Sweet Nothings

Keeping Things in Perspective

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:53:24 GMT

It is a hard truth as a small business owner that even if you did someday have the skills to do everything, you will never be able to make money trying to do everything. This week's lesson was the true labor cost of doing one-off projects as opposed to developing my core offerings and doing those extremely well. Just when I start to take all of these decisions way too seriously I get the opportunity to be a part of something that really puts my life in perspective.

Since it's inception Sweet Nothings has donated 3% of it's profits to the National Brain Tumor Association in honor of my late father-in-law Larry Thieben. After noticing this fact on my website a customer who I had just met shared with me that her husband had just recently passed from GBM (glioblastoma multiforme). We have stayed in touch and now this incredible family has put on their first fundraiser to be hosted at UD this Saturday. They have already raised 15K in money, are having a silent auction and a 5K and many other events. I will be there passing out yummies as people mill around and finish the race. I have to admit that I get choked up when I think about what this family has been through and what they have turned it into. Their faith and hope is inspiring and I'm lucky that I was asked to be a part of it. Thank you to the Beach family for reminding me what it's really all about. Please check out the link below and pass it on.

Sarah

http://hopeitsabeachthing.com/

Company Update and at The Market this week

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:47:09 GMT

A quick update for Sweet Nothings fans......

I'm proud to welcome another part time employee to the group to start this fall. Jessica Davis responded to my Facebook post looking for help and she will be starting this Friday. Dot Schnering, as some of you know, has already been helping man the booth, and this last week she expanded her duties to help prep ingredients and package. My mother, Noel Kupras-Bauer, is also working at the booth during the holidays (and I do pay her).

Here's hoping that this additional help will allow me to get a better big picture view of Sweet Nothings' growth and identify next steps in marketing and sales. It's difficult to do when you're up to your ears in buttercream.

My goal this holiday season is to fill all of the 1800 bags of Christmas packaging with toffee, sell them all, spread holiday cheer through outstanding service, offer gift options that makes Christmas easier for everyone and more interesting for those receiving them, and have a lot of fun.

It is officially fall, and no October is complete without pumpkins, appleas, sweaters, and s'mores. Since I don't knit I can only offer you the other three:

Pumpkin Mousse Sandwiches: a sweet sandwich made from yeasted cinnamon pull apaprt bread and stuffed with creamy pumpkin mousse.

S'mores sandwich cookie: a chewy graham cookie with a round of homemade marshmallow and chocolate ganache

Pumpkin Buttermilk Bundt Cake--available in a variety of sizes and by the slice.

also, Lemon Citrine, Chocolate Empress, New and Improved Pistachio Caramel Cake (will include sweet & salty glazed pistachios this time) in a variety of sizes.

As always preorder or first come first served. See you there!

Valentine's Day Sugar Cookie Recipe

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:17:29 GMT

Glittering heart sugar cookie cutouts, as featured on WRGT -- Fox 45 in the Morning.

Recipe adapted from Cook's Illustrated Holiday 2006.

The original version of this recipe was for thin, crispy butter cookies but I ran with it creating thick, tender sugar cookies neither cakelike or crispy. These make ideal cutouts because the dough does not puff or spread much during baking. Because the dough is "reverse creamed," with the butter and cream cheese creamed into the flour and sugar instead of the other way around it is very tender and can withstand multiple re-rollings without toughening the texture.

Butter Cookie Dough

2½ cups (12½ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

¾ cup (5½ ounces) superfine sugar (see note above)

½ teaspoon table salt

16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces, cool room temperature (about 65 degrees)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 tablespoons cream cheese, cool room temperature

Glaze

1 tablespoon cream cheese, room temperature

3 tablespoons milk

1½ cups (6 ounces) confectioners' sugar

1. For the cookies: In bowl of standing mixer fitted with flat beater, mix flour, sugar, and salt on low speed until combined, about 5 seconds. With mixer running on low, add butter 1 piece at a time; continue to mix until mixture looks crumbly and slightly wet, about 1 minute longer. Add vanilla and cream cheese and mix on low until dough just begins to form large clumps, about 30 seconds.

2. Remove bowl from mixer; knead dough by hand in bowl for 2 to 3 turns to form large cohesive mass. Dough can be rolled immediately or chilled slightly for easier handling.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly flour a work space and roll out dough to just under 1/2 inch thick. Cut out with desired shaped and place on cookie sheet, preferably lined with parchment.

4. Baking time will depend on the size of cutout used. Average time is 12 minutes for a 3 inch wide cookie. You want the tops to be just pale gold, and the bottoms lightly browned. I would recommend baking a single cookie, allowing it to cool, and ensuring it has the proper texture.

5. Allow to cool to room temperature and cover with glaze of choice.

Note: For large versions of this cookie wait for the cookies to cool for a few minutes after baking and smooth the tops with an icing spatula while still malleable. This will flatten any small air bubbles and give you a totally flat surface for decorating.

Sweet Nothings makes the news!

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:48:27 GMT

Check out the wonderful review by Food vs Face: http://www.foodvsface.com/. Many thanks for honing in on the details that make Sweet Nothings so unique!

I had a wonderful experience meeting with Brandy (and her beautiful new baby) and and was glad to meet the person behing the discerning wit, humor, and decisive writing on her blog. If you haven't checked it out yet, do so immediately.

Also, Sweet Nothings was recently featured in the online version of the Dayton_Daily_News, follow the link to see the short write up about the voint venture with Get Dressed! and the upcoming Pop Up bakery!

Baked Explorations in the Fall

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:44:07 GMT

I am reading Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. I’m not sure which one of them resposible for the text composition, but as it’s in the first person it must be one or the other of them. Whichever it is, I want to go hunt them down, try everything that they make, then beg for a job. His writing is phenomenal. It is concise and direct and perfectly embodies my thoughts and feelings regarding the complicated emotions often elicited in the journey of creating a recipe: frustration, indignance, satisfaction, and triumph all in a pat paragraph, page after page. Thank you, thank you…this is wonderful!

“My cake patience is wearing thin. I can no longer pretend to be enthralled with a cake that is not really a cake. If it’s in the shape of a designer shoe or is a lifelike replica of a favorite pet, it is really less about the cake and more about the design. It is form over function, cake as afterthought. This does not happen to other foods. I have yet to attend a party where the chef has sewn together a string of delicious steaks into a golf club or fedora. I have never seen (and hope to never see) a baby rattle composed of salmon fillets. But cake abuse has no limits. I admire the design and architecture involved to create these stunning showstoppers, but they are, too often, not something I would want to eat.

I am still a cake pusher. I adamantly believe that cake is the great centerpiece desert for any affair, however ordinary—not just birthdays, graduations, and holidays. Too often, we relegate cake (primarily layer cake) to event status, but I like to serve it just for its own sake. I am too impatient to wait for the next wedding, or birthday, or engagement, or holiday.” (italics mine).

Exerpt from Baked Explorations

Here’s how else I know the recipes are going to be amazing: it is the first time I’ve seen a whoopie pie that calls for scratch-made marshmallow filling (and believe me, I've hunted) and there is a simple recipe for applesauce included in the Caramel Apple Cake. Wow.

Excuse me…I’ve got some exploring to do…..