A series of posts during our Life in Quarantine!
(oldest at bottom, newest at top)
Update to update – Hadn’t focused on conflict between order pickups 8am to 11am but being open 9am to 5pm. So let’s change order pickups to 9am to noon each day. Thanks. Sorry for not focusing on this sooner.
Update as of Sun 6/7
Believe it or not, this may be my last entry under Life In Quarantine because Montgomery County may be moving into Phase 2 this week! We’ll see what happens.
A few JennyCakes changes for the foreseeable future:
— We already have a lot of orders for June, so if you’re interested in placing an order with us, you might want to do that sooner rather than later.
— Until Phase 2 kicks in, we’ll continue to do order pick-ups Tuesday through Saturday from 9am to noon and we’ll have limited curbside pickup from 9am to 5pm. If you’d like curbside pickup, please give us a call so we can let you know what we have on hand.
— On Tuesday we will begin carrying our breakfast stuff again! For as long as supplies last, we’ll have on hand scones, blueberry muffins and cheese muffins. You can also order them in advance on the website.
— Once it is announced that we are permitted to move into Phase 2, we will be open to walk-in traffic 9am to 5pm so long as you wear a mask and you’re super careful about maintaining the 6-foot distance.
— As we transition and remain understaffed, we will try our best to stay stocked in all items but you may find that sometimes we run out. Your patience on this is so appreciated!
Once again, thanks very very much for all of your kindness and support during this stretch of time!
Jenny
Update as of Sun 5/31
Some of my employees are thankfully coming back this week! A huge shoutout to my daughter, Lily, who has been an AMAZING help at the bakery but will be returning to Madison tomorrow. I’m really, REALLY going to miss her. 🙁
A few things for this week:
— Please continue to place your orders online. All of the dates in June are open, except that I’ve had to close off CAKE orders only for this coming week (week ending on Sat 6/6) because we already have so many. But feel free to order anything else.
— Pickups will be TUES through Sat 8am to 11am.
— We hope to keep up the safer contact-free customer interactions. So please continue to call us when you arrive at the bakery parking lot with your credit card information. Then we’ll place your goodies on the table out front for pickup.
— We’ll be offering the same items as last week but feel free to email me if you are interested in something that you don’t see there and we’ll see if we can make it.
Thank you so much for your kind support and understanding during this crazy stretch!
Jenny
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Update as of Sun 5/24
I hope you’re all hanging in there! Please see Menu and Order for what we’re offering this week.
A few reminders:
— Pickups will be Weds (we’ve added Weds as a pickup day) through Sat 8am to 11am.
— When you arrive at the bakery parking lot, please call 240 388 9989 with your credit card information. We’ll place your goodies on the table outside for pickup.
— Please keep in mind that any cakes will need to be simple with just a message and sprinkles.
Thanks very much for all of your kind support.
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Update as of Sun 5/17
On to another week! New goodies: cranberry granola cookies, cheese crackers, raspberry squares and peanut butter blossoms. We’ve taken tiramisu off the menu for this year and we’ve taken frosted brownies off the menu for this week.
Please order through the website. We’ll take as many orders as we think we can handle!
Pickups are between 8 and 11am this Thurs 5/21, Fri 5/22 and Sat 5/23.
The process for pickup and payment is the same as the last few weeks. Please call us at 240 388 9989 with your credit card info when you arrive at the bakery parking lot. Then we’ll place your goodies on the table out front for pickup.
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Update as of Sun 5/10
Happy Mother’s Day! For next week, I’ve again revised the website so it shows what we’re able to offer. We’ve taken a few things off but we’ve added the individual-sized strawberry shortcake cups and salted caramel cakes/cupcakes, and we’ll be making tiramisu again. 🙂
Please order through the website.
Pickups are between 8 and 11am this Thurs 5/14, Fri 5/15 and Sat 5/16.
The process for pickup and payment is the same as the last couple of weeks. Please call us at 240 388 9989 with your credit card info when you arrive at the bakery parking lot. Then we’ll place your goodies on the table out front for pickup.
