Yes, it is true!  A lovely and lively woman working for the Food Network TV channel called and invited us to apply for their next Cupcake Wars episode, filming end of March.  We had to send a photo–Just ONE—of our cupcakes, our shop and us.  And she was looking for personality!!  Well, I think we’ve got A LOT of personality at bliss Bake Shop (okay, i might have a little too much personality sometimes–but hey, you gotta keep it real, right??!).  Anyway, we did a spoof photo of ourselves in Charlie’s Angels poses–and called ourselves “cupcake angels” ready for Battle at the Cupcake War and armed with Pastry backs, wire Whisks and oversize spatulas!!  It was a riot—mostly because we took the photos during OPEN hours last saturday and only hours after getting the request the night before.  No pressure.  My former co-worker’s fiance actually came into the shop while I was mid hair whipping, pastry bag shooting, karate chopping pose……awesome. 

Don’t worry, I’ll be uploading the photo soon (just realized it is not saved on this computer–oops!) and all the “out-takes” that didn’t make the cut.  Just so you all can see bliss Bake Shop’s “personality” up close.

Don’t worry though….just come in BEFORE 6PM and enjoy your fresh-baked Tuesday Flavor Favorites—Carrot cake, Chocolate Peanut Butter and Coconut!  Or if you need to satisfy that nagging craving for a rich and delicious RED VELVET……..ya know, to get you through the Tuesday night television dramas—American Idol, Lost…..  Back to normal 10am to 8pm on Wednesday and did you know VALENTINE’S DAY is this Sunday??  No worries, bliss has all kinds of DEALS to make it EASY. 

Sweetheart Special - 4pk Valentine’s Day cupcakes + single rose + mylar balloon = ONLY $20.00 and 1-Stop Shopping!!  We’ll wrap up the box with a pretty bow and you are set to go!  (ladies, feel free to Forward this on to your sweetheart).  But these are super-great for your favorite teenager, coworker, teacher or whoever needs some LOVE this Valentine’s Day.  Limited amounts available so PLEASE call ahead and reserve yours today!

CUPCAKE LOVE - how about you give her/him a 4pk Sunday but go on to tell them they can enjoy their favorite flavor EVERY WEEK for the REST of 2010??  They just come in anytime, any day and say, “I want this one and I want it Free!”  And we at bliss will happily oblige…..just $110.00.

That’s right….we are entering the Gluten-free arena here at bliss Bake Shop and if current taste-testers are right—they Like It!!  They like the gluten-free Chocolate cupcake!  Woohoo—Nice job bakers.  Today we did a new Pumpkin Spice cupcake with maple cream cheese frosting that is Gluten-Free.  Come in TODAY and try it for just $2.00 and tell us what you think.  If you love it, it will become part of the menu. 

And did I mention that our Gluten-Free chocolate cake is also VEGAN??  Yep, that’s right.  So today we are working on a Vegan Chocolate frosting–thick and rich–to make the entire cupcake Vegan.  We are SO excited to be able to provide options for those clients looking for the specialty cupcakes. 

Oh, and guess what else?  We won’t charge you extra just because your stomach doesn’t like gluten or dairy.  They will be the same price as our regular cupcakes even though we’ll be filling them with fancy, expensive flours and yummy substitute ingredients.  Awesome.

So, we NEED your feedback because we are not experts at Gluten-free and Vegan.  And we want to make sure these cupcakes taste Great!

That’s right—we are football fans at bliss Bake Shop!  And the CIVIL WAR is a big deal in this cupcake family….been this way ever since my sister and I broke from the Beaver mold and enrolled in the Uof O—-GO DUCKS!!  (now all you Beavers don’t abandon us yet!!).  You see, my sister and I were going to football games when Reser was Memorial Coliseum and Gary Payton was playing on Ralph Miller Court—our Papa was raising his first two grand-daughters to be BEAVER Believers!  He was devastated when we enrolled in the UofO and bled the Green & Gold, but then fourteen other grandchildren since found themselves to be Beavers!!  Then Jen and I married DUCKS and the family Rivalry was born.  It makes for quite the Thanksgiving smack talk and the Christmas bragging (or sulking) each year.

