It's Wedding Cake (Tasting) Season!

    I recently learned that 3 of the 4 days that see the most engagements take place in December. Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Eve are 3 of the most popular days to propose (the other one is Valentine's day). That means that there is a whole group of excited brides and grooms-to-be who are just starting to plan their weddings. In addition to that group, there are all those couples out there that are getting married this spring and summer who are at that fun stage where they've booked their venues, picked their dates, and are ready pick their food.

If you are like me, You will probably take a lot of silly photos like this.

Our Venue, Glenn Foerd, didn't usually allow
outside wedding cakes, but they were kind
enough to make an exception for our wedding.

    What does this all mean to your little local cake shop? Well, it means that even though the excitement and craziness of the holiday season is behind us, we are now entering into prime season for wedding cake tastings, bridal shows and general info calls. I thought I'd spend this post talking a little bit about planning for your wedding cake, what happens in a tasting and what goes in to booking your wedding cake. I've touched on this a bit before, but it's such an important topic, it's worth re-visiting.

    In my experience, the first step to planning your wedding cake is actually just picking your venue and your wedding date. Why does this matter? Well, it's going to determine if you can bring in an outside cake, whose cake you can bring in, who is within the delivery range, and who is available for your wedding date. It would be unfortunate to go through the excitement of finding the perfect cake and the perfect bakery, only to learn that they either aren't available OR that your venue does not allow outside venders. It's also very important to figure out what you are budgeting for your wedding cake, and how much guests you would like it to serve, since these are important factors to planning your wedding cake.

   

Ah, Pinterest. Why weren't you around when I got married?

   Once you've worked out some of the logistics, the fun part begins. You should start getting together some images of what you like in a wedding cake. Is your wedding rustic or modern? What's your color scheme? If you're planning a wedding, you've probably already become very familiar with Pinterest and other wedding planning sites and magazines. These are, of course, great places to start with your cake planning! You don't have to find a cake that is exactly what you're looking for, that's why you are meeting with a cake designer, but it's invaluable to have some images to use as starting points.

These are some of our different filling and icing flavors.

     You should also start checking out the websites of a few local cake shops, they should be able to give you some basic pricing information, and also you should get to know their aesthetic to make sure they are a good fit for your wedding. Don't be afraid to call for information, that's what we are here for! We do this stuff every day, while this is a once in a lifetime moment for you.

      Also think about what flavors your might be interested in for your cake. Are you more of a
traditional, chocolate or white cake couple, or do you want to surprise your guests with a banana cake or passionfruit filling? Icing choice is another thing to consider. I've touched on this in my previous posts "In Defense of Fondant" and "the Beautiful World of Buttercream." There are very important pros and cons to both icings. You should definitely plan on tasting both icings at any bakery you visit, since they can really vary widely from shop to shop.

   

Some sketches of wedding cake ideas.

  Once you've figured out a few bakeries that are a good fit for you, your budget and your venue, you should start setting up tasting appointments. A tasting appointment is a chance for you to come in, taste some cake flavors, design your cake, and get an exact price for your design and flavor choice. While each bakery treats them a little differently, they are often complimentary and very helpful. That being said, please be conscious that tasting are expensive for a cake shop, both in terms of materials and time. Once you've made some appointments, you're ready for the best part : the wedding cake tasting. I'll cover that in the next post. "What to Expect During Your Cake Tasting."

Grand Openings are a Great Time to Party!

     Hi Friends! It's been a while since I've posted and I'm very sorry for that. A LOT has happened since my last post, and that is why I have been so negligent of this blog. So, I'm going to start by writing a long overdue post about our grand opening and all the people we want to thank.

Sean and I grinning ear to ear during our grand opening.

 
  The big news is that we finally opened our shop at the Beginning of November. We soft opened on the 3rd and we had our official Grand Opening on the 6th. We celebrated by inviting our neighbors in for a cookies and milk party. We provided the cookies, the milk and a fun cake and our neighbors supplied the excitement. We were so thrilled to see so many families in our shop. People seemed to really enjoy the ambience and many of them treated themselves to some of our baked goods. It was a really great night!

Our customers seemed excited about our milk and cookies party.

  We followed up that party with our "Friends and Family" party the next evening when we had a private shindig with all those wonderful people who helped us along the way and kept our spirits up when it felt like we would never get it all done! I think we filled the shop past capacity, but it was a great group of people. We are really so lucky to have so many terrific people in our lives!
 