It’s still just my daughters and I doing the work at the bakery. So I still have to accept fewer orders than usual, and we still need to offer a smaller variety of baked goods than usual.
Also, since I’m doing all of the cake preparation these days and I have zero experience at doing that (being the make it yummy person rather than the make it pretty person), we still can only do simple cakes with a message and/or sprinkles.
At some point I need to find a way to truly thank all of you for your incredible kindness during this stretch. I so appreciate your orders and the wonderfully compassionate, patient, friendly and cheerful interactions we’ve had with all of you. Running a bakery is much, much harder than I thought it would be, but going through these last few weeks at the bakery has reminded me why I do it and how wonderful JennyCakes customers are! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Jenny
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Update as of Mon 5/4 – Thanks for all your orders! My apologies but we already have to close off orders for this week because we have so many. However, depending on how far we get how quickly, there’s a slight chance we’ll be able to squeeze in a few more orders, so if you’d like us to add you to a waitlist, please email me at jenny@jennycakesbakery.net. Thanks. Jenny
Update as of Sun 5/3 – Mother’s Day at JennyCakes!
I’ve revised the website so that you can now see under the Menu and Order tab what we’re offering this week and place your orders through the website instead of by email. I think this will make things go more smoothly. Thank you so much for all of your patience while we figure all this stuff out!
We’ll be offering quite a few flavors of cakes, as well as 9″ key lime pies and quiches, cookie cakes, strawberry and banana bread, lemon bars, soft sugar cookies and chocolate chip, oreo and everything cookie balls. We’ll also have on hand for sale the 2.5# bags of flour if you want to add those to your order when you pickup (they aren’t on the website menu).
Orders will be available for pickup on Thurs 5/7, Fri 5/8 and Sat 5/9. I’m having trouble adjusting the time slots on the website but just know that regardless of what time you pick we’ll be open each of those days from 8-11am for pickups. 
When we fill up on any particular day, I’ll block that day off and post something about that at the top of the homepage of the website.
Sorry so many details! Thanks to all of you for being so kind and supportive!
Jenny
Update as of 4/29: Thanks for all your orders! Orders are now closed for the week ending on Sat 5/2. For those of you picking up on Sat, feel free to come any time between 8 and 11am. I think the parking lot will get too congested if we try to stick with the original 9 to10am timeframe. Thanks!
Update as of 4/27:
For the week ending on Sat May 2, we will be offering the following items for pick-up on Weds, Thurs, Fri and Sat between 9 and 10am. Stay tuned for info about the following week’s Mother’s Day sale.
To order: Email me at jenny@jennycakesbakery.net.
To pay and pick-up: When you arrive at bakery parking lot, call 240-388-9989 with cc info. Then we’ll place your goodies on the table outside for you to take home. 🙂
Tiramisu for 1
TIRAMISU because I’ve missed it!
Tiramisu for 1 $3.50
Tiramisu for 2 $7
Carrot cake
6″ simple cakes with message and/or sprinkles
Flavors:
Red velvet cake with traditional cream cheese frosting
Carrot cake
Yellow or chocolate cake with buttercream, chocolate, cream cheese, mocha or peanut butter frosting.
We can make any of those flavors into a pinata cake (the one with the candy inside) EXCEPT the carrot cake because it’s too moist to keep its shape if we carve out the middle.
6″ cake $28 (carrot is $35)
6″ pinata cake $40
Banana bread
Banana bread with or without nuts $4
Everything cookie
Cookie balls: choc chip, oreo and everything (in batches of 24 — $1 each)
Lemon ricotta cookies
Lemon ricotta cookies – another thing I’ve missed — $1.50 each
Update as of 4/22: Thanks so much for all of your orders! We will be closing off orders at this point so we can start working toward completing them all. 🙂 Jenny
New JennyCakes One-Day Sale this Sat 4/25! See items we’re offering this time (list is below photos).
