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/