Get Ready - Two Markets This Month!

Hi friends!

Man, it's hard to keep up a blog when your business consists of... well... one person: Me! Add a full-time job and an active lifestyle - let's just say I probably won't be posting onto this blog often. (Hint, ya better to keep up with my Twitter and Facebook page instead - so go ahead and 'like'/follow/retweet/etc... I'll wait for you to come back...)

So this month has been pretty busy and exciting - Intoxicating Confections has signed up for two different and fun markets this month!

The first is a fabulous shopping event called Shecky's Girls Night Out, on June 22 from 5pm-10pm. Here, ladies will be able to peruse all types of beauty products, hair products, jewelry, clothing, and let's not forget, some Intoxicating Confections. My planned menu is: Pink Ladies, Lime 'Rita, Grasshopper, and Mudslides (all non-alcoholic, but delicious all the same)!
The market was sold out before I even signed up for the gig so unfortunately I wasn't able to market much. I was, however, able to hook some fantastic women up with free admission to the event, so I hope to see some fans there!

We'll see how this goes - if it's a winner, I'll definitely sign up for future GNOs this year (and give you guys earlier notice so you can buy tickets!


Later in the month, on Saturday June 25 from 10a-6p, I'll be at the Hester Street Fair, selling my true 'cocktail' cupcake shots. I plan to have more flavors to sell, including Whiskey Ginger, Champagne, and Rum and Coke cupcake shots. If you're around the city that weekend, please stop by, say hello, and pick up a dozen assorted Intoxicating Confections.

...and we're back!

Oh, well hello again.

I know I was only gone for a short bit, but it's been a crazy hectic little bit for me, and I'm glad to say that I'm back! When I first thought to start this cupcake biz, I never thought it would be so complicated. I just wanted to bake my cupcakes in peace! Turns out, it's slightly more complicated than that.

My original blog-post was a raging rant directed toward certain departments of the state and city that were trying to limit pretty much everything I wanted to do (Damn The Man!) But I decided to keep that in my psycho-girl diary instead. I'll spare you the details, but the end result of much business-related drama is that I'm still standing (at least for now), baking for my fun-loving New Yorkers, and ready to sell more Intoxicating Confections!

In more exciting news, I just recently entered a lil' cupcake contest hosted by POM Wonderful, the delicious antioxidant-rich fruit juice company. The theme was Valentine's Day, and the first thing that popped up in my mind was, of course, cocktails! My creation is called the POMartini, and it is a delightful cupcake consisting of a lemon cake with pomegranate-vodka infused buttercream frosting:

The lemon twist just ties it all together, doesn't it...

Voting doesn't start until Feb 14th, but here's your sneak peak - bookmark the POM Wonderful Contest Page and make sure you vote for me on Valentine's Day!

My test batch has also gone to several taste-testers - so who knows, if the feedback is good I might be adding the POMartini to my menu!

I.C.'s first trip to Queens!

Today, I went beyond my normal boundaries.

That's right... this Manhattan-girl actually left the island and traveled ALL the way over to Astoria, Queens for the relaunch of their Astoria Market. I met some great people, sold some delicious cupcakes, bought a sweet pair of earrings made from old clock hands (thanks Dana Bunker!) and had a delightful Sunday afternoon.

I brought my top two best-sellers, Champagne and Mudslide 'shots' with me.

People seemed to really dig the irish cream frosting from my Mudslides - I even had a few people come back for more shots! Gotta love repeat customers.

Up Next: I'll be back at 201 Mulberry Street as OpenHouse Gallery hosts an afternoon event with Bowery Babes this Thursday from 3p-5p. This is a kids' event, so I'll be selling Pink Ladies (vanilla), Grasshoppers(mint) and Mudslides(mocha)! Non-alcoholic and yet still Intoxicating!

First Market = success!

This past weekend was my very first market for Intoxicating Confections, and I must say it was a smashing success! A big thanks goes out to OpenHouse Gallery - the gracious hosts of Park Here - for hooking me up with a table for the weekend. I was pretty nervous and had absolutely no idea what to expect or how many cupcakes to bake. People seemed to really love the concept and it made me feel more comfortable knowing that I have something that sets myself apart from the increasingly large amount of other cupcake shops out there.

Here's a pic of my table from the weekend - if you're reading this and took some photos, please send them over so I can add it to my album!

I'd have to say the biggest seller was the Champagne cupcake. Mainly because they taste awesome, but they also look so pretty and cute and pink and stuff. These 'shots' were also a big hit with the kiddies at the park, though I must say I was a bit uncomfortable selling margarita cupcakes to 5 year olds. My cupcakes are non-alcoholic (for now) so it was fine, and none of the kids could read yet - they just saw cute little cupcakes to eat - so Champagne turned into "Pink", Rum-and-colas turned into "Chocolate", etc. 

