Farmers Market Sunday: Careful What You Wish For

After three weeks of doing Farmers Market on Thursdays, the Sunday Farmers Market manager asked me if I'd like to do Sundays. The coveted Sunday, the day my family and every other family in Marin county shops at the farmers market - they have jumpies of all sizes, pony rides, kettlecorn smoke and live music fill the air, the aisles so densely populated, you have to fight your way through. It's the big leagues. I would be stupid not to accept. Grinning inside and resisting the urge to jump up "YES!", I told him I'd think about it.

I originally only wanted to do Sunday Farmers Market when I applied, but they rejected me saying there were no openings. The true story was that another cupcake company had applied and gotten accepted before me. Three months later the farmers market still hadn't heard back from them.

After an evening of sporadic discussion with Alec, while he played with Laura during dinnertime, we both concluded that Sundays would be ideal for business and practical for our schedules. We now have built in daycare(Alec) for Laura. We'd still have Laura in daycare during the week, so I can work in the kitchen. Alec doesn't lose time from his job to help me set up and break down. Unfortunately, it means family time is stunted but at least Alec and Laura can come visit me during the FM. (And perhaps, I can put Laura to work, giving out samples. - not that there's a problem with people taking samples, but wouldn't it be cute?)

My last FM Thursday will be next week Christmas eve. I'll start doing Sundays the first Sunday of 2009. What a way for Little Piggy Cupcakes to start the new year.

I have yet to get a pre-order. It's the bulk orders that will sustain and grow my business. There's no doubt I've made a superb product. All my customers at the farmers market love the cupcakes. Even those who scoff at the price, still think they're delicious.

The next phase for Little Piggy is to show customers that cupcakes are not just a whim purchase, a moment of pleasure to be eaten on the spot, the end. Little Piggy can be taken home as a litter to share with family and friends for a special occasion. Why settle for shortening-based supermarket cupcakes or waste your time baking your own, when you can have these little princesses?

Farmers Market Warmly Welcomes Cupcakes

The Farmers Market opens at 8am. We got there at 8:10am. I thought, a late start is not good for a first day. My ever supportive Aunt Kathy stayed up with me until 4am that morning decorating - spreading frosting, adding sprinkles to 600 cupcakes. Both of us had gotten an hour or two of sleep. Surprisingly I wasn't too tired - I think I was running on on a mixture of nervousness, excitement, and let's just get this over with.

It was a chilly morning. Cold weather equated to a slow day at the FM. By the time the whole gang of us - my aunt, Alec, even Laura, and I arrived, some vendors were still setting up, so I wasn't too late. Even before we got our tent and table up, a lady was eying my boxes and discovered I was selling cupcakes. She turned out to be another vendor and asking if she could buy one. I thought, this is a good omen. (I realized that after starting a business I've become more superstitious, looking for signs of good fortune.)

It took us an hour before we were settled in - cupcakes displayed in their domed trays resting on a table lined with cupcake print fabric, samples cut up, take-out boxes folded, cashbox ready to receive money, my aunt and I wearing our Little Piggy Cupcakes white aprons.

There was a steady stream of interested customers - eating samples, surveying the array of cupcakes, buying cupcakes for themselves to eat on the spot and take home. Everyone asked how long we had been at the Farmers Market and where we were located - "this is our first day" and "we're located right here at the Farmers Market". Kids were drawn to the cupcakes, pointed, and called out "Cupcakes!". Women smiled and clasped their hands in giddiness - immediately debating which one and how many.

The FM gave me what I yearned for - the personal connection, seeing child-like delight and happiness that my cupcakes gave to people. For some reason, up to this point, I didn't really believe people loved my cupcakes. But now I'm a witness to total strangers, tasting them and paying good money for them. They would say "yummy!", "OH MY GOD!", or "oooh, that's good.".

The minis were the highlight. "adorable", "cute", "beautiful" they would say. Women bought multiple minis so they can have a variety and also to share with their friends. Mommies bought minis for their kids and themselves. Men were almost insulted when asked if they wanted a mini or regular size cupcake "Regular" (of course.)

We started with 29 boxes of cupcakes and left with 16 boxes. I had made double the number of cupcakes than were needed. Better enough than not enough. We made enough money to cover the cost of making cupcakes, pay for Laura's day of daycare, and had some money left over. Admittedly, the leftover wasn't much. My vendor neighbor selling jewelry summed it up positively - "Considering the slow economy, you had a nice crowd around your table. That's pretty good". And darn good for a first day.

