FUN!

Mark it on your calendars . . . Our Grand Opening Celebration will be Friday and Saturday June 26th & 27th. We are planning all of the details now but rest assured that free mini vanilli cupcakes are part of the big event. WOO!

We are looking forward to lots of people coming in to see the shop and hear more about our menu of homemade goodness. There will be prizes to give away as well so even if you are a frequent customer, make sure you stop by those days to get your name in the pot.

Also, as of tomorrow we will be featuring our new cupcake of day the schedule!! It will be as follows:

TUESDAYS - STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE (a moist strawberry cake topped with our buttercream frosting with fresh strawberries blended in!)

WEDNESDAYS - WHAT'S UP DOC? (yummy carrot cake topped with our wonderfully rich cream cheese frosting)

THURSDAYS - MISS SCARLETT (southern red velvet cake with our cream cheese frosting)

FRIDAYS - HOSTESS WITH THE MOSTEST (a homemade twist on the original - chocolate cake with a cream filling topped with dark chocolate ganache and classic swirls in white icing)

Our cookies hold up through heavy travel!

This weekend we made the journey to Carillon Beach in Florida for Lauren and Carter's wedding. Although the weather left a little to be desired, it finally cleared off long enough to provide some great weather for the ceremony and reception. It was a BEAUTIFUL wedding and congratulations again to the both of you!

We made some seashell cookies to coordinate with their theme and added their initial. They used them at every place setting at the reception which was a great idea. Lauren is so creative and made everything from the invitations to the labels on the bottles of water. She has a blog on here as well that you should check out displaying some of her great designs. http://lettersbylauren.blogspot.com/

She also is starting up a store on Etsy, so follow her blog to keep up with all of the details.

Be sure to drop in the store this week. Mom and I continue to make improvements and streamline the baking process. As we add new equipment and get with our final suppliers and vendors we will be able to serve much more and make manyd items available daily in the store along with our entire menu always available for special order.

If you need a gift soon, keep us in mind! We have new orders from Natural Life and Jessie Steele coming in soon that are great alone or paired with our homemade goodies. We have gift boxes and bags that make giving a great gift simple.

Everything at Dough Re Mi is made fresh by the two of us. The best part is knowing that what you buy in our store has never been frozen and shipped in or made from a box mix. Our baked goodies are made from scratch using the same recipes Mom and other family members have used for years. That's what makes it so good!

One Week Down!

Thanks to everyone for an overwhelming response! We have had so much fun showing off the new shop and baking day and night! Ok - maybe baking all night has not been the best part of the experience but that's what happens when you start a new venture. One thing is for sure... There is a LARGE oven in our near future! We are still working on our scheduling issues to have enough time to fill the case for walk in customers and handle all of our special orders. Thanks to everyone following our blog and spreading the word. It's working!

Craziness!

Well - We had a WILD weekend. Between the flash flood of 2009 and trying to open on Friday, Mom and I are pretty tired. We stepped back this weekend and set in place a plan of action. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little better on us both. I don't think either of us sat down for more than 2 minutes all day Friday. The good news is that we sold out more than once! The bad news is that we could really use about 4 extra arms each. :D

We both feel like we will settle in to a groove soon. I am just pleased that everyone seemed to love the place and what we were serving. I am glad to finally be in and able to bake. Painting, cleaning, and the entire remodel process was starting to get old. Also, we had sort of an issue with the flour that we purchased. The issue is that it stunk! I was so frustrated Friday trying to make some cupcakes that I baked them 4 times!! Mom started to blame the rain and humidity then after thinking of what could possibly be the issue, we finally settled on the flour. I brought my flour from home and voila' - cupcakes as normal. I am glad that we figured it out. Mom told me that she was beginning to think that she had lost her touch somewhere between Highway 22 and First Street. Ha! :D

Come by to see us soon. Hopefully we will be able to keep up!

YAY!!

Oh everyone - I am SO excited. Don't you love when something comes together EXACTLY as you planned? All of the ideas Mom and I have had are finally happening. Fun stuff. . .

I am ready for everyone to see the amazing transformation of our building. And let's not forget that the place will be filled with everything yummy that we can possibly think of and bake. As soon as you drive by and see that open sign up, stop in to look around and say hi. :)

At last!

As of yesterday we are officially done with the hard stuff. Meaning - No more painting, cleaning grease, and such. Now on to the fun stuff. . . decorating! Mom and I have planned a theme for the last several months and we will be able to get all of our ideas rolling now. 12 days seems like not nearly enough time to complete everything but if there wasn't a deadline we would not be working so hard. Our family tends to work better if things are last minute anyways. I am humming "Under Pressure" as I type.

It still doesn't look like much as you drive by but soon enough everything will be in place and you will be able to smell fresh baked goodies in the air! I went by Friday night to see the progress on our display case. It is AWESOME! A great friend who shall remain nameless is making it for me. He is nameless because I know he would rather not be suckered into more projects.

