Guess who got (another) job!? That’s right, the haphazard kt machine is gonna try a new combination of crazy starting this weekend as I start baking PT for Sticky Fingers in DC. It’s an opportunity I couldn’t pass up! Learning from pros who totally took em down on Cupcake Wars?! No brainer.
What does that mean for Gimme Dem Cupcakes? GDC will be making it’s last for profit appearance this weekend at the Mt. Pleasant Farmers market in collaboration with V Picnic Club. To prevent a conflict of interest with my Sticky Fingers friends, I will only continue baking cupcakes for current friends and loved ones who already have my contact information. In the future, I still plan to take part in local events like the Capital Area Cake Show as well as collaborate with friends on other ideas, so you’ll still be able to catch some sweets or an empanada here and there. I’ll keep you apprised as the blog is re-purposed into a solely personal outlet.
You know we’re always full-tilt boogey over here at GDC and sometimes it seams like I put a lot of work and effort into the littlest of projects, but that’s what makes every thing from our bakery so special. That said, it takes a dedicated team of loved ones to keep me sane.
The DC Grey Market was a definite success! After ordering tons-o-new swag from Moo, baking beau coup cupcakes and salteñas, labelling and planning logistics, coordinating around my defunct car and schlepping–it all came together! Set-up was a breeze and the day went really smoothly. I feel really good about Gimme Dem Cupcakes’ showing at the DC Grey Market, especially as our very first opportunity to sell at a public event! Even though there were so many bakers, I feel really good about the niche our vegan yums held out! It was also great to meet so many other vendors and see what they’re doing to realize their food concepts! We broke even and we got our name out there. More than that, it was really really amazing to see so many of my friends pull together and support me. I really feel kind of overwhelmed when I think about it. I can’t wait for the next one! I couldn’t have done it without a stellar team of volunteers* and Maya, the DC Grey Market organizer!
If any visitors from the market have questions about GDC’s market’s offering or the other items on our menu, please feel free to contact me by emailing beckmaka@gmail.com
Check out the pictures!
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*Volunteers: at GDC HQ-Niva, Asmait, Joy, Anna, Boom, and Lars; at the register: Boom, Joy, Chuck, Dad and Lars; working the crowd: Boom, Dad, Lars, Jasmine; and even more friends that came to support: Patrick, Niva, Alan, Padmini, Braniff, Cynthia, Jill, Cynthia, Scott, Asmait, Adrienne, Sara, Kerrin, Alicia! Thank you all for being!!!
Hi Gimme Dem Cupcakes supporters!!!
Customers and friends may have already receieved this via email, but for the wider Gimme Dem viewing audience:
I hope you’re all reveling in the good weather and even better company as everything warms up this season! Warm weather means it’s time for markets to reopen! That said, Gimme Dem Cupcakes is about a month away from participating as a vendor for the first time at Grey Market DC on May 21st!
What is the Grey Market?
“The DC Grey Farmers Market is a private membership club that serves as an incubator for small food vendors who can’t yet afford to be licensed.” How can you support Gimme Dem and other vendors?
Show up and buy stuff May 21st at our host venue, Local 16 (1602 U Street)! For now, the venue and day are set, but time is TBA. Sign-up on the Grey DC website to get the skinny on confirmed vendors, estimated numbers of participants etc. and other reminders!
Why should you support?
(I know spring is a super busy time of year for everyone but, this is a very big deal for me and the other vendors!!!) Gimme Dem has been trucking along with short seminar classes, fundraising events like RAFA and the World-Wide Vegan Bake Sale as well as made to order sales, BUT I think events like the Grey Market will help me explore its viability as a full-time business. This is a great opportunity to move toward the next step. I encourage you to please forward this email to locals in the DMV area that might be interested Gimme Dem goods or the market!
Want more vegan !?!?
I’m trying to gather people intersted in promoting vegan culture. Several of my clients are interested in starting a business like a storefront, restaurant or a cooperative. I have contacts at several businesses (Harrisonburg’s The Little Grill Collective or The Friendly City Food Coop, or other city’s gem’s like Nashville’s The Turnip Truck). I think would be good models for us. I’d like to bring in diverse talents and interests to the conversation, so please, If you’re interested in learning more email me and we’ll arrange a meet-up asap!
Thank you all for your love and support! I hope to see you at a Gimme Dem event soon!
Hi friends. I hope you’re warm and toasty, cuddling with love ones on this slushy day. I am! Yesterday around 3 o’clock, big wet snowflakes quickly blanketed and overwhelmed Northern Virginia. We closed the office early and I hit the grocery store for dinner ingredients and a loaf of Italian bread. It was dangerous even in two miles of driving. Cars had slowed to a crawl and some were starting to get stuck.
Luckily, I was home by 4:30 and I settled in for a little cat nap. I’ve been keeping weird hours so I can get enough done to enjoy my family during waking hours, sharing meals and watching TV or listening to music together. That said, I had enough time to lounge and by 7:30, I whipped up a nice steaming dinner.
Boom and I drained away the hours eating junk food while I worked on laptop and our favorite channels ran together. She took periodic gallops in the snow with Cocoa Bean, but mostly we were glued to our seats. Exhausting work.