Farmer's Market - The Dream I Didn't Know I Had

Since my last post, a lot has happened:

- renamed my company, Little Piggy Bakery, designed a logo with my husband, Alec. And a few days ago, he suggested I rename it again to Little Piggy Cupcakes
- acquired one regular loyal client, Playdate Cafe in San Anselmo, to which I deliver 2 1/2 dozen mini cupcakes - 5 different flavors, twice a week.
- gained another client and lost them in one week because the cupcakes were not selling
- provided samples to half a dozen cafes, all of which have not shown any interest
- developed 2 tea flavored cupcakes (chai and green tea), especially for a tea shop in San Anselmo, which has yet to place an order
- did custom design cupcakes for a dozen kids birthday parties - fun, but time consuming, business is very sporatic

I never wanted to open my own bake shop - the headache of maintaining a physical space, staffing, etc... This is why my original plan was to do wholesale baking and sell to cafes. Unfortunately, most cafes were not interested in cupcakes. I had to come up with another market.

I didn't seriously consider the Farmers Market until my neighbor who's a caterer, suggested it to me a couple weeks ago. The San Rafael Civic Center Farmers Market, the one we go to every Sunday, happens to be the largest in California. The Farmers Market would be an ideal venue - it had the volume of customers and they have money.

The same day my neighbor suggested I try the FM, I called their main office. I spoke to Tyler who said the Civic Center FM is full, that I may have to try the ones in Hayward or Newark, "unless your cupcakes are to-die-for". He added that another cupcake business had already applied a week ago. I immediately assumed that the other cupcake company had already been accepted. But Tyler encouraged me to send an application in anyways, which made me think I still had a chance against the other cupcake company.

I spent the next two nights and several hours writing, revising my application - the main questions being - how is my product unique and what is my history/background as related to my product. I personally submitted my application on a Friday and by Wed the following week I received a voicemail asking me to drop off samples. I squealed and clapped with excitement - this was my big break! Once they try my cupcakes, well, the taste will speak for themselves.

I baked the same night and the following day, dropped off the samples on Friday morning. I felt very good about them - they were sampled and resampled, approved by Alec and even my brother Randy. They were very cleanly decorated as well.

All day Friday I kept my cell phone close to me hoping they would call, but they didn't.

By the time Monday arrives, I've sort of let go of waiting for the FM to call me, but I figured they'd call by this week. I take Laura out in the stroller for our usual mid-morning stroller outing. For some reason, I forget my cell phone. By the time we head home, Laura has fallen asleep in the stroller and I carefully roll her into her bedroom. I check my phone and there is a red light flashing indicating that I have a voicemail. I open the phone and it displays a number which I vaguely recognize, but I'm pretty sure it's Playdate Cafe.

It isn't. It's Tyler from FM asking me to call him, not saying why. I immediately call back and luckily Tyler is available to talk to me. And as if it was scripted by my own fantasy, Tyler said that everyone "loved" my cupcakes and that I had beat out two other cupcake submissions and they've accepted me for the Thurs Civic Center FM. I wanted to cheer, cry, laugh, hug someone, but all I can say was "oh my god" and "thank you so much" softly because Laura was sleeping.

The FM venue can not be more ideal. I get to see my customers face to face and see the joy that my cupcakes will bring to people. I get the community feel of having a bake shop but not have to deal with the physical upkeep of the space. It's no frills - people will come if they love my product. I get to sell my product for retail price - no middle person. I see my product through from inception to delivery. I believe in the farmers market, I've been a patron almost my entire adult life.

Now comes the hard work - designing my vendor space, getting the business/health permits, renting a commercial kitchen, facing the customer and finding out whether the world is truly ready for Little Piggy Cupcakes.

