The gals at team Blackmarket are looking for a new intrepid member of our crew. We have been collecting resumes for quite a while but the right person has not yet come along. To join our merrymaking band, you must have culinary (baking) experience, preferably with some time at a culinary school, plus you need to embrace or at least tolerate sass, wit and sarcasm. We seem to draw those with a slightly off-center sense of humor.
As for the details of the position... Each week our new team member will spend 2 days in our kitchen on baking and production. For 3 days he/she will travel out to various farmers markets in OC, cheerfully selling our baked goods and generally educating the public about the Blackmarket Bakery mission. Baking can be the slam dunk - the hard part is finding a hearty soul who can sustain energy for the selling side of the business. Selling at markets is not hard, but when things get slow, it can be tough. So, if you or someone you know is interested, please email us a resume to rachel@blackmarketbakery.com. I'll keep you posted on our progress.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
On a Lighter Note... Sassy Tarts
We have been offering a "Sassy Tart" class at the bakery since we started holding classes over 3 years ago. The recipes keep rotating and evolving, based on the season and the outcome. So, last night we had Sassy Spring Tarts and I must say that every recipe came out wonderfully. The tarts under our scrutiny last night were Mango Tart Tatin (deconstructed), Apricot Frangipan Tart, Banana Chocolate Tart Bruleed, Tropical Fruit Tart with Coconut, Blackberry Clafouti Tart and Lemon Souffle Tart.
The mango tart was incredible. I found the recipe in a tart book by Eric Kayser - a famous French baker & pastry chef who has a place called BreadBar in LA. His instructions called for us to caramelize the sugar in a saute pan then add butter and then add the sliced mango. The mango cooked in the caramel along with some ground and candied ginger. This part all went fine. But the recipe wanted us to place our dough on top of the mango in the saute pan and put this all in the oven. In the past, I've had my butt kicked by tatin recipes. Either the fruit is done and the dough is not or vice versa. So instead, we blind baked the tart shells and finished off the mango in the saute pan on the heat. Then the mango was artfully arranged in the tart shells and topped with more of the ginger-mango caramel. Jealous?
My other favorite was the Tropical Fruit Tart from Pierre Herme's book. The batter consists of ground almonds, butter, rum, coconut, eggs and that gets baked in the tart shells lined with our classic pate sucre. The filling bakes up nice and flavorful - buttery yet delicate. Then the tarts are topped off with sliced kiwi, mango and papaya. If only we could make these for the farmer's markets!
The mango tart was incredible. I found the recipe in a tart book by Eric Kayser - a famous French baker & pastry chef who has a place called BreadBar in LA. His instructions called for us to caramelize the sugar in a saute pan then add butter and then add the sliced mango. The mango cooked in the caramel along with some ground and candied ginger. This part all went fine. But the recipe wanted us to place our dough on top of the mango in the saute pan and put this all in the oven. In the past, I've had my butt kicked by tatin recipes. Either the fruit is done and the dough is not or vice versa. So instead, we blind baked the tart shells and finished off the mango in the saute pan on the heat. Then the mango was artfully arranged in the tart shells and topped with more of the ginger-mango caramel. Jealous?
My other favorite was the Tropical Fruit Tart from Pierre Herme's book. The batter consists of ground almonds, butter, rum, coconut, eggs and that gets baked in the tart shells lined with our classic pate sucre. The filling bakes up nice and flavorful - buttery yet delicate. Then the tarts are topped off with sliced kiwi, mango and papaya. If only we could make these for the farmer's markets!
Micro vs. Macro Economics
Not that I actually know anything about economics - only the ups and downs that I see in the bank account. When I was an undergrad at UCI back in the 90's, I signed up for an economics class but dropped after the first week - too busy I thought. As if working 20 hours per week & taking 4 classes per quarter added up to busy - now that would seem like a cake walk.
Note to self: someday take a basic business economics class! It would be so damn helpful. That being said, we've made it as a small startup for over 3 years now - without siphoning much money out of the pockets of well-meaning relatives. It's called the art of boot-strapping, but it doesn't leave much left over for normal business expenses like website design, advertising, marketing, PR.
The only reason I bring up the economy at all is that the news just keeps getting worse. Everywhere you turn, a headline screams about how the economy is tanking. I wonder how much of this is really happening in a structural way and how much of this is just over-reaction to all of the bad news. Housing prices are down, people are foreclosing, no one is spending money - at least that's what the news leads us to believe. So as a small business owner, how do I forecast and plan for this year? People still have to eat, right? People still celebrate birthdays with cake, right? An article in the Register this morning said that restaurants are down compared to 2 years ago. Maybe I should just stop reading the paper because all this bad news makes me feel paranoid and helpless.
Those of us old enough to remember the dot.com bubble burst have seen this before... Good news, great news, stocks up then the big psychological crash, then bad news and more bad news. Maybe I'll use the ostrich approach and put my head in the sand, confident that this will pass...
And in the meantime, we still get to make cake, croissants, bread pudding and marshmallows and keep my fingers crossed.
Note to self: someday take a basic business economics class! It would be so damn helpful. That being said, we've made it as a small startup for over 3 years now - without siphoning much money out of the pockets of well-meaning relatives. It's called the art of boot-strapping, but it doesn't leave much left over for normal business expenses like website design, advertising, marketing, PR.
The only reason I bring up the economy at all is that the news just keeps getting worse. Everywhere you turn, a headline screams about how the economy is tanking. I wonder how much of this is really happening in a structural way and how much of this is just over-reaction to all of the bad news. Housing prices are down, people are foreclosing, no one is spending money - at least that's what the news leads us to believe. So as a small business owner, how do I forecast and plan for this year? People still have to eat, right? People still celebrate birthdays with cake, right? An article in the Register this morning said that restaurants are down compared to 2 years ago. Maybe I should just stop reading the paper because all this bad news makes me feel paranoid and helpless.
Those of us old enough to remember the dot.com bubble burst have seen this before... Good news, great news, stocks up then the big psychological crash, then bad news and more bad news. Maybe I'll use the ostrich approach and put my head in the sand, confident that this will pass...
And in the meantime, we still get to make cake, croissants, bread pudding and marshmallows and keep my fingers crossed.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Blackmarket Bakery-mobile...
Newport Signs in Irvine did an amazing job on the graphics! Many thanks.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Moving along...
Today went well. Market was up - highest so far this year - cake were done on time - lots of wacky kids hung around - all went well. Tomorrow there is a big elaborate cake due, so we'll be here late tonight assembling, sculpting, planning, etc. D will come here straight from work to help in the AM. If it looks fabulous it will go on the website.
I wonder what the rules are about copyright infringement? We've had lots of people ask for already existing images to be reproduced on cakes - hello kitty, cinderella, larry boy, sponge bob, etc. I tell people that we can make the cake as a landscape for the characters but that we aren't supposed to make the characters too. But is even that infringing because we're using another part of the imagery from the movie, TV show, etc? We're so off-the-radar that maybe it's not a big deal. I just wonder. I would rather recreate a character out of fondant & cake than to have a plastic figurine get stuck on our creation. The cake below is a perfect example. I've been reticent to put it on the website for the same reason...
Car should be done by Tuesday, so we'll see how that looks...
I wonder what the rules are about copyright infringement? We've had lots of people ask for already existing images to be reproduced on cakes - hello kitty, cinderella, larry boy, sponge bob, etc. I tell people that we can make the cake as a landscape for the characters but that we aren't supposed to make the characters too. But is even that infringing because we're using another part of the imagery from the movie, TV show, etc? We're so off-the-radar that maybe it's not a big deal. I just wonder. I would rather recreate a character out of fondant & cake than to have a plastic figurine get stuck on our creation. The cake below is a perfect example. I've been reticent to put it on the website for the same reason...
Car should be done by Tuesday, so we'll see how that looks...
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Car & Pizza
Pictured above are the planned two sides of our new bakery-mobile. We are going for the outrageous & eye-catching as opposed to the clear & easily-understandable. On the hood will be our skull & crossed swords logo. So, now I'm heading over to the printers again to explain that "yes this is what we want", even though they advised us to go simple. We can always scrape the graphics off I suppose?
At the bakery last night we held our first Pizza class for adults. We will certainly do that again as all were smiles at their amazing pizza creations. Having 10 people was a whirlwind of activity, but luckily the students were all game and ready to dig in to the process. Because I'm a bit on the "off the cuff" wacky side, a few times we have had class attendees who feel like the kitchen process is too chaotic and not organized enough. It may be true, but I want the students to do everything themselves, instead of having all the ingredients measured out or items premade. At least that's more similar to working in one's own kitchen. And thanks to Todd for bringing the wine and to Mark for again being our amazing "oven master"!
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