As promised, here are the pictures of the vehicle graphics by Bloom Design!!!

So today, October 20th is my 1st day of training with Chef Rautert!

Anyways… my day started with a disaster! I was late!!! (Yes "Boss", I know you're shaking your head, LOL!) In my defense, I couldn't sleep last night because I got a little upset when I got a phone call from my lawyer yesterday. The vendor’s lawyer is not pleased with me getting the training before the closing. Not the normal practice “we know that!” but whatevs! We are not backing out of the deal so… peace out :D! I had ordered my business cards, I have the vehicle decals ordered and being installed tomorrow (can’t wait!) and we have bills and bills and bills. So, after all that… you think we’ll just say, “Ooops! Sorry, I don’t think this is for us… so bah bye?!” In short, I am blaming my tardiness on her :D, LOL.

I got to the bakery around 8:30AM. Chef immediately showed me how to make the "yummy" pretzels. Of course at this point, it is our secret right, LOL. Around 9:00 AM Bridget came. Bridget is our part time employee. I've met her before but today is the first time I talked and worked with her. She is very nice and based on my first impression (and from the feedback we've been getting from Chef and his wife) she has an excellent work ethics… like, very like, LOL

So… the day progressed with a lot of learning. It’s a little overwhelming but I will get use to it. Actually, I really like it. I think Chef showed me the easiest stuff first so he wouldn’t scare me off, LOL. Lunch… I went to Tim Horton’s and picked up the cupcake stand that was rented over the weekend. When I came back, Chef jokingly said, “I thought you got scared and not coming back” :D. He also mentioned that my business cards are ready for pick up!!! Yay! So I went to pick it up and showed him when I came back. Chef almost had a heart attack when I told him how much I paid for it, LOL. It’s very nice… too nice to give away, hahaha!

Through out the day I’ve been getting emails and phone calls from my lawyer(s), accountant, bank and Bloom Design! Yup, Bloom Design will install the decals on our van. I am very excited and can’t wait to meet Erin. Erin is the one who is working on our graphics and she is soooo awesome! Customer Service you say… a perfect 10!!! I will recommend them to everybody I know. I will take a picture of the finish product after the install tomorrow… promise!!! Oh! by the way, have you noticed my new logo? Yup, that’s Erin’s work. She noticed that the logo I emailed her for the graphics was a little blurry. Well, that was my fault. I was trying to save some $$$ so I decided to make it myself. Of course, I am no expert so the end product aint so good. She showed me the revised logo that she started working on and wow! So walla! New and improved logo!

‘Til next

Chapter 2: The Decision

July 17th – We met with the bakery owners at the shop to check out the place. My first impression… not bad. It was actually better than expected. The building looks pretty good… it needs a little updating but with a little TLC, it will look really good :). We toured the entire bakery. So far so good. Then its time to pop the question :)... the rent $$$. She answered… “We are not renting. We own this part of the building and is included on the sale”. Light bulbs!!! We both looked at each other with an ear to ear smile. Decision made!

We started planning the minute we got into the car on our way home. My husband called our bank as soon as we get to the house. I went in front of the computer to research all the requirements and the business plan. Yes, the business plan… the pain in the rear end business plan :(.

What’s next…

After making the decision, we immediately proceeded into preparing everything that we need. My primary assignment… to tackle the business plan. The only problem was that, at this time of year, I am pretty occupied with dragon boating. So, as much as I wanted to put a 100% attention towards writing, it was very difficult to find extra time between work, the team and taking cake orders.

A couple weeks later, I was able to finish the business plan. By this time we were dealing with another bank - TD. Why you say? Cambrian Credit Union totally snubbed us :mad:... a slap on the face!!! Would have been nice to give us a call and tell us that they don’t deal with business loans. Nope, phone calls unanswered, business plan ignored. Can you believe that? Well, this was just the beginning of a long and agonizing process :(. ‘Til next!

Chapter 1: Where do I begin?

Ok, so first of all, buying a bakery is not part of my plan... let alone leaving my job to start a fulltime career of running a bakery. I was just browsing online, particularly on Kijiji to find a commercial kitchen to rent. Why? Because by-laws require a "licensed commercial kitchen" to cater or sell baked products for public consumption. We had thought of converting our kitchen to commercial but after inquiring how much will it cost, we immediately dismissed that option. It is not worth it. 

How did I end up with the bakery? Well, after spending hours on the computer trying to find a licensed commercial kitchen to rent... after dozens of phone calls looking for that particular kitchen that will not break our wallet (I found one at $25/hour!!!)... and after not having any luck with the ad I put up "looking for a licensed commercial kitchen to rent" (zero response)... lo and behold, "Bakery for sale" :D.  

