To Market we go!

Wow! I cannot believe how long it has been since I have had a chance to post on our blog - and though I apologize to all of our loyal friends and fans, I must admit that the time away has been spent wisely. As many of you know, we are now fully licensed to sell in the state of Florida. We've made some wonderful contacts here, beginning with Cindy Howell of Your Pro Kitchen, a lovely young woman who is such a cheerleader for our cause. Having been an entrepreneur herself, she knows the trials and tribulations of getting a business up and on it's feet, so she now believes in giving back to the universe and sharing that knowledge with first-time business start-ups. Now THAT'S my kind of gal!
Her breadth of experience inside the industry has led us to everything from proper packaging and labeling techniques, to who and how to to contact the right individuals to get ourselves fully licensed under the law.

Her Kitchen rental space is gorgeous - 2000 square feet of baking heaven. Huge, fully functioning convection ovens, tons of counter space and equipment we have always dreamed of using, and the guidance to go with it all. I've said it before and I'll say it again: we are blessed.

Shortly after meeting Cindy and getting set up in her kitchen, we met Lynn Schultz, who works for the SBIC of Hillsborough County, and manages the Ybor Saturday Market in Ybor City. Another wonderful, friendly and very giving contact for us - and she has taught us so much. She believes in us and our product, and has given us a prime space at the market so that we may be seen by all who enter the grounds. We did 50% better business in this, our second weekend at the market, and we know it will just continue to grow from there.

For those of you who missed our goodies this weekend, let me make your mouth water, if I may. We sold Apple Spice muffins, filled with cranberries and brown sugar (one of my all-time favorite recipes), Citrus pound cakes, Chocolate/Toffee Bread Puddings, and our famous Mutts: chocolate cookies which house every kind of chip you could want, including butterscotch, white chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, peanut butter, and toffee...YUM.

We had a blast giving out samples and hooking people on our goods (this may sound a bit crass to some, but at my former place of employment, some people - and you know who you are! - were convinced that we put crack cocaine in our stuff to get people addicted! LOL! Well, we DON'T. We just fill them with love. That is why people keep coming back for more.

I hope that everyone who has followed our posts, tasted our goods and/or simply believe in us and love watching our growth, will appreciate what we've been doing to be able to continue bringing cake to the people! (not to mention cheesecake, tarts, pies, brownies, cookies, ...well - you know the drill!)

Thank you for continuing to believe in us. We will try to be better about keeping our blog up-dated from this point forward, but if we seem to lag a bit, be sure that it is because we are using our time wisely to get our name out there and to keep on perfecting recipes we know you all will love.

Ciao for now...

'Da boys