Seasons Greetings,

In the wake of the tragedy in Connecticut last week, it’s difficult to think and talk about anything but how incredibly sad we are at CakeLove for the victims and grieving families. They have been in my thoughts and prayers, especially as I hold my girls very close and give thanks for their presence.

Part of what I think about when I hold my daughters and marvel at how lucky and happy I am to have them in my life is that when I have to leave their side and go make cupcakes, I want those cupcakes and the whole experience for customers to be as good as it can be. So in the past few weeks we’ve been looking at how to improve our products and service for the people we’re baking for: you! We’ve heard your feedback and want to thank you for it.

Many of you have asked for our cupcakes to be served at room temperature. Well, now they are and we couldn’t be happier! No more waiting, you can dive right in! Thank you for your feedback.

While that is a big step for us, we looked around and said, “why stop there? What else can we do better?” We took a close look at our Red Velvet recipe. We stripped it down and rebuilt it with a focus on drawing out the most beguiling aspect to its flavor: a subtle hint of chocolate without being a chocolate cake! Now it’s a redder (thanks to a touch more coco powder), moister, and better complements to the cream cheese icing that rides on top of it! Come check it out, I think you’ll like it!

A lot of change all at once can be a little much, but when we taste tested a revamped vanilla cupcake from our test kitchen, it was clear we had to share this with you–and right away! With your feedback we crafted a recipe that offers a much lighter texture with a crumb that’s moist and tender. Thanks for your help! We love it and hope you do, too!

Baking from scratch is always an adventure. Even though there were umpteen trials that didn’t work out and we have to do a few more laps at the gym because of all the sampling, we had fun in the process and learned quite a few things about what we love to do.

As always, thanks again for your feedback and continued support. We’re glad we can share with you our passion for baking from scratch!

Our best wishes for a healthy and safe New Year,

Warren

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

After 8 wonderful years, Love Café will be closing at the end of this month. Our final day of business will be Sunday January 29^th.

Love Café was wonderful fun! Over the years we had the privilege to serve thousands of customers for which we remain grateful. We’re glad you enjoyed the warm atmosphere, sunny window seats, coffees, house made sandwiches and salads, breakfast and brunch specialties, and of course desserts from CakeLove! Thank you for making us a part of your lives.

Many of the staff from Love Café will take on open positions at other CakeLove locations, so please drop in to see us!

We look forward to continuing to serve you—right across the street at CakeLove! The bakery will be open everyday to serve Love Café’s customers with cupcakes, slices of cake, eclairs, cookies, brownies, birthday and wedding cakes, and more. Come visit us across the street at CakeLove!

Many thanks,

Warren Brown & the Love Café family

Happy New Year! In 2012 we’re celebrating 10 years of baking from scratch at CakeLove. The official anniversary date is March 30^th, but we’ll celebrate all year since 10 years is such a big deal! Naturally, I want to celebrate by baking! It will remind all of us just how amazingly well butter, sugar, eggs, flour and a bunch of other stuff can taste when mixed together with a touch of love.  Throughout the year we’ll feature monthly specials that look back to old recipes from the early days of CakeLove to new innovations that we’re working on now. This will be a fun way to re-discover the art and science of cakes—our specialty!

We look forward to seeing you throughout the year. Catch our first old favorite special coming in mid-January, Sassy Crunchy Feet!

Hey everyone, I just noticed a bunch of comments I haven’re responded to–sorry about that. I’m so used to crazy amounts of SPAM that I hadn’t checked in a while. That and I was a bit tied up in Feb and March coordinating the move in Silver Spring. We moved a lot of the equipment ourselves, but also had huge help from Shahin and Raymond from Equipment & Supply Sales, Inc. Thanks, guys!

Anyway, I’ve gotta make a run to Fair Oaks now but will reply to the comment threads in the next day or so.

Thanks for reading and posting here!

Come on over and help us celebrate our new spot in Downtown Silver Spring!

We moved around the corner from Ellsworth to 8512 Fenton Street, next to Pier 1 and across from Whole Foods.

We love the new spot and so do our customers! It’s larger, includes tables and chairs for kids & grown-ups! And we’ve embraced one of our baking truths with a huge mural of our favorite saying, “Nothing is Fat Free!”

Save 20% on all cupcakes and other select items all day this Saturday, 11am to 10pm.

See you there!

Hey Everyone! Happy Valentine’s Day!

It’s a beautiful day in Washington, DC - sunny and a warm 60! I hope you’re outside enjoying the sun at some point. Hopefully your sweetie already brought you a cupcake from CakeLove. If not, swing by for our special this week, $2 off a box of four!

