These cute confections make the perfect gift for your co-workers, fit beautifully on any holiday table, and are a hit at holiday potlucks and cookie swaps. Not to mention, kids and adults of all ages love the festive decorations!

We’ve got lots of other great treats on our Seasonal Winter Menu. Enjoy favorites from last year’s menu such as Pumpkin Maple Whoopie Pies, White Peppermint Bark, and Cranberry Swirl Cookies. Or be a little adventurous and try one of our new treats: Ginger & Cranberry Bread or Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins.  Don’t forget your favorites from the regular menu—Vanilla Nutella Whoopie Pies are delicious year-round!

Place your order today!

To be clear, not all of the items are brand new, but they are all fabulous. Trust us, we’ve tried each and every single one of them. I know, it’s hard, but someone’s gotta do it.  We even enlisted some help this year.  Thanks to Jude, Bill, Matt, Ben, Anu, Audrey, Bradley, Jared, Matt & Jenny for your taste-buds and testimonies. 

So if it’s a pie you seek for your Thanksgiving table, we’ve got Rustic Apple, Perfect Pumpkin and my momma’s favorite, Chocolate Bourbon Pecan. Seriously, she orders 5 at a time because they “freeze well”.  The Chocolate Bourbon Pecan pies also come in a smaller, more adorable size.

And what would autumn be without the perfect combination of pumpkin and maple? Pick your favorite form: mini pumpkin whoopie pies with maple filling or light pumpkin cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting.

To round out the quintessential autumnal flavors, we have combined tart apples with sweet pears and perfectly creamy custard to create our new favorite, the Tart Apple Tartlet (see above). They are so darn cute! We were thinking that tartlets would be a great breakfast to give you the energy you’ll need to make the perfect turkey.

After you’ve had breakfast, you’ll need a chai cupcake, or 12. This cardamom cupcake topped with chai buttercream is perfect before or after turkey. It’s light and aromatic and we think you’ll love it. For the cookie lovers out there, choose from fall themed sugar cookies or cranberry swirl cookies. Or don’t choose, there’s no order limit. Just an order deadline.

Tell us what you’d like to order by Friday November 18^th so we can get to baking. We are offering delivery in Washington DC until 2pm on Wednesday, November 23^rd and in Philadelphia on the morning of Thursday, November 24^th.

Of course, if you’re more of a mint and chocolate lover, stay tuned for our Holiday menu posting shortly after Thanksgiving. Happy Holidays and safe travels everyone.

So when our dear friend Sarah needed a cake for a special 6 year old’s birthday, we were more than happy to oblige. Sarah decided that a classic chocolate cake with vanilla frosting would be perfect for her party. The catch— it was a Halloween birthday party so a themed cake was a must. I got to channel my elementary school drawing skills and had a great time decorating this Halloween birthday cake.

The pumpkin on top lends its vines to the birthday writing. On the sides are a graveyard with tombstones and bats flying above, a frightening tree where a witch left her hat and broom, a few ghosts, a black cat and a spooky moon.

The next time you need a specialty cake, for kids or adults, just let us know. We are happy to personalize a message or customize a themed cake with decorations, colors and more.

We recognize the importance of such a big day and the honor of being included in the celebration. In order to best reflect the couple through desserts, our style is to get to know the couple before offering suggestions for their tasting. In early April, we met with the bride & groom to have a chat, learn all of the fun things about their wedding, and ask a few (i.e.,  at least 120) questions. Our goal is to get to know the couple and have them paint us a picture of their day.

• The event: where will it be held, what time of day, how many guests and who: children? food allergies?
• The theme: color scheme, flowers, fabrics. Tell us everything.
• The food: what will be served, how much, how often, buffet or sit down dinner?

We save the best part—food—for last as it provides a smooth transition to our favorite subject, dessert. By this point, we’ve made it clear to the couple that big tiered cakes, artificially shaped cakes, and cakes coated in fondant are not an option. In order to get the imagination working, we like to detail the many options we offer to choose from: cakes to cut, cakes for everyone, cupcakes, pies, small, hand-held treats for dessert bars, cookies for the tables, even gift bags of cookies to go. Then we go through a long list of flavors and flavor combinations to get a feel for what each couple really likes:

• Chocolate: do you like chocolate cake? Frosting? Ganache? With mint? With peanut butter? With coffee? With citrus? What about spicy chocolate?
• Fruit: raspberry, strawberry, citrus, apple, pumpkin (seasonally)? Preserves? In frosting? As a garnish?
• What was your favorite childhood dessert? What is your go to flavor combination? What is the candy or confection you can’t live without?