So we are Celebrating the CIVIL WAR here at bliss Bake Shop with Oregon and OS themed cupcakes on thursday.  And we are taking orders for custom decorated CIVIL WAR cupcakes—show your School’s colors in a delicious way!  We can do em’ up right in Green & Gold or even do em’ up nice in Orange & Black.  Have  you seen our awesome football shaped cupcake pull-apart cakes?  These are made up of 24 regular size cupcakes all frosted to look like a football and then we can write on them GO DUCKS or GO BEAVS!  or whatever civil war message you request.  I got an order today for one that will say “pluck those ducks!”.  Dang.  Hey, I’m an OREGON DUCK but I’m also a business woman : ).  The football cupcake cakes are priced at $45.00 for Civil War (a SAVINGS of $15.00), or we can make them out of bitty cupcakes for $32.00. 

Custom cupcakes look best in regular size but we can do colored icing and maybe school letters on the bliss bitty cupcakes as well.  They are a pre-game party HIT–I’ve taken them to our own tailgate parties each Saturday so be assured bliss cupcakes are TAIL-GATE TESTED, GAME APPROVED!   hee hee…..it’s like a Bud Light commercial.

Civil War party in a box at bliss Bake Shop

If you missed it, this link will get you there:  www.kgw.com/drewcarney/?tn.  Watch Drew give you the inside scoop on bliss cupcakes, Myself and Jen’s sister secrets, and find out Russ, Brenda & Nick’s favorite bliss flavors!!  It is fast and furious and pretty funny……that is what happens when you make us get up at 4am to be on T.V.!

But let’s get to the Important stuff—-we were on t.v. to tell you about our Fundraiser happening today, thursday and friday (10am to 8pm).  Coats & Cans for Cupcakes is in full swing here at bliss Bake Shop and we are trying to feed the hungry and clothe the cold this holiday season.  Bring in a New (or clean, gently used) Coat and a couple of cans of Food to the shop and we’ll give you four FREE bliss cupcakes of your choice!  Yep, we are bribing you to help us Help Others in need…..so if your sweet tooth is acting up or you need a last minute dessert for dinner tonight or maybe you have a special someone you want to surprise (suck up too!: )—come on down to bliss Bake Shop in Bethany Village Centre.

bliss Bake Shop will be on Channel 8’s morning show with Drew Carney this coming Wednesday, November 11th (Happy Veteran’s Day!!).  Drew will be here to help us kickoff our Second big Fundraiser of 2009—”Cans & Coats for Cupcakes”!  Let’s Celebrate the start of the Holiday season by lending a hand to those who may need one this year.  AND, It’s gonna be lots of Fun so don’t miss it!!

Our Fundraiser will be Wed–Friday of next week and we will be collecting New or Gently Used Coats for all ages and Canned Food for those in need this Holiday Season.  We’ll have food collection bins from Rock Creek Food Pantry–we currently donate all our leftover cookies and cupcakes to them and hope to fill their shelves with your help.  They served DOUBLE the number of families this week than they usually do!  Perfect time for bliss cupcake fans to help out.

Soooo, what do you get if you come in with a coat and a can of food??  YOU get FREE cupcakes—-yes, you saw that right—FREE cupcakes.  More details to come…..

Our bliss Bake Shop a-frame signs like to blow over on these windy fall days…..it is a bummer because the actual printed signboard usually comes out of the a-frame and blows into the street.  Today, I was able to run out and save one before it got ran over too many times!!  Fall is here, Halloween is over (did you get one of our scary eyeball cookies or S’mores cupcakes??!)

S'mores bliss cupcake dressed in costume!

and Thanksgiving is just around the corner………23 days away till the Kickoff of Macy’s Day Parade, Football and eating/napping/eating/napping all day long.  I LOVE Thanksgiving Day!  We will be prepping our Turkey day display tomorrow at the shop for you all to get ideas about what yummy desserts you could be offering at your special Thanksgiving Celebration or any Fall celebrations this month.  Come on in, check out the display, say Hi and mention you read this blog for 20% off your order all week.  (yes, I did just put a coupon deal in my blog……feeling crazy!)

