Fresh Cake, Fresh Camera!

Here are some photos taken with my (by which I mean, their) NEW CAMERA from Lark Books, for use during the production of my forthcoming book on Southern Cake Ladies! For real, this camera does not take a bad picture. Observe:


Thursday's Wedding Cake.


Friday's Wedding Cake.


More Friday Cake.


My new friend Ashley Adams English. (check out her blog and her newly published books on Chicken Keeping and Canning and Preserving! However, don't buy Ashley's books online if you can help it, buy them at a local bookseller, like Malaprops)


My old friend Nathanael Markham. We've been friends for 8 years and I love him so much. I'm so lucky to work with these two, and all the other badasses that work at the Cake Shop.

This camera also takes video. What this means is that we now have the capacity to make videos of ourselves dancing to Lady Gaga while baking, which I'm really excited about.
xo

Hindsight Bride, I love you.

Recently, I was approached by the Hindsight Bride, a local blogger who is FER SERIOUS about her blog. She wanted to do videos of Short Street Cakes, and post them on her blog about Western North Carolina DIY wedding style. As a Leo, I love to be on camera, so naturally, I agreed. I knew that Hindsight Bride (we'll call her HB) had a nice blog; what I didn't know is how stylish, professional, consistent, technically savvy, and dedicated she is as a blogger. Her blog, Hindsight Bride, is smart, hip, and pretty, like HB herself. She came to the shop, interviewed me, and created these three videos:

Interview with Jodi Rhoden of Short Street Cakes from Hindsight Bride on Vimeo.

Southern Cakes Explained from Hindsight Bride on Vimeo.

Short Street Cakes- What to Expect from Hindsight Bride on Vimeo.

Thank you, Hindsight Bride! I can't wait to see what you will dream up next...

8th Annual Bountiful Cities Project Birdhouse Auction and Garden Party!

And it's not too late to turn in your birdhouse! Awesome prizes awarded to the top three birdhouses!

Held at Christopher's Garden in East West Asheville (around the corner from the Cake Shop, and behind the Rocket Club) our 8th annual birdhouse auction will feature birdhouses by local artists bid on by real live people, and auctioned off by the fabulous Jen Lauzon of LaZoom Tours! Beer, wine, refreshments from Slow Food, community and a good cause. Come on out... it will be lots of fun! Rain Location: Inside the Rocket Club! The BCP Birdhouse Auction raises funds to support work at the Pearson Drive Community Garden, Shiloh Community Garden, Joyner, Burton Street, Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park, and other gardens all over the city of Asheville. The mission of Bountiful Cities is "to create, on urban land, beautiful community spaces which produce food in abundance and foster a learning environment for social justice and sustainability."

Nobody Doesn't Love Marco's

As you may know, I have a special place in my heart for Marco's Pizzeria. Not only do they have the best pizza in town (case in point: I've eaten Marco's for the last four meals I've had. Wedding season gets pretty crazy and its awesome to have a giant pizza in the fridge at such times), but my personal devotion comes from the experience I had as a a waitress there way back in 2007 and 2008. As I've said before, and will continue to say, and will continue to tear up about as I talk about it to total strangers, Marco's was the most loving and supportive job I've ever had. Marco and Chris (and all the kids and staff) fed me, supported me, and loved me during a time when my baby was small and my business was tenuous. I will be forever grateful to them for their advice, support, and continued friendship. So... it is with great pride that I announce that Team Marcos was the top fundraiser for the April 24th Our Voice fundraiser, "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes"! As a feminist, I have some critiques of the premise of the event, what with the complicated relationship that the iconic red high-heeled shoe has to the issues of gender roles, sexuality, and sexual violence. And, as a feminist, a social worker, and a former board member of Our Voice, I'm super proud that my friends worked so hard to raise funds to support a totally badass organization!

Our VOICE (Victims, Outreach, Intervention, Counseling, and Education) operates direct services to survivors of sexual violence through their 24-hour crisis line, case management, individual and group counseling, accompaniment services, and information and referrals.

