November 2010 Archives

Oh hello there! I just found out that the BabyCakes Cookbook is now available on Kindle! All this new technology is way too advanced for me but I can't deny that it makes working with cookbooks so much easier. You can bring it to the store with you so you can round up ingredients without forgetting anything which is a big deal to me! I can't count the times I've gone to the store to grab my supplies and make it all the way home in the snow to find I forgot one tiny thing. It's also only $9.99 which is so cheap it's mental. You get all those recipes that I spent thousands of hours creating for about 20 cents each. Ok, now I'm getting mad.

Anyhow--this is a great holiday buy, right? Order them here to get them in time for your loves! Happy Monday everyone!

Ok, I have to take a deep breath. Please excuse typos and bad grammar as I'm writing this at lightening speed.

I've been holding this secret in for about 2 years and I was hoping to keep this on the hush for another week till we got our decor redone but the news seems to have leaked through Twitter. So, surprise! We've opened the newest location of BabyCakes NYC in Downtown Disney, Orlando. I know, I know. I'm totally freaking out too.

Here's the scoop: a couple years ago I was approached by famed restauranteur Larry Levy of Spiaggia fame (among many, many many others) to partner with him on a project to bring healthier food to Disney. McDonalds was given the boot and BabyCakes was in, along with his other restaurants Pollo Campero and Fresh Apeel. After much planning, building, fussing and fixing we got this guy opened last Friday night.

So why have I waited so long to tell you? The truth is, we are doing some cosmetic changes to the space and I wanted it to look absolutely perfect before I showed any of you. I mean, this is HUGE news, nothing should be out of place!!! But I've quieted my inner nit-picking perfectionist because with Thanksgiving just a week away, I assume a lot of you Floridians would prefer to have the chance to have some cookies, cupcakes and donuts baked fresh for your occasion instead of shipping them from New York.

A couple things. First and foremost we do not have a sign outside the building yet but you can find us in the building marked Fresh Apeel--our store is in the right hand nook. Second thing: our phones are not working just yet so you'll have to email Emily at DTD@babycakesnyc.com for all correspondence temporarily. Yes! You can order a birthday cake, donuts, cookies, brownies and cupcakes!

So here I am. Posting from Downtown Disney. It all seems so surreal--on my walk home from work every night I watch kids doing the Cupid Shuffle and the Conga. Everyone is so joyful and happy. Is this really my life?

Wow.

As promised, here's our Thanksgiving menu below. We did our best to include all the popular things and even included the new Apple Cobbler (my personal favorite). We are almost booked for Thanksgiving week so be sure to call today to see if there's room left! We will also be offering the Thanksgiving menu exclusively from November 22nd at 10am until we close at 8pm on November 24th to serve our walk in customers but get there early! We tend to get pillaged.

Apple Pie *contains spelt ... $45 [serves 8]
(dairy free, egg free, soy free, agave sweetened)

Plain Biscuits *contains spelt ... $2.75
... with sweet vegan "cream" and preserves ... $4.25
(dairy free, egg free, soy free, agave sweetened)

Cake Balls: pumpkin spice, lemon coconut, cinnamon sugar or chocolate ... $1.75 each/ $18 doz
(gluten free, egg free, dairy free, soy free)

Apple Cobbler ... $38 with vanilla and caramel sauce, [serves 8] (gluten free, dairy free, egg free, soy free)

Chocolate Crumb Cake ... $35 [serves 10]
(gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, agave-sweetened)

Vanilla Cupcakes ... $3.50/$4.25
(spelt or gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, agave-sweetened)

Chocolate Cupcakes ... $4.25
(gluten-free; dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, agave-sweetened)

Pumpkin Cupcakes with cinnamon or vanilla frosting ... $4.50
(gluten-free; dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, agave-sweetened)

Brownie Cupcakes with vanilla frosting ... $4.50
(gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free)

Cornbread ... $30 [serves 10]
(gluten-free; dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, agave-sweetened)

Pumpkin Bread ... $30 [serves 10]
Available with frosting on the side for additional $15.
(gluten-free; dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, agave-sweetened)

Regular Brownies ... $1.25/$11 doz
(gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free)

Agave Sweetened Brownies ... $1.50/$16 doz
(gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, agave-sweetened)

Ginger Cookies ... $1.50/$18 doz
(gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free)

Chocolate Chip Cookies ... $1.50/$18 doz
(gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free)

Banana Bread ... $30 [serves 10]
(gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free, agave-sweetened)

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread ... $30 [serves 10]
(gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, soy-free)

**Agave Sweetened Caramel ... $8/12 oz
**Vanilla Icing/Frosting on side (please specify liquid or hardened) ... $16/12 oz

Look, I know some of you are going to disagree with me but I'm over Tofurky. I don't have anything against the thing, as I think it's a way to get that turkey fix without sacrificing an animal but I'm at the point where I think we can all do a little better. Here's a really fantastic round of of vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes that the New York Times just posted. It celebrates the flavors of the season without using mock meats and everything looks gorgeous. Note! Not all of the recipes are vegan! Click here and take a look...

In case you didn't see the Nightline episode on gluten-free diets I was on here it is. My dad happened to be watching Nightline that night and called to say that I did pretty good and that the dr. was a real jerk. I personally think that the doc was just speaking from a medical perspective and that the proof that a gluten-free diet can improve your day to day life is in the way it makes people feel. What do you think?

When we hired Rachel Feriozzi a long while back we were stoked because she was fast, hard-working, did a perfect job on the baked goods and could also do very crafty things like make the Mounds into cat shapes or cookies into cat shapes which is way more advanced than me. She's also obsessed with laminating everything so that's that. The kids in the bakery were stumped by her a little because she refused to be Facebook friends with anyone (what?!?!?) because she prefers to keep to herself which is cool and mature of her--we get it.

So Rachel has always had this shroud of mystery around her and doesn't really divulge much about her life other than the occasional perplexing story about a peanut M&M that she ate that had two peanuts in it instead of one or how puzzling the statement "the door is ajar" was to her as a child, because doors certainly weren't jars. Ok....But this is the charm of Rachel! And we're always happy when she's working.

The other day I went down to where the employee's "lockers" (plastic crates) are which is where everyone hastily shoves their regular clothes, shoes and other random stuff. But not Rachel. No. Never. Her locker instead is a celebration of Christmas as you can see over to the left here. WOW! It's so...festive! I was pretty speechless so I had to snap a photo and decided Rachel's employee spotlight time was upon us. So here's to Rachel! May her laminator never break and her festival of lights never burn out.