Cupcake update & bad news!

Posted at 6:47pm | 1 comment

I’m a bit late with the updating. But, I get a bit busy sometimes! On Saturday, Sweet Remedy SOLD OUT! It’s not a surprise considering there were some awesome flavors this week. Pecan French Toast, Mint Chocolate Chip & Toasted Almond. I have something special to say about the Toasted Almond cupcake. It was inspired by my grandmother! So its a “Memorial Cupcake.” She was a great lady and I miss her very much! Toasted Almonds were her favorite drink and when we would all go on vacation (All I can remember from the cruise we took to the bahamas was her drinking toasted almonds) she was always with a toasted almond. Not that she was an alcoholic, you know what i mean… I hope.

I ran into some trouble making said memorial cupcake, Well… I kind of forgot the main ingredients. It was suppose to be a boozy cupcake made with amaretto and kahlua like the actual drink. Since it was about 8am I knew the liquor stores weren’t open and I would look ridiculous even if they were… I opted for just almond cake, vanilla frosting & toasted almonds. It turned out really good without the kahlua and what not and it kind of tasted like those toasted almond good humor bars. Which are SO GOOD.

The Mint Chocolate Chip is a vanilla based cake filled with chocolate chips and topped with mint frosting. I used real mint leaves from Pam’s garden instead of mint extract. 10 times better in my opinion.

The Pecan French Toast cupcake is a maple cinnamon cake with maple frosting and topped with cinnamon and caramelized pecans. I used local maple cream for it and it was really fun and interesting to work with.

The maple is from Lyonsville Sugarhouse and it is oh so good. You can find their maple syrup at the Pine Bush Farmers Market if you are ever in town. Seriously grab some for your pancakes, french toast, waffles, whatever.. Way better than mrs. whatever her name is.

We are using more and more locally grown/produced products in the cupcakes. First it was just fresh local fruit, Now we use fresh farm bottled milk from Ronnybrook Farms and seriously whatever else we can find around the area that could be used in a cupcake eventually.  Also, picked up some eggs from Norbury Acres last week. They are  totally organic and will be certified organic very soon! Hooray for them. They are extremely amazing people.

Word of mouth is totally getting around about Sweet Remedy. Just last week I got a call for a Bridal Shower which unfortunately didn’t work out because of bad timing issues and since I have no one to deliver cupcakes to people they had to get their sweets from somewhere else. Also, a lady came to my booth to pick up a dozen cupcakes because her daughter had a cupcake  at a friends house and HAD to have them again. How amazing is that?! It feels SO GOOD to get some recognition and to have people LOVE my cupcakes.

I love farmers markets. The best way to describe them is…. Chill. Everyone is so nice and calm, no one will scream at you and bite your head off about anything. It’s a really nice environment and I’m glad I am apart of the eat local buy local scene.

Well, if you read the title of this post you are probably wondering what the bad news is since I just talked about a whole lot of awesome stuff. Well, I can’t be a part of the market this weekend  because of some sudden family issues . So if anyone was planning on stopping by I apologize but you will have to come see me next Saturday!!! The flavors you can look forward to next week are : Double Chocolate, Cookies & Cream, Fluffernutter, & Red Velvet

For the end of August i’ll be bringing back some old favorites and at the beginning of September starts the APPLE CRAZE. Yeah, I kind of go nuts around fall with APPLE & PUMPKIN flavors. I just really love them so much! Each week will be a different apple flavor in september and near the end will be a new Pumpkin Flavor each week. I can’t WAIT!

Cinnamon Spiced Pear Cupcakes!

Posted at 12:31am | 1 comment

I am in love with these new cupcakes I made! They were so moist and delicious and the flavors really went well together! Cinnamon Spiced Pear! Yeah! I did a cinnamon cake with a pear filling & cinnamon frosting topped with more pear filling! So good! I just had to make them for this week’s farmers market so I changed up some flavors for this week and made these. DELICIOUS.

The other cupcakes we had this week were S’mores, Toffee Crunch, & Vanilla Vanilla! S’mores & Toffee Crunch were also a hit! (of course thats not saying anything bad about our awesome vanilla cupcakes! they were loved as well!)

