Cake Shop Christmas Window Display!

A few weeks ago, I called my friend David Alexander to commission him to do a Christmas window display for the Cake Shop. I remembered his over-the-top, Tokyo-Teen-Dream holiday decorations for Marcos when we both used to work there, and thought he could pull something cute together for the Cake Shop. Something simple, I said. Vintage-y. I said. Christmas-y. no big deal.
To my surprise and delight, he and Christopher showed up on Monday with boxes of homemade fabric cupcakes (made by David and his mom), a child-sized mannequin with a cake for a head, vintage candy canes, wrapped christmas presents, vintage ornaments, garlands, a wreath with homemade felt cupcakes, and an aluminum Christmas tree with color wheels.
Here's my way-longer-than-it-needs-to-be-because-I'm-so-excited Photo Essay. Also, any tips on how to enter the WABA Christmas Window Display contest without actually being a member of WABA- or having paid to be a part of "Shop West Asheville"- would be greatly appreciated.
David, thank you so much for letting your beautiful holiday vision shine. Friends, come by and see us, and vote for us for your favorite Holiday Window Display in West Asheville! xo

Much love.











PS- It's even cooler up close and personal.

Holiday Cake Menu and Specials!

Friends, we are going all out this year for the holidays! Below find out all you need to know to order your holiday cakes and pies from now through New Year's. Here are the special cake flavors we are offering in addition to our regular cake menu: (unless otherwise indicated, all cakes are available in the same sizes and prices as the regular menu items)

PEPPERMINT CANDY CANE CAKE: A Chocolate Mint Cake with Seven Minute Icing and natural candy cane garnish.
BLACK FOREST CAKE: Dark Chocolate, Whipped Cream, and Natural Sweet Cherries.
SWEET POTATO SPICE CAKE: Rich, buttery Spice Cake flecked with creamy baked sweet potato and iced with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing.
FRESH COCONUT CAKE: Fresh Coconut Butter Cake with Seven Minute Icing and Fresh Coconut Garnish.
One-Size-Only Cakes:
BUCHE DE NOEL: The traditional French Yule Log- featuring a Chocolate Roulade filled with Whipped Cream and iced with Chocolate Buttercream Icing. $38.
PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE: Skillet-Baked 9-inch Brown Sugar, Pineapple Butter Cake with Pecans and Pineapple Rings: $22
FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE GATEAU: Single-Layer, 8" Rich, Mousse-Like Chocolate Cake with Ganache Topping: $22

Got a hankerin' for something else? Let us know and we will try to work it out. As usual, cupcakes, coffee, slices of cake and pie, and (if you are lucky) a whole cake or two are available during shop hours for purchase without an advance order. We have also added mini loaf-shaped pound cakes to our case offerings: right now we have excellent Cinnamon Walnut Pound Cakes for $5 each.

As you may know, Pies from local pie company Pies in Disguise are now available at Short Street Cakes! And from now through Christmas, we are giving a 10% discount to advance orders of Pie AND Cake totalling over $50.

Pie flavors available:
Apple, caramel apple crunch, pumpkin, pumpkin chocolate truffle, pecan, derby, sweet potato, maple walnut, pear, nutella strawberry with pretzel crust, chocolate stout, key lime, banana cream, honey lavender!
$22 for a 9-inch pie

The Fine Print:

Thanksgiving: Cake and Pie orders must be in by Sunday, November 22. We will stay open on Tuesday, November 24th and Wednesday, November 25th, from Noon until 6pm for pickup, and will be closed on Thursday, November 25th, and Friday, November 26th.

Christmas/Solstice Cake and Pie orders must be in by Sunday, December 20. We will be open the Tuesday before Christmas for Pickup. We will be open on Christmas Eve from Noon until 4pm for pickup. We will be closed for Winter Break from December 24th through January 6th. New Years Eve cakes will be available by special order only. And starting in January, we are launching our new winter hours: Closed Monday and Tuesday. Because we think everybody deserves a two day weekend, even cake ladies! We're just Mom and Pop like that.

OK, y'all, you've got all the info, now just give a call (505-4822) and get your old-school cakes and pies for your holiday celebrations! We love you and thank you for supporting local, artisan bakers and cake shop community.
LOVE!

2nd Annual Food security Forum December 5th!

