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I have been away for a while, staying busy with the market, special orders and the “day job”. This past weekend was my last weekend at the Springfield Farmers Market. It has been a wonderful 5 month run, meeting new people, gaining new customers and testing out new products. One of the favorites this fall was not sweet, but the savory zucchini-basil-parmesan scones topped with coarse sea salt – who knew a savory scone would steal the show?

And then there were the Baked Pumpkin Spice Donut holes. Think of them as mini, moist, flavorful muffins rolled in cinnamon and sugar. How could you go wrong?

For the month of October we sold “Pink Velvet” cake and cupcakes to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month to raise money for the American Cancer Society. We are extatic that we raised over $300 from sales!

The last two weekends also showcased our Rum Cake, a rum-drenched pound cake with chopped pecans baked into the top. We were requiring IDs to be able to purchase that one…And then there were the pies, sweet potato, pecan and pumpkin. I have to say the favorites were the pecan and the pumpkin.

We are now preparing for the busy holiday season and I am back to teaching part-time. Thank you all for your continued support and patronage. We learned a lot and look forward to doing this again in the Spring!

I was fortunate to be commissioned by the wonderful Gloria Bonds to create 100 custom cupcakes for her book launch. This is her first book titled “How To Successfully Date a Married Man” (you can read exerpts from her book on her blog: http://gloriabonds.wordpress.com/ ). This is definitely a don’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover-situation; I have my own copy and can’t wait to read it. So, the cupcakes: simple vanilla on vanilla each decorated with a fondant book. She gave me guidelines of how she wanted them to look and said to make them colorful. Even though I am not a bookworm by any account, but I lived with one for years (hey sis!) and now live with one (hey hubby) and see books in varying shapes, sizes and postures, so I took inspiration from them. I thank Gloria for giving me this challenge and look forward to working with her on book #2!

Sometimes relationships are forced on you (like being picked last on the kickball squad), some are by chance (like finding a good mechanic) and then there are those that just work. No, this isn’t a post about how me and the hubby met, it’s about my summer apprentice, Jasmine. Jasmine is here for the summer visiting her wonderful cousin Terra; I met Terra a couple of years ago after she called to talk to me about my pastry business. She contacted me this summer to see if I could use some assistance in the kitchen because her younger cousin was an aspiring chef. The hubby and I thought it was a good idea to have an extra pair of hands in the kitchen to assist with prep for the market and the other orders that were streaming in. I was also missing teaching so I thought it would be fun to do some more mentoring. Jasmine has been a joy in the kitchen. She is now the princess of cream cheese icing, scooping cookie dough and washing dishes! Jasmine is a 16 year old with a lot of drive and ambition, even more than some of the culinary students I’ve taught over the years; she spent her summer days at Brainfood (a non-profit youth development program) learning cooking techniques and working at Barnes and Noble as a cashier, and spent her evenings with me prepping, watching, washing, tasting, baking and learning. Some nights she left me to do prep work for catering events her cousin was working on. We worked together on the iPhone cake (the apple was her creation, it was her first time working with fondant), made decisions on weekly production and talked about music (she’s an old soul), family and boys. Jasmine is really something else, she has already named her pastry business and has started her own blog: http://gojazziecakes.blogspot.com/. She has a very bright future, with her sights set on culinary school in 2014 (yay!). I was fortunate to have her this summer. My relationship with Jasmine has gone from apprentice to mentor to confidant to family. It just worked.

Summer in the DC Metro area is clearly in full swing with record breaking heat, the Nationals being on top of the NL East, the Yankees being on top of the AL East, and it’s finally Olympic season (watching an exciting men’s gymnastic competition as I type…)! The heat continues to challenge us in the kitchen and at the farmer’s markets each Saturday, but we are making the best of it! I’ve been fortunate to be a part of some cool events this summer, which has allowed me to work with some cool people. I helped a young boy who loves trains celebrate his 4th birthday, a woman who loves to golf celebrate her retirement, an avid “texter” celebrate her sweet 16, and a happy couple celebrate their nuptials at a rooftop reception in DC. All were challenges, but creating the golf scene out of colored and brown sugar instead of fondant or colored buttercream actually became the most challenging. Thank you all for letting me be a part of your celebrations and continuing to challenge my creativity! Stay cool everybody.

As we try to recover from the “derecho” and the wild fires in the west, we have seen so many amazing images. I thought these images would be a welcomed diversion from the normal destruction we have been seeing. Meet The Very Hungry Catepillar cake and Ethan! It was Ethan’s first birthday and he enjoyed his own smash cake, a gluten free carrot cake. (I don’t even want to know what his bath tub looked like after this…) It is destruction in its purest form! His guests feasted on vanilla and carrot cake cupcakes. Although this has been and continues to be a trying time across the country, we can only take it one day at a time, help one another and be thankful for the little things. Happy 4th of July!

Today was beautiful, you couldn’t have asked for a better weekend to hold a market and celebrate graduations and Father’s Day. Today our biggest seller was not the lemon pound cake but lemonade! Eva was given the opportunity to sell lemonade at the market and she was a hit! The lemonade was delicious and she sold out over a gallon of it! We hope to be able to offer it again in two weeks (we will not be attending the market next week). This weekend was also a time to celebrate our graduates. We attended a high school graduation at our alma mater (Hayfield) for a young man we are very proud of and I made a graduation cake for a Lake Braddock graduate. And to cap off the weekend, it’s Father’s Day! We wish all of the father’s a Happy Father’s Day! Believe us, you mean more than the numerous ties we have handed out over the years. Cheers!

Day 1 of the market has come and gone and it was wonderful! The stars of the day were our lemon mini pound cakes and the fruit tarts. Attendance was pretty good for a hot, holiday weekend and we met a lot of great people. Next week the market will be a part of Springfield Day which will hopefully bring even more visitors to the market. I have to thank my family for being there and supporting me – I wouldn’t have survived that hot day without them!

Springfield finally has a farmer’s market and I am going to be a part of it! Starting this Saturday, May 26 through October 27, the American Legion on Backlick Road will be hosting a Smartmarkets Farmer’s Market. I will be there most Saturdays with the exception of the occasional toddler dance recital, out-of-state bridal shower and wedding…We will have a variety of products that will change with the season, demand and my desire to be creative. Hope to see y’all there!

Nina Simone sang it so beautifully: “…It’s a new dawn, a new day, a new life for me…” and it does feel so good! The new website and the upcoming stint at the farmer’s market in Springfield, has created this new day for me. Now, if I would only create a Facebook page it would really be a new day. Getting there…Just a quick post to begin the sharing and there will be many more to come. Indulge yourself.