   With that in mind, I want to thank all the remarkable folks who helped make this happen. Thank you first and foremost to our parents. David, Kelley, Skip, and Dorothy, we absolutely would not have this shop without your support, your guidance and your overall fabulous parenting! Jamie, Katie, Alexis and Brian, you guys are phenomenal siblings, thanks for being there for us, you're the best!
 

Cake cutting is no longer just for
weddings. This is the second time
we "cut the cake."

     Next up, we have to thank the creative team that made the physical space of our shop into a reality. Val and Trudy at Ennis Nehez, your amazing eye for design, your quick problem solving skills, and your excitement for our project helped us envision a space more fabulous than we could ever dream up. Jonathan and your team with Duck Rabbit turned this shop into a beautiful reality that functions. I can't tell you all how many compliments we get on the way our shop looks and feels every day, it's really amazing. You turned our vague descriptions of our aesthetic into something real and breathtaking. Ingrid, thank you for being such a fantastic, patient building owner. We hope to be your tenants for a long, long time. Thank you to our neighbors for putting up with our construction, the noise, dust and traffic.

Tuba Dan entertaining our guests.

  Ben, Katie, Jesse, Jessie and Josh, thank you guys for helping us with some of the smaller, but super important elements of our logo design and branding elements. Ben and Katie, the logo is magnificent! Jesse and Jessie the wood-working is pitch-perfect!  Josh, the window signs are great and thank you for supplying us with your adobe software expertise! Susannah, thank you for helping us get the shop up and running. We could not have opened without your help. Our first week would not have been nearly as successful without your skills and eye for detail.  Dan "Tuba Dan" Nosheny, thank you for providing perfect accordion accompaniment for our opening party.
 

Nothing says "party" like balloons.

     We want to thank all of our mentors. Thank you Alex, Amy, Peri, Maureen, Kate, Susannah, Katie, and all the other wonderful decorators I have worked with. Your talent and artistry inspired me to work harder and become a better decorator. To the wonderful ladies at John and Kira's, Angela, Lorraine, Corrine, Heather and Megan, you showed me how fun work can be, even when your exhausted! To the crew at Culinart and Compass, thanks for teaching me the value of hard work and attention to detail. You set a great example for me to follow and taught me how to work as part of a team. Thank you all. Amy and John, Thank you for being great mentors to me and helping me hone in on how I envision myself as a business owner, even if I still don't really think of myself as one.
 
  Thank you to all of our friends who have been keeping up with our progress, either in person or via social media. It's so great to have your "likes" and well wishes to come home to each day. We miss you and if you are ever in Philly, come visit us. Also, thank you so much to those of you who don't know us, but have come by the shop to see what we're about. We are so grateful for your support, and I hope we can surpass your expectations!

     We've been very very busy keeping our shop up and running. I will try to write another post soon, but I'm not going to make any promises about when. In the meantime, stop in and say "Hello!"

The Frosted Fox has Finally Arrived!

It took a long time, but I can finally say that we are OPEN!

Me, Sean and Our Shop.

    We had our soft opening last Tuesday and we celebrated our Grand Opening this past Friday with a "Milk and Cookies" themed party for all of our neighbors. The party went great and I think it was very well attended. It was wonderful to see so many families stop by and welcome us to the neighborhood.

Our Wooden Trays in Full Use.

    As of today, we have been open for about a week and it has been great! We have a few awesome specialty orders on the horizon and we have been serving a small selection of treats to people who are checking out the new shop.  We have been welcomed by many of our new neighbors and it turns out that many of them were waiting for us to open almost as long as we were!

The Grand Opening Sign I Made.

   I am super happy with the way the shop has come out. It is perfectly adorable and I couldn't ask for a cuter space. We've heard it described as magical, adorable, beautiful, and, "like walking into a Wes Anderson movie." That last one is my favorite. Our designers, Ennis Nehez, did a wonderful job with the design of the space and our contractor, Duck Rabbit, executed the plans to perfection. Sean and I had a wonderful time decorating the window displays and adding all the little details to the display shelves.

Cakes in the Window, Finally!