Now to be sentimental. . . I am so glad that we are opening near Mother's Day. The bake shop is something I have wanted for myself but most of all my mom for a long time. It's a great part of the year to start off. Everything is in full bloom and the weather just may begin to cooperate. I am excited to be able to bake the day away!

Easter / Happy Birthday Billy Cakes

A cute little bunny hiding in the grass and one rockin' neopolitan cake that Mom and I made over Easter weekend. . . YUMMY!

Latest Fun

A huge sigh of relief!

It has been a whole week since my last post. You can tell that things are starting to get very busy around the new place. We are all working hard every afternoon to get the store ready by May. One of the big issues has been the floor. I think there were around 531 different floorings in that place at some point! Stephen and Dad have spent many LONG hours scraping, peeling, scrubbing and anything else that it took to get it all up. Thankfully last night a great friend offered some advice and we almost have shiny concrete! I am so happy. I really did not want to change my plans and have to choose another flooring option. I prefer painted or stained concrete when people will be in and out all day. It is much easier to clean and a little better for the decor than say - the hunter green nasty carpet that was in it a few weeks ago. As Dad would say, "I love it when a plan comes together." Now I can stop worrying about the floors and get to refinishing all of our cool furniture.

Everyday something new is purchased and orders are placed. It's right around the corner! I love all of the people that are rubber necking as they drive down First or Jackson street. The best to date was the man in his Suburban that just pulled right in the parking lot and slowly drove by the door that we had open. When I say that he drove right by the door I mean - right by the door! 2 feet away at best . . . I guess he saw what he needed to see and continued his circle out of the parking lot. Love it!

Yee Haw!

Western themed cookies!

Here comes Peter Cottontail!

I love Easter cookies! They are so cute and fun to make.

Mmmmmm!!

The weeks continue to get busier and busier. You will not hear me complaining. We have several orders for spring, Easter, baby showers, and weddings coming up soon. I will have fun decorating all of them because they are some of my favorites to do. Between the orders and remodeling it is getting a little wild around the Tittle/Turner households. Stephen and Dad are doing lots of work at the shop and Sis continues to be our promoter. She has had a few, "When are you opening your bakery?" questions lately but she just smiles and tells the date for us. Many people in town do not know the difference between us all and it can be pretty funny. I answer to Dawn as well and apparently my face was on the First State billboard for awhile even though I have never worked there. It's best not to argue. Mom and I are so thankful for our family's help. Starting from the ground up is a challenge but I get more excited everyday.

Mom and I made chocolate sugar cookies and a 3 layer marble cake for Ryan Stone's birthday. There was a gathering of cool folks at his house last night and Amy wanted to order so they could all celebrate early. (Happy Birthday tomorrow, Ryan!) His little girl, Rylee, is a doll and she may be our youngest fan. I love this picture of her enjoying a piece of Mom's cake. "Mmmmm!"

New pictures.

Here are the flip flops from last night's Law and Order frosting session. I find it easier to work with background noise and nothing is on tv more often than that show. I love it! I also forgot to post the VOLS cookies we did last month. We also made a bunch of orange and white Ts as well.

Mom and I have had lots of fun pouring over loads of recipes to find new things to offer once we are up and running. Many recipes of her's I would not change in a million years but a few things like our large selection of cupcakes we will be offering needed some fresh ideas. I have the PERFECT vanilla cupcake recipe now thanks to some testing over the weekend. I put two recipes together and added a special ingredient that I think makes them so yummy. The vanilla recipe had to be fantastic since so many other things come from that base. I can't wait to start making the cupcakes in mass quantities. I have dreamed of having a neat place locally where you could pop in for a special treat any time, any day. Not only will we have that place now but I'll be the one baking them up with Mom! Nothing in the world sounds more fun to me. :) Hopefully our menus will be complete soon and I will post one for you all to browse.

Mom and I are taking special orders now so if anyone needs cookies, cupcakes, or anything else for an event let us know. You can email us anytime at doughremi@charter.net. Have a wonderful week!

On the wings of Goodyear.

This week has flown by and I am thinking that the rest of the weeks leading up to May 1st will be gone in a flash, too. We have so much work to do and there are never enough hours in the day. We have started painting and doing small repairs on the place. After we finally decide on the flooring we can get to the fun stuff. I am ready to decorate and get all of our equipment in the shop. More changes are around the corner, too. I LOVE our logo but we made an executive decision to change the color scheme. Spending afternoons working at the shop has given us a chance to take in our surroundings. I have been in Penny Hill a million times and it never dawned on me that their whole theme is red, black, and white. What was I thinking? They are right across the street so that will definitely not work. Even though we are two totally different places I would like to have something original. We are throwing around ideas now so you will see the logo switch very soon.

Last night I iced the blimps Mom baked up. What do you think?

Spongebob strikes again and Saturday fun. . .

