From Scratch Attack!

     So, last time I talked about the not-so glamorous world of permits and licenses. This time, I wanted to talk about something more fun! The wonderful thing about opening your own cake shop is that you get to decide what you're going to bake, how you're going to bake it and what it's going to look like. So let's talk about that! Starting with the "how."

Delicious, from-scratch cookie dough... my Achilles heel!

     For me, one of the most important things about opening my bakery is that I want everything to be made from scratch by a real person. Seems pretty obvious, right? Real butter, real sugar, real flour, real lemons and real apples means really good pastry. But it's not that simple.  Have you ever noticed how most supermarket icing tastes the same no matter where you go? Or that the "Fresh-baked" chocolate chip cookie you are eating has a slightly funny, chemical taste to it? Well, sadly it's because so many places use mixes, batters and icings that are full of preservatives.  I mean, I get it, it's cheaper, easier and requires less skill, but they are deceiving customers into believing that their baked goods are homemade.  Even though they advertise items as "fresh baked" at the store, there is a high probability that what they are baking was made at a factory months ago with a long list of chemicals as its ingredients.
   We know it's tough out there for a small, family owned business. The food industry is already notoriously unreliable and the profit margin is razor thin. Bakeries are getting crowded out by supermarkets every day. So, why am I crazy enough to open a bakery?

This is my life motto.

   It's because I am betting that there are enough people in our wonderful city that value real food by real people to keep our doors open. For my husband and me, making our sweets from scratch is non-negotiable. Now, this may mean that our prices can't be the lowest (have you seen the cost of eggs lately?) but we know that they correlate to a higher quality sweet than if we went the cheaper route. Plus, if you're going to treat yourself, shouldn't you make sure that treat is great?
   Now, to prove we are not total Luddites, we do use mixers and fondant rollers, but that's about as high-tech as we get for equipment.  While I have great respect for people out there whipping their meringue by hand, I just don't have the Popeye arms to make that happen! Also, I know that rolling out pie dough and sheets of fondant by hand is a great upper body work out, I'm simply too short to get any good leverage over those doughs! I hope you'll forgive us for those little shortcuts, but if you've ever owned a stand mixer or a Cuisinart, you know what a time-saver they can be! Have you seen that video of automated cake decorating robots? It's kinda neat, but frankly, they just don't look that good. Wouldn't you rather have your cake made by a real person than some giant robot arm without an eye for detail (or any eyes at all)? Here it is for you to see, yes it's neat, no I wouldn't want it icing my birthday cake.

    So we have figured out how we're going to bake (the old fashioned way with the added help of some basic equipment) but what are we going to bake? I'll cover that on my next blog post.