Hello, Goodbye

I'm sure many of you have come here today to see if you won my birthday cupcake contest and I'll get to the winners, yes, that's right I said winners with an "s" in just a few minutes.....

While I have your attention, I thought I would take the opportunity to thank you all for an incredible year. (The end of July feels more like the wrap up of the year to me as so many friends, clients and businesses take a little time off for summer holidays versus December which is one of my busiest times.) I cannot thank you enough for your support and patronage - looking back over this past year, I had orders almost every single day and finally had to self-impose a "no orders taken on Sundays" policy halfway through so I too could have a day of rest. Despite all this, I have had to turn down a lot of orders simply because I cannot keep up with the demand and frankly, that's one of the hardest parts of the job. I appreciate those of you who placed your orders far enough in advance so I didn't have to stress about fitting you in. And I am grateful for the patience from those of you who I couldn't squeeze in - I hope you'll try me again.



My youngest heads off to school full-time in September and I'm going to be taking a hard look at how to grow my business. Sugar Daze turns 3 in October and this little adventure has been even more successful and satisfying than I could have ever imagined. I absolutely love being able to wake up every day and bake knowing that my cupcakes are spreading joy and a little piece of Americana across France. I've reached a crossroads and I'm really excited about the prospects ahead. I have a lot of ideas on the table and for those of you who have asked if there will ever be a Sugar Daze store, the answer is, "I'm considering ALL my options right now."

On to the cupcakes.....there were so many excellent ideas submitted for my birthday cucpakes. Thanks you guys for rising to the challenge! I had an awesome birthday fete and the cupcakes played a big role. Note that a lot of you submitted flavor combinations that already exist on the Sugar Daze menu and since I was looking for something different and that I hadn't made before, a lot of them were ruled out by default. Sorry, Charlie!



What did catch my eye? An idea from Dom which was a coffee flavored cupcake, with a salted caramel center and cream cheese frosting. Simple, and a flavor combination that just sounded so right. I topped these with a little shake of cinnamon and cocoa powder and they were delicious! Thanks Dom! You got 1 dozen on me whenever you feel like claiming them!



And because I had such a hard time deciding amongst all the contributions, I decided to pick a second variety -- this one a little more daring and something I probably would never try on my own. A banana cupcake with a strawberry jam center and a mint buttercream. I also added some white chocolate into the frosting to temper the strength of the mint. This cupcake was familiar yet exotic at the same time and worked in an interesting way. Thanks Paradox7! You too have 1 dozen of these to claim whenever you need a little sugar daze.



So that's that. I'm outta here on a real vacation from 1-22 August and probably won't be answering my emails until my return. In case you haven't heard, Cupcake Camp Paris will be back for its second edition October 2 at Le Comptoir General on the Canal St Martin. We'll be raising money for Make a Wish France this year and Sugar Daze is proud to be an official sposnor of this event. You can find out more about Cupcake Camp Paris II here and RSVP to attend here.



Wishing you all a devilishly sweet summer and see you back here in September.

Xoxoxo