Clever Cake Studio

The Punk Rock Flea Market was, in short, a lot of fun.  It was a lot of work and stress and hard labor, but it was also very rewarding.

Getting instant feedback from so many people was awesome.  We had some really amusing and flattering comments (our favorite was from a woman regarding the strawberry-balsamic chocolate fudge, who said it gave her a hard-on) and the few criticisms I felt were justified (I’m still tinkering with the Gold Hearts to bring out the distinct Goldschlager and make them less like regular snickerdoodles).  Overall, it helped solidify for me that there definitely was a strong market for unusual flavors.  People called our menu progressive, innovative, even inspiring!  That was really amazing.

It was really, really wonderful to watch people’s expressions as they tried the samples.  The fudge was the first thing that sold out, and it was very well-received. The Spicy Hot Chocolate cookies were a blast - the heat doesn’t hit you right away, it’s rather this unexpected boot to the rear end on the way out.  So people would take a sample, chew it, nodding and starting to move on, then suddenly stop and look surprised.  Those also sold out, as people kept returning to buy some more and finally one lady bought all we had left in one fell swoop.

Let’s see… The lavender oatmeal was awesome.  It didn’t matter that it was vegan, people were snapping them up and we ran out.  The rose baklava went over well, but it is harder to eat while wandering a market.  My Cranky Lemon Muffins, freshly baked that morning, unfortunately suffered on the ride over and I only had a small number that weren’t squished.  However, we enjoyed them and shared them with our fellow crafters sharing the big tent with us.

The other items all did fine as well, but the lavender oatmeal, strawberry-balsamic fudge, and spicy chocolate cookies were the really big hits.  I need to play around with more fudge ideas.

Also, I need to do more vegan items next time, and get some gluten-free products.  I had four people ask about GF stuff and I hated having to say I didn’t have any - I wanted to, but ran out of time.

For those of you who eat GF, what sort of things would you like to see?  I want to develop some non-chocolate items, because it seems like flourless chocolate cake and other chocolate baked goods are the most common GF products I’m finding, and I know I’d get bored of that pretty quickly myself.  Just about any of my standard items I will be converting to Vegan, GF, and Vegan-GF versions.

Any other special diets I should also take into account?

Whew!  It’s hot here.  Not Arizona hot, where I grew up, or even California hot.  No, it’s just Seattle hot.  I remember when I was young my family visited Seattle during the summer.  There was a heat wave, which was really only in the 90’s, and we all found this funny, having come from the low 110’s.  Granted, there is more humidity here and air conditioning does not come quite so standard as it does with the homes back in Phoenix.

Now after living in Seattle for 6 years, I’m quite used to my nice 60 degree temperate weather and am finding 75 degrees at night a very uncomfortable temperature to sleep in, much less bake in.

Oh yes, you thought this wouldn’t have anything to do with baking?  Not here.  It’s unescapable.

Imagine a house with no air conditioning, and more than half the windows don’t have screens so we can’t easily leave them open because of our indoor cats.  We run all the fans we’ve got, but they’re fighting a losing battle against a 350 degree oven running for hours on end in a tiny little kitchen.

With the teasing scent of browning sugar, melting chocolate, and baking cake, it becomes both a wonderful and torturous place to be.

Right now, we’re doing all the final stuff for the Punk Rock Flea Market.  I’ve got 7 products about done, mostly wrapped.  I’m waiting on the rose baklava in the oven right now while some lavender blondes are cooling.  I’ve got a big pile of Sugar Rats, painstakingly decorated by the whole household (by the way, as a tip, those cheap three-pack empty condiment bottles you can buy work well for icing cookies) as well as some Gold Hearts (Goldschlagger Snickerdoodles), Absinthe-Almond-Fig Biscotti, Cherry-Gingersnaps, and Spicy Hot Chocolate cookies.  Tomorrow I’ll be making Strawberry-Balsamic Fudge and finish up the remaining packaging and labels.  Sometime on Friday or ungodly-early on Saturday I will be making some Cranky-Lemon Muffins.

I’m pretty exhausted, but it’s nice to see things slowly getting finished in this final hour.  I am always too ambitious and usually plan for more than I manage, especially as of late.  Since mid to late last year (this is not really when things started, but when it all seemed to kick off and get exponentially worse), I’ve been dealing with a lot of health problems.  I was just recently diagnosed with what seems to be Lupus.  Lupus is not really officially diagnosed until there’s organ damage, which thankfully there isn’t at this point.  But as my family and medical history point very strongly towards it, it’s a pretty damn safe bet.  I’m still figuring myself out in it, finding out where my new limits are and trying not to be trapped by them.  Sadly, my energy supply is definitely far less predictable than it used to be.

Overall, though, I’m pretty happy with the selection we’re accomplishing.  Since this is my first time at this market, it’ll be a learning experience anyhow.  I know that there is usually just over 1000 people in foot traffic throughout the day, so it’s quite possible that if my products appeal to people we’ll sell out early since we’ve only got less than 100 of each type. We’ll see!

If you happen to make it out there, drop by and let me know you heard about it from my blog. I may be able to sneak you a good deal