First and foremost, so sorry about not posting last week. As usual overextending myself caused me to miss my weekly posting. Coincidentally, last week’s topic in my business class was about time management (she says with a frowny face). I have a lot of growth that needs to happen in that area. We’re a work in progress though. I hope all had a great couple of weeks. Job interviews are still going on with faith that the right job will come along.
I used to get frustrated with myself about not moving forward fast enough but I have a lot to learn before I embark on my own business and want to be totally ready to succeed. Today’s project in my class was to evaluate other businesses that do what you want to do. My instructor told us to evaluate what makes these businesses different from each other and how successful they are. The theme of the class was – Why Buy This From Me? I need to ask you all for your suggestions. I have come up with a couple of names for my eventual bakery business. Here they are.
PANDORA – bakery
Sublime – bakery
Jilly’s
Jilly Jill – bakery
DESIRE – baking co.
….so that’s all the names so far. I would be interested in any name suggestions. Please send your suggestions in the form at the end of this week’s posting. Pandora, by the way, is my cat who passed away just over a year ago. She was a big piece of my heart. I saw a psychic shortly before she passed away who said that I will use her name and memory to push forward with my bakery/coffeehouse. So that’s why the first was her name. If you also want to send me your experiences at any bakeries you’ve been to and why you went there and what you bought. Please do on the same form at the end. I envision my as business as a baking company that makes specialty baked goods for special occasions as well as more traditional item, cookies, breads, bars, cupcakes and a selection of mini items: mini bundt cakes, mini layer cakes, mini muffins etc. How does that sound?
So on to the lovelies for this week…
IN TODAY’S KITCHEN: EZ CUPCAKES
INGREDIENTS
1 boxed cake mix
2 packages frosting
1 bottle Sugar Free or regular caramel syrup
1/4 cup Heath toffee bits
So this recipe is a little different from the other ones I’ve posted. You will notice that all of these are prepared ingredients. The purpose of that is the make them “EZ” as the name of these suggests. You take take this recipe and be creative. Make your own favorite frosting home made. You can also make your own cake recipe from scratch and well with the toppings….you can try just about anything. In this recipe I went with a ready-made cake mix. I used the Raley’s brand chocolate cake mix. For frosting I was wanting to try out the new Kool Whip frosting so I used the Kool Whip chocolate frosting found in the freezer section where you will find Kool Whip topping. When I was trying to figure out how to make this a unique cupcake and not just a plain chocolate I thought about my favorite chocolates, Chocolate coated caramels with sea salt, only my single most favorite chocolates. So I used a Sugar Free Caramel syrup, Smuckers makes one you can buy in most stores. Again, you can go all homemade and make your own caramel sauce. If I were to make these in the bakery I would do it all fresh, making my own cake, frosting and caramel sauce, but again these are aimed to be EZ Cupcakes.
1
IN THE MIX: Prepare pre-packaged cake mix as directed on the box. For this recipe I used Raley’s brand chocolate cake mix. If you use it for making a cake though you’ll need two boxes.
2
DRESS IT: After cupcakes have cooled completely, fill a piping/pastry bag with the frosting of your choice. You can also frost it with just a knife. It depends on whether you want a more free-form or traditional look. Once you have frosted the cupcakes take the caramel sauce and drizzle lightly back and forth across the top, just for a taste of caramel. Take toffee bits and sprinkle over the top. EZ PZ!
THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE…
So, as for learning experiences….I was hesitant to share this but I thought, well I’ll bet other people and probably some more accomplished bakers than myself have made mistakes. This is one of those moments….I was baking cookies to sell for donations to the Relay for Life event I was participating and all proceeds to go the help combat leukemia and lymphoma. I already had baked the Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Bacon cookies and wanted to make something a little different so I decided to make giant bakery style thumbprint cookies, half with raspberry preserves, half with apricot preserves. I went to my cupboard and found only half of the all-purpose flour that I needed. I did however, have a cup of whole wheat 
flour. I thought, what could it hurt? When mixing I quickly found out that it is going to be an epic fail…and right here is the evidence…..When you press down into these unbaked cookies it should not fall apart like what you see here. So, what I came to discover is that whole wheat flour is a lot drier and DOES NOT work like all-purpose flour. The flour you use in your baking makes a huge difference and in not using the correct flour, your project too can be an epic fail. Do not mix your flours, UNLESS you are trying to make an alternative flour because you do not have the flour needed but consult sites like these for your alternative recipes…
http://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-cake-flou-74565
So this week I had my one on one phone conversation with my online business class instructor, Vaneese. I was just honest and explained my issue which as I am progressing through this process, is that things are changing a little, meaning my vision of I am seeing as my business. Do I focus on one thing the bakery of the coffeehouse and not both. I had heard from a baker who is working in her craft that I should concentrate on one thing and as that comes along maybe branch out and grow in the direction of doing both. Combing my love and passion for making jewelry and baking and making art. So we are going to walk this road and see how this progresses. I feel somehow lighter with this idea because I was feeling a lot of pressure on the other idea. Too much. Focus now is the key for ME!
Next week I hope to have a recipe for Irish Soda Bread and I will be making Italian Cream Cheese Mini Layer Cakes. Stay tuned and have a fabulous and long labor day weekend. XO
The Passion Project 