As you can see, the website is getting a makeover. This is only the first step in some new things for Delish. Thank you for your patience as we work through the kinks. Keep checking back in the next couple months for exciting update.
Author: Susan
Obsessed with writing, baking, and Mikel Jollett. Not necessarily in that order all the time.
http://breakingbooks.wordpress.com/
https://delishoregon.wordpress.com/
Share Your #Delishie
After hearing about it from one of our friends for months, we recently took the plunge and added our little bakery to Instagram. We’re so excited to share quick pictures of Delish’s oven lovin’ with you. (Follow us at Delish_or.)
What’s been even more exciting is seeing the great pictures you’ve taken when you’re enjoying Delish. In fact, it’s been so fun, we’ve hashtagged these photos with #delishie. If you haven’t seen them, check out some of these beauties:
Aren’t you dying from the sweetness? And we’re not even talking about our treats. We’d love to see more of your creativity on our timeline. Have fun with it and show off your personality. Make sure to tag @delish_or, hashtag the photo with #delishie, and we’ll feature your picture on our Facebook page.
Oh, The Horror!
When you hear the words cookie bouquet, does your mind travel to bright colored flowers, birthday themed balloons, or maybe even adorable pink rattles? People usually move to the cute area when talking about sending cookies to their loved ones for a special event.
Last year, a client ordered a Day of the Dead cookie set to send for a birthday celebration. There were a lot of puzzled looks when I showed people the picture. “For a birthday?” they asked. Day of the Dead was her favorite thing so of course it made a wonderful bouquet. It also sparked an idea. Why must the bouquets look sweet? Shouldn’t they tell you more about who they’re going to?
This thought happened to coincide with seeing interesting art pieces popping up on Facebook. They’re everyday items themed after some of your favorite heroes and villains. One of the most interesting pieces was a coffee table fashioned like Jason from Friday the 13th. I thought if you could make the gruesome a casual conversation piece in your living room, why couldn’t you make it a cookie? And my idea was born for the perfect birthday themed cookie bouquet.
I know I won’t be sending my mother the blood splattered cakes for her birthday, but I do love them. Really, I love everything about this set. They’re the perfect combination of capturing the character in a friendly way. This could be the perfect gift for the horror fan in your life.
What do you think? Could you eat a killer?
Baking Round Up
Here are some things we’ve been up to lately. We thought it would be fun to share all the lovely clients we’ve met and projects we’ve worked.
Mother’s Day:
It’s always fun to create custom pieces to show your mom how much you care. Our client asked us to create a one-of-a-kind sentiment for her mother.
Donations:
We love supporting our community by donating to local causes. Recently, we donated the treats (including the cookies below) for an elementary school graduation and a couple cakes to a charity auction.
Special Occasions:
Baby showers can bring out the cutest ideas. We were excited when challenged to come up with something different for a twin baby shower theme Two Peas in a Pod.
Celebration Surprises:
Surprise cookies sent to a friend to congratulate him on another birthday and the upcoming release of the 20th year commemorative edition of his magazine, Carpe Noctem.
New Recipes:
When a potential client asked for German Chocolate, we went to create the best. We think we delivered.
We work on making our best recipes for everything we offer. Although this looks beautiful, the sweet factor was too high for our tastes. Back to the test kitchen to create the perfect seven layer bar.
We hope this stroll down our round up was as fun for you as it was for us. Please tell us in the comments what you think or what goodies you want to see.
Koda Kookies
Once upon a time there was a baker who turned bands into cookies. It’s been a while since I’ve ventured into that cookies-based-on-a-band world. Usually, I kept my sights pretty limited to The Airborne Toxic Event. Sure, I had that one brief post devoted to The Limousines, but let’s get real. Those cookies sucked. (Don’t worry Eric and Gio, I’ve got a plan to make it up to you.) There was also my short glimmer of genius when I made Matt and Kim dance, but it was long ago and only lasted 30 seconds. So when a client asked about cookies for one of her favorite bands, Kodaline, I wondered if I could live up to the challenge to magic happen.
Maybe I would be able to channel something great because they were one time an opening act for TATE? Seemed like a stretch. Or could I fall in love with their music to make the icing would flow from the fingers. There wasn’t enough time to delve deep into proper fan obsession. Or probably, and most realistically, I could create something because I’ve seen tons of fan love for them on my Facebook feed and understood how it important it is to them. It was time to research.
I was lucky. The client was hella cool and let me pick what I wanted to do. This is a gift and a curse because what if you don’t live up to expectations? What if your package shows up and they’re like “Meh.” It needed to be something fun. Some spectacular. Something that truly screamed fan love.
I knew from the beginning I wanted to do the band. (That’s what she said. You knew I had to, right?) As I’ve admitted before, I’m a terrible artist. This would be no Mona Lisa on a cookie. Luckily, they have pretty distinct faces. And facial hair. I thought I could make cookie renditions that pick up on the things which make each unique. The accompanying cookies also needed to mean something. There name had to be there, but what else? Since they are from Dublin, Ireland and I love that damn city, those were a no-brainer. And then I needed something for Courtney. Something meaningful for the lovely lady who requested the tribute in the first place. For her, I piped the song lyrics she loves the most.
This is how Kodaline cookies, AKA Koda Kookies, came to be.
Now you can match them to their faces. Or you could go look them up. Yanno, give their music a try and say it was all because of Courtney’s cookies.
Our wonderful client Courtney delivered cookies to her fair princes in Boston. The band recognized her lovely fan devotion with a public declaration.
And they lived happily ever after.* The End.
*I just watched the Cinderella movie and now I will talk in “narrator” always.
A Perfect Pear-ing
This weekend, Delish made its public appearance debut. Yay! We had a booth showcasing our goods at the Jackson County Pear Blossom Festival in the Pear-A-Fare tent. It was our first venture into having our community sample our products (outside of word of mouth through friends and clients).
We’ve considered doing booths for the last year or so. We talked about bridal shows, local farmers markets and pretty much popping up a tent on the side of the road to get our eats to a bigger audience. Pear-A-Fare had been on our radar because it matched local area wineries, breweries, and distilleries with local food creations. Booze and sweets? What could be better?
While there was much enthusiasm, we didn’t really know what to expect. Here are some tips we learned in our first adventure that might help if you’re considering doing a show.
1.) Meet the Other Vendors.
This was our favorite part. Lucky for us, our neighbors were a delightful couple of ladies from Arch Rock Brewing Co. When we realized our gear was far too much to fit on our small table, they invited us to take over there’s. (We are forever thankful to Kristen and Margie.) We also met an adorable girl from another bakery who was great about liking our Facebook page and telling others about our cute stuff. The distillery next to us let us sample some of their vodkas, including a coffee one. (Of course I bought a bottle, did you even have to ask?) Call it meeting and greeting, networking, or whatever you want, it was so much fun to chat up the other vendors and feel part of the group.
2.) Look the Part.
We have shirts! Don’t we look super excited in our Delish-wear? Because we totally were. I’ll admit, I totally geeked out about it. However, there was more purpose than feeling cool. It also helped the other vendors remember who we were. Potential customers saw us walking around and we were able to direct them to our table when they asked. Even when I stopped by the store on my way to the event, the checker guessed I was on my way to the Pear Festival.
3.) Show Your Brand/Be Flexible.
I had visions for weeks about how our table would be set, our samples would be showcased, and our plan to work together to make sure everything was prepped perfectly for our potential new clients. Er, until we showed up. We only had one table (not two as expected) and our heating set up had to be shut down due to fire regulations. Eek, Disaster! It took about three minutes to pull myself together and come up with a new plan.
We pared down what we could keep and what would have to go. My multi-layer designed with boxes and sparkled runners were out. The tiered cake plates would give the height I wanted and we would show a select few items instead of the arsenal. We adjusted our work station into two halves and coordinated what each of us would be responsible for in our tiny space. And it worked! We had a beautiful table we were proud of and kept the food flying out at an amazing pace. (Tia made sure.)
4.) Give Them Your Best/Less Might Be More.
Go figure Tia and I would have too much stuff. Our great worry about running out led us to have TONS of samples. Probably more samples than people in our small town. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but we did have tons. That being said, we didn’t sacrifice quality. We put out our best product and the people said they liked it.
5.) Get Details in Writing/Check With Previous Participants.
The biggest lesson we learned, and might have saved some worry lines across our foreheads, was to get more details beforehand. Solidifying things in writing like how big is your space and where you will be placed. (We were sandwiched between two vendors with no room to move around. We also had to go through the other vendor’s space to get out.) We could have also learned what challenges to expect by checking with previous participants.
While it may have been a bit chaotic in the beginning and we have sample galore to eat through after, we had a great experience. Only time will tell if it yields results and if more booths are in our future.
Tell us in the comments what you think. What’s your favorite part about events? Do you like meeting new vendors? If you have been a vendor, what was the biggest lesson you learned?
Book Clubbin’: Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Cover Me: The cover is pretty classic and makes even more sense when you read the forward. The boot is a symbol for many things throughout the book. Well, at least I looked at it that way. It seems like the perfect cover for her story.
The new version is based on the movie and splashes Reese Witherspoon on it looking less glamorous than she usually is. I guess this is a selling point to highlight the fact you can watch the movie too. I deliberately bought the cover with the boot like I was proving something to myself about wanting to read it for the story it was and not the movie it became.
The Concept: This is Cheryl Strayed’s true story about hiking across the Pacific Trail to heal from her mother’s death. Yep, that’s it. Nothing really more. This is one of those coming of age…
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Mini Makes a Big Impression
Tia knows I love minis. Anything where the original version has been shrunk down, I’m a sucker for. This goes for little Redken shampoos, small Ciroc vodka bottles, and tiny Reese’s Peanut Butter cups. So when she wanted to surprise me with just a little touch of spoiling, I got my favorite dessert coconut cream pie in a miniature version. 
Aren’t they adorable? So easy to pop a whole bite in your mouth. Or maybe even scarf down three in a sitting. Don’t judge, it’s my favorite! The perfect thing about a mini is the ability to splurge without being excessive. Unless, you eat three. (Hey…that sounds awfully judgy.)
The next time you’re feeling like you want to pamper yourself without the guilt the next day, try a mini. It may be the exact thing you wanted.
Sugar Rush!
It’s been so long since the blog had some new eye candy, uh, I mean eye cakery. Instead of coming up with some witty story about how it was created, I thought it better to let the pictures speak for themselves. Here are a few things we’ve been up to lately.
Easy Candy Cane Cookies
In the holiday rush, sometimes it can be overwhelming to think about baking. The last thing you’re prepared to do is offer something fantastic at a cookie exchange. How about something that has a homemade WOW factor, but didn’t take all day in the kitchen? This candy cane cookie is the perfect holiday treat.
I remember my sister making this cookie for every holiday package she put together. People were amazed with her skill in molding two colors to mirror the holiday candy. I’m going to show you an easy way to impress your friends just like she did.
First, you need sugar cookie dough. I made mine from scratch. You can too. It’s really not that hard, I promise. If you decide you don’t have the time, pick up a pre-made dough tube or one of those packets. To give it that special touch, which makes it different than pre-made mix, mix in a teaspoon or two of peppermint extract. Then divide the dough into two different bowls.
Take one ball and mix in red food coloring. I used my Red Velvet mix because I wanted a strong red instead of a pale pink.
Add enough color until you get your desired effect. I think mine took about 3-4 teaspoons.
Then tear off some dough from each ball. I took a quarter of each to make it easier to work with on my counter. Roll lightly from your palm to fingertips to get each started. Then mush the two colors next to each other. (I did it separate at first and it didn’t work as well.)
Roll the two pieces into one with your hand. Start in the middle and roll out to increase the length of the dough rope.
Once you have a desired length, cut small portions to make your cane. Once you have the size, twist the rope to make the candy cane. You can keep it super easy by leaving it in the stick shape, but I think the curve makes the cookie.
Lay it on the cookie sheet and turn the top for the hook on the cane. Don’t worry if you mess up or the dough breaks. Just smooche it back together. It’s going to spread when it bakes. And this is supposed to be easy, remember?
Bake on 350 for about 11 minutes. (More if you like a crunchy cookie.) Pull it out of the oven and let it cool.
All that’s left is to stack them on a plate and amaze your friends. That’s if you don’t give in to the peppermint wafting in the air. You might decide to skip the party, make a hot cocoa, and snack on your new holiday treat.
