Welcome 2012!

As much as I want to shout-out, "I can't believe it's 2012", I'll refrain. =) The Cupcake Cottage completed it's 6th Holiday season of baking on Christmas Eve, and we enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing time away from baking.

Maybe one day I'll catch you up on our family of 5 + 1 fabulous border collie, and 1 amazing daughter in-law!

For now, I'll catch you up on a couple of things regarding our business and the new year.

~ This weekend is the Boar's Head & Yule Log Festival at UCC on University Drive in Fort Worth. This event is such a wonderful way to kick off a new year and is free to the public. All are welcome and you can learn more about it here: Boar's Head & Yule Log Festival.

~ We continue to stay busy meeting the cupcake needs of you, our amazing and appreciated customer! Thanks for such support, and thanks for telling others about our shop. Word of mouth is, by far, the greatest form of advertisement.

~ Many of you continue to ask, and encourage us to go on Cupcake Wars. If you didn't read about our initial invitation to be a part of this Food Network madness, you can read about it here: Cupcake Wars 2010. Once the show learned that it was being picked up for a second season, we got a second call asking us to consider trying out for a spot, but by then we had watched enough episodes to know that we would much rather enjoy the experience from the comfort of our living room couch. Cupcake Wars is crazy fun to watch, but that's it! We appreciate your cheers and encouragement, though. =)

~ Cupcake Competition is all around!! Yes, there are more and more cupcake places opening in the greater Fort Worth area, and we are thrilled for that! Almost always, it is a customer that tells us about a new cupcake bakery. Sure, there have been initial feelings of uncertainty considering the state of the economy, and the ever growing cost of living, but somehow we continue to remain busy in business. We are extremely grateful for that, and we will continue to strive to do our best, each and every day we are baking. Competition is a good thing for two reasons: 1) it keeps us mindful and motivated to keep our standards high and 2) it offers consumers additional places to get their sweet-on. Free Market societies rock!!

So that's it for now. Here's wishing you and yours a safe and wonderful New Year!

Guess Who Called!

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from a production company in L.A. They work with the Food Network and were calling us about a new reality show Cupcake Wars. The gal on the other end of the phone explained that the pilot for Cupcake Wars aired in December and repeated in January. She asked if I had heard about it and I sheepishly replied "no". You see, way back in 2006 when we first opened our little shop I was amazed at how many people asked me about various cooking and baking shows on TV. I had no idea who Bobby Flay was, and had never seen Ace of Cakes or any food challenges. Our family was so busy we never bothered to pay extra for cable TV so we were quite out of the loop with the yummy food scene. I have since seen at least one episode of each of these popular and quite impressive shows, but do not follow any of them on a regular basis. I digress...

Back to the phone call... This sweet young lady went on to tell me that Cupcake Wars was in the process of filming it's first season and that they had heard about The Cupcake Cottage and "hoped we would consider being a part of the show". My immediate internal reaction was: "HECK YEAH! How cool would that be!!! I'm up to a good challenge and new experience...bring it on baby!!" My actual reply to her was: "I'm very flattered, now tell me what all is involved."

She went on to explain what went on in the pilot challenge. Basically, 4 teams were given a challenge to use sweet and spicy ingredients in their cupcakes. Eventually, a winner was chosen and would bake 1,000 of their winning cupcake for a Hollywood event. When I asked her "what would I have to do at this point", she explained that I needed to send (ASAP) a photo of myself, my assisitant, my store, and my cupcakes. This was on a Thursday and we were facing a very busy Friday and Saturday of baking. Making sure we do the very best we can with our baking is our top priority and this was all that popped into my head at that point. I thanked her for calling and told her I would email her with my decision before the end of the day.

It didn't take long for me to face another reality. Did I really want to subject myself to the stress of such an experience? What if I completely bombed on the challenge? What about those cameras?! You know that saying "the camera really likes you"...yeah, I've NEVER been told that! =) Most importantly, I have absolutely no desire to be recognized on a national level. We have a very successful business and prefer to grow it carefully. If recognition comes, it comes, but to actually seek such attention would most likely keep me from sleeping at night. For me, peaceful slumber, and managed stress is far more important than 15 minutes of fame and the enormous demand that could possibly come from it.

So, I emailed my regret and told the Food Network recruiter to feel free to contact me should there be another season. She kindly wrote back that she completely understood and would keep The Cupcake Cottage in mind for future projects. That was cool. =)
I must admit that I did a little searching about Cupcake Wars since and was amazed at how many audition recordings are on YouTube. Clearly, there is a process for being considered and I'm guessing that had I made it thru 'round 1' I would have been asked to send in such a tape. Here's a clip of the actual Cupcake War Pilot and Here are a few auditions...some I really liked and some I found to be 'interesting'. Check them out!

Click: Highlights from Cupcake Wars Pilot episode

and here are some Cupcake War audition tapes: Dippidee ~ Crystal Roberts ~ Girl Veteran ~ TootSweet ~ New York Cupcakes

Want to see even more auditions just search Cupcake Wars on YouTube.