Starting Jan 21, we’ll be at the Orange Farmers Market in Old Town Orange. We are really excited to be a part of this market that is focused on a high quality of carefully
selected vendors featuring fresh veggies, meats, cheeses and now cupcakes and PushCakes!

We will be participating in the rotating artisan booth so you’ll find us there every third weekend starting Sat Jan 21. The market takes place from 9-1p. For directions and more info, visit Orange Farmers Market.

See you there!

Happy New Year! Thank you to all our customers, friends and cheerleaders in 2011. We hope that love for our desserts carries on in 2012.

More changes are coming too but I’ll save that for a later post. We are also introducing a NEW cake concept! Can’t wait to share it with you. It is sooo cool! And fun!! It makes birthdays and special events even more smashing! We are making a few changes this year. The first one being our attendance at the Great

Park Farmers Market. We will no longer be there every Sunday. We will now be there the 2nd and last Sunday of the month. I know that is kind of confusing and we apologize but we think this will work out best for our business model. We are trying it out and we’ll see how well it goes. And we really miss our regulars! If you haven’t stopped by the market since it changed locations, make sure to stop by soon! They’ve added a lot of new produce vendors, fresh baked breads, artisan teas and honeys plus the rotating food trucks and live music. They’ve also added Car Shows and an antique market the first Sunday of the month. Be your own Mike and Frank (name that show!) and do some picking of your own!

Happy 2012! 

Next Saturday and Sunday, we will be taking our show on the road and selling our treats at the famous Renegade Craft Fair at Los Angeles Historic Park. This is our first year participating in Renegade and we are so excited!

Don’t know what Renegade is about? Check this out -

The 2nd Annual Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Market in Los Angeles returns to Los Angeles State Park on December 10 + 11, from 10am – 5pm, to supply all yourhandmade holiday shopping needs! Always free-to-attend and featuring over 200 artists, shoppers are sure to find something for everybody on their lists or can craft a special giftthemselves at one of our terrific hands-on crafting workshops! A handful of LA’s best independent food trucks will be on site serving up delicious dishes and our bar will have many holiday libations!

At the Renegade Craft Fair you can expect to find only the best indie-craft and DIY artisans! Featuring both local and national talent, shoppers can anticipate a vast arrayof independently designed jewelry, clothing, paper goods, home + garden goods, posters, artwork, plush objects, bath + body products, and so much more!!

For more info including directions and the line up of vendors, visit http://www.renegadecraft.com/holiday-la

Hope to see you there!

Then we had a Cars theme cake with matching PushCakes.

And finally a Princess & the Frog themed cake with matching cupcakes.

With Thanksgiving coming up, we’ve got a few pie orders plus two birthdays next week. Thankful that I’ll have a 4 day weekend to relax. Although I know I’ll end up baking at some point.

Thanksgiving Turkey cupcake tutorial

I did this tutorial for a feature on Cakespy.com. You can see it on her site but the instructions are also below.

Turkey Cupcakes 

-makes 24 -

Note: For these cupcakes, the base and frosting can be pretty much whatever you want. I used a yellow cake and tinted it with orange food coloring. And I used a chocolate buttercream because, it’s brown like turkeys, and I really like yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Peanut butter frosting would be good too. Yum!

Ingredients

• 1 package of Nutter Butters
• 1 package of Fruit Roll Ups, fruit leather or Airheads
• Jumbo heart sprinkles
• Bag of mini chocolate chips or mini M&Ms (you could use leftover Halloween candy, but who are we kidding? There is no such thing by now, right?)
• Maple leaf cookie cutter (mini)
• Candy corn
• Cornstarch (for dusting)
• Powdered sugar
• Cocoa
• Meringue Powder
• 24 cupcakes, baked but unfrosted
• Frosting – enough to generously frost 24 cupcakes
• Piping bag or gallon plastic zipper bag
• Piping Tip (I used a 1M Wilton tip)

• Optional: 100 Calorie packs of Nutter Butters (you may be wondering what the 100 calorie packs are for, you’ll see later on in the post!)

Let’s get started:

Bake your cupcakes first so they can be cooling while you make the feathers and bodies of the turkeys.

1. Make the feathers. Grab a cutting board and lightly dust with cornstarch. Unroll the fruit roll ups, separate the colors and lay them on the board. Dust a little more cornstarch on top. I also dust some on a concentrated area that I can use to dip in my cookie cutter. Note: I tried Fruit by the Foot and only realized after I’d opened it that they print images on the fruit strips so I couldn’t use that. Also if you are going to use Airheads, you might need to microwave them, out of their packages, for a couple seconds to get them more pliable. Then you’ll need a rolling pin or glass with some cornstarch on it to thin them out. Your hands can work too.

2. Next, make some royal icing. I halve this recipe but I add a little bit more water, like an extra teaspoon. Add cocoa too to give it a brownish hue.
3. Put the icing in a piping bag or zipper bag and cut a tiny bit off the tip so you have about a 1/8 of an inch size hole. I also slightly snip the seams on my pastry bags so that I get a circle when I squeeze instead of a line.