Something really special happened today at the market, Pam is a frequent customer of Sweet Remedy & ALL of the vendors at the Pine Bush Farmers Market. She is also what we like to call the “Market Mascot” She makes these CRAZY costumes & walks up and down main street with a sign to attract people who don’t normally come to the market. Let me just say that it works! When she’s not there you can really tell the difference in volume. People pull over and start conversations with her because her costumes look THAT COOL. When strawberries were in season she was a GIANT STRAWBERRY! Today she was seen as a scarecrow & all of the vendors put together a Pine Bush Farmers Market goodie bag PACKED full of plums, cantaloupes, eggplant, bread, cheese, pumpkin cheesecake, biscotti, corn…. etc. not to mention a toffee cupcake that I know she had her eye on! So she was pretty overwhelmed with all this fresh local food!

This week’s mini mystery flavor was… ROSE! These were made with rose water and were pretty strong. I made a few special mini cupcakes that were cinnamon cake with rose frosting which is probably something I will do for a large regular menu cupcake pretty soon. That or white chocolate rose. Ideas? Which one should I do?? Leave me comments with your answer please!!!

Three people guessed the flavor on the first try & all got a free cupcake! Everyone else… Better luck next week!!! Thanks for playing the mystery mini game!

Perfect for an August Saturday night & a campfire… See you next week!

Introducing the Mystery Mini Cupcakes

Posted at 12:52pm | 0 comments

Hello August! July came and went and some neat things happened at Sweet Remedy on the last day at the market for July! We introduced the “Mystery Mini Challenge”

which was received extremely well. I had a group of four customers come up to the booth, each trying a mini cupcake, each with one guess. The last person got it & she walked away with a box of 6 free cupcakes! I hope she shared with the others! It was SO FUN to sit there and tell people “no!” or “close!”

The winner! I unfortunately did not catch her name! But they said they would be back, So hopefully they will be! They were very nice and great customers! I love having great conversation at the market with complete strangers.

A few other people participated in the challenge. Only one other person guessed it correctly, He got a free cupcake!

I painted my chairs bright pink, I didn’t think to get a picture of them. BUT I also painted the flavor suggestion box the same pink, I love it!

July 31st was the first day that I debuted my pink chairs, mystery minis, AND my lifelong best friend (and photographer) Jenna came to scope out the market for the first time. She lives in Brooklyn and isn’t “home” too often. But it’s always great seeing her. She also grabbed my camera and took a few nice shots of me since I needed a really nice one!

Then she took a few shots of the table & booth for me. I need a lot of options for pictures for the new website so it was nice to  have someone better at photography than I am to help out.

As always, here were the flavors for the week of July 31st:

Chocolate Lavender, Chocolate Pistachio, & Peaches & Cream.  Yum! Lavender is such a popular flavor!

Jenna was home getting some work done on her tattoo and she took cupcakes to give her tattoo artist a “sweet tip”  I wish I would have asked her to take a picture of him eating some cupcakes!

This Saturday’s flavors are: Toffee Crunch, Cinnamon Spiced Pear, Chocolate Vanilla, & S’mores! There is also a Birthday Order for a variety of Saturday’s flavors, mixed in with some Chocolate Lavender! I love when I get orders for special occasions. I can’t wait to get more and more into events!

Stay Tuned for Saturday’s Mystery Mini Flavor!

An Apology

Posted at 5:48pm | 2 comments

I’m sorry to everyone who went out to the Pine Bush Farmers Market today in search of cupcakes. I haven’t been feeling all too great so I took the weekend off. I will be back next week full force with some new things to introduce such as “Mystery Mini’s” (The first person to guess the mystery flavor  gets a  1/2 dozen cupcakes…FREE!) new pink chairs & a new suggestion box!  So Hooray! Can’t wait to feel better (if thats possible) & get back into cupcake action! Also new by the end of August/Early September is a new website that is going to be wordpress powered and beautifully designed by purrdesign ! Check back late August early September for the new design!

