catiecakes: flavor inspiration

So by now most of you know that I have this side baking business called "catiecakes" and it's actually starting to feel like a legit, very adult thing to do (and not one of these crazy side projects that I think about all the time but never actually materialized).  The business cards are out and about, the orders are starting to flow in at a manageable, enjoyable pace and very shortly I have to bite the bullet and get the facebook page/website up and running.  I've had so many people say to me before "Oh quit your job, open a store and bake full time.  You'll be great".  And obviously I love the positive words of encouragement and don't get me wrong, that is the end goal but just thinking about an actual store right now is like taking laps around the anxiety pool.  If I learned anything from the handful of business courses that I took in college is that you have to create demand before you can have supply for something so if I could keep baking and continuing to get the catiecakes name out there for the next few months, find a place to have a pop-up shop or as I like to refer to it as "the chic-modern bake sale", and keep on thinking how I can make my business more unique and different then the one next door then we are moving in the right direction and before you know it I'll be trading those early mornings for baking instead of running for the train to New York. 

I'm going to an Oktoberfest party this evening at our friends Julia and Tom and from the sound of it, this is going to be quite the event with an expected cast of 75-100 guests.  While I'm not really up on classic German fare, I figured this would be a perfect opportunity for catiecakes to make an appearance and get introduced to a whole new group of people.  So far in the past month, I've done a lot of classic flavors of white/vanilla, chocolate, red velvet, pumpkin and coconut but I was feeling inspired this week and was looking to push the creative envelope a little further today.  Here is the lineup for tonight:

-Purple Velvet with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting:  I've always had a sweet spot in my heart for red velvet cake and I know Julia joins me on this one as well.  The other day I was flipping through a magazine article on different wedding cake flavors and I came across a purple velvet cake and needless to say, I was obsessed just thinking about this genius idea.

-Pistachio with Mocha Butter cream:  This was a Martha Stewart inspiration and only Martha can send me on wild goose chases through New Haven County looking for special ingredients to use in her recipes and this time it was Pistachio Extract.  I know, you're probably thinking to yourself "wait does pistachio extract even exist?"  but I can assure you it does by the way of specialty baking stores and I'm due for a trip to the King Arthur Baking Company soon.  For the record, and to save yourself time and peace of mind, Whole Foods, nor any grocery store or craft venue sells it in the area.  For this round, I used a stand-in ingredient which looks like it did the trick. 

-Fleur de sel Caramel with Chocolate Butter cream:  The salt with caramel and chocolate phase is huge right now and my friend Michelle sent me this recipe for Crack Brownies this week that uses Maldon sea salt flakes on top of the brownies that look absolutely delish.  I haven't gotten a chance to make the brownies yet but I thought this would be the perfect flavor for a cupcake so they are. 

Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy this beautiful warm weather (it's totally throwing me off on what to wear now but I figured, I might as well enjoy it before there is a foot of snow on the ground).