I mean I REALLY love to bake.
Specifically, I love to bake desserts. I love to cook other things too, but dessert, to me, is pure...indulgence. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are necessary for survival, but dessert is most definitely not fundamental for the continuation of our species. Dessert is not essential. Dessert is decadence. Dessert is excess. Dessert is extravagance. Dessert is bliss and I adore creating the things that cause people to close their eyes, lick their lips and emit guttural sounds of satisfaction. I'm of the opinion that if I'm going to indulge myself and blow a truck load of my calories on a dessert, I want it it be so ridiculously worth it that I don't regret the decision for one single nanosecond when it's gone. That is the experience I strive to give when I bake. I want to serve people a slice of "Frankly my dear, I don't give a d**n" in regards to the guilt factor when their plate has been scraped clean. THAT'S the way to have dessert people! :-)
So, a couple months back when Bre started Kindergarten and I was really struggling with the question of "What the heck am I supposed to DO when both the kids are in school all day?", I started flirting with the idea of taking my love of baking and bringing in some money with it. I know myself well enough to recognize that once the kiddos are in school full time I am going to feel useless unless I am adding to the amount in the checkbook ledger. I don't have a career or a degree to fall back on when the time comes. So, I was doing some dreaming about my possibilities and began to toy with the idea of a baking business, specifically cupcakes. They are very trendy, cute, super customizable, have become more and more popular on the wedding scene and don't appear to be a food fad that is going to die out anytime soon.
I have a couple of friends who are involved in the wedding industry in the area. So, I asked them both if there were any bakers in the area who specialize in cupcakes. No need to re-invent the wheel right? Both ladies informed me that there was no one in the immediate area and that Rochester is in need of a really good baker. Hmm, thought I. Interesting. :-)
After those conversations I decided that I would stick my toe in the proverbial water of my daydream and begin testing out, developing and compiling a collection of cupcake recipes. I figured that I would test for a year or so and then maybe have a solid enough offering to do something more serious with. I was in no big hurry cause Wes won't even be in pre school for another year. Then, about a week or two after that, one of the gals I had posed the cupcake query to asked me if I would be willing to make 50 custom cupcakes for her marketing business' open house that was a couple months away. I was...ecstatic and honored and terrified all at the same time, but I of course said yes and we began talking flavors right away. She decided on a chocolate cupcake with a raspberry filling and her business logo on top.
I got busy testing out a recipe and ended up making about 6 different batches to get it all just how I wanted it. I wanted them to be visually pleasing as well of off the charts delicious and it took several tweaks to get them there. My friend was happy with the first test batch and I could have stopped there, but I wasn't satisfied with them yet. So, my hubby's co-workers got to eat a lot of chocolate raspberry cupcakes along the way. :-)
In the end she decided to do a layer cake with her logo on it and just enough color matching cupcakes to frame the edge of the cake because I was worried about getting her logo perfectly on all 50 cupcakes. I am learning decorating techniques and such as I go along here. Plus I was not happy at all with the taste of the frosting I would've needed to use in order to go with the original plan. So, we changed the plan. :-)
D-day finally arrived and last Tues @ noon she stopped buy to pick up her order and squealed with delight when she saw them for the first time. That is NEVER a bad thing. :-) I had gotten everything finished and packed up 30 minutes before she came and the kitchen didn't even really look that bad. I didn't really make any money on this batch because of all the test batches I did but this one was never really about the money anyway. It was about the experience and the exposure and I gotta tell you I was on such a high for the rest of the day and no it was not a sugar high. I had SO much fun doing this and would really like to do it again and again and again and again. I think for this kind of thing to be legal in MN I need to be cooking in an industrial kitchen in order to sell my wares. So, I'm looking into that further and hopefully it won't prevent me from pursuing my dream. Maybe I can rent some hourly space from a caterer in the area or something like that. *crossing fingers* Here's to the future and all it's delicious possibilities!
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