After Eleven Trials...Caramel Apple Pecan Cupcake

This was the hardest recipe to come up with to date. But I finally have it. I can legitimately say this is a Tina original recipe - not a slight tweak of someone else's recipe.
Caramel Apple Pecan Cupcake - a vanilla cupcake with dried apples, drizzled with caramel sauce on the cake, frosted with cream cheese frosting, and sprinkled with meaty pecan pieces.
Lesson #1: Granny Smith apples do not shine through unless it's in small pieces (diced, shredded, or grated.)
Lesson #2: Some spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice will get stronger with time (after being baked). Use half or less nutmeg to cinnamon.
Lesson #3: Using fresh apples in the cake will make the cake wetter, you may have to paddle the batter longer to build the cake structure to compensate.
Lesson #4: If you don't have Granny Smith, use Gala apples. Don't use Braeburn apples - makes the cake too soggy. Gala will break down easier when baked, so expect a wetter cake.
Lesson #5: If you want to control the flavor of the spices, don't use spices at all in the cake or frosting unless you like that pumpkin bread type taste.
Lesson #6: If you like the quick bread texture, use a traditional apple cake recipe. If you like a less wet, but moist, more crumbly type cake, more "cupcake- like", use a traditional vanilla cupcake recipe and mix in diced dried apples.

Laura's First Birthday

No way was I going to buy a birthday cake for my daughter's first birthday party. It had to be special. It's a good and a bad thing knowing how to do complex cakes. At first Alec and I were going to do a tiered cake with gum paste lotus blossoms floating on piping gel water cascading down the tiers. Then we got real, plus we wanted Laura to identify with the cake. So we chose the theme of Patrick Starfish (of SpongeBob Squarepants). We have a large stuffed animal Patrick Starfish, which Laura kisses and sticks her finger into his belly button.
We decided to do square-shaped cupcakes that forms a mosaic of Patrick Starfish. I saw a similar idea with cupcakes in the image of SpongeBob.
The entire process spanned three weeks - cake recipe experimentation, frosting recipe experimentation, frosting color testing, decorating test run, final batch of cupcakes/frosting, and assembly.
Even with both Alec and I working, the evening of the assembly took two and half hours: 9-11:30pm. Alec got to experience what I go through on "assembly evenings" - lack of focus, deterioration of design standards. In the morning, I put finishing touches and decorated additional cupcakes to fill in the gaps in the mosaic. I also decorated a personalized cupcake for Laura - white vanilla frosting, with white jimmies border, a modified star fondant cut-out for Patrick Starfish, with pink "Laura" inscription.
I learned that the "cupcake mosaic" takes at least double the time of a standard order, so I wouldn't do it again unless the price was right.
Of course, it was all worth it for our little girl. It came time to put out the cupcakes at the birthday party. We placed a yellow candle in Laura's cupcake and lit it. Alec and I held her between us, everyone sang the birthday song, and we blew out the candle together. Laura didn't know what the heck was going on. But she did enjoy the first few bites of a darn good cupcake made with love.

This is THE Last Birthday I'll Do

...in a while. I MEAN it this time!
After the third and last birthday I did, my husband, Alec advised that I should just focus on cupcake recipes, to abstain from any more birthdays until I've perfected my products. That's the only way to get my business started.
With two weeks notice, Julia from my playgroup asked me to do cupcakes for her son, Ben's first birthday. How can I resist? However, I already had a packed June calendar. I decided to try to make the job easy on myself so I put conditions on the order - only one flavor and from only a select choice of flavors - mainly ones that were straight-forward to make. She chose lemon cupcake with cream cheese frosting, a flavor that in my opinion is one of my best. Lemon is refreshing and a *safe* flavor, that no one dislikes, and you don't feel stuffed after eating it.
I tried to learn from my past cupcake orders, which always take longer than I expected where I'm working until midnight. This time, I tried to do as many steps ahead of time, from assembling the cupcake boxes to putting sauce in the squeeze bottles, doing fondant cut-outs plus extra as back up, designing multiple versions of the birthday boy's cupcake.
I started assembly at 7:00pm and finished in record time: 9:30pm.
Julia didn't ask for it, but I threw in a drizzle of lemon curd on top of the cream cheese frosting to give it that burst of lemon flavor. Lemon curd is just so yummy, you can almost eat it straight.
Some tricks I learned: 1) chill the cream cheese frosting in the freezer for 10 min allowing it to hold its shape better when spreading. 2) always have backup - my rule is 10% extra cupcakes and garnish 3) as you finish, spreading the frosting put each cupcake in the frig on the box's cardboard base - for easy transfer into the box 4) Don't make design judgments when you're tired - as the evening progressed, my standards decline progressively - each mistake becomes acceptable.
Even though, I made several designs of the birthday boy's cupcake, the end result didn't turn out like the drawing. I wasn't satisfied, but it was late and i decided it was "good enough". Sure enough, the next morning, I realized that it was not good enough and redid the cupcake in a different design. I decided to line the border with white sprinkles to give it a cleaner look, plus it serves as a "bumper" in case something touches the edge - messing up its smooth surface. The "BEN" inscription was not my best plus I was not careful enough to leave enough space, so the last "N" was squished. For my second version, I lightened the frosting to give a lighter and finer pipability (not sure if that's a word). This time I practiced on the side and sized it up against the face of the cupcake. I know I seem to rely on sparkly sprinkles too much, but I thought some yellow sparklies would give the design more yellow to balance with the amount of green and give it a touch of fanciness.
Check out the two versions of the birthday boy's cupcake: the first was "good enough" and the second is the better one.