Cake Loves Pie: Introducing Pies in Disguise at Short Street Cakes.

Now that beach season, wedding season, and death season are over, its time for: Pie Season! On Wednesday, we began a new venture: serving as the retail outlet for pies from Asheville-newbie-pie-bakers Pies in Disguise. We feel confident that these local bakers (who also happen to rent our kitchen for production from time to time) are creating pies of the same caliber and with the same sense of righteous traditionalism as we do our cakes. You can learn more about Eliza and Ben here, but in the meantime, I'll tell you about the deal at the Cake Shop.
(and here's a photo of Cake Shop fan Ada Volkmer, admiring her purchase of a Pecan Pie from Pies in Disguise)

Much like our cakes, most pies from Pies in Disguise will be available by special order. Also like our cakes, the pies require two days' notice. And, also like our cakes, we will keep one or two in the case at all times so that you can buy a slice and enjoy it with your fresh cake shop coffee or cider. (more on the cider later.)
Here are the flavors you have to choose from:
Apple
Caramel Apple Crunch
Pumpkin
Pumpkin Chocolate Truffle
Pecan
Derby (bourbon/pecan/chocolate)
Sweet Potato
Maple Walnut
Pear
Nutella Strawberry Madness
Chocolate Stout
Key Lime
Banana Cream/Vanilla Wafer Crust
Honey Lavender!
Here's how you order: Call the cake shop, specify your preferred pie flavor and quantity, and pick up at the cake shop on the designated day, during our business hours (12-6, Wednesday through Monday). Its just that easy.
Whole pies are $22, slices are $3.95.
But, he most important aspect of this whole pie situation can be summed up in one word:
THANKSGIVING!
You can now have your Thanksgiving cake and your Thanksgiving pies, too! AND, because we love you, we're throwing in a discount to sweeten the deal: 10% off all simultaneous orders of Cake AND Pie totaling over $50 during the month of November! That means: one large cake and one pie for thanksgiving = 10% off.
Your friends will be impressed! Your enemies will be chagrined!
Get your holiday desserts from Short Street Cakes!
xo

Halloween and Dias De Los Muertos: Pictures!

First, there was Halloween. We had a rockin' day at the cake shop, and Jenne, as per usual, went above and beyond by creating, of her own volition, these Halloween themed cupcakes:




They're totally awesome, but even more awesome when you consider that, as an all-natural bakery, we never use food coloring, fondant, or shortening. It limits greatly the materials we have to work with when doing designs, but makes the designs we do so much more lovely (and tasty!)
Then there was trick-or-treating:

Jasper was a robot, Duncan was a daddy robot. Genius costume element: the plastic bucket as a helmet, which conveniently kept my little robot's head dry all through the soggy, cold, night.

Then, there was Dia De Los Muertos.

Folks stopped by all day on Sunday to make sugar skulls, see the altar, and (hopefully) reflect on the meaning of a day to honor, remember, and visit with those who have passed. One (sorta country) fella came in, he had never heard of us, but had seen a show on the History Channel about the sugar skulls. He went looking in Asheville for where to find them, and found us. He bought some to take home with him, and he said that it reminded him of Decoration Day in church, and that that meant something to him. It got me thinking that we have these rituals in every culture, because we have a spiritual need for them.

We also raised an amazing 317 dollars for Latino Immigrant's Rights Organization Defensa Comunitaria! Dias De Los Muertos: Activism + Cake + Celebration = Love.

Amy Kett, of Crankypants Knits, posted on her blog this picture of her memere on the altar:

She says: "Yesterday Henry and I went on down to Short Street Cakes and painted sugar skulls for Los Dias de los Muertos. Henry ate a triple chocolate ganache cupcake bigger than his head while I thought about my Memere and painted a sugar skull in her honor and put her picture up on the altar. If you are in Asheville...stop by and paint a skull, have some cake and blow my Memere a kiss."

Sigh.

And, with the season of death coming to a close, and without further ado, We now officially declare the beginning of:

The Holiday Season!
It's ON.

Dias De Los Muertos at Short Street Cakes!