I hesitated on checking out the place and asked myself if I am ready to take on running a business fulltime. However, I emailed the owner if we can check out the place. A week passed by, my husband asked me if I got any response from the bakery. I said "Nope... no response. Maybe it's already sold". I actually forgot about it. My husband convinced me to send them another email. He said if they respond that it’s sold, he wants to know how much was it sold for. He's always curious about those sorts of stuff  :). And so I sent them another email. A day later, a response from the owner and an invite to meet them at the shop. On the way to the bakery, I was asking my husband what kind of questions should we ask them. On top of my list, "how much is the monthly rent" ... well, that was the only thing on my list  to be honest. We have a plan... our guess is that they are renting at least $1500/month. And if that was the case, we're outta there  . 

... to be continued

Mad Hatter cake - Alice in Wonderland

It was a normal day at work when I received a phone call from a mom who wanted a Mad Hatter cake with Alice in Wonderland theme for her daughter's birthday. I had never done a mad hatter cake before so I got a little excited. Right away, I went online and check out what the Alice in Wonderland movie is all about.

Checked out some sample mad hatter cakes online and sent her a quote giving her a few options. 

A couple of days before the big day, she emailed me about her daughter's situation. Apparently, Avery got injured and broke her arm. Wanting to cheer her up, I revised the options and instead of using buttercream icing for the cake, I will be using fondant to make it extra special. Below is the actual cake I made for Avery's birthday. Everyone at the party loved it specially the birthday girl. Aint that rewarding!!!

Hey Mickey!

Hello again… Well by now you know what this blog is all about … More disaster LOL :lol:!!!

After what I have experienced with Elmo, I thought nothing can top that. I don’t know… I think this one is equally mind-boggling.

But before I start, where in the world can find “heavy whipped cream” here in Winnipeg!!!! Like, seriously!!! Why? Well, that was my dilemma… the one and only! And I almost lost it! Good thing Wal-Mart is open 24 hours otherwise I could have totally lost my mind. Although… even Wal-Mart does not carry the stuff that I need. They only have whipped cream with 35% fat! I need more than that… at least 36% fat! Grrrrr!!!

Ok so you guys are probably asking why am I going nuts over heavy whipped cream. Well, the only reason was that, the lady who ordered the cake specifically wants whipped cream frosting for the Mickey Mouse cake and cupcakes. She came from the UK and apparently, whipped cream is the best frosting there is. I was so proud of myself when I told her, 'I can do it too" 8)! The thing is that I have to use a stabilized whipped cream because I have to pipe a 2D cake. A regular whipped cream will only work to frost a regular cake that you'll take out of the fridge when its time to eat it. The problem is... heavy whipped cream is not available in the ‘Peg city!!! Why oh why!!!

After almost 30 minutes of trying to whip the cream I bought earlier, I finally gave up. There is no way it will happen. So, I went online and look for a heavy whipped cream replacement. I found this recipe that shows a buttermilk and butter substitute. Happy me :D, went to the kitchen and start the process. After a good 30 minutes… naaah! Didn’t work! So, I’m back to the drawing board. Found another recipe that uses jello. The bad thing is, I need a tub of Cool Whip! What time was it you ask? 2:30AM and I haven’t done a thing!!! Why are this cutest, most adorable Disney characters giving me a fre*@+*g hard time (pardon me peepz ;)). Anyways, I went to Wal-Mart, got the tub and went back to the kitchen to see if this one will work.

Walla!!!! I did it!  Well, sort of. It won’t whip to stiff consistency so I had no choice but to use the normal butter cream to pipe the cake. But to give it a whipped cream taste, I crumb coated the Mickey Mouse cake with the whipped cream I just made. I then do the swirl of whipped cream on the cupcakes and topped them with the Mickey Mouse toppers I made with fondant. I made those cupcake toppers for a couple of days, from scratch :). Aren’t they cute?

After putting the cupcakes in the fridge, I started piping the cake. Everything worked fine… until (here is where the chaos begins), I noticed that something was melting. Geese! What now… grrrr! I went to look at the cupcakes I put in the fridge and to my amaze, Mickey’s are sliding down… and for some reasons, the whipped cream frosting is melting the fondant!!! Aaahhhhh!  Ok, I was more angry, Grrrrr!  See what I mean from the picture? :(. And worse, every time I move the sliding Mickey back, it leaves a dark stain from the black fondant. What will I do now?

I piped around Mickey where there is dark stains and melts. The best I can do.

Now working on the cake is no different. Everything I put on it melts. I put red sprinkles and it will be running down the cake board after a few minutes. I tried to conceal it with the grass piping but didn’t work. Regardless if I put them in the fridge or not, it melts. I don't know why! At least with Elmo, I was able to fix it… with Mickey, I can’t do anything! That is worse!!!