Pumpkin Cupcake - Take 4!

It took four tries to get the pumpkin cupcake just right. The recipe is based on the one on Martha Stewart's website. Her recipe resulted in a dense cupcake - closer to pumpkin bread than to a cupcake. In take 2, I used cake flour instead of all-purpose flour, which makes the cake lighter. Cake flour also provides further allowance against overmixing which creates additional gluten causing toughness/chewiness in the cake. Take 2's crumb was smaller but still too dense - still could be lighter. In take 3, I changed the mixing method, the same method I use in my vanilla cupcake recipe. Take 3's texture was perfect but somehow the lightness diluted the pumpkin spices. In take 4, I increased the spices by about 50% and it was just the right texture and flavor.
I love the experimentation and tweaking of recipes, but there's always the problem of what to do with all the cupcakes. There was a community bake sale last week to raise money to end child hunger. I donated 2 dozen pumpkin cupcakes, frosted with cream cheese frosting, garnished with a candy corn. One taster said that my cupcake tasted better than the one she had at a New York cupcakery....hmmmm, could it be the mother of all cupcakeries? I'd like to think so.

Going into Research Mode

It was fun and difficult "playing bakery" fulfilling actual cupcake orders. I've learned to be more organized, planning out orders a few weeks in advance. I've discovered the limitations of my refrigerator and freezer, which maxes out at 4 dozen cupcakes. I've learned that it's not wise to make creative or technical decisions at ten at night. Above all, I've learned that I need more practice. I need to be able to make my products with consistent results and with consistent high quality. So I may be making the same frosting ten times before I feel I can do it instinctively.
I've also learned that doing kids' parties may not be for me. I love the creative aspect - designing a one of a kind cupcake for the birthday boy/girl. But the gigs are irregular and frankly, I don't know if I can charge much in that market.
Instead, I've decided to target local cafes. Why not sell to businesses that are already established? It's less scary than trying to open my own bakery.
I would like to focus my energy in the next few months on honing my recipes, practicing, and coming up with some fall flavors. My first challenge: pumpkin. Stay tuned...

Butterfly Cupcake

butterflyCupcake
Originally uploaded by ACFred

Another first birthday - one of my playgroup mom's daughter Eden turning 1 year old. 1 1/2 dozen chocolate cream cheese cupcakes and 1 1/2 dozen strawberry cupcakes. I thought it would be a cinch. But yet again, it took 4 1/2 hours, working until 11:30pm. Most of the time was spent designing the personalized cupcake for the birthday girl. The original design was overtaken by a new design, which I thought of later. In my original design, I used a 4 petal flower cookie cutter to create a butterfly shape. Rolled fondant cut-out again - i feel like it's such a crutch, but fondant is so clean and holds up against the elements so well.
Although I stayed up just as late as for the other orders, I wasn't as stressed out. I felt pretty confident about the results. Again, the presentation was not what I had originally designed. I wanted to do more fondant flower cutouts but as the evening progressed, three flowers became two, then two became one. Sometimes simpler is better.

