The cupcake counter has been open since the beginning of July, but I wanted to do a grand opening of sorts to make it 'officially' open. If that makes any sense. It turned into more of a grand opening/fall open house. My parents even came out to visit and help with it! They haven't been to visit since the cupcake counter has been open, so that was fun.
As soon as they got here Friday afternoon, I put them to work. Yes, my dad learned how to use the blow torch on the S'mores cupcakes. He did a pretty fantastic job, if I do say so myself. (Mom, you did great with the pecan pie filling, too. :-P)
In addition to having cupcakes for sale at the counter, I planned a few more activities to ramp up the excitement of the day.
I held a Create-a-Cupcake Contest in the days leading up to the grand opening... anyone could submit their brand-new cupcake idea. The top ten were then taken to voting on Facebook, and the top three were baked and taste-tested at the grand opening. The three contenders were Puppy Chow, French Silk Pie, and Snickerdoodle. While they were all delicious, Snickerdoodle came out as the champion. (By just one vote!) The winner gets to have their cupcake on the menu, plus they received a pretty sweet prize pack.
We also had cupcake decorating for kids... it was definitely a hit! (With some adults, too. Hey, we're all kids at heart!)
These were the raffles - a few prize baskets and some gift certificates for free cupcakes. You could earn raffle tickets for various reasons. (Walking in the door, making a purchase, wearing a Sara's Sweets cupcake pin, bringing a friend, etc...) Wishing I could have won! Lol.
All in all, I baked over 700 cupcakes and not a single cupcake was left by 2:30pm. (The event was supposed to last from 11am-3pm.) I think my dad was a little disappointed when he realized that he & my mom weren't going to be able to take any cupcakes back home with them! Haha.
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| Under-the-bed storage containers are just giant tupperwares, right? |
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| the menu line-up: Pumpkin Cheesecake, Carrot, Chai Latte, Vanilla Raspberry, Apple Cider, Black-bottomed Cheesecake, Buckeye, Pecan Pie, Vanilla Tie-dye, and S'mores |
And... I also finally got some Sara's Sweets tshirts! They are so cute. And I also love the fact that I do not have to think about what to wear when working the counter anymore. My life goal to never wear real clothes again is coming along quite nicely, haha.
So, it was a pretty smashingly successful weekend... minus the attempted 18-miler on Sunday morning that turned into a 14.5-miler. I think I was just a wee bit exhausted after working a few consecutive 15-hour days, lol. Absolutely lovin' life, though.
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