New Year's resolution = slow business

Yea, yea, yea... we all wanna be skinny and hot, so I totally understand why baked goods sales drop after the holidays and why new gym memberships peak in January. I'm not mad about it, hey- I started working out as well.

Before I moved to the States, I never heard the concept of a "New Year's resolution"; but after being here for eight years, I find myself promising I'll start changing old habits and hoping I have the will power to stick to them... unfortunately, a few weeks later, I convince myself it was a silly resolution to begin with, just to feel a little better about the fact that I can't follow though. Boohoo.

So - When does baked goods business pick up again? I say when all the chain stores decide to decorate everything red and put hearts all over the place. And why not heart shaped cake pops? Because my kitchen and bathrooms have been invaded by workers with toxic chemical smells and bad music. I'm really excited to have re- finished bathrooms and a freshly painted kitchen... but today I had to go to the bagel place downstairs to use the bathroom - and that's never fun (specially since I live in a fifth floor walk-up). Boohoo #2

See? I just gave up on my new year's resolution to be more positive. Boohoo #3

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Happy 2010!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season; I took a nice break from baking until early this week. This Saturday, it's the Wedding Crashers event. This is a wedding fair that promotes caterers, photographers, bands, DJ's, florists and everything you need for your wedding day, all based in NYC. This is a great way to promote small businesses (specially because I'm one of them!) and staying local. I was contacted by Brooklyn Based (the organizer of the event) to make cake pops as wedding favors. How awesome! I was originally thinking of making cupcake cake pops, but then thought, why not make a mini wedding cake pops? It goes better with the wedding theme... So i did.

These are Red Velvet covered in white chocolate.

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I've been meaning to post some pictures I gathered during my visit to Boston during the holidays and also just by walking around in NYC. Boston was freezing cold but had a great time anyways; it was my first time there. Visited the Aquarium, got a craving for sushi, ate amazing seafood, went to the Quincy market, and saw the biggest macaroons ever...

The following cupcake pictures are from the Chelsea market. The excess of icing didn't really make me wanna eat them, but definitely admire them.

Sesame Street characters have a special place in my heart. I have never seen an episode of it, but instead I grew up learning English with them. I learned songs that were made up with kids songs melodies but the words were changed for educational purposes and I only came to realize that when I moved here and realized all the lyrics I knew were totally wrong, but awesome. 

♫ Sesame street is the place to be... they're lots of fun for you and me! ♫

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Done with Baking... for now.

On Tuesday, I delivered my last orders before Christmas, and it felt so good! I had a really busy and good holiday season in terms of business. It definitely exceeded my baking expectations.
After making and baking:

• Over 220 empanadas

• 650 (give or take) cookies 

• And over 350 cake pops

I packaged, shipped, delivered and sold all my baked goods...

So it was finally time for me to bake (again) for pleasure! It's not that I stopped enjoying it... but it's nice to bake different things here and there. So I figured i could make some good stuff for Christmas morning. I made these mini pistachio poppy seed muffins and some good old banana bread. The pistachio poppy recipe, I got from my friend Victoria (baker and founder of Sweetie Pies Brooklyn). It's really simple and delicious...

 There are three ways of making things taste delicious (choose wisely):

1. Put hot sauce 
2. Or - Add poppy seeds
3. Enjoy it with people you love (yes, cheesy but true)

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I also want to thank everyone who reads this... last Saturday at the Greenpoint Food market, a bunch of people came to say hi, and told me they read my blog. I have to admit that it felt a little weird that they knew  me, but it was awesome! It made me really happy to know there are readers out there. Thank you (really, thank you)!
Happy Holidays everyone everywhere!!

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Baby, It's cold outside...

Que frio que hace... y es diciembre!! I still can't get used to associating cold weather with the end of the year. I do associate it with the holiday season, just not with the end and beggining of a new year. I know it sounds odd, but the holiday season is such an American thing for me. I grew up celebrating Christmas and New Year's by the pool and watching fire works, so that is the end of the year to me. The holiday season is English Christmas songs, cold weather and crazy shopping season... but this year is a bit different, there is a LOT of baking going on.

This Friday is the Biblioball so I've been getting ready for it. Today I worked on the fillings for the empanadas and tomorrow I'm baking cookies all day. I already worked on the cake pops, since they are time consuming but once made, they last up to two weeks in the fridge. I made three kinds:

• Vanilla

Also known as my Christmas tree farm...

• Red Velvet as Santa Hats
  

• Reindeer Chocolate Cake Pops

They are so cute, I kept giggling while making them  :)

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Post Thanksgiving - Pre Christmas Craziness.

After last week's Thanksgiving orders, I really needed a break from the kitchen. I love the actual baking, I'm just not used to being up on my feet all day long and with all the cleaning up, labeling and packaging I was ready to spend some time outside my tiny kitchen. Thanksgiving  was exactly what i needed. I had a great meal, a bonfire, fresh Connecticut air, great turkey and amazing spicy sausage stuffing. mmmm...


Another great thing about my Thanksgiving? I got orders for Christmas! Woohoo!! This time they will be shipped to different locations and as - wait for it.... -  corporate gift packages instead of my usual cookie bags, so today I went on a mission to find cute, sturdy, green and price conscious packaging... ehh... my feet hurt and came back with random baking supplies... How did that happen? I'm not sure. I realized it was too much to ask for. If it was cute, it was too small... if it was green, it was ugly and if it was sturdy, it wasn't green and more expensive than what was gonna be inside of them. Boo to packaging! It's so wasteful yet so necessary. How about a cookie postcard?

You don't need to write anything in it, when you get this in your mailbox, you can just assume someone feels you deserve a treat. Peel the stamp, and enjoy! And- how cute are the Simpsons stamps?

I will be very busy starting next week getting ready for the Biblioball 2009. I will selling baked goods at the fundraiser which is hosted by The Desk Set and the proceeds go to literacy for incarcerated kids. Check out their website for tickets! They expect between 300 and 450 people at the event so that's a lot (a LOT) to prepare for. Wish me luck!

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Come out, come out...

Tomorrow, Saturday November 21st the Greenpoint Food market returns...

I'll be selling:
-Spicy Beef Empanadas
-Spinach & Mushroom Empanadas
-Chocolate Cake Pops
-Red Velvet Cake Pops
-Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake Pops
-Hazelnut Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies
-Double Chocolate Mint Cookies
-Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I'm really sorry for the short notice, I was busy baking all that good stuff... Hope to see you there!

Also- I finally created a Facebook page for La Tia Faby, so check it out!

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Turkey day is around the corner...

In case you were wondering why I haven't been posting anything... This is why:

I made these pops using a friend's Raspberry Jello Shot Chocolate Cake (longest cake name ever) recipe, they have vodka and creme of cacao. I covered the tip of some candy corns with chocolate and used them as the feathers, and chocolate covered sun flower seeds for the beaks... aren't they adorable?

I will be selling baked goods at a fundraiser on december 11th, and since it's a winter ball, why not winter- themed baked goods?

So I baked some delicious Double Chocolate Mint cookies... unfortunately, being busy baking... I forgot to take pictures of them... and now they are gone.. oops! I have to do some minor changes to the recipe so once I bake them for the fundraiser, I'll make sure to document every single crumb.

I also made more cupcake pops (of course). These were vanilla ones with sprinkles and covered them in white and dark chocolate..

Yuuumm...

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