In any case, I'm pretty pleased with the turnout. Despite the freezing temperatures this weekend, people actually came out to support me, and for that I'm uber grateful!

Midnight Baking...

Ok, maybe it's not midnight, but it was 6am on a Saturday when I woke up just buzzing with ideas. Of course I didn't go to bed until 1:30am, but how can I sleep at a time like this?! Now that I can't bake my delectable and delicious carbomb and whiskey-ginger cupcakes, what can I replace them with? I needed to find out. I needed to get to the grocery store at the break of dawn looking for extracts. I just needed to. (OCD, here I come...)

First up - rum and cokes. I'm not a huge rum and coke drinker, but I served several thousand of those cocktails in my bartending days, so there's gotta be something to them. My take on the rum-and-coke: Chocolate Cola Cake with Rum Buttercream Frosting. The result:

Almost... angelic, huh? (or my camera-phone flash is wicked bright)
The chocolate-cola cake is uber-moist and goes really well with the rum frosting. I used a rum extract, so you get the rich rum flavor without the alcoholic bite when using real rum. Maybe there is something to keeping these shots non-alcoholic...

Look for these cocktail cupcake shots next weekend at Park Here - a new indoor park in NoLita organized by OpenHouse Gallery (201 Mulberry St). I'll be there Sat and Sun 11-6p!

Up next: Grasshopper cupcake shots. I don't know anyone that drinks these old-school cocktails, but they still do teach this recipe at bartending schools, and let's face it, who doesn't love mint and white chocolate??

Menu changes! Already!

So... day two of this blogging adventure and I'm already switching things up on you!

In order to comply with regulations, I am adjusting my recipes and (sadly) taking out two very popular flavors from my menu. I'll spare you the details, but until I can find a non-alcoholic subsitution for whiskey - or bake out of a commercial kitchen - I'm going to have to archive the Carbomb cupcake and the Whiskey-ginger cupcake. I know, it's heart-breaking. The good news is this will make room for other delicious flavors! And I'll still have the 4 other cocktail-flavored cupcakes available: Margarita, Champagne, Bocci Ball, and Mudslide. (Thank you Bailey's, for making an irish cream coffee creamer!)

To check out the delicious and delectable photos of these flavors, go to the Flavor page.

As for the two new flavors... I'm back in the test kitchen with some good ideas... Anyone up for a Rum-and-Coke (chocolate-cola cake with rum frosting)? How about a Grasshopper (white chocolate cake with mint frosting)? How cool, I just got the next two blog subjects lined up. And I promise to include pictures of the whole delicious experiment!

That's all for now... got any other cocktail-flavored suggestions? Email me @ intoxicatingconfections@gmail.com!

Greetings!

Hey there!

You are reading the first blog entry of Intoxicating Confections, a new local wholesale dessert company in New York City, specializing in cocktail-flavored cupcakes. If you can order it at a bar, I can make it into a cupcake! (Though I'm still working on the jaegar-bomb cupcake. That may or may not work out so well...) Right now it's just me, Jenn, your loyal baker, churning out these delicious confections to satisfy your sweet tooth.

I'm not a huge fan of blogs and/or blogging, and I had intended to just have a simple website with my cupcakes up for people to see, figuring that would be enough. However, it seems that the powers that be are telling me if I want to bake out of my home, say buhbye to the website. But how else will people know about my cupcakes??

So here we are... welcome to Intoxicating Confections, the Blog.


People are always asking me where I came up with this idea to make cocktail-flavored cupcakes, and I haven't quite found a witty and charming story to tell, so I'll just lay out the main points and you can come up with a fairy-tale that'll make you feel all warm inside:


1. Baking has always been a hobby of mine. I bought my first Kitchenaid when I was in high school and it is the same machine I use today (you don't know how old I am, but the point is that it's a pretty old machine that's still kickin').


2. In college, I started bartending to earn some extra cash. It turned out to earn me a whole lotta cash, so even when I started working in the 'real world' I kept bartending as a side job.

3. I still exist in the 'real' world (I work in publishing; that's all the info you'll get on that!). But I have some kind of career-ADD, so I decided to start this small business to keep my passions alive: booze and cakes! (Hence my Twitter name: @BoozyCakes. Go ahead and follow me...)


Look, I'm not here to compete with the other (seemingly thousands of) cupcake companies popping up all over the place... I'm just here to have fun and bake some de-frickin-licious cupcakes for you New Yorkers.

I don't have a store-front, so it'll be hard for you to pop in and say hello, but I will be selling my goods at various markets around the city.  More on that later...

I haven't figured out a good closing tagline, so I'll just end this with - thanks for reading!