4. Grab a nutter butter. Pipe on two dots for the eyes and a dot with the line heading down the length of the cookie.

5. Stick the jumbo red heart with the pointy part up on the line of royal icing. Then place one mini chocolate chip on each dot you placed for the eyes.

6. Snap off the end of a piece of candy corn, leaving the white tip and little bit of the orange. Eat the remaining piece. (Shhh, I won’t tell). You might need to add some royal icing to the candy corn piece and then glue the bits together…but now you’re finished with the turkey body.

7. Now make 23 more. <Patiently waiting>

8. Ok! On to frosting. Fit a piping bag or zipper bag with a tip. Or you can cut the tip of the bag in a + shape to get a similar shape in your frosting. Fill bag with frosting of your choice. Swirl on the icing and then add a little edge of frosting. This is where the feathers will rest.

9. Pick up a turkey and stick him towards the front of the cupcake, into the cupcake. You can press a little hard here. Make sure he is in the cupcake and not just in the frosting.

10. Then start placing your feathers–I did 3 but you can do more if you like. Overlapping would look cool.

And a turkey is born! Isn’t he cute! You almost don’t wanna eat him… almost.

Optional: So you may still be wondering about those 100 calorie snack bags in my early photo. I made baby turkeys! This is a great option if you want to make mini cupcakes instead or as well.

1. Using the same method for the large nutterbutters, place two dots of royal icing on the cookie and add mini chocolate chips. Add another dot and either add another jumbo heart or for this one I used some leftover heart-shaped cinnamon red hots also purchased at my local craft store.

2. Frost a swirl of buttercream on top of the mini cupcake. Insert one of the baby turkeys, then add your feathers. I used a tear drop cutter for the baby turkey feathers. So cute!!

Now, your turkeys are ready to party!

We drove him to the vet first thing that morning and that was it. We said our good byes. Petted him as the vet gave him his special medicine to make all the pain go away. It was the saddest most awful thing I’ve ever experienced so far in my life.

A fan on our Facebook page, Laura, posted this poem:

WHEN TOMORROW STARTS WITHOUT ME - Author Unknown

When tomorrow starts without me,
And I’m not there to see;
The sun will rise and find your eyes
All filled with tears for me.
I wish so much you wouldn’t cry
The way you did today,
Remembering how I’d lay my head
In your lap that special way.
I know how much you love me,
As much as I love you,
And each time that you think of me,
I know you’ll miss me too.

But when tomorrow starts without me.
Please try to understand,
That an angel came and called my name
And petted me with her hand.
She said my place was ready,
In Heaven far above,
And that I’d have to leave behind
All those I dearly love.

But, as I turned to heel away,
A tear fell from my eye,
For all my life I never thought
That I would have to die.
I had so much to live for,
So many sits and downs to do,
It seemed almost impossible,
That I was leaving you.

I thought about our lives together,
I know you must be sad,
I thought of all the love we shared,
And all the fun we had.

Remember how I’d nudge your hand,
And poke you with my nose?
The frisbee I would gladly chase,
The bad guy, I’d “bark and hold”.

If I could relive yesterday,
Just even for awhile,
I’d wag my tail and kiss you,
Just so I could see you smile.

But, then I fully realized,
That this could never be;
For emptiness and memories
Will take the place of me.
And when I thought of treats and toys,
I might miss come tomorrow,
I thought of you and when I did,
My dog-heart filled with sorrow.

But then I walked through Heaven’s gate,
And felt so much at home;
As God looked down and smiled at me,
From His beautiful golden throne.
He said, “This is eternity,
And now we welcome you,
Today your life on earth is past,
But here it starts anew.

I promise no tomorrow,
But today will always last;
For you see, each days’s the same day,
There’s no longing for the past.
Now you have been so faithful,
So trusting, loyal and true;
Though there were times you did things,
You knew you shouldn’t do.

But good dogs are forgiven,
And now at last you’re free;
So won’t you sit here by my side,
And wait right here with me?”
So when tomorrow starts without me,
Don’t think we’re far apart.
For every time you think of me,
I’m right there, in your heart.

Goodbye my booboo, my big bear, my sooks. I will love you forever and miss you terribly.

We’ll be selling our fun Halloween cupcakes and pushcakes at the farmers market this year. It also marks the 1 yr anniversary of us being at the Great Park Farmers Market. I can’t believe it’s been a year already! My oh my how things have changed since our first market. Lots of ups and downs through out the year. But we’ve stuck through it. I’ll be honest and say that it isn’t what I thought it would be, that’s for sure. I thought that we’d be selling more than we’ve been. But we’ve profited in other ways and if you are a small business baker too, you have to consider those things as well. Success isn’t just how much money you make.

