Underground!!

The first Toronto Underground Market

Crisps in the process of being cut up (We sliced 25 kilos of potatoes!)

Crisps on the stall

Well the first TUM has come and gone. The event was a success, we sold out of all our potato crisps and brownies were down to the last few crumbs by the end of the night.

Thanks to Hassel and Carley from the TUM, who did a great job organizing everything. And of course the volunteers, without whom I would never have made it out of the kitchen and to the stall for the 6pm start time! In particular I want to thank Eshwar (my rockstar for the day), Emma, Daria & Dana who swept in at the last minute to help complete packing and ribbon tying!

The day began nicely, I arrived at 8am thinking that I would have plenty of time to deal with everything, and even get home to shower and change...little did I know I would be frying chips from 10am until 6pm when the kitchen lights were turned off (Jessica Brooks, my kitchen mate from Tartina also had the same thought...how wrong we were). Thank goodness those wonderful volunteers swept in, as I really couldn't have finished with out them. Not to mention the fact that I was surviving on a coffee and an oatmeal cookie, my only sustenance it would tun out for the entire day!

The kitchens were a hive of activity, creativity, and fantastic energy. I can't say enough about all the people who were cramped in to the kitchens at the Brickworks. I don't know how 30 people managed to chop, simmer, bake, blend, fry and whip in such a small area, but we all did and there were no fights, tantrums, or problems it was wonderful! Had great laughs with Wes & Chris the Spice Cadets, Jessica, and Eshwar my trusty volunteer, who came to help supervise the kitchen, little did he know he would be roped in to bagging 150 bags of crisps (but I really could not have done it without him)!

When I finally made it out to the floor, the event was fab. Thank you to Tory (the event Media Relation's contact) & Steve my husband for all their help at the stall. Such a great vibe of people coming in, eager to taste and discuss food. We didn't have much time to leave the booth, and sadly there was no time to get any food, except for 2 beef sammy's from the very amazing Kurt & Ryan at Westside Beef. Steve and Tory devoured them within seconds! Steve also stocked up on his favourite snack, scotch eggs, which the lovely Karen & her husband, of Hackney Fine Foods slaved over for days to bring to TUM (and to which Steve says they are egg-cellent!).

All in all a fab event, really happy we took part. Looking forward to getting in to the test kitchen to see what I can cook up for next time...thoughts are on a bacon and cheddar crisp (just a thought right now, but I' m going to try to make it happen!). Thanks to everyone who came out and tried our stuff!

Cheers!

Deirdre
p.s. Check us out in The National Post

Less than a month to go!

Hard to believe the TUM is just around the corner!

Have done the registration, paid the reg fee, ordered supplies, and now all we have left to do is to get baking!

The event has sold out, which is fantastic. Clearly there is a need for food in this city!

24 days to go!

TUM!!!! Here we COME!

So excited! Just got the news that we are in to the Toronto Underground Market! Now we just need to get planning again! Do I even remember how to do that!

Pumped about new ideas that are coming to me, very excited to start making potato crisps, inspired by my lovely husband, Steve who is English (thus crisps, not chips). For sample day we tried Rosemary & Garlic, Thyme & Cracked Pepper (which would go excellent with ice cold beers) and Sea Salt.

Only 46 days to go!

Deirdre

Toronto TUM!

Hoping we are back!

After our big move back to Canada last year I feared that we would not be able to continue with the food business. Thanks to a very clever woman, Hassle Aviles, there may be hope! She has started the revolution here, The Toronto Underground Market, a place for those of us who can't afford a commercial kitchen.

Find out more at :
http://torontoundergroundmarket.tumblr.com/
yumtum.ca

Tomorrow is our taste test day, so fingers crossed we get the shot to be part of the TUM market at the Brickworks!

Visions in Pink!

This past weekend, I had the privilege to bake the cake for a fabulous 40th Birthday party. It was such fun to create something different for a woman who clearly knew what she wanted. I'm happy to share some photos of the cake, I think it worked perfectly!

