Opening a CAKERY!

My oh my, it has been some time since I have written a post, but for good reason. I have been helping open the Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery!

Autumn's brother hand carved this sign!

Many of you know, but for those who don't, I have been with the Hot Cakes team since last July. I loved what the company stood for so much that I offered to intern while I was working at my other job in pastry, while planning a wedding! It was a very small team consisting of the owner, me, one other girl who would do all the baking, and everything in between. Fast forward a month and a half, and I was offered a position, and made the decision to leave my other job.

Someday Kirk and I really are looking to open our own business, so I was super excited to join Hot Cakes and really see every aspect of a small business! When I started, we were just doing wholesale accounts, farmers markets, and were in the talks of the opening the shop. Being part of such a small team I really have become quite the multitasker! I managed all the wholesale accounts, social media, online orders, coordinate demos, work tradeshows, put labels on caramel sauce jars and oh yes, bake EVERYTHING! Its exactly what I was looking for, its pretty rare to find a place where you can learn so much in so many different areas of a business.

The shop started getting built in late January with an opening date in mid May. SOOO exciting, but so crazy in between. Still did everything I normally do, but I even went and sanded walls, painted the bar, etc. - random random. 

But alas, we opened on Saturday, May 19th! We have been crazy slammed, and while its totally different than the business we knew a couple months ago, everyone is learning and adjusting quickly and it is really, well, AWESOME. We have a pretty all star team... just sayin'

The night before, we hosted a special lil' VIP friends & family only party. Some big names in the Seattle food industry showed up (which I nerded out over) and some special friends, and a really cute husband of mine! 

 Woody handing out cookies :)

 Autumn and Hannah working the line!

 Katie with a bacon josephine and Eric with a grilled chocolate sandwich

 James made it, even though he was on crutches

 Creme brulee with rhubarb jam

 Eric tried....everything

 Brittle with her sammich

Molten Chocolate Cake with whipped cream and cocoa nib brittle

If you want to find out anymore information on this delightful company I work for, check out our website, Get Your Hot Cakes. Or you can read about us in two little articles by the Wall Street Journal or Bon Appetit :)

Margarita Time!

Wah, I'm a day late. Please forgive me. This is my new go-to margarita recipe! I wouldn't describe it as a traditional margarita, but if you like freshness, and hate sour mix, this might just work for you too!

The recipe for our Blackberry Citrus Margarita!
Makes: 1 serving, so multiply as needed

1.5 oz Silver Tequila

(Use the good stuff! If you use cheap tequila, you will taste the difference, and your head will suffer the next day)

1/2 oz Lime Juice

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

(Hand squeeze the juice! The freshness brightens the drink and won't give you any of the terrible taste that fake ingredients do which a lot of restaurants/bars use for their margaritas)

1/2 oz Agave Nectar

(Agave Nectar is a natural sweetener. It is sweeter than honey. This is another ingredient you are using instead of that terrible sour mix)

1/2 oz Orange Liqueur

(We were using Grand Marnier)

Splash of OJ

(I would recommend blood orange juice, but anything will work)

3 Blackberries

Splash of Champagne

(This is optional but if you float it on top it adds a little fizz to it which I really liked)

Directions:

1. Take the blackberries, and agave nectar, and put them together in your cocktail shaker. Muddle them together till the blackberries release their juices.
2. Add the fresh squeezed juices, orange liqueur, and mix with the blackberries and agave till they blend together
3. Add in the tequila, splash of OJ, and a lot of ice! Warm mixed drinks are never good...
4. Now shake! Shake for about ten seconds till all mixed thoroughly
5. Have your glass filled with ice and pour the cocktail over it. If you want a champagne float, this is the time to add about 1/2" champagne to the top of your drink
6. All done! Now enjoy :)

Also, I know this is a terrible picture. But sadly after we drank half of them, it was the only time I remembered that it would be cool to post the recipe and that I should take a picture! My friends were rushing me and made fun of me so unfortunately, this is the picture I am showing you. I promise promise it looks much more beautiful full and maybe staged properly ;)

If you want to make it even prettier, you can add a salt/sugar rim and garnish with a whole blackberry or citrus wheel. I like to make flavored salt/sugar mixes and with this I would either recommend a blackberry, or citrus mix.

Sugar/Salt Mixture:

2 Tablespoons KOSHER Salt

(if you have table salt, throw it away, it is terrible and doesn't benefit your food or drinks in anyway.)

2 Tablespoons Sugar

Either:

1 Blackberry

or

Zest of any citrus fruit you prefer

Now this is EASY! All you do is combine them together really, really well! If you are using a blackberry, I would muddle it down before adding to your mix as it will have liquid. If you have a small grinder, those work extremely well.

If any of you try this recipe out, please let me know how you like it! I'm always open to comments/suggestions

and PS) I will re do this picture at some point so it really does the drink some justice! :)

Mobile Food Rodeo!

I really, really, love May. It is starting to be consistent with its sunny weather, making weekends much more enjoyable.

This was an exciting weekend in the Heinrich home because our dear friend Spencer (who happened to be our officiant at our wedding) was in town from NYC. We usually only get to see him about twice a year (although this year we are lucky and will get to see him 5x) so we always make sure we have something fun planned. We celebrated Cinco de Mayo with some yummy Mexican dinner, and spent the day making margaritas and hanging out with a big group of our friends. I am also declaring my new margarita recipe worthy enough of the phrase "knock your socks off". I will post the recipe tomorrow to share with you all :)

Anyways, back to focusing. The day after Cinco de Mayo Kirk, Spencer, Steve, Katelyn, and I started our Mobile Food Rodeo adventure. We had bought VIF (Very Important Foodie) tickets, which were $25 which got us into the event with a limited crowd, ensuring we wouldn't get stuck in any ridiculous lines. While some say $25 might not be worth it, since it is a free event... they are wrong. There was an app doing a promotion called LevelUp where they gave you a $5 credit to over half the food trucks! I think overall I spent $5 maximum on all the deliciousness we had throughout the day!

The boy's & Katie showin' off their VIF badge

Now my turn to be awkward with my VIF pass

When we could, we would try to split things so we could try a nice variety

Of course Katie and I being Cheeseburger Princesses had to share this "cheesy" burger from Buns. Which apparently has been voted top 5 in Seattle.

So happy. Oh and PS they had homemade ketchup which was AMAZING. Tasted super fresh with no corn syrup and all that other fake ish.

Steve trying something from the Jamaican food truck. I think it was called a beef patty? Kirk really enjoyed it, but the rest of us were not "over the moon" about it.

 You can't really see it here, since Spencer is demolishing it, but we had cookie ice cream sandwiches from Sweets on Wheels! I think Spencer got a double chocolate ice cream sandwich. The rest of us shared shortbread with blackberry and salted caramel ice cream.

The sunny weather was the perfect excuse to stop by the beer garden!

Overall, super delicious and we were so happy that we got VIF tickets. We left right as the event was open to the public, and the crowd was already getting insane!

Till manana...