August was a super busy month at the Curious Cat Bakery. From pop ups to new flavors, a lot happened and I thought a quick round up in case you missed any of it would be helpful. And since I am a bakery owner after all, I thought doing that while baking made sense. Ready? Here's all that happened in August:
Pop Ups
August started on a great note after a super successful pop up for Harry Potter's birthday at Book + Bottle. If I ever needed encouragement to fully embrace the dorky part of me who loves a good theme, you guys gave it to me at that event and I don't know if you're ready for what's ahead!
We're now going to have monthly themed pop ups. September's theme will be Alice in Wonderland and I can't wait to share the full menu and whimsical treats I have lined up for you!
Speaking of themed pop ups, I also had another pop up at Blush Tea and Coffee in the middle of the month. This one was all about brunch so among the menu items were mimosa cupcakes (which might make their way into the permanent menu...) and vegan donuts.
Let's talk donuts
For years I have been looking for the perfect vegan yeasted donut recipe because, let's be real, baked donuts are a sham and don't hold a candle to the real fried bready goodness of a yeasted one. Well, I finally found that perfect recipe and thought it was time to share those goodies with you.
You LOVED them and I can't blame you.
I might have had a minor breakdown over them but hey, I'm ok. Lessons were learned and soon enough I'll be offering more donuts to you guys.
Folklore Cake
Moving on to happier things... Earlier in August I got to make a cake inspired by Taylor Swift's new album Folklore. I love the album and the whole thing started as just a fun project but you guys couldn't get enough of this cake! I don't even know how many of them I made! It even sold out at The Green Table in Palm Harbor in 20 minutes — twice!
BOGO Cookies
Now on to the biggest highlight of the month: cookies are now BOGO all the time! What started out as a promotion for celebrating National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day became a permanent offer as I managed to find a way to ship twice as many cookies for the same price. Yay!
As anyone who's been following my journey with shipping knows, it's been a struggle figuring out how to send treats across the country at an affordable price so this was a HUGE win for me and you! You can order those cookies here.
Other Highlights
I got to help a group of co-workers celebrate a birthday over Zoom with a cake toast by getting the birthday girl a full size lemon lavender cake and all the others identical mini cupcakes. How adorable is that?
Being able to do stuff like that makes me so giddy. Knowing I get to be a part of your celebrations really makes me smile every single time!
I got my first Google Review — a 5 star one! If you ever want to know what you can do to make my day, leaving a review is definitely the way to go, by the way. Reviews help small businesses A LOT and who doesn't like getting an alert on their phone with someone saying nice things about them?
I also finished outlining my newest ebook Vegan for the Holidays that will be released later this fall. It will be all recipes to celebrate the holidays with friends or family from Thanksgiving to Christmas, Hannukah, Boxing Day and New Year's Eve. I'll keep you guys posted on the release soon!
What's Coming in September
A lot of fun things are ahead in September. In addition to the Alice in Wonderland pop up, I'm going to start releasing monthly new flavors and you guys will FLIP when you see what September's flavor is!
All I'll say is that if you loved the cookie butter donuts, you will lose it over this new flavor.
I'm also working on a collaboration with LUSH Cosmetics that I am beyond excited about. They are a cruelty-free brand that does a lot of work to end animal testing in cosmetics — something that I fully support as a vegan and animal lover.
They tasked me with developing a flavor inspired by one of their products and I can't wait to share that with you guys. Stay tuned!
That's all for August!
And in case you want to make that recipe I did in the video, you can find the ingredients list and directions here.
Stay curious,
Natalia