Debut of the Mini

Many tasters of my cupcakes requested and suggested that I do mini cupcakes. Give the people what they want, right? The mini cupcakes had their debut at my moms club playgroup meeting - the second combined playgroup-cupcake tasting event last Friday.
I had prepared the components of the mini cupcakes two weeks in advance. On the suggestion of the moms, I did a lemon cupcake and a chocolate raspberry cupcake. I wanted to have more "adult" flavors (containing alcohol) so I did a mocha cupcake with Kahlua syrup and Tiramisu cupcake with marsala syrup. Tiramisu was suggested by my cousin Terry. I think it should be included as one of my core cupcakes; Tiramisu is one of the most popular desserts.
The lemon cupcake was the easiest: lemon cake, cream cheese frosting, a drizzle of lemon curd, clear sugar crystals. Each component I've done before but never put them together. I was very happy with the taste. The lemon cake has a real (not artificial) light lemon flavor. The cream cheese frosting had both tang and sweetness and the lemon curd had a strong lemon taste and sweetess to balance it. I have to say presentation was lacking. My cream cheese frosting is a bit sticky and runny and doesn't allow for clean piping. Next time I will decrease the proportion of cream cheese. The clear sugar crystals gave the cupcake some interesting crunch.
The chocolate cupcake with raspberry frosting was the second easiest. Chocolate and raspberry is a classic combination. I was doing raspberry frosting for the first time. But fairly confident that it would be yummy - I used my strawberry frosting recipe (one of my most popular frostings) and substituted the strawberries for raspberries. It worked beautifully. Then topped it with a fresh raspberry. As expected, this cupcake was a winner too. The flavor of the raspberry frosting and the rich chocolate taste of the cake were equally matched.
The mocha cupcake was originally supposed to be a coffee cupcake. The coffee frosting that I made was unsatisfactory, I think, because I used an inferior instant coffee to flavor it. I had made mocha frosting a few months ago and I remember it being pretty good, so opted to do mocha instead. It's made up of chocolate, heavy cream and espresso powder. With so few ingredients, I had to make them count. I already had a reliable dark chocolate which I use all the time. Heavy cream - there is not much variation there in terms of taste. It seemed I've looked every where for espresso powder - Safeway, Whole Foods, Starbucks. Then when I went to get the raspberries for the chocolate raspberry cupcakes at another local Whole Foods-type market, I found the espresso powder and it was the brand that my chef instructor had recommended.

Chocolate is a pretty strong flavor which might overpower the coffee flavor, so I decided to brush some Kahlua simple syrup on the cupcakes before frosting them. The final product was very chocolatey, but can't say I tasted any coffee flavor. I've heard that coffee accentuates/complements chocolate nicely. Perhaps more espresso powder in the frosting next time. I also added a little Dutch-processed cocoa, intended to give the frosting a darker color, but didn't seem to have that effect. Next time, no cocoa which may further allow the coffee flavor to come through.
The tiramisu cupcake was to be my exciting new flavor. I found a recipe online for marscapone frosting which contains marscapone, heavy cream, marsala, powdered sugar. Marscapone AND heavy cream TOGETHER?!! It cannot go wrong! And it didn't. This frosting was yummy straight out of the gate - no adjustments. I brushed the cupcakes with some marsala simple syrup, piped a swirl of marscapone frosting and sprinkled with chocolate shavings. The frosting is what made it.

The previous night assembly of the cupcakes took 4 hours. I was able to fit two trays of cupcakes in 9" X 13" box. I carefully engineered the top tray by using Laura's empty plastic Gerber containers as stands. I had at least 2 dozen of each flavor - anticipating that there would be about 10 moms at the playgroup - each getting 2 minis per flavor. By the way, about 4-5 mini cupcakes equals one standard size cupcake.
Unfortunately, many babies were sick and couldn't make the playgroup. In total, 4 moms showed up INCLUDING me. They were impressed and loved them and the fact they were minis. Tiramisu and Mocha were the favorites.

Since not many moms showed up, I had a lot of cupcakes left over. After the playgroup, disappointed that there wasn't a larger turnout, I immediately call Alec telling him that I'm sending over cupcakes. That day, his company had a beer bash and before everyone arrived, he very neatly and orderly laid out my cupcakes on the dessert table. The cupcakes won out over the store bought birthday cake that lay next to them - one lady had to personally serve the cake in order to get rid of it. My favorite comment was from Alec's coworker, Carlo who said about the mocha cupcake, "This is what I would change about it...nothing." Now, I can say it was worth all the work.

Doh! Nice Recovery

My second order, another 1st birthday: 1-1/2 dozen chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and 1-1/2 dozen lemon cupcakes with vanilla frosting, blueberry and strawberry sauce, topped with strawberries and blueberries. The fact that the latter has such a long name is a clue of how difficult it was. I thought it was so well planned. I made all the components in advance - cupcakes, frostings, sauces.
Assembling the chocolate cupcakes was almost too easy. I finished them after Alec gave Laura a bath and read her bedtime stories - about an hour.

The lemon cupcakes took almost 4 hours, working from 9pm - 1am. One of the slow downs was the sauces. I had frozen them, then thawed them. It seemed the water separated from the sauces and it was all lumpy. So I reheated them in a sauce pan until it was homogenous. And like last time, little chunks of berry got stuck in the squeeze bottle spout, which slowed my work down.