   It hasn't been totally smooth sailing, we did have a few issues with equipment, I think I'll go into those on the next post. Nothing insurmountable, just a few growing pains. Overall, it's been such a great experience so far. Even though we have worked a ton of hours, it doesn't feel like it. We are so happy to be part of this neighborhood and I am super proud of all the hard work everyone has done to help us get here.
 Thanks everybody!

Yet Another Renovation Update!

Here you can see the lovely
copper accent on our
workstation.

   Hi friends! I thought I would share another renovation update as well as a general update about what we have been doing lately. So here goes!
 
   Since we last posted, things have been moving along nicely (although always at a slower pace than I would like). Our dreams of the renovation being completed by the end of September didn't come true, but we are hopefully looking at just a few more days of construction work, followed by the big clean up!

Look at that perfectly cozy fit!

   Some big moments have happened. The paint, floors, wallpaper and most of the shelving and woodwork has been finished. Most of our big equipment came in last Friday and the last two big pieces of equipment are due in tomorrow. Once all that stuff is wired and plumbed into place we can start cleaning the shop out and get the health inspector in to look everything over. I'm hoping we will be so on top of things that he will pass us right away! Then, we will order in our ingredients and start mixing, rolling, scooping, baking and icing like crazy! Look for us to secretly and quietly soft open towards the end of the month with a big formal Grand opening to follow!

How cute is this?

    Friday was a huge day for us. It was so incredible to see all of our big equipment coming in. We now have several refrigerators and freezers as well as many sinks. We are also the proud owners of two of the biggest stand mixers I've ever seen as well as two cuter and more manageable counter top mixers. One big treat for me is that my little 5 qt mixer came in with the perfect shade of green paint to match the rest of our shop! Plus, it's the only mixer that customers will see, so I'm thrilled that it is so cute.
   
   Unfortunately, there were a few hiccups with our convection ovens and they had to be sent back to get re-delivered on Tuesday. What happened? Well, it turns out that when it comes to oven wheels vs. Germantown Avenue, the cobblestones win. It was just to much for that little wheel and the welding has to be re-done. Also, it wasn't going to fit through the front door, so they are making a few adjustments and removing some stuff that stuck out the back so that it will fit on Tuesday. I'd be lying if I said the deliver wasn't nerve-wracking. It was full of precarious moments as well as a general "oh my god, this is really happening" surreal tone.

These mixers are bigger than I am.
They were one big source of the
overwhelmed feeling I had.

 
 In the mean time, the signs have been put up in the windows thanks to our good friend Josh. He made the signs and applied them on Sunday morning. They look great! They were a bit of a beast to apply, since our logo has a lot of details due to its woodcut style. But they are up and they look awesome! Once again, we are so lucky to have such talented friends who are willing to help us out!

Here's Josh totally focused applying our sign!

 
  The woodwork for the shop is also coming along nicely and we now have shelves and some tables that are just about done. They look awesome and will be great for display, storage and keeping our office area organized. The shop is starting to fill up with stuff and I'm hoping we'll have room for all the small stuff that needs to live in the shop as well.

Here's a picture of our table from the
Awbury Arboretum event.

 
  We have been trying to keep busy while we wait on the shop. We've got a couple of great cakes coming up to make, including a few for my dear friend's wedding. We participated in a wonderful Harvest Fest with out friends at the Awbury Arboretum this past Saturday. We've also been working on re-finishing an old butcher block table my mom gave to us so that it can serve as our coffee station.  Things still haven't gotten crazy, but hopefully by the end of this week, they will.
 
  Thanks for checking out or progress! You can follow us on Instagram www.instagram.com/frostedfoxcakeshop, like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/frostedfoxcakeshop or check out our website www.frostedfoxcakeshop.com for more news on our shop opening.

Inching Closer and Closer to a Real Bakeshop!

   Here we are with another quick construction/opening update post. These things never quite move as fast as we want them to, do they? I can't tell you how many times I've started a little project at home that I figured would only take a few hours, only to find myself at home depot at 9:55 pm on a Tuesday just trying to find the one stupid part I didn't have when I started the project on Friday afternoon. That's why I've recently limited myself to projects that mainly include painting, as this is usually pretty straight forward, start to finish.

So many greens! In the end, the two winners are the
two shades farthest to the right. 

 

  Speaking of painting, we've selected out final paint color options for the shop. We're gonna be using two shades of gorgeous green (which happens to be my favorite color) and we're going to accent it with pops of copper all over the shop. We also have a super cute wall paper treatment that will live on two accent walls. By itself, the wallpaper totally looks beigey-yellow, but next to the greens it works as an additional shade of green, and it's really lovely.