After we’ve run the gamut of flavors and combinations, we often suggest a few preliminary ideas off our menu. But then we take some time to weigh all the factors (season, time of day, grownup-to-children ratio, favorite flavors) to come up with a suggestion for tasting. If they have challenged us with an as-yet-unbeknownst to us flavor combination, we take more time to think.

This particular couple was very fun to plan for. A fall wedding meant we could do fall flavor profiles like spice cakes, cinnamon, pumpkin and more. Our bride loves chai and thought spice cakes would pair nicely with the more traditional Indian fare being served for dinner. There was a love of Red Velvet, which even matched the color scheme. We offered tasting ideas via email and set a tasting that the groom’s mother, in from out of town, could attend.

We ultimately decided on 4 cupcake flavors for a cupcake tower display:

• Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
• Pumpkin with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
• Chai Latte Cupcake: a cardomom cake with chai buttercream frosting
• Snickerdoodle Cake: cinnamon cupcake with vanilla frosting

Upon the bride’s request, the couples cake for the cutting ceremony, also Snickerdoodle, was to be decorated with a henna-esque design to resemble the handpainted designs that would appear on the brides hands and arms on the day of the wedding. As this was the first time I hand-piped in such great detail, I promptly started studying.

The colors of the cupcakes matched the décor of the event. The flavors matched the couple’s tastes. The pairing of all of these things was perfect for this couple. On the day of the wedding, we used rectangular white plates on the table to display cupcakes by flavor with some cute-and-informative signs, so guests knew what they were biting into. We placed the couples cake on it’s own display to make it even more special, and easier to cut during the ceremony.

Oh, and how could we forget the 180+ hand-painted sugar cookies? Paired with a John Hancock triple chocolate chip cookie, they took an entire day to bake, decorate and package. The gift bags were hand tied with ribbon in the couple’s colors.

All in all the big day went off without a hitch. Delivery and set-up went smoothly with the help of the on-site wedding day coordinators. The display looked beautiful and we considered this another success!

If you or someone you know is getting married, having an engagement party or other fancy function, we’d love to be a part of the magic. Simply email or call us to set-up your first consultation!

At the end of September we celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This is a time to reflect on the past year, celebrate the good times, victories and achievements and reflect on the times we may not have been our best selves. Holiday celebrations include going to synagogue, gathering with family and eating apples and honey to signify a sweet new year. For this baker…that means apple pie!

This perfectly seasonal treat is great for the Rosh Hashanah table. The round shape of the apples and pie signify the round cycle of the new year. The crisp apples are a reflection of the fall harvest. The sweetness is a toast to the hope of a sweet new year to come.

We spent part of this holiday with a very special group of Jewish progressives. These cool young folks are recent undergraduate grads from all over the place. They are students of AVODAH- the Jewish Service Learning Corps. They will spend a year in DC working at non-profits and other progressive organizations, “integrating work for social change, Jewish life, and community building.”

Our dear friend Liz introduced us to her dear friend Rachel who happens to run the Avodah DC program. We talked at great length about a partnership between Grassroots Gourmet and Avodah. We decided a cooking class for the holiday paired with a little discussion on passion projects would be the perfect fit. Since we took our passion for baking and paired it with our passion for change, we wanted the students to see an example of how that could work.

We wanted the students to step back and look at their work in the movement and figure out where their passions lie. How are they keeping their passion projects going in their busy lives? Are they working in a similar field? Are they carving out time for themselves? Do they have that work/life balance we all strive for?

We were able to connect the 3 pillars of Judaism with both Rosh Hashana and the fight for social justice.

• Tikkun Olam: healing the world. These students are working to make the world a better place by ending hunger and poverty, keeping the environment safe for ourselves and our children, and fighting for justice for all people. They are leading by example, showing loving kindness to all human kind.
• The Torah: the guiding book of Judaism. Some say it is the blueprint for humanity’s well-being and for happiness on earth. These students are taking time to connect their current lives back to the scriptures they were raised on. They look to the Torah to guide them and teach them.
• Avodah: worship. The community must come together to worship and pray. This act supports each individual in their own beliefs but also allows a community to gather to remember loved ones who have past, pray for the sick and those in need, and celebrate together the year past and look to a sweet new year to come.