Also some other additions to the booth might be made in August/September and for next year at the market or wherever I may be doing my cupcake thing (truck perhaps..?) Sweet Remedy has been dabbling in her sewing again & crafty-ness so get ready for some cupcake inspired aprons & jewelry and maybe a Sweet Remedy Etsy store.

Again, Thanks for understanding and see you next week!!

Birthdays, Cupcakes & Cameras

Posted at 5:00am | 2 comments

July is in theory my favorite month, I tend to get really excited for my birthday and then when it actually IS my birthday, it always sucks & I become this morbidly depressed blob of what was once called Samantha. BUT, i did get an early birthday present from my Aunt Sherri who lives in FL. When it came in the mail I was allowed to open it and it is SO BEAUTIFUL!

A beautiful cupcake necklace, which also came with cupcake earrings that I didn’t take pictures of but they are exactly the same as the necklace. BEAUTIFUL. I am so in love with them! Thank you Aunt Sherri!

Gifts wrapped sitting on our couch from my mommy. I can tell exactly what they are: Bowl, Sifter, and Spatulas. (yes I am a present examiner/box shaker!) But theres one there that I have no idea what it is. It might be a Johnny Cupcakes Shirt that she SHRUNK on me. I told her not to replace it. But who knows!

In other news, I have decided to take my camera off auto mode. I kind of gave up on photography and turned my camera on auto since I started baking. I was lazy & couldn’t be bothered I guess. But I really want to make my cupcakes look great so I’m going to try to re-teach myself photography basics. They will come back to me soon

Some new images on manual :

Rain & Cupcakes

Posted at 12:21am | 1 comment

Last week at the Pine Bush Farmers Market, it rained. I awoke at about 5:30 am:  an hour and a half before I have to be up. I heard pouring rain against my window. Lets just say I couldn’t really go back to sleep. It wasn’t just light rain, it was POURING. It was after the first big heat wave so we really really needed the rain. The market is rain or shine so I braced myself because I knew I was going to be soaked & was afraid I wouldn’t sell anything.

It turns out people don’t care if it rains! They want their cupcake fix.

It actually stopped raining by 10 am and got humid. We set up the tents different and closer together so it was easier for people to stay dry.

DRINK MILK! Seriously, if you are over 18 you need about 1200mg of Calcium! ( I think?) I am super serious about calcium all of a sudden, I don’t want to shrink when I am 70. I am only 5’2″ I can’t afford to loose a couple inches!!! 8 oz of milk has about 300 mg of Calcium in it. I try to drink a glass, eat some yogurt, and have my ice cream & multivitamin everyday. DO IT. BE HEALTHY! but still eat cupcakes sometimes.

The classic cupcake shot!  Pink Lemonade, Chocolate Strawberry, & Mocha Coffee,

I love little kids & when they eat Sweet Remedy cupcakes!

THIS little guy was awesome. I want a dog!!

July 4th Aftermath & New Flavors

Posted at 2:19am | 0 comments

So July 4th weekend was pretty successful for Sweet Remedy. Sold out at the Pine Bush Farmers Market. Lots of BBQ’s had cupcakes & cookies! As for my July 4th, Nothing special.

Sidewalk Chalk Cupcake drawn by the Pine Bush Farmers Market Manager, Jacque.

One of the most Loyal Sweet Remedy Customers/Helpers. Millie. VERY happy about those red velvets.

The Shoe String Band!

Yummy Pina Colada, Sangria & Red Velvet. Booze Inspired & Red White & Blue Cupcakes! Perfect for the 4th of July!!

Tomorrow’s Flavors are : Vanilla Vanilla, Chocolate Strawberry, Mocha Coffee, & Pink Lemonade! SO stop by the Pine Bush Farmers Market & Cure your Sweet Tooth!!

July 4th Cupcakes

Posted at 10:30pm | 2 comments

Sunday is the Fourth of JULY which means the cupcakes will be all kinds of patriotic for this weekends market!

Red Velvet & Chocolate Vanilla pimped out in RED, WHITE, & BLUE.

the Fourth of July also means : BBQ’s, Fireworks, I don’t go to work on Monday & oh yeah, the Declaration of Independence:  Thirteen American Colonies now Independent blah blah blah.  Is my history correct?

