Ovechkin scoring on Lundquist

Ah winter. As you likely know by now, winter is not my favorite time of year, but at least this year we can cheer on the Caps as they march through what so far has been their best season in years! Nothing is more fun than folding bakery boxes and watching the Caps score multiple goals on Henrik Lundqvist.

Here’s what’s new at JennyCakes:

Bran muffins with lots of dried mixed fruit and slivered almonds

Some healthy stuff!

We’re bringing back our healthy Bran Muffins with Lots of Dried Mixed Fruit and Slivered Almonds. Yes, I put all those words in there to make sure everyone knows they aren’t just boring old bran muffins.

Chocolate and vanilla vegan cupcakes

I also finally found a vanilla vegan cake/cupcake flavor that I like. It’s actually a brown sugar cupcake with whipped vanilla frosting that tastes remarkably like our regular buttercream. So now you vegan food lovers will have both the dark chocolate and the vanilla options available in cupcakes and frostings. Just think of the possible combinations!

We’re also trying to have on-hand in the case a wider variety of gluten-free cupcakes: chocolate and yellow cupcakes with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry buttercream, and upon special request, German chocolate frosting.

I’m still hunting for a tasty and attractive sugar-free option.  Send your recipes to jenny@jennycakesbakery.net. In the meantime, reduce your sugar intake by buying a whole cupcake but sharing it with three friends!

And NOW a few fun, not-so-healthy new things to help you conquer the winter doldrums.

Boston cream cupcakes

Soft sugar cookies with buttercream frosting

We have a new Boston cream cupcake. To maximize the fun of eating it, we take a lighter than usual yellow cupcake, cut it in half, put the bottom half in the bottom of a small plastic cup, cover it with a really decent amount of pastry cream (Yes real pastry cream! I figured out how to make it!), cover that with the other half of the cupcake and then drizzle it with a lot of thinned chocolate ganache (made with dark chocolate). Yum!

We also have new soft sugar cookies with buttercream frosting. We frost these with bright colored buttercream and then decorate them with bright sprinkles. But on a sort of blah Saturday afternoon last week, I frosted them with chocolate buttercream and they flew off the shelves!

Dark chocolate cream pie

Last thing — a dark chocolate cream pie. I searched forever for a recipe I liked. Finally found it right before Christmas. It’s creamy and VERY chocolatey. We sell it in the case as a mini pie, and by special order as a 9-inch. A good idea for when Valentine’s Day hits.

And speaking of Valentine’s Day, we’ll be sure to have on hand lots of 4-inch “sweetheart” cakes, chocolate goodies and cheerful cutout cookies.

And don’t forget St. Patrick’s Day and our Irish Kickers (chocolate cupcakes made with Guinness beer and frosted with buttercream flavored with Baileys Irish Cream and Jameson whiskey), as well as our Annual Cupcake Sale, which happens in March!

Jenny