On Sunday, November 1st, and Monday, November 2, we will be celebrating Los Dias De Los Muertos at the Cake Shop! Come by and help us build an altar to loved ones who have passed, and give them a chance to enjoy our offerings and blessings! We will be selling blank sugar skulls, have a decoration station where you can decorate your sugar skulls, and then take them home, or leave them on our altar! In addition, Short Street Cakes will be hosting an altar built by local immigrant rights organization Defensa Communitaria. Sugar skulls will be $5 and proceeds from the sale of the sugar skulls will benefit Defensa Communitaria. In addition, November 1 and 2 are the grand opening days for our new next-door neighbors, Bury Me Naturally and Farm Girl Flowers! And, of course, we'll have cake. And Sally Rhoden's Mulled Cider, Oh, and there's going to be a Flotilla Parade down the French Broad River! xo

Sugar Skulls with Suzie Millions!

According to Waverly Fitzgerald, author of the excellent and thorough seasonal holiday website School of the Seasons, (and many books) November 1st, or All Saints Day, is celebrated differently in many different parts of the world. From the School of the Seasons:

All the gods of the world were worshipped on this day from sunrise to sunset, goes an Irish saying. [Kightly] The Celtic Coligny calendar designates these three nights as the end of summer (which begins on Beltane, May 1st), the time when flocks are moved to the winter pastures, the beginning of the dark half of the year. The time of the last harvest, of apples and nuts, which are used for divination. The dead are honored with offerings of food: soul cakes in England, fava beans in Italy. In Mexico, offerings include bread, fruit, sweets, wax candles, flowers, liquors, cigarettes, mole, pulque, tamales. The candles burning in pumpkins, gourds or turnips light the way for the dead to return.

The Catholic feast day of All Saints was celebrated on the Sunday after Pentecost, until 609 or 610, when Pope Boniface dedicated the Pantheon to Saint Mary and martyrs on May 18th and that became the new date. This is interesting as there are other feasts of the dead in May, including the Roman Lemuria (May 9) and Memorial Day was long associated with the dead also. The date of November 1st was established in the eighth and ninth centuries.

The Irish and Scotch call this date Samhain and Samhuin and honor the dead by lighting bonfires. This is seen as the start of the dark half of the year, and since the Celts began their days at dusk, it is thus the start of the new year. In Ireland, this day is known as the feast of Moingfhionn, a demoness whose name means Whitehair, perhaps a representative of the coming winter and the old age of the year.

I wanted to learn more about the Day of the Dead traditions of Mexico, in order to incorporate those traditions into our celebrations at the Cake Shop. (Our new neighbors Bury Me Naturally and Farm Girl are having their grand opening on November 1st and 2nd- fitting opening days for a casket shop- and Short Street Cakes will be hosting a Dia De Los Muertos altar created by local immigrants rights organization Defensa Communitaria. more on both of these happenings in subsequent blog posts).

I asked local artist, author, and craft queen Suzie Millions to teach me how to make the skulls. She graciously invited me to her Tingle Alley studio to learn the craft.
Our Gracious Host:

What you will need:
Sugar skull molds. Available at mexicansugarskull.com.
6 Tablespoons water.
Postcard size pieces of cardboard, lots of them.
5 pounds of white sugar.
1/4 cup of meringue powder. (I know, this is not my typical from-scratch recipe. The saving grace is that sugar skulls are not for eating, so it doesn't really matter that Meringue powder is made with a bunch of synthetic chemicals, right? OK, OK, by next year I will have figured out how to do these with fresh, organic, local egg whites and organic, unbleached sugar. Also by next year: Dead Bread?)

OK, here's what you do:


In a large bowl, mix the sugar and the meringue powder.
Add the water, and knead by hand, until "every grain of sugar is coated." This will have the consistency of really nice beach sand, and is probably wonderfully exfoliating for your hands (if you're into that sort of thing).

Pack the sugar tightly into your mold.

Scrape off the excess from the back of the mold, and then turn the sugar skull over onto a piece of cardboard. Leave out to dry for a day before decorating, ah like so:

Now, decorate!
Uh, we haven't quite gotten to that part yet- you can come learn with me on Sunday at the Cake Shop- but here are Suzie's finished sugar skulls for sale at LOFT downtown:


After that, Jasper, Duncan and I made a batch for ourselves at the cake shop.



On Sunday, November 1st, at the Cake Shop, we'll be decorating these sugar skulls and making an altar to honor our loved ones who have passed. Come celebrate and learn with us!
xo