They loved the cake and cupcakes regardless... but how do I feel about whipped cream? Never again! Never!!! Well... never say never... but for now... NEVER!!!

My Elmo Meltdown!

My favorite part of the whole cake process is decorating and disaster is the last thing on my mind when I only have a few hours before delivery. I think a lot of cake decorators had experienced all sorts of cake disasters over the span of their careers and can relate to my nightmare. Mine happened last night and I thought it was the end of everything! You asked why? See for your self.

Ok, so here is the full story:

I got this awesome cake order from a very nice lady who wants to celebrate her baby’s 1st birthday with a 3D Elmo cake. The cake design was from an Australian lady who made the same cake and I was ecstatic to get my hands on it!

So, I had everything all planned out until the big day, “assembling the cake”! Earlier in the day, I bought a thick dowel rod to build the structure for the Elmo cake. For some reasons, I got too busy and I forgot to ask my husband to build it. So I thought, I will just stick a couple of thinner dowel rods thru and hope for the best. Yah, yah, yah… I know you’re shaking your heads right now but what can I do, my handyman went to bed!

Everything is going well… I was able to put Elmo’s body on the big round cake, stick a couple of dowel rods thru and its holding up pretty well. So, here comes the tougher part… putting Elmo’s head on. The plan was to use 4 pieces of round cakes for Elmo’s head. But it turned out that I only needed three as it is too big and very heavy to use all of them. I shaped it, crumbed coated the body, attached the legs, rice krispies feet and arms and everything is looking soooo promising! Next, I made the little cake to put in the middle and went ahead with piping Elmo’s fur. It took me a little longer than expected to pipe the hair as I wanted to make sure it looks as perfect as the original design. Well, it turned out very nice and I am starting to really get excited on putting the finishing touches! I put the cake in the middle and took the 2nd picture

I was about to start putting the eyes and nose on when I noticed something wrong. Elmo is leaning back! Oh, oh… I got to do something fast! “Don’t panic, don’t panic… Jane, don’t panic”… I kept telling myself. By now I have a spatula pushing Elmo’s head back in place but its not working. After a couple minutes, I actually had to grab Elmo’s head before it affects the entire cake. At this point, my meltdown had just begun. I called my husband as I couldn’t get my hand off the head or everything will fall apart!

My husband himself is in panic… we are both in shock  ! In my head I don’t know if I can save this cake. How am I supposed to tell the mom that I have no cake for her son? Will they sue me? Is it the end of my short career? Should I quit?

I had to compose myself. So, we decided to stick another dowel rod through to add more support. Wrong decision! Elmo’s face started to crack and the piece fell off! Now what? I took the head off, scraped the icing off and started crying and praying :(. What else can I do with so little time? Why is Elmo giving me a fr’in hard time! (Pardon me for my language but it is very frustrating!)

My husband took on the structural issue and I started curving the replacement head using the cake I baked for Father’s Day :P. It wasn’t as good as the 1st head but hey, it’s better than nothing. We decided to do our original plan… use the wood my husband cut for the base and screw the thick dowel on. Now the problem is how to move what’s left with Elmo on to the new base. My husband drilled a hole underneath Elmo’s cake board so we can insert the thick dowel rod from the bottom. We took the thin cake board off I had between Elmo and the big round cake so we can get the think dowel rod thru. As I was looking at the cake board, it turned out that the thin dowels I had before didn’t pass thru it… silly me! I thought they did! Now it’s clear that there is absolutely nothing supporting the entire cake! Yah, yah, yah, I can see you shaking your heads again :).

Now things seem to be getting better right? NOT! Inserting the thick dowel rod cracked Elmo’s body in half! My heart sunk… I don’t have enough extra cakes to replace the body and definitely have no time to bake more cakes! I grabbed a piece of red ribbon, tied Elmo’s body together, crumbed coat it and hope for the best! At this point, that is the best I can do!

Elmo’s head is back on and now its time to pipe the fur again. I didn’t know I can pipe that fast. It’s record breaking for me :).

I felt a little relieved and grabbed the camera and took a shot at Elmo’s 1st head in the trash! Hoping this will never ever happen to me again. I put the eyes on and took another picture of Elmo after the head transplant ;). I was able to finish the cake with minor issues but I handled it pretty well. What are the minor issues? Well, Elmo’s arms are cracking and pieces falling off… I guess due to so much movement earlier but whatevs! All my worries now are focused on delivery. How are we supposed to transport this to the venue in one piece? We put it in the fridge and get ready.

We got to the venue with Elmo in one piece… well, I had to fix the arms but nothing major. I just hope it holds up :D.