Our VOICE is based in these very rightous core beliefs:

1. We believe that all people deserve to experience healthy sexuality and personal safety regardless of sex, gender identity or sexual identity. Our programming stems from this belief, and seeks to promote open communication and informed choice.

2. People who experience sexual violence are not to blame. Perpetrators of sexual violence are to blame.

3. We believe that with information and support, clients can explore options and alternatives and make their own decisions. All reports are taken seriously and believed.

4. All information received from clients is strictly confidential (except in cases of child abuse or neglect, or when clients are a danger to self or others).

5. We see sexual violence as a widespread public health threat with historical and cultural origins, rather than the isolated problem of a small margin of people. Sexual violence is one aspect of gender-based oppression, and is inextricably linked to other forms of oppression.

6. We believe that healing is possible – both on an individual and cultural level.

7. We believe that most people, of all genders and backgrounds, see sexual violence and sexual harassment as wrong. It is our goal to unite across boundaries to address this problem together. We reject thinking that says rape is a woman’s issue, or that denigrates men as the enemy.

Thanks to Marco, Dominic, Brian, David, Robert, Richard, Frank, Martin, and all the lovely men of Marco's for showing up and doing their part to support an organization in town that supports social change to end sexual violence. You worked hard and you worked it! It makes a girl proud.

Rites Of Spring

As in: spring-related things happening in Asheville, not as in the DC Hardcore band of the same name.

Mother's Day!

As the internet tells it, Mother's Day (this weekend, y'all, don't forget!) finds it's origins in the ancient Greek rites of Rhea (also associated with Cybele) mother of the gods, and daughter of the Sky and the Earth. A holiday in England dating back to the 1600's, Mothering Day, was a continuation of the feast, and often included the tradition of people bringing the Mothering Cake to their mothers. (I'm not sure that we will make Mothering Cake at the Cake Shop this weekend, as the idea of adding handmade marzipan to our new repertoire makes me a little flustered, but we would love to make you something special from the current menu to bring to your mom).
In the United States, Mother's Day as we know it was created by Julia Ward Howe just after the Civil War, as a call for an international congress of women for peace. Which is kind of weird considering that Julia Ward Howe also wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic just before the Civil War. But, you know, people change.

From her proclaimation:

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

So Mother's Day is a holiday of peace. Love your mama on this special day, whether it be by a visit, a cake, or some flowers and plants, a-like so:

The Cake Shop's sweet and lovely next-door neighbors, the ladies of Farm Girl Flower Shop, are hosting a Mother's Day Plant Sale this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10-5. Your mom (or baby-mama) would probably really appreciate some fresh, local flowers and fresh, local cake on her special day. And then: a footrub. Just sayin.

Also upcoming, is the 8th! Annual! Bountiful Cities! Birdhouse Auction!

Located at Christopher's Garden (just around the corner from the Cake Shop, behind the Rocket Club and across the street from Harvest Records), the Birdhouse Auction is BCP's primary fundraiser for the year, which pays our mortgage on the Pearson Drive Community Garden in Montford, and funds programs, (like the Strong Roots Youth Program) that happen in other gardens around town (like the Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park at the Stephens-Lee Community Center). Food will be provided by Slow Food Asheville, birdhouses by the illustrious artists of Asheville, and Jen Lauzon of LaZoom Tours will emcee the auction. Beer and wine tickets provided with an auction paddle- what's fun is to get into a bidding war with your friends. Come on by, y'all, its going to be lovely! Oh, and if it rains, the auction will be inside the Rocket Club. And one more thing- even though we said that the deadline was May First, we will still gratefully accept your lovely handcrafted birdhouses, bathouses, and birdbaths up until the day of the event.

I totally love May. I love weddings, like this cake buffet this past weekend at Claxton Farm (hopefully the boys of Blend got some better shots than me):

(although I do like this last one of the hardcore rustic banana pudding cake. Unapologetically homestyle. Yum.)