Who doesn’t love chocolate?

I know, it’s like I died or something. Sorry ’bout that…but if you read my other blog, you know I’ve been in major weight loss mode. Baking + weight loss = not so successful, so I took a hiatus. That, and I’m a little lazy when it comes to uploading photos, so here we are.

This cake was for my grandpa’s birthday…which was in April…so I’m definitely behind. And I’m not posting this one because it’s pretty or anything…just because it looks delicious and I always hope I can get someone to lick the screen. So even if you didn’t, I’m okay if you tell me you did. *wink*

A little background - my grandpa loves chocolate. A lot. So I threw together this chocoloate behemoth - chocolate Bundt cake with chocolate chips, topped with chocolate ganache and white chocolate drizzle. Behold, for it is a thing of messy splendor:

Drizzle, dump, who cares? Just make it chocolatey!

So there’s that. I didn’t eat any (like I said, I’m being good these days), but my family said it was delicious. Always good to hear. No matter what a cake looks like, my personal belief is that taste is always number one.

SassyCakes, out!

Busy, busy!

Wow, what a busy week! It’s my stepmom’s surprise 50th birthday party tomorrow, and I am doing all the desserts. I have planned quite a few yummy treats, but I’m most nervous about the cake. I’m doing a white cake with raspberry filling - 10″ round, 4 (thin) layers - and will be frosting it with purple buttercream and then decorating it with white scroll work (which I have never done before and hope I can pull off!). All of this is from scratch, so I hope it turns out well! Even if it doesn’t, I’ll post pictures.

I am also doing this wonderful brownie/cookie recipe with chocolate ganache. I’m using a brownie mix (oh, for shame!), but doing homemade chocolate chip cookie dough and ganache. I’m going to double the batter and make extra cookies, too.

Then I’m doing cake balls. I made a boxed devil’s food cake last night and homemade cream cheese icing. The richness of the icing really masks the cake, and it was a time saver, so I don’t feel bad about using a box for this one. I rolled all the balls last night (teehee), wrapped them really well with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge. When I get home, I’ll pop them in the freezer for a few to get them nice and firm (teehee again), and then dip them in melted dark chocolate candy melts. While that sets, I’ll melt purple candy melts and decorate the tops.

Whew, I’m going to have a long evening, but it will be SOOOO worth it. I can’t wait to see the final results! It’s weird to not be doing cupcakes, but that’s a good thing. I hope. Wish me luck.

Oh, and then I have my mom’s birthday on Tuesday and my sister’s surprise 30th birthday party on the 7th - which is the first day of my Wilton cake decorating class! I love it!

SassyCakes, out!

The joys of cost accounting

I am not quite sure how to figure out what to charge for my first few “orders” (actually just requests from friends, but hey - it’s practice!). I obviously don’t buy ingredients at wholesale, so I made a price list of the ingredients I will need to use based on my favorite grocery store’s prices. Now, the tricky part. How many teaspoons of vanilla are in one small bottle? How many cups of flour are in the bag? How the heck do I factor in a teaspoon of salt when an ENTIRE package only costs $.46?

Luckily, I currently work for a start-up and our accounting chica is muy inteligente, so she and talked about spreadsheets and all sorts of fun stuff this morning. Next week, I am going to start my own spreadsheets and get all this crazy math stuff worked out so I can plug and chug in the future. I have a teensy confession…I’m REALLY excited to make spreadsheets. I secretly adore Excel. But please don’t tell Bill Gates; I still think he’s the devil.

I know I’m so extremely part-time at this, but if I’m serious about seeing this dream come true, I want to do it right from the beginning. For now, I’m obviously not doing this for profit - I just need to cover the ingredient costs. Once I see if I have a real chance at this, I’ll beef up my meager business plan and put it in writing. Then I’ll file for all the proper business tax ID shtuff, lease a kitchen and take it from there.

In the meantime, though, I’m going to keep learning, baking and researching. And, of course, posting the highlights and lowlights for all to see. Let’s hope the lowlights stay in my hair.

SassyCakes, OUT!

Look! Cupcakes!

Welcome to the Sassy SweetShop blog! This obviously isn’t the permanent look for the Sassy SweetShop, but it’ll do for now.

What is the Sassy SweetShop, you ask? Allow me to explain. It’s a dream - potentially an unreachable one - but one that deserves a chance. I firmly believe that everyone should find what they love and pursue that as a career. You spend the majority of your life working and sleeping, so why not do the work you dream so much about?

I’m Sarah (you can call me Captain SassyCakes if you want) and this is the beginning of my dream - a bakery with attitude. Perhaps, someday, the Sassy SweetShop will be a real bakery, but for now, a hope-filled blog will have to do. I’ll post pictures of my baking adventures (the good, the bad, the ugly and the insane), and explore what it takes to make a dream a reality.

Hey, everyone has to start somewhere. I’m starting here.

Consider yourself warned. The Sassy SweetShop is open for biznass! (Well, kind of…)