I felt really good while taking the cake in the restaurant. All we hear are wows, oohs and aahs of the people there. My husband was so proud holding it and I admit it was very rewarding. I totally forget all the things I went through earlier. It really felt so good… if they only knew, LOL :roll:. I was able to fix the boo-boos before the grandma of the celebrant arrive. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She asked me how long have I been in the business because she hadn’t heard my name in the Filipino community before. I said I just started and she commented I will be famous someday :P. It was so nice to hear that! Well, I hope famous in a good way

I received an email from the mom this morning. She said she couldn’t thank me enough for making her son’s birthday so special. You’ll see her comment on the Testimonial.

In spite of all these I love what I do :). Cake nightmares happen to everybody and mine was totally preventable if only I did what needs to be done in the first place. Lessons learned the hard way but I’m glad it happened. Elmo taught me a very valid lesson that I will never forget. Can’t wait to make another Elmo cake! LOL

As promised, here are the pictures of the “dance recital cake” I made for James (the guy who returned my blackberry ) :).

The cake is entirely edible. It is a vanilla cake with strawberry filling covered with fondant and gumpaste. I made the 2 dancing girls the night before (Thursday night) to let them dry.

I was very excited to make this cake and I hope they loved it.

What do you think about the cake? Do you like it?

'Till next time!

I took a day off from work on Tuesday to attend a business seminar. After dropping off Jeff to work, I went home, got ready but before heading to the seminar, I decided to get the business permit done first. So, I went to the City of Winnipeg Zoning Office and paid the business permit. One down, one to go!

I wasn’t expecting it would only take a couple minutes to do that. So now, I have an hour to spare before the seminar starts. I headed to find a parking spot and in the long run, I was so happy to have the extra time because parking in downtown is like a nightmare :mad:. I chose the parkade right across the venue’s building. The problem is, I don’t have enough change to park there for the day. Walked around trying to find a place to get some change. Lucky! There is a Tim Horton’s right around the corner! Short story was, I went there, picked up a small French Vanilla (although I already have a large Tim’s coffee sitting in the car) and went back to the parkade.

I was figuring out how to use the ticket dispenser when a very nice lady approached me and offered her tickets as she had only been there for 15 minutes and now leaving. She saved me a tooney  :)! So, got all my tickets, lay them down on top of my dashboard, got my coffee, purse and notebook and headed to the seminar.

I was 40 minutes early so decided to wait at the waiting area. Another lady came and sat with me. She was browsing on her cellphone which reminded me that I have a Facebook notification waiting on my BB (I’m not addicted to FC… just being socially responsible  ;). Grabbed my purse and looked for my blackberry. To my amaze, I couldn’t find it. Oh my! I checked the clock and see if I still have time to run to the car and check if I left it there. I headed out… checked the car, it wasn’t there. Went back up to the room feeling really down and I remembered going to Tim Horton’s. I headed back to the elevator, went to Tim Horton’s (what a line up!) and approached one of the cashiers (you should have seen the evil look from the line up LOL :lol:!). Well unfortunately, nobody turned in a blackberry and I don’t think I left it there anyways. I remembered taking a couple seconds peak on my BB after getting the French Vanilla. Now I felt really, really down :(. More than couple years ago, Jeff left his BB inside a Canadian Tire store. It may have only been 5 minutes when he realized he doesn’t have it. Checked back to where he might have left it but it was gone. Nobody had turned it in or anything. So, I was thinking the same fate is actually happening to me. At the back of my mind are $$$$ figures! It will cost me a good $350 or more to purchase a new one! Darn!

As I was walking towards the elevator, I saw an MTS payphone. Found a lucky quarter in my wallet (well, for some reasons, the machine asked for 50¢ ;). Anyways, I phone my BB… it rang for a while (maybe 6 rings)… I didn’t think they’ll pick up. But then, a guy picked up! I said, “Hi, you have my cellphone?” He said.”Yes, I found it at the parking lot and I phoned your husband. He said you are at 30 Fort St. so I’m heading there now.” The poor guy walked 3-4 blocks only to head back (with broken ankle) because I wasn’t where Jeff told him I was :(. I walked/run towards where he was and met him! I was so happy! I can’t believe I have my BB back! Thanked him a dozen times and I told him that I have nothing to offer him with me and handed him my business calling card. I told him if he ever needed a cake for anything, just give me a call and I’ll make him any cake he wants.

A couple days later, I got a phone call for him. He needs a cake for his 2 nieces who are having a dance recital and I am very glad to have something to return the favour. They need it next weekend. I promise to post the pictures of the cake once it’s done.

Anybody I told the story to was really amazed! This is one guy who has one of the kindest heart and I am so lucky to have had met him :D.

What would you do if you find a Blackberry/cellphone in the parking lot? Would you turn it in? Would you look for the owner and return it?

That day was my lucky day I got a free parking ticket, got my BB back and met a very nice person!

Ciao for now!