Farmer's Market July 2, 2011

Here is a list of the flavors I'll have available at the Sidney Farmer's Market this Saturday, July 2! Make sure you come out and check out our two new flavors!!

White Chocolate Strawberry
Black & White
Dark Chocolate
Orange Dreamsicle
Lemon Drop
Tie Dye
Pina Colada
Red Velvet
Vanilla Vanilla
Raspberry Swirl
and last but not least, The Hope Cupcake!

The Hope Cupcake is our latest and greatest cupcake. I designed this cupcake to benefit the Shelby County Relay for Life. I know probably each and every one of you have been affected by someone you love being diagnosed with cancer. I am doing this cupcake as a fundraiser for the Relay. It's a yellow cake base infused with plum applesauce, tinted purple for color, and topped with vanilla buttercream and a chocoalte purple ribbon.  All proceeds from the sale of this cupcake will go to the Shelby County Relay for Life. The cupcake sells for $2.00 or $18.00 a dozen. As I said before I will have them available at the Farmer's Market starting this Saturday and I will be taking orders for future deliveries.  This is a great way to help raise some money for a great cause. Believe me, your stomach will thank you!!

Another new item this weekend will be our Frosting Shots! These are 1 ounce cups of some of our most popular frostings. Try one or try them all! They're only $.50 each!!

I hope that all of you will stop by the Farmer's Market and pick up some cupcakes! What a great addition to a 4th of July picnic!! I hope to see all of you there!

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July!! God Bless America!!

Failure vs. Success

So, they say, "face your failures", "accept what you can not change", "learn from your mistakes", and on, and on...so I'm facing my fears and letting everyone see what some of my failures look like. As well as my most recent success.

The first, my epic failure. Here's the story. I was asked to come up with a chocolate chip cupcake. Oh how hard can that be right? Well, I apparently was making it alot harder than it had to be. This is what it ended up looking like. Really?! Who would want to eat that? It looks horrible!!

And no, that's not what they looked like in the picture online. Of course they looked perfect and oh so tasty. Not mine! They look like a mix between canned dog food and hocky pucks! That night I should have just stopped there. But I didn't, and my second batch had problems too, but no one ever knew!! Well, until right now. They tasted fine, so what if you leave out an ingredient!!

So now, the most recent success. I was asked to do 1st birthday cupcakes for a friend. There's a long story behind the design of the cupcakes. I figured, this shouldn't be too hard. I can do this. So I got to work. I had 3 prototypes before the final product. So here they are, my Green Elephant Cupcakes!!!

These were so much fun to do! Alot of work, but I'm so happy the way that they turned out. I just hope the customer likes them as much as I do! Simple vanilla vanilla cupcakes, but the elephants add their own little touch!

Questioning my ability

Tonight has made me question if I really know what the heck I'm doing. I had someone request Chocolate Chip Cupcakes. I thought to myself, "this can't be too hard", "I can make chocolate chip cookies, I can make cupcakes, just put the two together right?"  WRONG!! So after a failure of mega proportion, I decided to make it easy on myself, and go with my simple recipe for Chocolate Chip Cupcakes. Got through the recipe just fine, I was puting them in the cups when I realized I forgot an ingredient. Man, what is wrong with me tonight. Am I really supposed to be doing cupcakes? I'm ready to throw in the towel.

Then, out of nowhere, I get this posted on my Facebook wall.  "My sister went to a big city cupcake shop recently and said yours were better! Seriously, they rock..."

Wow!! Mine?! Little country cupcake lady?! It's amazing how a few little words can change your perspective!! Thanks Nancy Armstrong! You made my day!!

Still Figuring It All Out!

Belive it or not, this is tough. Every week that I get further and further into this business, the more I realize how much I don't know about business. I know about cupcakes, just not business. But have no fear! I'm learning! Each week that I go to the farmer's market, I realize something else that either I have forgotten or could have done. My list of "could haves" and "may have to's" are piling up! But just like my last post, I'm taking a leap of faith. I'm going for it. This is going to work. I am still working out a few of the details of some opportunities that have come up, and as soon as I know the definits of everything I'll fill you in. For now, I just plan on making more great cupcakes!! I have been pretty steady over the last 2 months, and that's great. My farmer's market weekends have been productive, now it's just fine tuning how I do things for the market. I'm trying to decide if I need to make some of my standard flavor cupcakes every week, or if I need to mix it up every week. Anyone have an opinion on that?

And for all of you who aren't on Facebook, I've started my website, it's new, and always changing, so make it a favorite of yours and check back often for updates! And, if you want coupons please send me your home address or email address and I'll get one out to you!

Hope to see everyone soon!!!

Kim
http://www.cupsbykim.com/

Leap of Faith

That's what this whole adventure has been. Every step of the way no matter how little has been a leap of faith. I've had a few opportunities come up over the last few weeks and I continue to debate whether or not to pursue them. It makes me so nervous to take on any more, but then I have to look at it as a leap of faith for this business. Every second of every day I'm a nervous wreck. How am I going to pay for this, how am I going to get all of these done, how am I going to grow my business, and most importantly when am I going to spend time with my family? All of these questions I constantly consider, it's so hard to turn it over to God and listen for His answer, but I know that's what I have to do no matter how hard it is. So with this in mind, I'm taking a leap of faith and going with my gut feeling, no matter what anyone else has to say. I heard a quote at my Women of Faith weekend that has stuck with me, it seems like it came at just the right moment. I believe it was Lucy Swindoll who was speaking of a friend of her's who at a very young age started a charity, and everyone kept asking him how he did it, how he made it a success at such a young age, his response, "because no one said I couldn't!" That's what I keep thinking, only in the reverse sense. Everyone keeps saying, "how are you doing this, you're crazy, or that's probably not a good idea", well I still keep going back to how I felt in the very beginning. God was speaking to me, I know it, and I need to remember that I'm doing this for a reason. A reason that only God knows. Someday it will all make sense, but until then I just have to continue to listen to Him and take that leap of faith!

It's a Success!!

Wow! I can't believe it's been two weeks since I last posted here, I guess that means I've been busy! And that is a fact! Well, yesterday was the day. The opening day of the Sidney Farmer's Market. I wasn't sure going into it whether or not it was actually going to b e a good day. I had a large order to fill the night before so I was pretty stressed out about that and was focused on it, so I had a smaller amount to sell than what I had hoped on my first day. But again, as everyone knows, God works in mysterious ways. Today was Graduation Day for all of the Seniors at Sidney High School, and it just so happens that graduation was at 10:30. Smack dab in the middle of the farmer's market schedule. So I'm hoping that's why it was kind of slow. I got a few great great contacts that hopefully will work out, and I came home with less than I took along so I guess that's a good thing! Here's hoping for a great 2011 Farmer's Market! I hope everyone will get the chance to come out and visit. There are alot of great vendors and I know for a fact some great tasting cupcakes!!