TWITTER!

Just wanted to let all of our technology friendly friends know that we are now posting on twitter. You can follow us there at NICEBAKESHOP. We are loving it as we can be posting from all of our locations that don't have internet, like the farmer's market and Master Chef Live. We hope you will follow along and find out what's happening!

Master Chef Live 2009

For those of you getting ready for Christmas early you should come check out our stall at the Masterchef Live Show! We will be exhibiting on the ground floor in the food lovers fair area (Stand FLF9). We will have all sorts of show specials and brownies for everyone!

DIY!

Well we are very busy getting ready for the upcoming holidays and the Master Chef Live Show (formerly the BBC Good Food Show) at London Olympia!
We thought we would share a little bit of the action here at the bake shop. See our production line of DIY kits below!

Gluten Free

Well, again we have been asked, so we will deliver. We have spoken to our local Flour Mill and Matt at Stone Ground Flour has been happy to come up with some Gluten Free flour for us to use in our baked goods.

We will be testing out our first batches of Gluten Free Brownies and cupcakes at this weeks farmer's market!

Farmer's Market- NEWPORT- Isle of Wight

Well we are finally at the Isle of Wight Farmer's Markets! We have been going now for just over a month and it's going very well. It's great to get to meet so many people and hear what they are saying about our baked goodies!

The Market's are every Friday and Saturday. Friday's Market takes place in St. Mark's Square in Newport, and Saturday's Market is just outside Somerfields off the High Street. Both take place from about 8am until 2pm.

We have added to our line and we are selling cupcakes, cookies/ biscuits, scones (on Saturday's only), our DIY lkits, and of course our brownies.

If you are visiting the island please do come by and visit us at the market!

http://www.islandfarmersmarket.co.uk/

Bakes, cakes, and anything else

Well, here at the bake shop over the past year we have received quite a few requests for cakes, so in the interest of pleasing our customers, you ask you shall get! We have started making cakes, cupcakes, and scones. We haven't figured out how to get them in the post yet, but as soon as we do we'll make them available for sale on line.


If you are interested in a specific cake, give us a ring to discuss your needs. We can make victoria sponges, cream cakes, chocolate, red velvet, and carrot to name a few, if you have a special request we are always willing to give it a go.

Valentines...wil you be mine!

Well, it's almost that time. Here at the bakeshop we are busily preparing for every chocolate lovers favourite day, Valentines!

We have a few new ideas, similar to Christmas, we are doing a giant personalised Valentines Heart, approx 600g. We can put up to 6 letters on 2 lines of you or your loved ones names. Or if you have any other ideas, let us know and we'll see if we can help you out.

We also are doing smaller hearts, just over half a kilo, not personalised, for those who understand that chocolate is sometimes bigger than words!

Finally, this month we are really excited, as our Valentines treats are being featured in Good Food Magazine, as well as Country and Town House magazine as part of Henrietta Greens Great Food Lovers Gifts for Valentines (www.foodloversbritain.com). Thanks t all the people at Food Lovers for enjoying our brownies so much!

Happy hearts!

Deirdre

Holiday Brownie

Ok, things at the bake shop have been very busy these past few weeks. I have finally had the time to take some pictures of our personalised holiday brownie, as many of you have been asking what this would look like. We can personalise your tree shaped brownie with up to 6 letters (more won't fit unfortunately). We do this in all 5 of our flavours. A nice way to say happy holidays! They are the equivalent of approx 10 of our regular brownies and we are selling the online for £20 including delivery.

ho ho ho!

Do It Yourself Brownies take 2

The DIY Brownie has officially arrived. We now have the jars back in stock and they are now up on the website. We are offering them for £12 each, including delivery or you can get a deal as we are offering 3 jars for £30.

We think they will make great Christmas gifts, particularly for kids, or adults who just don't have the time to cook.

** N.B.- For those of you who visited us during the Good Food Show, we have had to increase the cost of the brownie jar, as the glass is so heavy that posting it costs over £4.00.

