Wednesday, June 17, 2009

A Confession, Some Excitement and Lots of Cupcakes!

Somebody at Crumbles Cupcakery hasn't been doing her job. I won't mention names (it's me) but the one who is supposed to be updating the blog (me) and has slacked big time (lazy me!). Ooops!

The lack of posting, however, does not indicate a lack of activity at Crumbles. Ooooh no! A lot has happened in the last few weeks.

A few weeks ago we had lunch with a friend who happens to
be an attorney and who very generously agreed to help us
(Hi John!). I won't lie, it was a daunting experience. Of course we knew there was a lot that goes into owning a business, naturally it isn't all fun and baking, but hearing it all laid out over the course of one lunch was overwhelming at best.

After a few moments of panic we pulled ourselves together and remembered what we knew all along: starting a new business takes time and patience and we just have to slow down, plan well, be focused and take this one step at a time. We want to do this right so if we have to scale back a little then that's what we'll do.

Step number one was to file for an LLC and as of today Crumbles Cupcakery is all grown up. You can now refer to us as Crumbles Cupcakery, LLC (hooray!)!

There are all sorts of other things that can happen now that we're an LLC but they aren't that interesting and really just require a lot of phone calls and appointment scheduling so just trust us when we say that things are really starting to happen.

But that's not all! The MOST exciting thing happened today.

Have you ever heard of Cupcakes Take the Cake? Let's just say they are the Oprah of cupcake blogs. Everyone who's anyone in the cupcake world reads this blog and you just won't believe who they want to feature... yup, you guessed it... Crumbles Cupcakery, LLC is going national! When Allison and I read the email this morning we laughed hysterically for approximately five minutes straight. It's like Martha herself called us up and told us she can't live without our cupcakes. (Martha, if you're reading, you probably shouldn't live without our cupcakes. Call us!) We'll let you know when we know more but this is truly beyond awesome!

And of course, in the midst of all our hard work and excitement, we've been baking, baking and baking some more! Allison created a cupcake based on a traditional Argentinean cookie called alfajor. Let's just say they will curl your toes. With a shortbread crust, chocolate cake, swirled creamy dulce de leche and chocolate ganache, how can you possibly go wrong?

I decided to go all Smitten Kitchen and made graham crackers from scratch. They were ok but I wasn't in love so I turned them into a graham cracker crust and our new Coco Lime cupcake was born. The crust was topped with a toasted coconut lime cupcake and finished by a Coquito cream cheese icing. It wasn't perfect. It needs some refinement. But the flavors were bright and delightful and this is sure to become a summer favorite.

Oh, and speaking of curling toes, have you met The Sexy? I believe I'll let it speak for itself.

We have received so much encouragement, support, advice and enthusiasm from our families, friends and colleagues since all this started. Allison and I are both deeply grateful. The road ahead will not always be paved with royal icing (hey, I'm not here for my hilarious jokes!) but all of the bumps will be much easier to tackle because of all of you. From Crumbles Cupcakery, LLC (!), thank you!