The Pumpkin bliss cupcake (Friday only flavor) will be available every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the month of November.  Have you had this cupcake yet??   You NEED to try this flavor!  It is an organic pumpkin pie cake with a maple cream cheese buttercream frosting and an adorable little orange frosting pumpkin on top. 

Organic pumpkin bliss cupcake

My husband hates cream cheese and anything with cream cheese in it–this would include our awesome cream cheese buttercream frosting.  But he LoVeS this cupcake–he tried it on accident, not knowing about the maple cream cheese. 

Other November news - the Jumbo chocolate drop cookies will continue to be offered daily.  Many of you know this type of cookie as a “no bake” cookie!   Bake or No Bake—they are delicious and just $1.50 each (little candy pumpkin on top at no additional charge : ).  We will also rotate between the Spiced Oatmeal cookie (with white chocolate chips and pecans) and the Spiced Peanut Butter Cookie. 

Continues through November!

bliss cupcakes and cookies will be out and about this week, so we thought we should let you know WHERE!  On Thursday, 9/24 we will be at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Resort’s 1st Annual Bridal Event.  Come on out to Pumpkin Ridge and see local vendors, planners, and bliss Bake Shop!  It is from 5:30pm to 8:30 pm and there will be raffle prizes, lots of Wedding ideas and bliss cupcakes for SAMPLING.  Sounds like a good time to me……. : ) 

bliss Bake Shop's 1st Wedding Cupcake Tier last year!

Then on Friday, September 25th bliss Bake Shop Cookies will be featured at Springville Back-to-School Picnic!  Families will enjoy a variety of our bitty and regular size cookies for FREE.  We will be donating about 400 cookies for the event, so we hope some of you will be there.  Look for the bliss Bake Shop banner!

freshly baked sugar cookies filled with mini m&ms

That’s right folks—-I’m finally updating  my blog with some Exciting News from bliss Bake Shop!   I really need to chat with you all more often.  So today at bliss Bake Shop in Bethany Village Centre, we are introducing a Brand NEW yummy flavor called Cinnamon Streusel.  It is a cinnamon and sugar cake filled with a “secret sauce”—-I was dying to write that : )—Ya know, like “secret sauce” on hamburgers but Sweeter!!  Then we bake a streusel on top and drizzle it with a warm cream cheese topping.  Jennifer and I taste-tested this thoroughly (just looking out for all of our great customers!!) and agreed it is a perfect addition to the cupcake case.  We have added it to our Thursday menu to replace Lavendar Lime bliss.  (that flavor is off the menu for now–just not enough Love for the Lavendar–but you can get it by special order!).

Brand NEW flavor at bliss Bake Shop

If you try it, please comment and tell us what you think!  We are always looking for feedback here on the blog, or our facebook, or Twitter or even online review sites like yelp.com or google.com. 

Come on in and getcha some Yumm!

Sarah

and  we DO marriage proposals too!!   YES, that (on the front page to the right) is a picture of a cupcake cake in cookies n cream flavor for one of our customers to aid him in “popping the question” and we are SO EXCITED about it that I thought I would share the news with you, our friends and customers at bliss Bake Shop.  Are you dying to know what she said??  WE ARE TOO.  We think she will say yes of course, but he did have a solid plan–let us share what we know….. he was going to do a scavenger hunt type thing with clues leading all back to the proposal.  Could be something she’d think twice about EXCEPT that it was also her Birthday so she’d totally be thinking all the fun and hoopla was for that special event…..when in fact, it was for a much bigger, more romantic event in the end!  Cool, huh??  We hope she said yes.  I’m sure she said yes.  Wouldn’t it be great if he read my blog and saw this and sent us all a comment to enjoy stating she said Yes!  With a picture of her AND the cupcake cake and everyone is saying Yes!!  I would call and ask him but I feel that could make me weird……like a stalker maybe…..weird.  So I’ll just hope that our millions of blog readers can spread the word!  : )  Thanks for tuning in!