Do It Yourself Brownies

During the Good Food Show we had a lot of attention in regards to our Do It Yourself Brownies.
They are ideal for people who love our brownies, but want the chance to make them at home for themselves. Our original Triple Treat mix in a retro decorative jar. Simply mix with butter and eggs, pop in the oven and you have your own brownies ready to be eaten! Great as a gift, or as a treat for yourself!

I wanted to get a picture of the jar up on the blog as soon as possible. We will be adding the purchase option to the website very shortly. Until then, any questions or orders can be made by emailing us at orders@nicebakeshop.com

Thanks!

Deirdre

BBC Good Food Show winners

Thank you to everyone who dropped by our stand at the BBC Good Food Show. We had a tremendous show, with great input from all the brownie lovers who attended. We even sold out of all our brownies!

We have our winners from the prize draw. They are:

Kathryn McDowell

Louise Broughton

Sarah Gunn

Thank you again for entering our draw.

We will be taste testing many of our flavour suggestions over the next few weeks and our flavour winner will be announced shortly.

We have lots of exciting things happening in the bakeshop over the next few weeks. Keep checking our website and blog to get caught up.

We have a new personalised Christmas brownie coming out for the holiday season. It is a very large brownie in the shape of a Christmas tree. We are letting people personalise it with the initials (or name up to 6 letters) of their friend or loved one. The perfect personalised gift to send someone, £20 including delivery. We will have pictures online very shortly, and it should be on our website by next week.

After the demand at the BBC Good Food Show for our Do It Yourself Brownie, we have ordered more jars. We should be getting them in the next few weeks, so you can order them in time for the holidays. They will be £12 including delivery, or 3 for £30. This will be online as of next week.

Please remember all Christmas orders must be placed by Wednesday December 17th in order to avoid disappointment.


Thank you again!

Deirdre Crampton
www.nicebakeshop.com
http://nicebakeshop.blogspot.com/

BBC Good Food Show

Today was the first day of The London BBC Good Food Show. We had an exceptional start. Arriving late yesterday afternoon after baking our hearts out for 2 days straight to get all of our yummy brownies up to the show we got set up and ready to go.

We introduced a new product to our family of brownies. We are now doing a Do-It- Yourself brownie. Which is essentially the same mix we use for our brownies, but you can take it home, mix it yourself, and enjoy fresh baked brownies...I dare them to make it too far out of the pan! They proved so popular this morning we sold out all of our kits by this afternoon!! We will shortly be adding them to the website and they will be available for Christmas orders.

Thank you to everyone who dropped by today! Thank you for having a taste and all of your wonderful comments!

More excitement to come for tomorrow! Hope you come by and visit!

Big Chocolate Kisses!

Deirdre

5 Star Brownies

Well, today we had our first visit from the local food safety officer. We spent some time discussing the logistics of running the kitchen. Then came the nerve racking part, I was making up the orders for the day with an audience (the food safety officer and a student)!

Great news is that the inspection went well. We received 5 stars, the highest rating. The food inspector was very impressed with our general awareness and the steps that are taken in our kitchen to ensure great food safety.

Unfortunately for her, she was unable to taste test any of the brownies, something she looked very sad not to be able to do!

For more information: http://www.iwight.com/scoresonthedoors/

Isle of Wight County Press

For those of you who don't live on the Island, we have just received our first local press. The Isle of Wight County Press published a story about the business.

Check it out:

http://www.iwcp.co.uk/News/Business/LIFE_IS_SWEET_FOR_DEIRDRE.aspx

Garlic Farm

So some of you might have been wondering why I was tinkering with the idea of putting Garlic in to brownies...I'm not just a crazy experimentalist! We have now started distributing our brownies at the Islands very popular Garlic Farm Shop. Set in a beautiful location this sweet farm shop offers all sorts of food goodies, mainly involving their star product, you guessed it, garlic! They also carry many Island based companies, now including ours!

If you're ever in the area, I recommend you come check them out.

www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk