Tag: cupcakes

The Side Hustle

In the effort to stay at home with my now four year old son I have started to feel the need for some extra income. I recently applied for and got a job back in the culinary industry to bring in a few extra dollars on the weekend when I am kid free. Ideally not what I was looking for but it’s one of this foot in the door and a chance to prove yourself moving forward. A classic case of walking before you can run, and after thinking about it now for a few days it’s absolutely perfect.

However it will only slow the bleeding that has been my bank account the last few months, ideally I want to bring that down to a trickle and eventually start to fill up the federal reserves again. Man I am big on the metaphors today! In comes the Side Hustle! I originally heard this term thrown around in some of the men’s mental health groups I have joined, and more recently on commercials for Uber. #sidehustle

Some friends and I had talked about starting a baking company late last year and this January I finally decided to take the bull by the horn and go all in. It first started with the 6 quart MixMaster mixer I ordered for a screaming deal on Amazon. And then it was Wix.com to set up a website, and finally VistaPrint to get some business cards, car magnets, t-shirts and a large banner which I’ve yet to hang outside my house. Tomorrow’s project for sure.

The Facebook page is up, the Instagram account is active and I’ve even started to boost posts on Facebook which has actually helped bring some more visibility to the site. No orders yet, but as men aren’t we notorious for waiting until the last minute? I have received a few orders already and this morning I went about my normal routine of taking the kids to school, and then making an order for a friend that was willing to help me test out the ability to send these delicious cookies through the mail and see what the end result would be.

I was very happy with the results of my efforts as you can see here…

… however when I went to pack them up the icing had not quite hardened all the way and several of them were squished. I did manage to save four of them but will have to redo the other eight, several of which are sitting at the bottom of my stomach as part of afternoon snack.

There has been a learning curve involved with his business venture for sure and at this point I am just hoping to sell enough cookies to cover off my investment and then make a few dollars. If it can be turned into a profitable enough venture to allow me to stay at home full time then I will consider that a Hugh WIN, however there is a lot of work and a lot of cookies between now and then.

If you have a few moments I invite you to look at the site as advertised below. Not looking for orders but rather feedback, ease of navigation, products you would like to see kind of idea. Swim lessons are wrapping up and then it is off the the 25th run in a row. Now that’s Hustle!

https://www.northwestbakery.com North West Bakery is based in Barrie, Ontario serving Simcoe County and the Greater Toronto Area, all of our products are homemade with love.  We can hand deliver to your business, party or special event.  Visit https://www.NorthWestBakery.com for details!

2017 Top 10 ~ Baking, baking and more baking (#7)

Despite the occasional box cake mix, and lets get the joke out of the way right off the bat, I love to bake.  It comes from being my mother’s faithful kitchen assistant growing up and helping her in the kitchen, that love of baking has really blossomed over the past six months.  There was a run there for a few years when I was really into making cupcakes, and would often involve Emily and Megan in these projects.

It only makes sense to me to serve up my children delicious creations from my own kitchen as opposed to store bought delights filled with an endless number of preservatives.  Jennifer and Austin also love to help out in the kitchen everytime that we make cookies and it is another great way to spend time together as a family.

The one item I seem to make most these days is Banana Bread, and I’ve been slowly perfecting the recipe over the past few months.  Most weeks I make at least two, and a few times I’ve made as many as five in a single week.  The kids devour them (I give them to neighbors) and even as I type this Megan is asking when I am making another one as it is her favorite snack…

Beauty of a blog post, it can be paused and picked back up (banana bread made, and in the oven!)

Ahh now I can smell the deliciousness in the air of a banana bread baking away in the oven, amazing.  Always a great smell in the house when I have something cooking.  The other reason that I love baking so much is that I find it very relaxing and a chance to practice some mindfulness.

I can turn everything off and forget about the rest of the world for a few minutes when I am making a tasty treat.  The whole process can be equated down to Love vs Science , a post I have recently written about.  I have always been a very scientific baker as it helps sooth my OCD a bit, however I have recently been schooled in the ways of baking with love (not the love ingredient I previously mentioned) but actually LOVE and being slightly less concerned about perfect measurements across the board.

After some debate I had to agree that cookies made with love rather than pure science seemed to taste a bit better when eating them.

Some other items I have been working at perfecting are homemade pies and Sugar Cookies.  My favorite pie would be a good old fashioned Apple Pie with a slight taste of cinnamon.  Granny Smith apples seem to work best based on their texture and slight tart taste which plays great against all the sweetness of the sugar you would add.  I’ve also made my first Peach pie, Cherry pie, from scratch Pumpkin pie and even a Chocolate Pudding pie a few weeks ago.

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I am also in the process of working on getting an online baking company up and running with the help of Patrick and Kristi we have had a few orders and I look to dedicate a section of my blog site dedicated to this venture next week.  This has been focused around Sugar cookies and Kristi has taught me a tremendous amount about how to properly ice these cookies, as well as continuing to bust my chops about using a boxed cake mix.