, and the height that a sneeze guard needs to be at on a salad bar.  Time to memorize, memorize, memorize.  And maybe write out a few flash cards too.

So, it's time to turn on the Office, throw in a load of laundry, eat a sugar cookie or 10, and get studying.  Par-tay!!

Lis