Grace Cakes

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Grace Cakes

Author: Michelle Carver

May 1, 2019May 1, 2019

The Twist

November 8, 2018November 8, 2018

Naughty Christmas Slush

November 1, 2018

Completely Booked For 2018

September 30, 2018September 30, 2018

French Park

July 8, 2018July 18, 2018

Fairy Garden Epiphany

Lemon Basil Curd

April 2, 2018April 2, 2018

Open For Business, The Story

March 31, 2018March 31, 2018

I Am In Christ

January 25, 2018January 25, 2018

Eggnog Coffee Cake Saga

January 12, 2018January 12, 2018

British Christmas Cake Experiment

October 16, 2017February 11, 2018

Peanut Butter Cake

September 30, 2017February 11, 2018

Swiss Meringue Buttercream 6 Ways

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Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can,
in all the places you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. John Wesley

Copyright © 2017 © 2018 Grace Cakes LLC

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#😂 #funinthekitchen #professionalkitchen #😉

Look at this organizer I found at Dollar General! It even holds the super big tips standing up so I could line them up by size sometime in my next life when I have that kinda time. 😉 . Be blessed! Michelle . #organized #bakery #accoutrements #allthatjazz #myway #😉

Awesome Goodwill haul for my friend’s coffee shop!! Look at pic #1! 😍 I guess it was for baby bottles, but I see an amazing rubber spatula drying rack. . She didn’t ask me to do this but since I get to set up the kitchen any way I want (because baking is really my thing not hers) I’m setting up the dream environment for cleanliness, organization and flow. It’s a small kitchen it MUST be über efficient. . I ❤️ organizing. 😉 . This is one of the most challenging yet enjoyable assignments God has given me to date. 🎉 . Be back to baking in about a week, flipping a small commercial kitchen this week. . Be blessed! Michelle . #icandoallthingsthroughchrist #challengeaccepted #bringit #ifgodleadsyoutoithewillleadyouthroughit #youwin

Top of the morning to you! These pumpkin muffins have like a cream cheese bomb in the middle. I need to make some for my family now. 😂 . I made a big batch of the crumble topping, a week’s worth of the cream cheese filling and since I buy canned pumpkin in bulk, I portioned out the entire can by gram weight servings according to this and another recipe. We shall see if it helps my timing flow quicker. 🤞🏻 . Go through the drive-through @coffeecupoverflowing just north of Cincinnati and get one while supplies last. These are a daily item, 6 days a week, closed Sundays. 😘 . Be blessed! Michelle . #coffeehouse #pumpkinmuffins #creamcheesefilling #breakfastisserved

Pricing. . There are recipes online that are fabulous for home use and there are recipes that are suitable for business. . Businesses have overhead and lots of it, even home businesses. Electricity, insurance, marketing, non-consumable supplies like labeling, packing, etc, memberships to wholesale suppliers, time spent shopping, space rent, equipment which includes purchase, maintenance and hopefully upgrade. Then there is employee wage for things like cleaning dishes, cleaning work space, tending to social media, decorating a shop seasonally. Someone is doing all of these things and much more. And not for free. . Recipes and processes need to be organized around profitability. Each component of a recipe takes time. . This is my way and it could be wrong but it could be helpful to someone so I want to share it. . I price the hard cost of every recipe, ingredients first. To make that easy I have my phone out when I shop and keep a very long list of ingredients which get priced down to the gram or however it’s measured. I have written down how much the 3 chocolate covered espresso bean garnish on a mocha cupcake costs. Can I source better prices? Have storage for bigger bulk purchases? . I time myself. How long does each component take? Can I batch and store single components to reduce hourly wage? . When I have it as efficient as I can, I take hard cost + time (preparing AND cleaning) against hourly wage and add those together then multiply by 30% to cover the overhead. This is the minimum base price divided per piece. . This helps determine the profitability of a single item. By doing the math you can know which products, garnishes or single components make financial sense. I studied why baking businesses fail, this is where. You do the math and discover you’re making $0.25 on a labor intensive item or that you are making $2.00 an hour to do so. That was what one business owner learned when she finally did the math. She closed for a year to rework it all. . It’s not just flour and sugar. It might start as a passion but if it it also pays the bills AND salary PLUS business growth, that’s a winning combination. . #cakebusiness #pricing #getitright #beblessed

Ahhhhh red velvet. This recipe is my final answer. My secret ingredients are apple cider vinegar, Callebaut 22/24 high fat cocoa powder with a neutral pH 6.8-7.2, a pinch of espresso powder and ONLY baking powder as leavener. . It escaped my attention entirely, the fact that the armadillo cake in Steel Magnolias was a red velvet. I am decidedly not southern against my wildest sweet-tea-on-the-wrap-around-porch fantasies. . Then a friend had some red velvet cupcakes at a party. . I went on a tasting journey. From Ohio to Florida to Utah as well as a shop I follow on YouTube in England (@ cupcakejemma). My discovery? . Everybody has an opinion and there was no consistent flavor. 11 bakeries in Chicago alone (which represents New York and LA also as some of the bakeries were not based out of Chicago) and I did not walk away feeling confident that I knew what red velvet cake was! . So I thought, that’s it. I’m going south. By this point I am well versed on everybody’s opinion. I drove down 75 to get to Orlando and up the coast through Savannah where I tried not 1, not 2, but 3 bakeries right downtown! STILL NO ANSWER! They didn’t taste like each other at all and there was no single flavor thread connecting them together. Sometimes it tasted like a chocolate cake, sometimes a buttermilk cake, sometimes JUST cake with no distinctive flavor. My guess is some nailed the flavor but I missed it in the unknowing. . Then I went to @tippleandrose for afternoon tea in Atlanta. The cake they served BECAME my definition. The tang shone through brightly pairing perfectly rather than hiding under mounds of glorious cream cheese icing. A symphony of flavor. . Ermine frosting is *truly* traditional they say, but I love cream cheese. . The tang created by buttermilk and chocolate IS the flavor in my version. This isn’t a red light chocolate cake. I use baking powder rather than baking soda to further enhance (by not neutralizing) the acidity and just a pinch of espresso powder. . Next up? Mont blanc. Like from Angelina Bakery in Paris. ❤️ . Be blessed! Michelle . #redvelvet #redvelvetcake #homebakery #experiments #bakingtips

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