The most unbelievable part was just as I am about to add the final sauce swirl to the frosted lemon cupcakes, I take the box of cupcakes out of the frigerator and set it on the counter and turn back to the frigerator to soften the slam of the frig door, as not to wake up Laura. Only I didn't set the entire box on the counter and the box topples to the floor. I can't believe what just happened.

Surprisingly when I opened the box, none of the cupcakes looked very damaged, only that the strawberries had fallen off and a couple blueberries got smushed. I had extra berries, so I could easily replace them. Ok, not a catastrophe. I resume saucing but am a little unnerved at the accident and tired because it's way past my bedtime. I drizzle a swirly pattern of sauce on the cupcakes and they don't turn out exactly as I had envisioned. Since I used a round tip to make a smooth soft-serve-ice cream-like swirl for frosting, the sauce does not have enough grooves to cling to the frosting, so some sauce dribbles messily down. I am not happy but am too tired to care. And as usual I ask myself "why am I doing this?"
I go to bed unsatisfied and disappointed in my work. Of course, I can't fall asleep because I'm thinking about how horrified my client will be when they see the cupcakes.

The next morning I wake up to Laura whimpering, look at the clock - 6:30am. I didn't get much sleep but enough to realize that I can't present those lemon cupcakes as is. The customer is supposed to come to pick up the order at 9am, I consider a total redo of the frosting. Can I do it in less than 2 hours? Yes, I can do it! I get up, quickly feed Laura and myself. It's 7:30am by the time I start new frosting, which I whip up in 15 minutes. I inspect the sauces to ensure they are of good consistency and there is enough to do 1 1/2 dozen cupcakes. All components are done for a decorating redo. I carefully detach the frosting from the lemon cupcakes and fortunately, they practically come off in one piece and somewhat cleanly. This time I use a star tip and make zig zags across the cupcake - proper groovage. Then I drizzle the sauces along the same zig zag path. Another small rose of frosting in the center. Top with two slices of strawberries and a blueberry. It looks good, yes! And no sign that they were ever messed up. I finish redecorating the cupcakes by 8:37am and have time to spare for clean up.

Lesson learned: be more careful transfering the product. The silver lining was that the second rendition of the lemon cupcakes was better. I'll have to accept that I'll make mistakes. I suppose the mistakes are not always a reflection of my ability - the challenge is figuring out how to recover from them.

2 Dozen Cupcakes Stat!

On Thursday, April 17 I get a call from Alec at 2:30pm saying "I have an emergency cupcake order!" The head of HR at his company is having a birthday the following day. "Do you want to do it?" I had been sending off many cupcake "experiments" with Alec to work and finally it pays off. One of the HR women heard of my cupcakes but was always too late in getting a sample, but she heard others rave about them.
Of course I wanted to do it! But I only had one night to produce two dozen cupcakes of whatever I wanted.
I decided to do one dozen strawberry cupcakes, which everyone seems to like and one dozen chocolate cupcakes with a smooth, silky poured ganache - who doesn't like chocolate?.
I was able to fit in one hour of MEP (measuring) while Laura played in the kitchen cupboards. Then after Alec got home and we had dinner, I worked from 8:30pm-12:30am. And yet again, around 10:30pm, I get tired because it's my bedtime and I wonder "why am I doing this?" At that hour, the creative juices run to a trickle. In the end, I have to say the presentation had room for improvement. However, the cupcakes were good enough or better because by the afternoon I receive an email from Alec from saying that the cupcakes were a "BIG hit!"

Luna's Cupcake: My First Order!

On March 7th, one of the mothers in my playgroup, LeAndra asks me in an email to do cupcakes for her daughter, Luna who was turning one year old. I am ecstatic - my first order! And it's perfect because it's someone I know and with whom I have shared personal mommy experiences.

This cupcake had to be perfect! It would set the tone for the rest of my cupcakes. It was a test of my design and organizational skills. I had one week to do three dozen cupcakes - to test cupcake and frosting recipes, produce all the components, design the decoration, and put it all together. Could I do it? I had to do it!

Every night, after Laura was down at 7pm, I tied back my hair, put on my chef jacket, rolled up my sleeves, and went to work. The good and the bad thing was that LeAndra gave me a couple requirements: lemon or vanilla cake and frosting and decoration has to have moon and stars - "Luna" is moon in Spanish.

