Cupcake Chronicles- Will You Be My Valentine?

Hi Luxies,

Ready for the second installment of the Cupcake Chronicles?

Well here goes.....

"Will you be my Valentine?"

Valentine's day is always a big holiday for us because people love that we customize pretty little cupcakes and deliver them throughout NYC (and ship throughout the US).

This past Valentines was no different, we received lots of "Be My Valentine" and "I love you" valentine’s day cupcake orders.

Our business is still in the growing stage so most of the deliveries we make ourselves, and it's always great customer relations when the customer can see the person that they spoke with or emailed about their order.

We received a cupcake order from Linda* (*names have been changed to protect the not so innocent) to have a dozen cupcakes delivered with the inscription "I love you, be my valentine" with "yes" "no" "maybe" cupcakes to be delivered to a lawyer in midtown.

Linda and I emailed back and forth because Linda wanted the card with the cupcakes to be signed "with love, your secret admirer" and Linda wanted to make sure we didn't tell her lawyer valentine that the cupcakes were from her.

We don't generally receive many anonymous cupcake delivery requests but we are romantics at heart and assured her we wouldn't spill the beans.

I personally went to deliver the cupcakes, and normally when delivering to a building in Manhattan someone just comes down to take receipt of the cupcakes and I go on my way.

Not these particular cupcakes.....

The receptionist had security send me up with the delivery. I reach the reception area and the receptionist takes one look at the cupcakes and tells me that they are so cute and that I have to deliver them to the lawyer valentine because he is going to be so surprised.

At this point I am smiling on the outside and cringing on the inside because I know that the whole office is going to know about the cupcakes and may even want to come over and see them while I am still there (this has happened to me before and it's about as comfortable as a job interview lol)

The receptionist walks me back to lawyer valentines office, knocks on his door and tells him he has a delivery and then steps out of the way so-that I can hand him the cupcakes.

I smile and then try to beat a hasty retreat for the door but of course now the cupcake delivery has spread and people are lined up around lawyer valentines door (blocking my escape route)

So he admires the cupcakes and tells me that he has had our cupcakes before and really liked them. He reads the card and laughs and says " I know these are from my fiancé Rebecca* she loves surprising me" he then calls to the receptionist and asks her to get Rebecca.

...... Uhohhhhhhh last time I checked Linda is not a nickname for Rebecca.

I start heading for the door because I smell disaster in the air and I don't want to become part of the collateral damage lol

Unfortunately I get waylaid in the hallway by a lawyer mommy who wants my information so that she can order cupcakes for her daughters 3rd birthday (at this point I have one ear tuned to our conversation and another tuned to the lawyer valentines office and I am trying to calculate just how quickly I can reach the elevators just in case "Linda" isn't short for "Rebecca" and they (or should I say Rebecca) wants to know who exactly ordered those cupcakes.

I begin wrapping it up with lawyer mommy and turn down the hall to make my escape for the elevator when I hear a very loud voice exclaim "What!!! I did NOT order any cupcakes!"

You could have heard a pin drop.... I looked around and all I see are big eyes and open mouths.

I did a quick about face waved at lawyer mommy who was busy catching flies and turned on the afterburners in an attempt to reach the reception area before anyone thought to ask me who ordered the cupcakes since clearly Rebecca did not.

I didn’t take a full deep breath till I cleared the revolving doors at the buildings entrance.

Ohh to have been a fly on the wall to hear the rest of that conversation.....

xoxo,
LuxSugar

LuxSugar at the 2010 Food Network NYC Wine & Food Festival

On October 9th, LuxSugar cupcakes will be in attendance for the 2010 Food Network NYC Wine & Food Festival. Stop by and say hi to us at the Food Bank tent in the Welcome Center - Pier 54 in Hudson River Park (Entrance at 10th Ave & West 14th Street).

More about the third annual festival:

Food Network New York City wine & Food Festival presented by Food & Wine and Travel + Leisure takes place October 7-10, 2010 and once again is hosted by and benefits the Food Bank For New York City and Share Our Strength. Building on the success of the 2008 and 2009 Festivals, the 2010 Festival is set to turn up the heat in New York City this Columbus Day weekend.

This year's chefs and culinary personalities include Dan Barber, Daniel Boulud, Alton Brown, Paula Deen, Guy Fieri, Bobby Flay, Tyler Florence, Giada De Laurentiis, Masaharu Morimoto, Rachael Ray, Martha Stewart, and Ming Tsai, to name just a few.

The Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival is the only festival in New York to bring together both legendary culinary icons from around the globe and America's most beloved television chefs.

To Purchase tickets go here. & hurrry! They're selling out fast!

The Cupcake Chronicles

Hi Luxies!

Welcome to the 1st entry into the cupcake chronicles! We get asked so many questions about us and the business and our customers that we wanted to give you a little backstage (or kitchen) peek into our lives and the funny and bizarre stories that have happened in the lives and times of a cupcakelatier.

So lets go back in time (think 2008 not 1998) to our first flea market experience ever.....

LuxSugar bakery was just a good idea and we were selling baked goods to family members and coworkers and wanted to branch out a little bit and see if actual strangers would buy our cupcakes.

So we decided to buy 4 weekends at a pretty well known flea market in xxx Brooklyn (names and locations have been changed to protect the not so innocent).

We did our research and there was only one other cupcake baker at this flea market that sold a different kind of cupcake both size and flavor selection so we thought that this would be an ideal location for us to introduce our cupcakes.

Well long story short we came we saw we conquered. We happily packed up our empty containers and congratulated ourselves on a job well done.

If only the story ended there lol

Fast forward to the following Friday afternoon at 6pm..... we receive an email from the flea markets organizer and she wrote to tell us that she received complaints about LuxSugar from the other cupcake baker and that we were no longer allowed to bring cupcakes for Saturday's flea market. Furthermore we could have our money back if this was a problem.

WHAT!!! 6 pm Friday night and the cupcakes are already made (think 12 dozen frosted cupcakes)

This was when we realized that not everyone who sells cupcakes is sweet as frosting.

So what did we do? we peeled off the wrappers sliced the cupcakes in half and called them "luxcakes" lol and again it was veni vidi vici because people loved that they could get the frosting on the inside a little cake.

We thought we were in the clear till once again Friday at 6pm we received another email from the flea market organizer again saying that she received more complaints about LuxSugar from the other cupcake baker that our luxcakes were too much like cupcakes (are you seeing a pattern yet?)

So once again we had to scramble...we cut the cupcakes in half and it was still an issue so we decided to dip the cupcakes in frosting and make little cakes (time consuming and highly frustrating).

At the end of the day (or I should say month) we learned a couple of valuable lessons:

1. Customers loved our stuff
2. Competitors hated us and our cupcakes
3. Sometimes being the new cupcake bakery on the scene can be a lot like a freshman playing dodge ball with the senior varsity basketball team- you know they are aiming for you but you don't know where the ball is going to hit you :-)

And no, we never sold cupcakes at that flea market again......

xoxo,

LuxSugar

Introducing....."The Cupcake Chronicles"

Hi Luxies,

We have been hard at work in the LuxSugar kitchen cranking out cupcakes and all manner of delicious treats but we don't want to neglect you :-) So we are introducing our new weekly blog post called the "Cupcake Chronicles" where we will give you some insight into the good, the bad and sometimes bizarre world of the Cupcakelatier (yes we made that title up).

Our business has had some wild and frequently crazy times and we want to bring you along for the ride, so buckle up and be prepared to laugh and sometimes just puzzle at the shenanigans our little cupcakes get into.*

*To protect the identity of the not so innocent some names have been changed.

XOXO

LuxSugar