But I’m not just saying I love you, I want to let you know Saturday February 19th is our last day on Ellsworth in Silver Spring. We’re moving CakeLove Silver Spring around the corner to 8512 Fenton Street (next to Pier 1). We’ll be able to better serve our customers who have supported us in Downtown Silver Spring for the past five years! The new space has more room for additional seating and it’ll just be more exciting being just up from the movie theater. I know I’ll try to catch the latest dramas between batches of cupcakes!

We’ll be closed briefly while we complete our build-out in the new space. So come by before Feb 19th! Please check back on our site, FB or Twitter for more updates. And, of course, you can look here.

For our Silver Spring fans, you can always order for pick-up from U Street (closest location) or order for delivery to you in Silver Spring. Thank you for your continued support and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Warren

Happy New Year! It’s good to see you again. As always it’s been forever, but I have a reasonably good excuse.

It’s still the first week of the new year, so it’s still early enough to say “welcome” to the new year. 2010 was a a heck of a year, packed with a lot of memories so bidding it farewell comes right on time. My wife and I had a baby in January –yes, way back at the start of last year–and our daughter Poplar really kept us running for the entire year. It’s fine, it’s fun really. She’s really just discovering the world so the simplest things are a fun adventure. And all of that running around–none of it’s gonna stop anytime soon. That’s fine with me.  I think I’ve either gotten used to it or just resigned to the new fate I face with her–a life in constant motion.  I love being a dad.

And it seems that we’re always running to catch-up with her, snatch something from her hand that’s on its way into her mouth, or catch her from squirming outta our arms. She seems to want to test gravity and prove Sir Issac Newton wrong!

Life’s taken lots of different turns over the past years since I launched CakeLove, but none quite as sharp as having a baby. You’re probably like, well, duh, dude. What’d ya expect? And, sure, everything changes with a baby, but at least I didn’t know that love and caring can have so many more dimensions, so much more depth, so many fun smiles.

What’s any of this have to do with cake? Not much, except one of my resolutions is to try and bring my mental state into the same place where I am physically. Otherwise I find myself thinking about my baby all the time (which I know won’t ever really stop, but I need to find a couple of free bytes to writer some new recipes!)

BTW - have you seen or heard about our Apple Pie Purses? They’re delish and cute. Apple pie is one of my all time favorite desserts and I toyed around with an all butter crust and lightly sweetened tart-apple filling through the fall. Result? I love ‘em! Check ‘em out…

Happy. New. Year.  May yours be filled with joy and love.

In mid June I had a book signing for United Cakes of America at the PG County Hyattsville branch library. A lot of great people came out to talk about cake and enjoy some samples from CakeLove. Tyler was particularly kind and attentive—along with the rest of his family. He asked if he could visit me at CakeLove and in early August we spent the afternoon together at CakeLove U Street. It was a lot of fun!

Tyler loves to cook and bake. He had a lot of great questions and ideas on pairing flavors. Here’s a recipe that we created together. After we baked them he handed them out as samples at Love Café and had a box of goodies for his siblings!

What I like about it was that we found a work around for not having brown sugar for cookies—usually a critical ingredient for us. Instead we took raw honey and paired that with super fine granulated sugar. Give it a try, I think I like it even more than our regular recipe. (see our recipe via podcast on our site under classes).

    Chocolate Almond Spice Cookies

2 ounces of almonds slices, roasted
8 ounces of super-fine granulated sugar

1 tablespoon raw honey

5 ounces of butter (melted and cooled)

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 egg

11 ounces of flour
½ teaspoon of baking soda

½ teaspoon of ground ginger
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of kosher salt

6 ounces chocolate chips

2 ounces sliced almonds, roasted

1.    Roast almonds, set aside to cool and divide. Melt butter, add vanilla extract and set aside to cool.  

2.    Combine sugar, honey and almonds in stand mixer with flat paddle on low speed.

3.    Slowly drizzle in butter.

4.    Add egg.

5.    Meanwhile, measure flour through salt and whisk to combine. Scoop into mixer.

6.   Fold chocolate chips and remaining almonds into dough.

7.   Scoop out and pan on parchment lined baking sheet. Lightly flatten with a soft press and top with a sprinkle of cinnamon and ginger.

8.   Bake in pre-heated oven at 300 to 325 for 13 to 15 minutes.

9.   Remove when cookie edge barely resists when poked. Cool and serve while still warm.

Hey - if you’re on Groupon then check out the CakeLove special that got extended for an additional 24hours! Definitely check it out for some of the best bargains at CakeLove!

A big thanks to those who came out to the signings at Border’s in Silver Spring this past Saturday and Barne’s & Noble last Tuesday. It’s always great to meet people who are enjoying the book!

Happy baking!