In the beginning...

Here at Broadway Brew Coffeehouse we love coffee, and the only thing better than coffee, is coffee with sweets:

This is a cupcake we made 6 months ago when we decided to start baking cupcakes. (Remember, Jess, when we thought they were awesome…)

This is our cupcake now. We have come a long way.

So, the bosses (David and Stacey) decided we should start a blog, a baking blog about our many adventures at the Broadway Brew. 

I remember the first time that Stacey brought me the Rebecca Rather’s Pastry Queen Book – it changed our lives! And, I also remember when Stacey and I tried to make that Tuxedo Cake (HA!).

We decided cupcakes were a better route. And then there were the first vanilla cupcakes that could be mistaken for housing bricks, and then just heavy pound cake cupcakes, and now—FINALLY—they are light and fluffy! Jess and I definitely have a love – hate relationship with the darn things!

But, we make so much more than just cupcakes! We take a great pride in making our goodies from scratch. Because we make so many things daily, I am constantly trying to find new ways to organize and make our work as personal and efficient as possible. So, we now have a “Baking Chart.” This is very close to my heart and I take it personally when we do not honor or achieve all that is on the chart daily (right, Jess?). Everyone that works here thinks I am a loon (especially David, as he is not a “chart” person). Well, despite the laughing and ridicule, Jess and I carry on making and baking every chance we get:  finding new ideas that work and some that sadly . . . are epic failures.

Jess, do you remember when I got back from a vacation and I walk in the door (as I do live here) and David bombards me with, “Hey, next Wednesday is ‘Free Cupcake Day’ and you guys need to make 500 cupcakes.” It was at this moment that I was certain he had lost his mind.

But, hey! We did it! Final count, 543 cupcakes:  Banana Puddin’, Chocolate Ganache, and Birthday Cake!! It was one of the most fun days that I have had since being at the Brew!

 I was so excited about our accomplishment until I turned on DC Cupcakes that night and saw that they made 25,000 in one day. That was the last time I watched that show.

Although that day was awesome, there are so many other, far more subtle days, which make me love my job more and more. Like baby Parker sneaking into the kitchen for a bite of icing while Mommy is not watching.

Or the little girl coming in for a cupcake on her birthday and Jess and I making one special with “extra” sprinkles. And, how could I forget Jack, who buys cookies as fast as we can make them, or Robert, who comes in every morning to buy his wife a muffin. We have the best and most supportive customers!

These things make it easy to wake up at five am to come to work before the sun. Or deal with our co-workers, Jose and Bart, consistently bombarding us with unwanted opinions and taste testing.  Despite the difficulties—we’ll get to those later—it is easy to put love into all of those baked goods, because we can’t think of a better place to be.