After three different cupcake recipes and three different frosting recipes and after Alec and I tasting all of them in different combinations, we finally settled on the right pair. I found a recipe online for lemon cupcakes, except I substituted all-purpose flour for cake flour, which gave the cupcake a softer texture. For the frosting, I made up my own vanilla frosting, the whole milk I infused with some Tahitian vanilla bean, which my father and mother in law gave me when they vacationed in Tahiti, resulting in vanilla bean frosting. All those little specks of vanilla bean made the frosting look authentically vanilla and classy.

The design took a couple days. I tried to mimic a picture I found on the internet - cupcake decorated with a puffy cloud of frosting. I was able to make the cloud, but it was more frosting than was needed for the amount of cupcake. With absolute disappointment in myself, I presented the cupcake prototype to Alec. I think his comment was "I like it!" But I wasn't convinced. Two days left and I was not satisfied with the current product. I went to bed dejected.

That night I dreamt of a design. I woke up the next morning, scrounging for Alec's colored pencils, scribbled out a few designs. I totally ditched the previous design and went with a Tina original design. My problem was that I was trying to copy someone else's design and it just wasn't working.

That day, I broke out the sugar sparkles and the rolled fondant. Within a couple hours, I had another prototype. This one I was happy with - the colors had good contrast, it was cheerful, it was girly, and the "Luna" moon stood out. It was something I was proud of.

April 10th Playgroup Cupcake Tasting

Thanks Mommies for your positive feedback and support. This event featured Strawberry Cupcake, Mint Chocolate Cupcake, Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcake, and Blueberry-Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcake.

Cupcake Order Form

1.Date of Event:

2.Occasion:

3.Number of cupcakes:

4.Cupcake size: standard OR mini

5.Décor Theme (if any):

6.Cake Flavors:
vanilla, chocolate, lemon, vegan chocolate, OR custom:______

7.Frostings:
vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, vegan vanilla, cream-cheese, mint, chocolate ganache, white chocolate ganache, lemon, orange, cookies 'n cream, OR other:________

8.Fillings (optional):
frosting, jam, whipped cream, pastry cream, chocolate, OR other:________

9.Sprinkles: sugar crystals, jimmies, dots, OR other: __________

10.Cut-Outs: cookie, fondant, OR other: ____________

11.Details for one special cupcake (ie, for the birthday boy)

12. Your contact info: name, phone, email

13.Other notes:

Please submit order form to buttercupkit@yahoo.com

Why Cupcakes?

I never thought I would be doing cupcakes as a career. After getting my Pastry and Baking Arts Certificate at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, I thought my first job would be at a small neighborhood bakery making tarts, cakes, muffins. I also didn't expect to get pregnant while going to culinary school either. But our sweet little Laura, now 10 months is the absolute best thing that's happened to our family.

I was six months pregnant when I finished culinary school and in no shape to be lifting 50 pound bags of flour. Initially I was disappointed that I didn't get to enter the baking industry along with my other colleagues, that I was somehow missing out and would lose my newly acquired baking skills.

Fast forward one year later....it all worked out! I love being with Laura every day. During her naps and after she's down for the night, I do my baking experiments in the kitchen. I'm a food geek at heart and love tweaking recipes ensuring the taste, texture, and presentation is just right. Who wants to work at someone else's bakery, doing the same things, day in and day out? Sure, I'd quickly learn to crank out pastries with precision and efficiency, but how would that be fulfilling?

So how did I decide to do cupcakes? I was already a member of the San Rafael Mothers' Club with 200+ members. I thought it would be an easy place to start. Doing something for kids' parties would be fun and not a high pressure job, as doing wedding cakes. Plus, I'd feel I would be helping other mommies like me.

I have to give props to my cousin, Terry, who is a journalist at the AP in Phoenix, Arizona. She's a cupcake baker in her spare time. She's always trying new cupcake recipes and sharing her experiences with me. She introduced me to a blog called Cupcakes Take the Cake
She pointed me to this blog when I told her I was thinking of doing cupcakes as a business. Once I read and saw all the cupcakes on that blog, I was immediately hooked - it opened my eyes up to all the creative possibilities in making cupcakes.

Who can resist a cupcake? Cupcakes are cute and remind people of home. Each cupcake is a new adventure - another opportunity to make a new flavor, a new look, a special little cake for a special occasion.