It looks like Spongebob is a popular cookie, too! I created more on Thursday and had an email about another order. I am also posting a picture of U's that I did for a class learning about the letter this week. I am sure if cookies were involved at every letter change the kids might be into learning all of the time! The pretty spring cookies always turn out well. I wish it felt more like spring. The first part of the week was great and then the cold and rain decided to show up again. Today Mom, Dad, Stephen and I went to the restaurant supply in Paris to hunt essentials. Mom and I were drooling! Who knew they had so much awesome stuff? We found what we really need and also will make a long list of what we WANT. A really long list. . . After that we headed towards Paducah but had to make a stop when we passed by Hazel. After all of the great things I heard from Tommy's trip recently I had to browse some of the antique stores. I have recently developed a new love for glass. I am dying for a large collection of jade, pink, and white milk glass. A few thousand dollars would sure have come in handy today to start that collection for sure. I found tons of it. After that we made it to Paducah and searched a few of the antique stores there as well. We finally found the aprons that we were looking for that will be part of the decor. FUN! Piece by piece we may finally find everything we want. It was a great trip but I need to go back about 4 times. You can easily overlook a ton of stuff at antique stores. It was a great day but I am tired for sure. After church and possibly a nap, I intend to sample a cupcake recipe or two. I will let you know how they turn out!

VOTE!

I have to admit that I was a little surprised by the poll results. I had in my head that chocolate or red velvet would win hands down. Instead strawberry was the big winner and chocolate barely beat carrot for second. All three sound good to me. You will be seeing them in the window soon! I will post a question often and would love for everyone to vote. This will really help us decide which things to bake for our daily specials. Today I'll post a pie poll. Vote away! Please feel free to pass along our blog link to family and friends that may be interested. Yesterday we got official with a pre- inspection from the health dept. Everything went well and now comes all of the hard work. We are still trying to make lots of decisions about the shop decor and kitchen layout. I know it will all come together soon. Everyone please welcome Mom. She finally has internet back after the unfortunate ice storm and Charter exodus. She was beginning to feel out of touch!

Thanks to everyone for your support. I have received lots of emails with ideas. Keep them coming!

Baby Shower cookies for JA pals!

And so it begins. . .

Dad and I ripped up the nasty old hunter green carpet from the building on Saturday. I don't know why I didn't choose to carry on that theme?! No, the carpet had to go as will the hunter green ceilings, trim, curtains, and bathroom decor. The carpet came up fairly easy and we found nice concrete flooring below. I was hoping for that! Yesterday proved that there are many long nights to come but it will be a blast to see it all come together. I will have to take before and after pictures for sure. I was also assured that we picked a great location yesterday. 1,000 cars had to have driven by in the short time we were there working. Aside from Reelfoot Ave, 1st street would be the busiest I think. Hopefully that means lots of customers in the future!

Here are the pictures.

Variety = FUN!

The best part about making sugar cookies is the variety of orders that we receive. With Mom's collection of over 350 cutters, you can imagine how many possibilities are out there. I was thinking about that this morning as I admired the cute little mermaids in the box waiting to be delivered. Just last week it was shotgun shells and 4-H leaves - all 8 dozen of them! Thursday night I finished up cute stars for a Mom to give her little star student. The only bad part about the variety is that sometimes I find myself conducting trial and errors. For instance the crabs Mom baked up seemed easy enough. Try turning them into Sebastian from The Little Mermaid. It was a challenge. Characters are really the most difficult. I have finally learned that it is best to just make the cookie itself look cute without trying to replicate the character feature by feature. No matter how perfect I make my frosting I can't be sure that it will not "run." Also the cookie cutters alone are so small that there is hardly enough space to fit the face in without looking strange. All in all I was more than pleased with the Sebastians. Their faces crack me up and I will post some pictures later in the day to see what you all think. I love trying new designs and techniques. It makes the work always seem new and fun. The variety is also helping to build our photo gallery quickly!

Coming Soon!!

Hello friends!

I am so excited to announce that after years of thinking about the possibilities, a family bake shop is finally going to be a reality. Mom and I are so excited to finally have a location! Our target opening date is May 1st at 1020 South First Street in Union City. (The old Penny Hill building) We will begin remodeling in the coming weeks. Our menu is almost complete and you will not believe all of the yummy things we will be turning out! Our cookies will remain center stage as we add a large line of specialty cupcakes to the mix. We will also be offering homemade pies and cakes. Cinnamon rolls will be available every morning along with special ice box desserts. Our website should be up and running by our grand opening but be sure to check the blog often to track our progress and read all of the news. We are open to any ideas! Please let us know if there are certain things that you would love to see in our shop. You never know what could make it to the menu. Be sure to visit the shop often when we are up and running. Who knows what we might be serving up as one of our daily specials! We are so excited to offer something new and different in our area. Our shop will also be available for birthday tea parties, showers, and other small gatherings. Our goal is to make the shop a special place full or great treats to make sweet memories. "Something sweet always sounds good!"

View pictures of our work from the last month or so at http://www.flickr.com/photos/doughremi/