Give Me All Your Love Today

Ello Baykahs!!
What may seem like a long week waiting for me to blog...REALLY was one of the quickest, busiest, CRAZIEST weeks for me. I feel like I JUST pushed PUBLISH on that last one...and here I am playing catch-up...AGAIN.
NO MORE APOLOGIES.

IIWII, right?
RIGHT.

Why haven't I blogged yet? Well, last week was what felt like a Saturday after a Saturday after a Saturday. I LITERALLY woke up each morning saying to myself, "This is Sunday, right?" And I was ALWAYS wrong.

WHY were we so busy?? The busiest day of the YEAR, of course! VALENTINE'S DAY! Oh, yeah...and the DAY BEFORE VALENTINE'S DAY (apparently, people go nuts THAT day too).

*FULL DISCLOSURE/UPDATE: Lucy had her medical testing on 2/13, and so far everything is just fine. The thing we were worried about the MOST turned out to be ok...so, from here we still don't know what's UP, but we DO know that it's not as bad as we thought. GOOD NEWS. BAD NEWS: haven't got the bill yet.....

SO, yes, we were busy...and I'm glad we were because, GUESS WHAT? Our food cost went up! And SO did our Worker's Comp insurance!! YEAH!!! It is SO awesome to work TWICE as hard for the same money...LOVE IT.

*FULL DISCLOSURE: come on now...this is getting ridiculous. JUST when I could give my employees raises is when my costs go up....OF COURSE.

So...we need to raise our prices...just on cakes. In all reality we haven't raised our basic cakes prices in four years, so I can understand. 10 cupcakes are $26.50. A cake that serves 10 is $20 (right now....), so it's time. Only $5...but that $5 will make a big difference...until I get another bill I've forgotten about.

That's the way of the world, Bakery Wannabes. You work and work and work only to check your mail to find out that they've RAISED the the rates on your electricity, water, insurance, WHATEVER....and your bank account is EXACTLY where it has been...

Every day I see what EVERYONE else is doing for THEIR businesses: expanding, taking investors, building a fifth location...and I am CONSTANTLY questioning what WE'RE doing. I ALWAYS feel like I'm doing it WRONG.

*FULL DISCLOSURE: I am NOT fishing for compliments here...so don't bother

I see a LOT of my friends' businesses building new locations ONE AFTER THE OTHER, and I think...is THAT the direction I'm supposed to go? I am CONSTANTLY questioning myself about WHAT IS NEXT about Retro....then I'm CONSTANTLY reminding myself that their business is THEIR business...mine is MINE. Baked goods are a different BEAST. They are NOT assembly-line foods (even though they may seem like them). BAKED FRESH DAILY isn't easy, and THAT is why it TASTES GOOD.

I've been thinking a lot about what I'm doing wrong...IF I'm doing something wrong, and I always come back to MY CUSTOMERS. They come back. They are happy. They feel included. I don't want to expand or MOVE and ruin all the connections I've made in our neighborhood. Four years I've tried to tell people WHERE Retro is...and they FINALLY know...I can't ruin that.

Expansion is ALWAYS a possibility...but, is it what we REALLY want?

THAT is the question.

While I ponder THAT you look at our Cupcakes/Cakes O' the WEEK!


Vegas/Cheshire Cat birthday cake:

It's MY favorite cake: Vans-checked birthday cake:
Baby Biscuits cake:
3D fondant heart cake:

Fresh roses wedding cake (all buttercream):
Poker chips and dice cupcakes:



And the BIG DADDY of the WEEK: Vegas birthday cake!!! This cake was made to look EXACTLY like the invitation...right down to the MATCHBOOK:
check out that hand painting by Brian!!Gotta love edible ASH.

All right, KITTY KATS. Let's start THIS week already! Here's to checking the mail and NOT finding a NEW BILL! Hey, wait...no mail today! It's President's Day! This Monday is startin' off GREAT already!


Laytah