By 3 am I was about done with a PowerPoint I’d been working on and then I took a hot bath while I read. By the time I crawled in bed, I secretly hoped we’d be snowed in for the morning and drifted off to dreams of my nana. When I woke up, I set up a record and went straight to the kitchen, eager to try something new. I sliced the Italian Bread from the night before, some bananas and prepared for a sumptuous vegan breakfast-Banana Stuffed French Toast with mixxed berry compote. Dredge batter= soy milk, cinnamon and ginger; crust= graham and almond meal. Seared on med-hi heat for about 3 minutes per side! Delicious. Now I feel totally ready for the trek to work!
We don’t all have fairy god mothers, magic shoes, or leagues of talking animals to help us along our way. What we do have is our own free will and the wonderful people we meet to help us make the days full of love and laughter. After a very long and hard September, I had a weekend with good friends to refresh me.
Lars, Becky, and Jenny with me, I had a chance to enjoy the fresh air, campfires, and lots of delicious food. These kinds of weekends are more magical than any movie.
Now that I’m back to normal, after my weekend getaway, how do I continue to celebrate the everyday? Well, I realized, a day without good food doesn’t make for a very good day. I’ve been trying to keep Mondays reserved for family dinners. So yesterday, I bought some herbs de provence for a roast for the fam and fennel for some savory lentils. To round out our first autumn meal together I concocted a new cupcake recipe: the Red Rose. It’s a combination of my favorite everyday tea and rosewater. Sweet, warm and simple, the Red Rose is fit for the everyday princess in all of us.
[This batch was gobbled... New batch and picture coming soon]
this morning’s post requires subtlety, so it’ll be sans caps in true kt b style. it’s after 4 this am and i still haven’t gone to sleep. i’m listening to yankee hotel foxtrot and the slide guitar has me swaying as i type the last few notes up for my training meeting. i needed this music tonight. these past few weeks have been really difficult for me; not the hurtles i have to face or the action i use to pass them, but just my mental place. i still think i might be half super hero, but i know i’m susceptible to the kryptonite effects of self-doubt and its ability to distort the perception of reality.
i’ve been going and going strong, two years helping my family, urging each of us to seek our own strength and independence. i’ve grown a lot and met many wonderful people along the way. while we each have tasks or jobs in life we wish were easier, different or just not there, i realized, i too have limits. i need to be careful of the doors i leave open, inviting people to take advantage of me. and i also need to know there will be relief. my faith has been shaken by the fact that my parents divorce still isn’t resolved after two years of separation. i’m an ambitious young 26 year old woman and i have no savings and school loans to pay off. and what about what they want. they don’t want to be in this permanent purgatory between poor marriage and independence. i know each of us is capable of success, we just haven’t succeeded yet. i’m realizing my parents might not feel strong enough to. i’m realizing i can’t make up for that kind of vulnerability with money or favors. they need self worth and trust in self after too many years of sinking into a turpentine clouded by the layers of beautiful youth and strength that eased into cold forgetful compromise of independence. they didn’t have a partnership, they shared a sense of the other as a stranger, both creating horrible reflections in their mind of the other.
so as the busy fall season approaches, as painful as this self reflection and revelation has been, i hope i don’t forget it. i hope i hold my family accountable for their responsibilities in hopes that we can have more healthy relationships. i’d like to say i’m baking a family of gingerbread people to commemorate this all, but really, i’m giving my self til 5 in the office and then i’ll be busy with two other gimme dem orders. i’m glad for it. i’m glad to see the things i don’t like because i know they don’t have to stay that way. i’m glad i know my self and my free will enough to choose a better life. and i’m glad i have you, my friends. a baker like me is always looking for a place to put her sweetness. screw the fantasy of a terrible present or a impossible dream of the good life. as jake/oasis would say: build a better place and call it home.
I’ve been a bad blogger but a much better baker. I’ve had orders alost every week, but it’s been full tilt boogy with my work schedule. I pack something in every day and it’s turning out to be a very full summer.
So the other evening, I was slouched in a seat on the metro when I was overtaken by a whiff of nostalgia. A smell of food service, the kind of smell that comes from no-slip shoes that have tread the kitchen many times, day in and day out. The feet that walk across the floor when it’s pristine in the morning, half-covered with crumbs during the rush, and sudsy mid-mop at the end of the day. They are decidedly stinky shoes with a layer of grime that is embed in the sole. I still love that smell, though. My parents worked at restaurants when I was little, one a kitchen manager, one a server, both rigorously emptied of energy each day.
I remember visiting them at work, meeting their coworkers, playing flashlight tag during power outages, helping myself to their cheese cakes, crab legs, and whatever else the smörgåsbord of the moment provided. The restaurant regulars and workers were our community of friends and neighbors. When my parents weren’t working, I’d want them to relax, playing server to them at home. I’d scoot a little cart to carry their food or beverages. Maybe it’s that romanticism mingling with manifest destiny that I now find myself a server to support my dreams of full time baking.
