Meet Anna Alvarez from Sweet Anna Cakes and Confections

Starting this week, I am going to post as many articles as I can about the contributors to our prizes for the Great Cloth Diaper Change.  The Locals that is, and the work at home moms....I am always amazed at all the moms with small kids that keep a business going... so without more from me, meet Anna:

What is your name and tell me about yourself ?
My name is Anna Rainbow Alvarez.  As you can tell by my middle name I am the child of hippy parents, for which I am very thankful.  I grew up living in farm houses, growing vegetables in our organic garden, raising chickens and goats.  We even lived in a school bus with a rainbow painted on the back for a while when I was a kid.  From my parents I learned that it is best to walk to the beat of your own drum, but it took a long time to really decide to live that way once I became an adult.  I sort of fell into the cubicle life working in the medical financial industry in my twenties.  The pay was good, but the systems I worked with were very corrupt (insurance companies, specifically) and the longer I worked within that system, the more burned out and cynical I became.  After my daughter was born in 2008 I started realizing that I had had enough of life in a soul-sucking job.  I felt like I was losing my creativity.  

At about the same time, my husband bought me my first cake decorating course at a local crafting store.  I immediately fell in love with cake decorating.  It felt fulfilling.  I had always been an excellent cook and baker, and I used to be a prolific artist - and cake decorating combined BOTH of these passions.  In 2011 after losing four hours of my life to (yet another) face melting in a meeting with a millionaire doctor who was upset he hadn't collected $900.00 for removing a splinter from a 96 year old homeless man's toe, I had had enough.  I put in my notice and shortly thereafter opened my business. 


What is your shop and how does it work?
My shop is Sweet Anna's Cakes and Confections.   As of Saturday April 7, 2012 I will be selling baked goods at the Lee's Summit Farmers' Market at the corner of 2nd and Douglas.  My website is: http://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetAnnaCakes.  The not fragile items in my store (cookies, brownies, unfrosted cakes) can be ordered and shipped anywhere in the world.  My pies are available for order as well through Etsy, but due to the fragile nature of pastry crust, they are only available for sale to patrons in the Kansas City area.  I deliver to homes and businesses, generally on the Friday after the pie is ordered. For wedding and other special occassion cakes, I set up a consultation with the client and then meet for a tasting of whatever flavors of cake and icing they would like.  

At that consultation, basic design for the cake is discussed (colors, flavors, size, flowers, budget, etc.).  I take this information and then sketch several designs for the client to choose from.  Once all the details are in order, I write up a contract for the client to sign with the final price of the cake and all of the details involved.  If the client would like to pay in installments, I will list the installments on Etsy in a reserved listing for the client. 


How did you get the idea for your shop?
The idea for my shop came from my sister-in-law, Elizabeth McDonald (a fanstastic and amazing painter - you can see her work at aesthetiac.com).  She emailed me shortly after I had decided I needed a change in careers with the suggestion that I take the first step by selling on Etsy.  She shops a lot on Etsy and turned me on to it as well. 


Scariest cake you ever had to move?

There were two scary cakes.  The first wedding cake I ever made for a paying client was terrifying.  I had very little time to set up the cake, so I had to bring it completely assembled to the reception site - this is not the way I prefer to do it.  I would much rather bring the tiers separately and then stack the cake at the site.  I was relatively new to the Kansas City area and I asked my mother-in-law what the least curvy route would be to the reception site.  She told me, but I neglected to ask for the flattest route.  I was going up and down hills with a fully assembled and stacked cake in the back of my van.  And then when I got to the reception site, someone had taken all of the signs down that I was supposed to follow to the reception room.  In the end, the cake got there safely and looked great. The second scary cake was a cake I drove all the way to Jefferson City as a favor to a friend.  I thought I had the whole thing in the bag because I had driven the route so many times previously for my job.  But when I turned off the main highway to get to the house the reception was at I was immediately confronted with a huge 45 degree incline of a hill (at least it seemed that steep!)  I said a really long, loud string of profanity as soon as I saw the hill.  But the cake arrived safely, and the reception site was one of the most beautiful I have seen. 


How did you decide on your name?
My company's name was decided upon kind of by accident while my husband was taking a web design class.  He had to design a pretend website, and decided to make one for my dream business.  He needed a name, and so we came up with Sweet Anna's.  People have always said I am a sweet person, and since I make sweet things, it seemed to fit. 

What is your favorite of the things you bake?
That is a hard question to answer.  I don't make anything that I don't like to eat, and I am fickle.  Right now I love my peach mango pie - it has a coconut crumble topping on it that really gives it a nice texture when combined with the silky fruit and the flakiness of the crust.  But before that it was cream cheese brownies and gingerbread cookies.  

As for cake, I love carrot cake.  Since I am so fickle, and also because I like to bake with what is in season at the moment, the menu I offer at the Farmers' Market will change each month, and you can be sure that whatever I am selling that month will be my favorite at the time. 


Anything else you want to say?
I have never felt more fulfilled and happy in my life since I started my business.  I am healthier, happier, and more content.  Follow your dreams...  there is a reason you have them.  My mom said this the other day on her facebook page:  "Y'know all those ideas in your head ... big important projects ... plans to save the planet ... stuff you've been putting off, because it's too huge or too hairy? Well, today is the day! Just start it. Just give it 30 minutes. Just plant a couple of seeds, or make one difficult phone call, or organize one drawer. 

Yay! Today, the world is gonna change!" That is exactly what it took for me to start this business.  Each day I did something small.  Every day when something bad happened at work I would tell myself, "Self, if you want to get out of this, you need to make the change happen.  You want to bake for a living?  Then find out what it takes to set yourself up as a corporation...  See if you can afford to rent a kitchen...  Make a call to the Health Department...  DO ONE THING NOW."  Because doing something is so much better than being miserable and waiting for something better to happen to you.  You have to be your own change. And I am not there yet...  Still have several steps in the business plan to go.  This year it is to sell at the Farmers' Market...  Next year I have another goal.  And the final goal will be to open a permanent storefront somewhere in Kansas City where I can promote other local artists' work.  I'll get there eventually, but at the moment I am just incredibly thankful that I have been able to get to the place I am.  Thankful for a family who supports me, thankful for a husband who is willing to work and make enough to pay the bills while I pursue this dream, and thankful that I finally, almost at the age of 40, I have made the changes in my life to be who I am. 


Anna will be donating a dozen cupcakes to one lucky winner in our Great Cloth Diaper Change Raffle!  Thanks Anna and it was good to get to know you!

Painting on Cakes Using Luster Dust

When I started the idea for this post, I was actually going to blog about the cake recipe, but I had so much fun decorating the cake, that I decided to switch it up and talk about the decorating.  I will give you the link to the recipe however, as this is one of the best cake recipes I have made, and I make a lot of cakes!  The cake itself is chocolate with a terrifically pallet pleasing salted caramel frosting.  This may sound like a bit of work, and it did take a little extra time, but the flavor of this frosting is worth the effort.  This blog has great pictures of the frosting making process, but the recipe is found here at Blackberry Farm.

So on to my cakes...  I discovered using luster dust several years ago while poking around at the bakery supply store. I am not really much of a cake decorator, but I like to experiment with new cake or cookie decorating ideas.  A friend had actually won an amazing fondant covered cake at an auction while we were out of town, it had polka dots on it that were iridescent gold.  She bought it for a birthday cake for someone, and in traveling back home some of the polkas got smudged.  I have this philosophy that I can fix anything, so I told her I would fix it. this is what led to my trip to the bakery supply.  The sweet lady that runs the shop told me you simply mix the dust (made from some undefined powdery sparkly wonderful substance) with some kind of alcohol; she suggested vodka, but use whatever you have on hand.  Then paint it on your fondant, or frosting.  When the alcohol evaporates, you have a slightly sparkly luster dust design on your cake or cookie.

I used a salmon pinkish colored dust and an apple green for this cake and the little cake for my sweet GB...pictures at the end of post.  I just mixed with a few drops of my little travel size vodka bottle, that I hide with my baking supplies, so no one drinks it, and started painting on a viney design with pink blobs that were supposed to look kind of like rose buds!  After finishing the painting I sprinkled pixie dust all over the cake, just to give it a fun, magical fairy tale look.  The pixie dust, also known as Disco Dust and the Lusters are manufactured by CK Products

The painting on the cake was pretty straight forward, I noticed it was easier and the colors came out stronger if the dust mix was a little on the thick side. The more vodka the thinner and lighter the color would appear.
I made the big cake in the pictures, but I also made my GB her own personal cake for her one year birthday celebration.  

Now on to the best part, getting to see that little rose bud eat her cake....

Gone!

Golden Bars

I recently read somewhere that if you cut a small portion of the sugar out of a standard recipe, and gradually kept cutting a bit out, then over time you would be consuming less sugar, and you wouldn't notice the difference. I have been thinking about this for a while (and not really trying it as, ya know, I like sugar! Especially brown sugar!) but as I was getting ready to make these mouthwatering and delicious "Golden Bars", I decided to give the sugar cut a try!

I have listed the recipe as it was written and in (parentheses) I showed how much I used to make this less sugar, less fat version.  I cut about 25% of the sugar and fat out of the recipe.  Try it and let me know what you think!

Golden Bars

2/3 Cup shortening, butter, or oil (1/2)

2 C Brown Sugar (1 1/2)

2 Beaten Eggs

1/4 tsp Salt

1 tsp Vanilla

1 1/2 C Flour

2 tsp Baking Power

Melt the shortening or butter on low in a sauce pan.  Remove from heat, add remaining ingredients, pour into greased 8" x 8" glass pan.  Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.  Cool, cut into 2" ish squares, enjoy!

 After baking this recipe with reduced fat and sugar, I really did not notice any difference in taste, texture, or the overall outcome of the cookie bars.  I have been making this recipe since I was in high school, and my mom made them before that, so I figgure I am a pretty good judge of their appearance :-) .  I didn't even tell my family that I did it, and no one noticed!


I would love for you to give this recipe a try and let me know how it turns out for you.

More Fall Recipies.....Grampa Bill's Apple Cake

Apples imbeded in gooey brown sugar cinnimon, surrounded by moist, delicious cake.  This pretty much sums up this recipe that I copied from my step Dad (Grampa Bill).  He is German through and through, and this recipe was his grandmothers.  Needless to say it has been around in our family for generations.  You can substitute Italian (or any) plums in summer time, but we like it best with apples.

APPLE CAKE
ingredients:
1/2 C. Sugar                         1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 C. Butter                        1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 beaten Egg                         >1/3 C. Milk
1 C. Flour                            1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1 Apple sliced 1/4" wedges, peel on

Grease 8x8" baking dish.  Preheat oven to 350o

Mix dry ingredients together.  Cream butter and sugar together well.  Add egg and vanilla.  Add  alternating;  milk and dry ingredients.  Place sliced apples on top of cake.  If using plums, place skin side down on top of cake.  Cover cake evenly with fruit.  Top with crumb mixture (recipe below), and bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

Crumb Topping:
mix together till crumbly: 3 Tbs softened butter, 3 Tbs Brown Sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 2 Tbs Oatmeal (optional)  Sprinkle over your cake

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Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.  Experiment with your own fruit choices and let me know your results!