IT ALSO MEANS:

Piña Colada Cupcakes!

Stop by the Pine Bush Farmers Market to pick up some Patriotic or some Booze Inspired Cupcakes for your 4th of July Celebration, BBQ, Firework Picnic, etc. Yeah, Firework Picnic. I just made that up. Who wants to go watch some fireworks & have a picnic with me this July 4th?

Another Day at the Farmers Market

Posted at 9:56pm | 2 comments

Hello ALL! Had a lovely day at the Pine Bush Farmers Market on Saturday. The weather wasn’t too hot and it didn’t rain! Hooray for that!  Sorry for the late update but a girl does need to relax every once in a while!

This week, I had a special visit from Mimi of Bakingfix.com ! For those of you who don’t know, Mimi is a very skilled baker who also does business consulting, recipe development, and holds a plethora of classes around the Hudson Valley for bakers and inspiring foodies! She also wrote a book Start and Run a Home-Based Food Business that I have read cover to cover and it was so incredibly helpful! If you are reading my blog looking for some guidance, I suggest checking out her site and seriously purchasing her book! It touches on almost every question you will  have and guides you through everything! I didn’t get any pictures with her because we were so busy chatting. Her & Her Husband were snapping pictures and busy giving me tips! Not to mention checking out the rest of the market!

The cupcakes of the day were : Vanilla Chocolate, Fluffernutter, Ice Cream Sundae, & Key Lime Pie

I had many compliments on the Key Lime Pie and its delicious-ness. I am not a big fan of Key Lime but my good friend (and weekly helper at the booth) Nicole ate the whole cupcake which is rare! The Ice Cream Sundae was a big hit with the kids! (not to mention the adults!) and a regular at the market exclaimed that Fluffernutter was the best cupcake yet! Hooray!

Ron came over and grabbed his Sweet Remedy before the Key Lime Pie sold out. SMART MOVE because they DID!

I think HIS sweet tooth was cured.

Dan stopped by to grab the Dozen of assorted cupcakes he had ordered the following week

They were packaged waiting for him and someone tried to buy the  box before he got there! I made her up a box just like it!

Also there were NEW Lemon Burst Cookies which were well recieved!

For those planning on grabbing some cupcakes next week, I apologize because Sweet Remedy isn’t going to be at the Pine Bush Farmers Market next week. (STILL go support your local food & talent at the market!)  But I’ll be back with the some awesome flavors JULY 3rd so stop by and grab a Pina Colada, Sangria, Chocolate Strawberry & Chocolate Vanilla Cupcake for your 4th of July Party/BBQ!

Strawberry Festival

Posted at 11:03pm | 4 comments

Well, Another 2 weeks have gone by at the Pine Bush Farmers Market. Today was the Strawberry Festival! I made 2 kinds of Strawberry Cupcakes: Strawberries & Cream and Strawberry Shortcake. Along with a Vanilla/Chocolate & a Chocolate Hazelnut (mmm nutella!) I also made Oatmeal Strawberry Chunk Cookies which were pretty slamming to go along with the Strawberry Festival-ness. I also made Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies (THX LIZ!) and Classic Chocolate Chip! All of the cookies sold out & most of the cupcakes did! It turns out I have some REPEAT customers!!!! “good morning sam, what do you have this week?” SO COOL!

Strawberries & Cream

Strawberry Shortcake, Chocolate Hazelnut (Nutella!) & Strawberries & Cream

Chocolate Hazelnut/Nutella Cupcake.

One thing that I found out today is that people LOVE NUTELLA! I know I do, its a very dangerous thing to have in the house, I can eat it by the spoonful so good thing I only have it here when I’m ready to bake with it. The Nutella Cupcakes were the first to sell out, I had some people who were sad they were gone!

The Oatmeal Strawberry Cookies

Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies

I didn’t post any pics or anything about last week but the flavors were Caramel Banana, Root Beer Float, & Chocolate Raspberry!

anyway , tomorrow I think I am heading out to the Warwick Farmers Market for some more wine and stuff… Have a good weekend everyone and if you can make it out to the pine bush farmers market, you really should! I won’t be there June 26th but so far every other saturday this summer!!!