 

 The plumbing and the electrical work are mostly done, I believe all that is left is hooking up fixtures, sinks, toilets etc. Which would take me a month, but I trust the professionals will swoop in and be much quicker than that. The hood still needs to go in, but I believe the actual installation should only take a day or two or three. 

 

Look how excited sean is about
the dry wall going up! 

   The most exciting news I've basically ever heard is that the drywall is all up, taped, spackled and sanded. The rumor is that painting will start today, and I may just fall to my knees and weep tears of joy when I walk into the shop and it's no longer the gray of drywall and demolition. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is happening as I type this very sentence. Once painting is done, the floors will be sanded later this week (or so I've heard) and water-resistant vinyl will get laid down in the back workroom. I'm really keeping my praying that the vinyl will work out time-wise, as I've been told it may fall prey to the pope-apocalypse delivery nightmare that's headed to Philadelphia this week. Who would have thought the pope's visit could affect our shop before it was even opened? Maybe he'll come by and bless it for our troubles. He seems like a pretty good guy, and if there's one thing I know about guys from Argentina, they love desserts. 

  We've also made some big decisions on stain colors for our tables and other woodwork. That's sort of the last stage of this whole project. Installing the equipment and the millwork (tables, shelves, counters). The stain will be a pretty reddish cherry color, It works with the copper and it works with the green and it works with the overall theme of our foxy little bakery.

 

  

A small fraction of the boxes filled with
bakery stuff awaiting their forever
home.

I know it sounds like a lot left to do, but I'm really optimistic that these elements are smaller projects that can hopefully fall into place quickly. Once the shop is turned over to us, Sean and I will be locking ourselves (and anyone else who wants to help) inside in order to clean, decorate and organize all of our small tools and equipment. These are currently living in our house and my dad's basement. I can't wait to get it all in the shop, because right now our house is starting to look like a bunch of Boxtrolls live there (shout out to Laika, my sister's recent stop motion internship). Side note: I think I just thought of our dogs halloween costume for this year, a couple of box trolls, we have SO many boxes in our house.

  

 Once the shop is set and ready to go, we'll get the health inspector to come by and hopefully grant us our food license. Then, it's a mad dash to the finish while we get all of our doughs, cakes and sweets made for a soft opening. A soft opening is when a place quietly opens its doors without any fanfare before have a larger "Grand Opening." This is an opportunity for us to get the doors open fast without having to stick to a specific opening date. It's also a chance for people to come and visit with us, see what we are about and for us to get a little feedback on what works and what doesn't before our true opening. For up to the minute updates on when we will open you can like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/frostedfoxcakeshop.

   There's a lot left to do, and not a lot of time to do it. But I'm very excited to get going. If you want to take a peek at what our shop will offer, check out our website www.frostedfoxcakeshop.com.

Baby's First Birthday Cake

 

An Owl Themed 1st
Birthday.

    It just wouldn't be a birthday without a birthday cake, right? At least, that's how I feel about it. There are a lot of different schools of thought about which birthdays are the most important ones to celebrate. I just celebrated my 30th birthday last summer and we had a pretty big party (yes, there was a moon bounce).  We all know the big ones are the ones that end in "0," but then 13, 16, 18, and 21 are all big years too! What you might not realize, is that the 1st birthday is one of the biggest celebrations of all!

Rubber Duckie, You're
the One!

  

    For those of us without kids, it might be hard to imagine throwing a huge party for a 1 year old, especially since they probably won't remember it. But who cares? I think we are always looking for a reason to throw a party and eat cake, and your baby's first birthday is a huge milestone! Not only can you start telling people how old your baby is in terms of years instead of months, but you've also survived what was undoubtedly one of the most challenging years of your own life! If that's not a reason to get your friends together and party, I don't know what is! Plus, it's possible you haven't seen much of your friends since you've been understandably a little busy. 

This Was Probably a Very Cute Party.

   

 I've seen 1st birthday cakes that range from feeding 6 people to 75! 75! I've also seen people spend anywhere from about $30 for a pretty little cake to over $400 for their baby's big day! So if you're the kind of person who really likes to go all out, there's no reason not to. If we're being honest, this party is more about you celebrating with your baby and getting some adorable photos, than it is about the baby actually remembering much of it! 

