A little bit of everything....

Well, well, well... this blog title should probably have been 12 MONTHS in the life of a Crumbs Cupcaker - seen as it is almost 12 months since I last blogged! Now this isn't just because I am totally useless at Blogging (ooooh no)... I have actually tried to upload blogs on several occasions over the last few months but with one thing or another, (new laptop not working properly, computer crashing just as I am about to press 'post', not being able to attach photos as I would like to, rabbit eating my notes...) it just hasn't happened! Ok, so my rabbit didn't eat my notes, even though he eats everything else put in his path. Anyway, enough of my babbling, I have 12 months to bring you up to speed on, so here goes!

I will go back to October last year...  and one of my most favourite cakey occasions - Halloween! We decorated the shop with fake cobwebs, (which were a pain in the neck to get rid of by the way -they stick to everything!!) fake severed arms, (a gift from our lovely customer and soon to be deli/café/Hollywood glamour tea room owner Andy), hanging spiders and all sorts of other bits and bobs. Sadly I can't find a picture of the shop. Luckily though, you wont have to wait too long to see it decorated again!! See it's a good job I am rubbish at blogging after all - wouldn't want to keep you in suspense! We do however have pictures of some of the cakes we made for Halloween... seeee....

Moving swiftly on to Chriiiistmas! Now I LOVE Christmas. So much. I seem to turn into a 4 year old child when the Christmas tree goes up and the lights start a twinkling :) Also, what I love about Christmas is the fact that we can play Michael Buble's Christmas album over and over and over again! Which any of our regular customers will confirm that we definitely did! We held our very first Cupcake Decorating Workshop where we decorated cupcakes with pretty bows, santa faces, snowflakes and a snowman with a carrot nose. We also provided some yummy christmassy food for all of our guests to enjoy. My favourite were the 'hot toddy tarts' - a sweet pastry case filled with a whisky infused chocolate ganache. Deeeelicious! Our guests seemed to enjoy themselves and created some amazing cupcakes to take home to show off with! Success :)

We had our very own Christmas tree...

 And some pretty coloured baubles...

And some pretty twinkly lights in the window....

We had a lovely Christmas at home and came back to start 2013 with lots of fresh ideas and exciting opportunities ahead....

We got all loved up for our first Valentines day at the shop. It was even more loved up because on the 19th January I had a very exciting proposal from my boyfriend and we are now engaged! It was all very lovely and romantic but I won't go getting all smushy on you all because I've probably bored most of you with the ever so romantic details already! So, back to Valentines day - we made some very cute 'last rolo' cupcakes which were a chocolate cupcake filled with a yummy caramel sauce, topped with more chocolate buttercream and a single rolo. They went down a treat :) 

We also had lots of orders from lovely boyfriends to their girlfriends and vice versa! How sweet :D

Next onto Easter! Easter is all about Chocolate. We decided to base our special easter cake on the best chocolate there is around at easter time... Creme Eggs! We created a chocolate cupcake with a whole mini creme egg baked inside, a swirled chocolate and vanilla buttercream and half a creme egg on top! It took a bit of trial and error though to be honest. We tried baking the creme egg inside from the start of baking and that didn't work, half way through didn't quite work either. So we decided to try freezing the mini creme egg and THEN putting it in the middle of the cake half way though baking. It was sooo good we can't wait until next Easter so we can make some more! Here they are... mmmmmmmm....

We also couldn't resist using some of those yummy mini eggs that we can eat by the bag full! These mini ones fit perfectly into an egg box too!

We have had some very exciting cakes to make since I last blogged too. Here are just a few;

We made some first birthday cakes for 3 of our favourite and cheekiest little customers... Freddie, Hugo and Liam!

 One of our favourites was this circus themed birthday cake for a little boy called Jack. Jack's Dad is a designer and drew us this picture to work from which we thought was just amazing!

From this drawing we created this... 

This is just a few of the cakes we have made over the summer, not to mention all of the wonderful Brides and Grooms we have met and their weddings which we have been a part of... 

Last but not least let me tell you about the excitement on College Street at the end of Summer. The BBC closed the street and turned it into the set of Death comes to Pemberley (the sequel to Pride and Prejudice). It was all very exciting. We were turned into the green grocers! Keep an eye out for us when it airs on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Here is a sneak preview... A transformation don't you think?

That's it. All up to date. Oh one last thing...... I said YES! :D 

Until next time... xxx

12 weeks in the life of a Crumbs Cupcaker...

Well... doesn't time fly when you have the BEST JOB EVER! The last 12 weeks have absolutely flown by. I often sit with a cup of tea on our pretty pink sofa at the end of a busy day and smile to myself - there were tears, there was stress, there was a LOT of hard work, but now 12 weeks in, it was all worth it. I am finally living that dream that was in my head for so many years :)

So what have we been up to over the last few months?? Well, lots! We have had several orders, here are just a few...

 

 

We have also hosted two very successful Cupcake decorating parties which were great fun for us, and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves too! Here is the set up before, and one of the end results...

 

 

 

We were also rather excited earlier on in the month because we finally got our outdoor seating licence through - now our customers can enjoy the lovely Autumn we are about to have (fingers crossed!) but just in case it's a little chilly we have blankets too :)

 

We got a new sign...

 

 

We got a new chair... (thanks to the lovely Annie at Cleggs!)

 

AND... we had a well earned rest in Cyprus because my Dad got married to the lovely Katrina... EPIC!

 

We have lots more exciting stuff lined up in the next few months so keep those eyes peeled!

 

Happy Wednesday :)







So... we are officially OPEN!!!

What an exciting few weeks it has been too. We have had some lovely, lovely customers - some returning 3 times in our first week! ...Can't ask for more than that :)

Before I start to get over excited about our first 3 weeks of trading I must first of all say a huge, massive thank you to all of my AMAZING friends and family. I would not have been able to do this without your help and I cannot begin to express my appreciation.... Dad, Kat, James, Lucie, Emily, Miss Haley, Louise, Dave, Matt and Lucy, The lovely Minster staff, Richard and the guys upstairs, Thom, and last but not least my truly amazing boyfriend - I could not have asked for any more from any one of you.







Right enough of the mushy stuff, lets get down to business... our pretty shop.....

                               

Our launch day was on Saturday 14th July and was a huge success. We got some fantastic feedback from customers about the shop and everyone said how nice the cakes tasted too. Phew! After a long and very busy day, we threw a little bit of a party for everyone that had been involved... ate posh finger sandwiches (thanks to my future step-mum!), drank champagne and ate CAKE! Even though I was nearly fast asleep after a couple of glasses of the fizzy stuff, it was the best celebration ever!





The very first batch of cupcakes turned out a treat too...

More blogging soon... oh but I promised a picture of my feature light... LOVE IT!

GOOD NIGHT ALL :)