I work almost as many hours at Artie’s as I do at the office and I realize that you can’t spend that kind of time in a place for three years and not fall in love with the people. It’s hard not to make them cupcakes… Wednesday afternoon, my last guests were the sweetest middle aged couple I’ve ever met. About 3:30, a smallish man around 60 and his wife sat down at a window near the door and we fell in love. Over the few moments it takes to serve water, a bowl of soup, the crab cakes and a crème brûlée, we fell in love. I was overjoyed and refreshed as they graciously thanked me for every little thing. That’s the sort of people who come, nice people, people who care about how they treat others nd care about how others treat them. The same goes for my coworkers. Since I got back from vacation, the company has been in a huge staff transition since a good number of our servers are going back to school or moving on to other jobs, some firings, and the stress of spreading our talent to the new restaurant opening in September. So this month has been full of hellos and good-byes and it’s made me reflective. I realize, I’m really very proud of the work I do and what it helps me do for myself and my family, and I’m really glad I’ve gotten to work with so many wonderful people.
I always thought what mom and dad and all their coworkers do was beautiful. Every kitchen is a magical place wherethe human touch can create not only fuel for the body, but something that pleases the senses and cravings–something that pleases the mind, too. I’ve always found cooking and cleaning to be a mentally calming activity especially when its full of tension. So, learned behavior, genetics or choice, my love of giving places me close to a kitchen.
Hopefully things will come together and it’ll be a kt kitchen all the time. I’m on the lookout for kitchen shares or rentals and/or getting experience working for a bakery I believe. Next month, I have a counseling session at George Mason and I’m going to DC VegFest on the 11th. In the meantime, check out the new and improved online order form and pick out something special or just write me and say hi!
So, this morning, getting Cocoa and myself ready to go berry picking, I was alarmed to find I couldn’t reach my mom. Texting wasn’t going through and as I tried to call mom, I was directed to Verizon’s payment services. My mom, excellent at mothering, creating, loving; not so good at adult-ing. She can weave you a dream catcher or lecture you on permaculture, but gee, what happened to finalizing the divorce or child support?
I’m not meaning to make her sound irresponsible, because she’s not. I know she’s thinking about all these things and a zillion others, losing sleep and greying hair over how to keep her wheat grass growing and the cats fed. That’s kind of the thing.
I was so frustrated after I paid that bill; not because it’s hard, but because I’m just not sure how to fix things. I’m not sure how to get mom in a better place. I can get more money, but I can’t fix my mom or keep taking on her responsibilities. It’d be easy to be angry, or to hate her. But really, hate is the absence of something. It’d be the absence of my love for her, and that’s not it. What’s missing right now is whatever mom needs to get through everything.
At any restaurant or fast paced work place, you may hear them say, “don’t get in the weeds.” That’s just what it is. She’s got a jungle in her mind and unclear navigation. We all have our own jungles of responsibilities and miscellaneous thoughts, but we need to know ourselves and know our process or we won’t have a path through the jungle. We have to trust ourselves and our coping skills or we can never really grow or take on new challenges.
So, my apologies, no blackberry pies this summer. Luckily, I do have a freezer full of blueberries. In thye meantime, please share your happy thoughts and trust with those you love. I send you my own happy thoughts for peaceful minds, so you can enjoy your jungle and not just wish for escape.
It’s late afternoon at the office; I’m listening to Buena Vista Social Club and I’ve taken the evening off Artie’s… left with the itch to hop on my bike and ride until I feel like jumping in the pool back at the apartment. This week, I have been a weird kind of exhausted-fine to go, go, go all day, then when my head hits the pillow, I’m out. Deep sleep that fights the morning’s light with heavy eyelids and a heavy head, frequently ignoring alarms. Heavy like the Virginia summer. Borderline steamy, the air frequently hangs until a passing car stirs it with even hotter exhaust. As I prepare for my vacation down to Georgia with Lars next week, I feel affected by the weather and I think about what it is to be Southern and to slow down for your environment; to be a culture of people who are pacing themselves, and savoring the hot air that ripens the fruits. Maybe I’m being too romantic. Maybe the hot yoga has reminded me to worship the heat. In any case, I’m loving it after the severe cold and snow we had all winter.
Tomorrow, I take my annual trip down to the berry farm to harvest my favorite blackberries and I will be sure to post all the vegan goodies I prepare as a result. You can expect a few pictures of kt in the bushes or just laying in the grass, generally being eaten up by bugs and havinga good time. I hope I’ll get to share the fruits of this beautiful Virginia summer with you.
Today was excellent. I slept in til and made some time to bake and meet my man for lunch before an afternoon in the office. I wound down with anice family dinner and a bout of baking.
What did I make? Well, you remember, I had one criteria the first time I tried to be vegan: sweets. Now, it’s take two, the Suzie-homemaker mod: everything I produce for my own consumption will be vegan. I made that dream real with last week’s success creating vegan salteñas. My coworkers requested a made to order salteñas day, so now I have 18 beautifully browned pockets of savory goodness and a great how to for dough braiding “fresh out da box!”
I was sad I couldn’t find any demo videos for braiding to link last week, so I made one for you tonight. Enjoy!