A Cake to Match the Party
Decorations!

    One fun option for a first birthday, is to make a "smash cake" for your baby. This is usually a much smaller cake that is decorated to match the main cake. It's served to the baby and the idea is you just let them go crazy smashing, eating, and coating themselves in the cake. It's a great photo op, you can limit the flavor to more baby friendly ones, and you get to save the real cake for the partygoers who will appreciate it a little bit more. If a separate cake seems like too much, you can always get a matching cupcake for your little one. 

Baby's First Book Cake.

    I love making 1st birthday cakes that go along with a theme. There's a ton of adorable party supplies and ideas out there for 1st birthdays and it's so much fun to make the perfect custom cake to match. Many people like to make a cake that draws from their baby's favorite book, cartoon character or toy. You may want to pick more family friendly flavors (maybe this isn't the time to go for the chai mousse). Also, want to consider the messiness factor if you are going to let your baby really go to town on their little cake. I suggest changing them out of their party outfit and into something simple before hand. 

  In the end, make sure you take lots of photos. Just have a lot of fun with it! Even though I might not remember my own first birthday, I feel pretty confident everyone else had fun! If you'd like to order a 1st birthday cake, or any other cake, check out our website and get in touch with us!

My little brother's first birthday up top,
and my first birthday at the bottom.

  

And now for a renovation update!

Our store front prior to demolition.

    As some of you may know, the story of opening our shop has taken a little longer than I had hoped. We started out young and naive about a year ago. I remember telling people that I would probably have a shop open in early spring. Well, I was a little off, wasn't I? From watching many many a renovation TV show, I was well aware that renovations often take longer and cost more than expected. So, I thought I was bring super smart and planning for a longer time and more money than the estimates we were receiving. What I didn't realize, is that I should have taken that buffer estimate and basically doubled it! I thought I was already doing that.. but no.... no....
    Here's a quick reminder of where we've been. When we originally signed the lease on our storefront, we knew we were going to need to seek a zoning variance from the city. I knew it would take a while, but I was pretty confident we would be able to get it granted. Plus, I loved the shop, it was right near our house and if we got the zoning, it would be perfect! What I didn't know was just how long it would actually take. From start to finish it took about 5 months (I had thought 3). I'm sure there were ways to speed this process up ::wink wink:: but I didn't know them. Thank goodness we did in fact receive the variance on April 1st (this might make us April fools). So, I figured construction would start on April 2nd..... nope!

This is our store front with the zoning notice in place. Note that Sean
is wearing a winter coat and there are no leaves on the trees shadows!

    Flash forward about a month and we had our contractor chosen and our second round of permitting into the health department. This was the second step towards planning a legal bakery. They had a pretty quick turn around and we were able to get our health review plan back to us with their approval by the end of May. Then, I thought, construction can start right away, right? Nope.

Demolitions expert!

    Next up came the 3rd round of permitting, this was the building permitting needed to start the demolition/construction on the space. In addition we also needed to get the plumbing and electrical permits. This process felt like it took a million years! After a few setbacks we were finally able to start the renovation in July! The first time I came by after the demolition had started I felt like a kid on Christmas! I have possibly never been so excited! The down side? We were now officially into July and just getting going on the work. In my foolish pride, I had been telling people that we would definitely be open in July, oh, the arrogance!
    Now, we have made it through August and it's been really great to see the space start to change. There is all kinds of new plumbing in place, all kinds of new wires running everywhere. Soon we will have new walls, some new flooring and all kinds of wonderful tables, counters, shelves and appliances. My hope is that now that we are actually to the renovation part of the renovation (and not the paperwork part) things will stay as on track as possible from here on out. Our hope is that all the renovations will be complete by the end of September so that we can get in and get our health inspection done as early as possible in October. Then, fingers crossed, we'll soft open as soon as we possibly can then send out a date for our formal "GRAND OPENING!"

While this looks far from finished, there is
still a tone of progress in this photo!

   While our space is still pretty far from being finished, I am so ready to get beyond all the red tape! I can't wait to post pretty pictures of what our shop will look like. While this has (and continues to be) a long journey, I am really optimistic that we will be in this space for a really long time to come. I can't wait to spend all my time in our shop, making cakes and helping customers! By this time next month, let's all hope I will be posting about our finished space!