Showing posts with label cakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cakes. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Adventure in Baking

I am not precisely a good cook.  I think I can make a couple of things to taste very good.  Guacamole for example is one of the things that I believe is pretty good.  I also make a pasta with tomato sauce that is really good.  According to my nephews, I'm the queen of the spaghetti.  And then, there is my "recycling" food.  I had some dried and old french bread, milk, sugar, eggs, and bought some white cheese.  Well, that became the cake I baked just now.  It looks Ok and it tastes  good too, but is is not as sweet as I hoped. I guess it needs more sugar...  so, what name should I give to this thing??  Any suggestions?  I guess "recycled cake" is not exactly too appealing.  I was going to take a picture, but the batteries are dead.  
Anyway, I'll take a picture of the next one I bake, but Ina is the one that is really good at this baking thing. 

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Getting serious

The dream is taking the form or reality, basically the form of a paper called "proposal" for the lease.  It looks  like a very good deal, we'll have a good grace period before the commencement of the rent, and it will definitely help us with the opening, with getting the place up to code and applying to all the necessary permits.
Honesty, it is a little scary.  As much as I want to do it, signing the lease is a compromise for 5 years! it'll be longer than many of my relationships have been.  On the other hand, I am willing to do this for at least 15 years.
So, I want to show you an example of the cakes that motivated this dream of having a cafe...

The thing is not only they look good, but they taste really good!  What do you think?
I would love to hear your comments.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Every journey starts with a single step

Here I was, in my bed thinking... I really hate my job!  I need to do something different! I've been talking to Ina many times, about having a café where she can sell her cakes, (which by the way are incredible), and as always, I would end up saying "just let me win the lottery and we'll do it".
Turns out that winning the lottery requires a lot more than 1 dollar and a dream.  Dreams are very cheap, and very abundant when you are making very little money for a job that you don't enjoy anymore.
So, one night without even buying my regular Mega Millions ticket, I started to write down a menu for the cafe, how much would cost, and how much would I need to sell to be able to pay the rent and have some money too.  I spent the night awake, thinking of possible expenses, of what would I need to do, or better, what would "we" need to do to make the dream a reality.
The next morning I called Ina and we talked about it.  Let's open a cafe, where we can have some light menu, something like soup, salads, sandwiches and pizza, and make the desserts the highlight of the meal... because, again, I was just thinking of a way to sell Ina's cakes.
That was the first step! The moment we talked about it, the dream started to take shape, a shared dream with different visions, different colors and taste.
After that conversation, I spent the first $25 for the business in a couple of books I ordered from Amazon.com:  "Running a Restaurant for Dummies" and "Starting a Small Restaurant, Revised Edition"
That was on February 6th.