We had a really great time baking with the students, hearing about their favorite memories of baking and listening to their passions. They are spending the year working for social justice, fighting for change, and living together to practice their religion. We got to bake with them and talk with them. We shared stories, spoke of struggles and talked about how to overcome. Overall, it was a great start to our holiday this year.

Here is a visual representation of recent orders:

Let us know the next time you need a special cake. We can write a sweet message, draw something silly, or just have fun with frosting!

All good reasons to get a big fancy cake.

Or, better yet, a tower of cupcakes.

As a family style baking company, we like to keep things simple. We don’t build huge cakes with multiple levels that are covered in fondant. Instead, we make cupcakes. We love this idea because our clients can get a variety of flavors and colors to go with the theme/style of their event.  For weddings, we offer a small cake to sit atop the tower for a cake cutting ceremony.

And what is more impressive than walking into an event and seeing a tower of cupcakes?

The wonderful thing about the towers we use is that they can be made into any size. Our friends at Penguin Cupcake Towers have designed the Emperor Tower, which can hold anywhere from 10-200+ cupcakes. The tower is constructed of plastic that is strong, durable, and easy to clean.  The tiers are built independently of each other and can be fitted atop one another or set up one by one. This allows us to build a tower for any size event.

As if this creation wasn’t good enough on it’s own, the Penguin Cupcake Tower company is also socially conscious. A percentage of their profits goes to penguin conservation to help protect our arctic friends.

And, they are nice people! We lost one of our tiers due to a misunderstanding between the on-site staff and caterers at a wedding once. When we wrote to the Penguin company to inquire about a replacement, they sent the one we needed for free! Thanks friends!

We usually offer cupcakes to our wedding couples. We feel it’s a fun and unique set-up, plus it allows for multiple flavors and colors (to match a theme or general decor). We like sitting with couples and event planners and thinking through their favorite flavors, their color schemes and themes, their likes and dislikes about dessert, and discussing the details of the rest of the event. We want our desserts to stand out as something special, but to fit within the event.

Our most recent wedding event was for friends of ours. This is a super special order for us as we know the couple, the family, and the many of the guests. For this specific wedding, we even knew the other caters and DJ (furthering our family model)! And… we were invited to the wedding. So when we left to do set-up we had to be dressed for the event. Thank goodness for our super profesh Chef Jackets and aprons keep us tidy through set-up.

For the lovely couple, Angela & Fernanda, we came up with a great menu based on childhood favorites, flavor preferences, and the other food being served. We planned to do 3 specialty cakes, a plate of cake noms, and sugar cookie gift bags for the guests. Well, since you asked for more details… A Red Velvet Cake with toasted red velvet crumbs on top to form a heart. A Strawberry Shortcake with hand-carved strawberry hearts. A chocolate cake with spicy chocolate ganache and hand-made candied orange peel and orange sugar glass.

We also made gift bags……… beautiful representation of family, mom+mom, kids, family in a bag.

And come to find out, little known secret, shush don’t tell anyone, i really love weddings. i love thinking about them, creating them, being involved in them, helping to create the magic.

Such is the case with Grassroots Gourmet in CityStream DC. And Mary-Alice at City Stream.

You may have seen the amazing article our dear friend, co-Vassar Grad and Washingtonian-fo’-life, MAF wrote for CityStream a few weeks ago. But what you may not know is that the article started out as an audition for a highly coveted position at the start-up DC-centric blog. Mary-Alice chose to write about Grassroots Gourmet because she’s seen us in action, she’s watched us dance (and sing) our way around the kitchen on a Sunday evening (“You guys just… keep… baking. Like it’s your job or something!”), she’s ordered our Pumpkin Pie to serve at her family Thanksgiving, she’s been a hard-working taste-tester of new recipes and a lover of those tried and true.  And gosh darnit, she loves us!

Obviously MAF’s heart -and writing talent!- shined through because, long-story-short, Mary-Alice got the gig, Grassroots Gourmet got the press and we all did a happy dance. We expect a long-lived relationship of mutual love and favors exchanged like mini Ginger Cupcakes for Twitter shout-outs. John Hancock Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies for everyone!

Thanks MAF.