Valentine's Day 2018

So, just wanted to share a bit about Valentine's Day.

You see... Valentine's Day is like the Olympics of bakery life. We spend all year talking about it, getting ready for it ('training', if you will), ~~anticipating~~ dreading it, and psyching ourselves up for several days of craziness.

We partnered with Yazel's Flowers & Gifts here in Lima and offered fresh roses at the bakery!

Last year, I was completely blindsided by how busy we would be. We sold out of goodies (for the first time) by 10:30am! At one point during the day last year, we ran completely out of butter and powdered sugar. I might have found myself out back crying in the woods - no shame.

I had a much better plan in place this year, and things went sooo much more smoothly. We advance prepped like crazy and that helped so much! Little things - cutting out heart cookies, dicing strawberries, pureeing strawberries, and stocking the freezer with strawberry mousse frosting - saved us so much time.

Line outside the door at 8:40am... we open at 9am!

Our best-selling product for Valentine's Day is the Chocolate-covered Strawberry cupcake. It's a fresh strawberry cupcake, topped with a strawberry mousse and then double-dipped in chocolate coating. It's a tricky one to crank out fast, because the mousse requires about 2 hours to make start-to-finish. The cupcakes also have to rest in the freezer for 20-30 minutes before you can dip them in the chocolate coating. I meant to keep track of how many of these we sold this year, but that stopped after February 2. I know we usually made at least 2 batches of 15-20 dozen each day the week leading up to Valentine's Day.

Our other NEW product this year was Chocolate-dipped Fresh Strawberries! I was able to get the fancy long stem strawberries from my supplier and they were SOOO good. We dipped them in Ghirardelli dark & white chocolate. Pretty sure I ate at least one per day during the ten days or so that we had them around.

IRRESISTIBLE

As far as how the actual Valentine's Day ended up?! We cranked our ovens ALL DAY LONG and managed to keep a nice supply the ENTIRE day from 9am-7pm. Between Tuesday & Wednesday, we sold close to 7000 cupcakes, 2200+ cookies, 1500+ fresh-dipped strawberries, and 30+ cakes. Almost 1000 customers between the 2 days!

SO MANY HEART COOKIES!

My team hustled their little booties off and worked so well together. So proud of them!

Even Ben got in on the action :-P

However, by Thursday morning, we were all pretty much walking zombies. Valentine's recovery is a real thing. It has taken me until TODAY (5 days later) to feel halfway back to normal. And that's with a 2-hour nap Sunday and a 3-hour nap today. I also think being 23 weeks pregnant might have something to do with that.

So what's next for the bakery??! We've got our very own UNICORN DAY planned for this Friday. Unicorn goodies will be taking over our display.... and we are SO excited about it. Who doesn't love unicorns??!

Hot Off the Press... [Chicken Bacon Bleu Panini]

So I totally forgot to post a panini recipe last Thursday... whoops. I'm sure you were all waiting with bated breath and were very disappointed. Well, never fear, because I've got a fabulous panini recipe tonight! Tangy bleu cheese and salty bacon come together to form a delectable sandwich. It comes from the panini cookbook I received for Christmas, 200 Best Panini Recipes (thanks Mom!) . The Chicken Bacon Bleu panini : grilled chicken, crisp bacon, and bleu cheese on sourdough with a spread of barbecue sauce and sliced red onion. I had never thought of putting bleu cheese on a panini before I saw this recipe. I feared there wouldn't be enough ooey gooey cheese! But bleu cheese actually melts pretty nicely. It's no Velveeta, but it added a great tang to the sandwich. First, spread the bottom piece of bread with a bit of barbecue sauce, and top with some grilled chicken. I actually used my panini press to grill my chicken for the first time, and it wa

The Arrival of Something New...

Woo hoo for the last Friday of the school year! And only one more day of school next week. (And then a couple teacher workshops...) Another reason to be excited? Our fridge came today!! Isn't she a beauty? It is so nice to have a fridge again. You don't realize how much you miss a full-size refrigerator until you go a couple weeks without it. A bit bare... but that can be solved easily. Bottom-drawer freezer, containing the essentials: moose tracks & Diet Dew trying to get cold asap. Anyways, I'm just popping in to share my beautiful new appliance. The baking monster has taken over, and I'm in the midst of making 150 cupcakes for a graduation party tomorrow. First big baking project in the new kitchen! I'm loving all the counter space. Mmm... chocolate buttercream! Making good use of the baking nook! :) Adios!

Red Velvet Cake... Donuts

So this whole Valentine's Day coming up soon is definitely just an excuse for me to bake ridiculous things. Case in point: Red Velvet Cake Donuts . A few weekends ago, my Business Man and I visited the new Tim Horton's here in the Bean Town for the first time. I'd never set foot in a Tim Horton's before, and was pretty much enamored with all the flavors of donut holes, or "Tim Bits". Instead of just having to settle on one or two donut flavors, I got to pick 10 different flavors for each of the Tim Bits in my 10-pack. (Well, I don't think they had 10 flavors... maybe only 6 but you get the idea.) They came in such a cute little package too! (Yes, I am a marketer's dream...) While I went the Tim Bit route, my Business Man went the traditional route - with an old fashioned sour cream donut. And then he went the not-so-traditional route... with a Red Velvet Donut! And he said it was absolutely amazing. (I had a bite, and thought it w

Livin' the Dream in Lima

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