Clever Cake Studio

The only times I’ve sold my stuff at an event were the two Fancy Rat shows, where people go more to look at rats, have their rats looked at, buy rat stuff, and, occasionally, buy a rat.  When you have non-rat-related items, the reaction is often surprise.  Cupcakes and cookies sell well normally, but when the first question a potential customer asks is “oh, are those for rats?” (despite heavy signage announce their edibility for carnivores and vegans alike), then you clearly are not in the best element for profits.

I did work around that a bit with the Sugar Rats, which were popular.  I really like doing those, and may have to commission some custom cutters for more unique shapes.  Maybe I should make them the mascot for Sugar Revolution?

Anyhow, on June 6, I’ll be at my first actual here-to-buy-stuff show.  It’s the Seattle Punk Rock Flea Market, an eclectic and eccentric mix of just about everything you can imagine, from vintage clothes and collectables to live reptiles and on-site tattooing.  I link to their Craigslist posting, as the MySpace page is rather wild and harder to read.

I will be sharing space with a crafty friend of mine, who makes chainmaile art and jewelry (check her out at Knitted Steel).  We’re having some fun figuring out booth and display design.  Another friend of mine will also be there with her delightful collection of handmade, vegan perfumes (go visit her at Sweet Anthem).

I’m also going to try and make an interesting display cake for it as well, just to show off a bit and catch people’s eyes.  Display cakes are, of course, fake, filled with foam instead of delicious cake.  Generally all the coverings are still the same sugary products, but this lasts a long, long time and makes for a good, portable example of your work.  I think doing something elaborate and steampunky would be good.

So if you’re going to be in the Belltown Seattle area on Saturday, June 6, please stop by!  It’s only $1 to get into the Market, and you’re sure to enjoy yourself.

That’s right - this cake was made for a death-defying, high-flying, seriously kick-ass lady aerialist who performes using long lengths of silk.  If you’ve never seen an aerialist performing, then check out this video from YouTube just to give you an idea.  It’s a cross between dancing and moving sculpture and takes tremendous amount of physical control.  Very cool!

I really enjoyed making this one.  This was commissioned as a surprise by her husband for her birthday, and includes nods to her many interests and accomplishments.  The fondant is marbled white/soft purple.  The top tier is rose cake with strawberry preserves, and the bottom tier is lavender cake with blackberry preserves.

Edit on 5/8/09:  Okay, I got some nice photos from the client, and only now finally got around to uploading them.  That’s going to be a theme for me this week I think.  I changed the top photo because I thought they set it up quite beautifully, and here is a photo of the inside of the top tier rose-strawberry cake, which I did in very vivid colored rainbow swirls.  The bottom tier is also in swirled rainbow, but in more Springtime sort of bright pastels.

My letting and painting skills are slowly improving. But in case you can’t read or tell what all of that is, here you go: “K” for her name; “Ayoo ‘ anoshni!” is I love you in Navaho; “¡Feliz cumpleaños!” is Happy Birthday in Spanish; a medical symbol for her in-progress nursing degree; Bibliophile for her love of reading/writing; a microscope for her degree in microbiology; a rose; a badly done Rock Band drum set; a ball of yarn and knitting needles; two foils for fencing; a “Censored” block; and the line “As you wish” from the Princess Bride movie/book.  Also, I included some sparkling candles as a nod to her (and her husband’s) interest in professional pyrotechnics.

The sculpture I made using sculptey and baked in my oven, so they’d have a keepsake ornament. I used a photo online to guide me, and also had a friend who’s involved in a lot of performance art help make sure I did the ‘rigging’ authentically.  It was a fun little puzzle.

That was done one evening, the baking another, and the layering, construction and decoration was all done on Saturday. We had a bunch of friends over that day to play board/card games, which meant I had an audience for this (as well as the occasional sounding board or helper willing to spend a half hour rolling out little balls of fondant for me).  That’s why there’s a picture of me working on the cake - one of our friends picked up the camera and caught me.   It’s just more proof of how very glamourous this work is.  ;P

Over at Sugar Revolution, we’re having a preview goodie box sale!  You get a variety of tasty treats for a low price and, we hope, you’ll then take a little survey to let us know what you thought.  Then we can tweak the products a bit before our official Grand Opening.

Some of the items that you might get:
- Spicy ‘Hot Chocolate’ cookies
- Carrot Cake balls
- ‘Gold Hearts’ (Goldschlager snickerdoodles)
- Chai and Raspberry tea loaf
- Rosemary and pine nut cookies
- Smores truffles
- Lavender Blackberry cookies
- ‘Garden Variety’ mini cookies (herbs and flowers)
- Green tea and red bean bread
- Cherry gingersnaps
- Variety of chocolates and truffles

We also have Vegan boxes available as well!

This is a favorite at my house. Tender, not too sweet, with a melt-in-your-mouth finish, and the lavender is subtle yet defining.  Good on its own, or with some tea.

I personally love lavender, and enjoy introducing it to people who haven’t experienced it in anything but potpourri!  It’s wonderfully French and foreign, yet feels homey and inspires daydreams of country cottages, British tea and lovely gardens.  Besides this sweet treat, lavender is great in savory dishes, like roast chicken or an herb omelet.

I think Americans have long underutilized this herb.  Try it out!  Make sure to pick up culinary lavender (it can be ordered online or found at many groceries or organic/natural foods stores).  This way you can be sure no unhealthy pesticides or dyes were used on it.  Be brave with it.  You can also try herbs de province, a French herb blend that includes lavender, which is wonderful in just about everything.

EDIT:  After getting the comment below from Heidi and Doug, I decided I’d add another useful thing about these cookies - they’re great to carry around and hand out at conventions. 

I made these rat sugar cookies for RatsPacNW’s annual Spring Show this past weekend.  My roomate breeds really gorgeous, sweet ratties (FurrRattery), and this is the second show we’ve shared a table together at.  Last time I sold some cupcakes and cookies, including some vegan items, though I didn’t get photos, because I’m a dork.  I regularly forget photos, so several nice cakes and other items have missed their chance in the sun (well, my blog anyhow).

These photos were taken by my husband’s cell phone camera.  I made a bunch of these Sugar Rats, not all of which are pictured.  They were very well received and completely sold out, so I will likely be doing them regularly for rat shows and will also sell them on Sugar Revolution when that’s up and going.

I also sold some lavender cookies, and may get some photos of those up later on.