Tuesday, September 18, 2012

SO MUCH TO TELL! Wedding, Groupon, Grand Opening!!

Before I begin this LONG overdue update, I want to thank Darlene - AKA Ethel - for the beautiful post! All of it was so true & much appreciated. Love my Ethel! K - on to some exciting updates! I'll try to make this short & sweet but honestly - you might wanna get a cup of coffee & get comfy! Just sayin...

SO as Darlene mentioned earlier, on September 8, 2012 I married my best friend, soul mate, partner IN & love OF my life - Jeff Schowerer! Can I tell you all that this was the happiest day of my life (next to of course the birth of my children & grandchildren!) I think I only had 2, maybe 3 melt-downs during the weeks leading up to the wedding! And Darlene was with me every step of the way, from choosing my gown (she actually picked it out!) to planning my "Girls' Night Out" to driving all over the state of CT to pick things up to experiencing the traumatic pre-wedding hair appointment (seriously we both looked like we were ready for Halloween & couldn't look at each other without laughing &/or crying) to - yes - baking ALL of the cupcakes, cake pops and petit fours for the wedding!!! Come on now - you didn't think I would really let someone ELSE make my cupcakes right?

Darlene was my maid of honor & put up with my "stuff" for a few weeks - as did Jeff, & there were so many sleepless nights & high stress days, but at 5PM on Sept 8 as I saw my uber-handsome groom at the end of the aisle waiting for me - it was ALL worth it! No one else existed but Jeff as I walked down the aisle. It was a moment I'll treasure for the rest of my life! Having my kids & granddaughter there was the sprinkle on the cupcake! Here's a pic after the ceremony...




Didn't I tell you he was a cutie? Our little family thing ( Jeff, Darlene & me) is saying "love" - hence the reason the ginormous LOVE signs are in the background! Can I also tell you that our cupcake table was GORGEOUS! Pictures to come of that! O - here's a pic of my son Charlie and me - geesh, he's so handsome!











K so as far as cupcakes go we had PB&J, Fluffernutter, Salted Caramel, Lemon Blueberry, Peanut Butter Cup, Chocolate Raspberry as well as chocolate, white & strawberry cakepops! I also made our cake which is one of SuzieCakes specialties - our 6" petit cake - strawberry - all ruffled up & looking so yummy! I promise to post pics as soon as I have them all! Favors for our guests were petit fours all boxed up with a pretty satin ribbon - this was finished very late the night before the wedding by my son & daughter! Amazingly, only 2 or 3 petit fours were eaten during the packaging process! Hmm, make that 4! Apparently Darlene decided to try one but left the empty box in the back seat of my car! More wedding stuff down the road...





NOW on to some bakery news! SO SuzieCakes is now open Tuesday through Sunday from 11am-6pm! Darlene & I have been baking up some amazing yumminess over the last few weeks! Darlene mans the store during the day on weekdays and we're both there on the weekends! I still have my 9-5 but hopefully not for much longer....




So now let's talk about the craziness that has fallen over the bakery in the last few days! Darlene approached me a few weeks ago and proposed that we do a Groupon Deal and run it for 3-4 days. Not knowing a whole lot about what this entailed I said "sure, sounds good". We're just thinking 20, MAYBE 30 people would purchase a coupon, right? That sounds pretty reasonable. K - WRONG! at last glance we have sold over 480 coupons!!! WHAT? Are you kidding me??? 480 dozen cupcakes to go out the door! OMG OMG OMG!! I immediately went into panic mode! The bakery was crazy busy last weekend! BUT how fun it's been to meet all of our new SuzieCakes customers! People coming from all over; Fairfield, Shelton, Monroe, New London, Milford too! The response has been amazing! A little overwhelming but really amazing!!! It's been Sue & Darlene in true Lucy & Ethel form! I only wish some one had been there to video tape our kitchen escapades last weekend!! Luckily, Darlene's son (& my godson!!) Chris was in town from LA to visit & we put him right to work!! The sweetest guy you'll ever meet with a heart as big as the universe! Probably bigger, but you get the point! He was so funny & so great with the customers! He did a little whip cracking but still earned the dubious title of SuzieCakes 1st EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH!! Love that kid!




Some sleepless nights - yep! A little stress - o yeah! A tiff here & there - um yes! But over-all what a great experience! We LOVE meeting our customers, making new friends and providing you all with the yummiest cupcake you're ever gonna taste! Seriously! I mean people didn't even wait till they got home to eat their cupcakes - some didn't even make it out of the bakery! Take a look...









So we're gonna be kind of busy for the next few months! We'll be baking up all kinds of SuzieCakes yumminess for you! The dream is materializing before our eyes! And in a big hurry too! We're just so blessed to have this opportunity & I'm just so lucky to be doing what I love to do with my cousin & best friend! Also so lucky to have experienced my dream-come-true wedding day with my dream-come-true groom!


Stay tuned - next post is gonna be all about our Grand Opening!!! (heads up - October 11!) Thanks for visiting us and as Darlene always says; Stay Sweet!!!





Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Dreams Do Come True!!!!

So as I begin this blog, I have to say Sue usually does the posting, so I am going to surprise her and do a bit of the sharing this time. We have alot of great news to share and I might not be as funny as Sue but I will try to at least keep your interest. First of all I would have never imagined I would be moving from Southern California to Milford, Conneticut, but dreams do come true. Together with my best friend, partner in crime, and not to mention my cousin our dream of SuzieCakes on one coast is about to become real...We are actually going to be living our dream together after almost three years in the making. We actually have a home in Milford at 252 Melba Street where all the action and baking will be taking place. We are actually going to have a grand opening in September (stay tuned for the exact date) another dream we both have talked about for a long time and we actually have ok I will be honest here Sue has actually tested, and perfected over 100 different recipes that we are proud to offer, not all at the same time but if anyone could do it Sue could. She is the creative, dedicated, loyal, recipe keeper of the business and without her there would be no SuzieCakes. I am honored to be working along side of her as we take this journey together. We to promise to keep you updated on our "Lucy" and "Ethel" moments and events. It has been so much fun getting here, we can't wait to share our stories along the way with all of our loyal customers. So if any of you out there have always wanted to do something or have a dream of something you want, take it from both of us "DREAMS TO COME TRUE"! One more thing if not having SuzieCakes becoming real isn't enough in one year, get this Sue's biggest dream will be coming true on September 8th, 2012 when she marries her best friend and part of SuzieCakes as well her partner in real life Jeff. We have alot to be thankful for this year and we look forward to sharing it all with you along the way. Stay tuned for our quirky, funny but real life stories as SuzieCakes and Sue and Jeff start their journey together. Congratulations Sue and Jeff. Yes there will be plenty of wedding pictures so you can enjoy our dreams with us. Here I come Milford...... So stay calm and have a cupcake!!!


Darlene and Sue