We’ve met a lot of people and forged friendships with fellow vendors. And we have regulars that we look forward to seeing every week. I love interacting with people and seeing kids faces all happy when they stare wide-eyed at our treats. But with the good comes the meh too and that includes late Saturday nights baking, no more lazy Sunday mornings, dealing with unpredictable weather and how that will affect attendance and ultimately sales. And the emotional roller coaster that comes with good and bad sales on a week to week basis. And having no control over a market manager who insists on bringing in more and more competing vendors each week.  But like I said, we’ve stuck through it. And it’s made us think more and more about the possibility of having our own shop, truck, cart whathaveyou.

Back to this Sunday, we are continuing our collection of non-perishable foods and personal care items for Second Harvest Food Bank at our booth. For each item you bring, we’ll take $.50 off your purchase. Bring 6 items and you’ll get a free cupcake! We’ll also be passing out treats for kids in costume. So please come down, bring your goods and we’ll give you goodies all in good need.

So this past weekend, I took a vacation day from work (what, you think I use my vacation days for ACTUAL vacations? HA!) and because I couldn’t do it alone, got my mom to come into town to help me out. And we worked. And worked and worked. And sweated. Yuck.

But I am happy to say I have control over my kitchen again! YEAH! I do a large majority of my test baking at home since I can’t afford to rent out time in my commercial kitchen to essentially play around. So I needed to create my own little work space in my home kitchen so that I could efficiently do some testing when I’ve got the time.

This is my work station, AFTER. I am not going to show the BEFORE pics because I don’t need to share THAT much. haha

I already was using the InterMetro shelving in my kitchen so I got this new shelving unit to add to what I already had. The Container Store was having a shelving sale event so it was perfect timing! This starter set comes with 4 wire shelves but I really needed one shelf that was solid. If you buy the pieces separately, you don’t save the bucks so it was cheaper for me to buy the entire starter set and then purchase another shelf separately. Anyone need a wire Metro shelf in white? I’ve got one!

I love the Cambro containers that I use in my commercial kitchen so much that I decided to get some more for my home kitchen. I use the translucent rounds. I love how they are simply designed, see through, lids snap tight, stackable and really durable. And they are much cheaper than fancy kitchen canisters. Did you know? Cambro is actually located in Huntington Beach? How sweet is that! A local company!

I also bought this cool foldable cart so when I need extra working space (since I am always testing multiple new recipes at once), I can whip this out and roll it where I need it and then fold it up and set it away until my need strikes again. Brilliant idea for us with small kitchens.

So that was my “vacation” weekend. It consisted of purging, cleaning, organizing, trips to Goodwill, trips to dumpsters and some shopping. And lots of sweating.

We did break for dinner and I took my mom to a food truck meet up. She’d never been to one or even heard about this before. She was definitely surprised! We ate like kings that night! The Lime Truck, Sea Birds, Lees Philly, Chunk & Chip and cream puffs from Bakery Truck. Check out the Too Fat Too Furious meet up on Fridays at the Best Buy in Fullerton/La Habra.

My mom

Thanks for your help mom!

Meringue Bake Shop won Critic’s Choice Best Cupcakes in OC! Thanks OC Register!

OC Chocolate Festival - Nov 4 & 5

This festival is all about eating chocolate and drinking wines and coffees. Are you in? You must buy a ticket to attend but that ticket includes lots of free samples. We are going to be preparing some special treats just for this event, stuff we haven’t done before. It’s going to be really fun! There are two types of ticket packages:

GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS are $25 and are good for admission to the O.C. Chocolate Festival on your choice of Friday orSaturday, when you will receive eight chocolate samplings and three wine tastings.  General browsing, holiday gift shopping and entertainment are all included in the ticket price. Additional sampling tickets will be available at the event.

VIP PARTY TICKETS are for Friday night, Nov. 4, or Saturday night, Nov. 5.  The nights require separate tickets. Anyone can purchase a ticket to this event.  The party is in one of the separate expo rooms at the chocolate festival. Your ticket includes heavy hors d’oeurves, wine samplings, plenty of chocolate and live jazz.  Great night to come with special friends. VIP tickets are $50 per person per night.

Buy your tickets here.

San Diego Holiday Hit List - Dec 4

The Holiday Hit List is an annual event that is organized and hosted by the San Diego North Park Craft Mafia.  It is a holiday social and shopping experience – and it’s a FREE, all ages event.  You can stop by, listen to some music, and get your holiday shopping done in one place!  Doesn’t that sound great?

Free to attend!

Renegade LA Holiday Craft Fair - Dec 10 & 11

The 2nd Annual Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Market in Los Angeles returns to Los Angeles State Park on December 10 + 11, from 10am – 5pm, to supply all your handmade holiday shopping needs! Always free-to-attend and featuring over 200 artists, shoppers are sure to find something for everybody on their lists or can craft a special gift themselves at one of our terrific hands-on crafting workshops! A handful of LA’s best independent food trucks will be on site serving up delicious dishes and our bar will have many holiday libations!

Free to attend!

We are still waiting to hear back if we got into Patchwork Festival and we’ll report back when we (hopefully) do!

You can stay up-to-date on where to find us by liking our Facebook page. You can add the events to your calendar here.