Wow, what a year!
Posted on Jan 30, 2013
The best laid plans of mice and men… and Delivery Boys. Last year this time I was eagerly awaiting a year of wedding cake deliveries, writing blog posts, taking pictures, and generally staying out of the way of the Cake Ladies as they worked their magic. Got a lot of that done, but I can’t say I did a lot of blogging as the year went on. That plan didn’t work out like I thought it would--there’s never a dull moment in this job, and never a day off, either! But I’ll try to do better this year…
ANYWAY, here we are, back at the top of the year, and it’s my turn to do a little retro on the year past. Thanks to all of you who dug in to the great products the ladies of The Cake Boutique dished out, it was a good year all the way around. The addition of Sugar Buzz, the cake- and candy-making supply shop inside The Cake Boutique, has given the area a new place to get sweets and sprinkles, among other things. The wedding cake business was brisk enough to send me through many thousands of miles of deliveries, and I was lucky enough to survive that more-or-less without a hitch. The expansion of the Boutique to around twice its original size has given them the ability to handle many more orders per day than they could in the past. And you have all responded by helping to fill up that capacity, to the point where the Cake Ladies already have weekends this year for which they can’t take any more orders. And of course, the Delivery Boy finds himself booked solid on those weekends too!
The Cake Boutique went back into the daily retail business this year, as well. Cupcakes are pretty popular, it turns out, as we actually had days where people were standing outside the locked door waiting for a Cake Lady to arrive. I’m not making this up. The flavor list is growing, and some really lucky people got to taste-test some new options early in the year in a customer survey. I hear that there’s more to come, too.
As part of the expansion of the cupcake business, The Cake Boutique’s cupcakes will now be featured in the luxury seating at Eastwood Field, home of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers. For those who aren’t aware, the Scrappers are a short-season Class A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, and for those who follow former Indians, some of us have actually seen the likes of CC Sabathia (now of the Yankees, I think) and Victor Martinez (in Detroit now) start their professional careers at that field! So The Cake Boutique is now a Proud Sponsor of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, and of future Major Leaguers all over the region! Thanks to the Scrappers for partnering with local business.
Anyway, here’s to another great year of cakes all around, and please come by and see us any time—especially on a Saturday when you can experience the madness that is a wedding delivery day! As always, the lovely ladies of The Cake Boutique look forward to making a Memory You Can Taste, and I look forward to another year of making it get there safe and sound—and staying out of their way!