To order: Email me at jenny@jennycakesbakery.net sometime before Thurs 4/23 to place your order.
To pay: Call me at 240-388-9989 between 8 and 11am on Fri 4/24 to pay for your order by credit card.
To pick-up: Pick-up at the bakery between 8 and 11am on Sat 4/25.
Ferrero Rocher cupcakes
Pinata cake
Lemon bars
6″ cake
Banana bread
Chocolate Frosted Brownies
Items offered (all can be ordered with lots of spring-colored sprinkles!):
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Simple 6” cakes ($28)
Flavors: red velvet, or yellow or chocolate cake with vanilla, chocolate or coffee/mocha buttercream frosting.
Since my daughters and I are doing all the work at the bakery these days and none of us is a cake decorator, these cakes will need to be simple and might not be as pretty as our talented decorators’ cakes but we guarantee they will be just as yummy as our usual cakes!
We can add a simple message and/or sprinkles if you’d like.
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The new piñata cake filled with candy ($40)
Flavors: same flavors as above flavors for simple 6” cakes.
For the piñata cake, we cut two cake layers in half to make four layers. Then we cut a hole through the middle and fill it with candy that spills out when the cake is cut. Seemed like a fun option for youngsters and the young at heart!
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Cupcakes (min. of a dozen / $30 per dozen)
Flavors:
Chocolate or yellow with choc chip cookie dough frosting, whipped peanut butter frosting, or vanilla, chocolate or coffee/mocha buttercream
Cookies and cream
Red velvet
German chocolate (while supplies last)
Gluten free and vegan in chocolate and vanilla flavors (while supplies last)
- New Ferrero Rocher cupcakes ($3 each)
Chocolate cupcake with hazelnut buttercream sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts and topped with a Ferrero Rocher candy.
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Cookie balls (sold in batches of 24 — $24)
Chocolate chip
Cookies and cream
Everything -
Banana bread with or without nuts ($4 each)
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Bars (sold in batches of 6 — $12)
Lemon bars
Brownies
Magic bars
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Week of Sat 4/11:
Update to the update! We’re all filled up on orders for cupcakes, hot cross buns and cookie balls for pickup this Sat 4/11. Thanks very much! We’ll hopefully have another sale in the next week or so. Stay safe and healthy! Jenny
Update — JennyCakes will be offering a few items for pick up on Sat 4/11. See below!
So that we can minimize the risk to our staff and customers, the JennyCakes staff for this sale will be my daughters, Lily and Geneva, and me. Since we’ll have such a small staff, the selection of what we can offer is very limited and unfortunately does not include any cakes. We will take as many orders as we think we can manage!
We will be wearing homemade masks and food service quality plastic gloves as we prepare the orders, and we will do all the other things that we know will minimize the risk, like LOTS of handwashing and LOTS of wiping down surfaces.
Here’s what we’ll be offering:
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Boxes of a dozen cupcakes — 3 yellow/choc, 3 choc/choc, 3 yellow/buttercream, 3 choc/buttercream.
Options: Easter sprinkles/decorations, cheerful sprinkles/decorations, or no sprinkles/decorations.
Price: $30 (I promise we’ll go back to the $27 discounted price once we get through this challenging stretch!) -
Bags of 24 cookies balls of a particular flavor.
Options: chocolate chip, cookies and cream, everything and snickerdoodle.
Price: usual price of $1.50 each for snickerdoodles and $1 each for the three others. -
Hot cross buns in batches of 6.
Price: $2 each.
Schedule:
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Place orders by email to jenny@jennycakesbakery.net.
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Pay for orders by credit card by calling 240 388 9989 on Fri 4/10 between 8am to 11am but if that window is tricky for you, feel free to call to pay on Sat 4/11.
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Pick-up will be on Sat 4/11 from 8am to 11am. We’ll do this a little differently from the Cookie Ball Bonanza pick-up. I plan to set up long tables outside the bakery and display on the tables each order separately (not stacked with the other orders) in alphabetical order by first name. You’ll arrive at the parking lot, find your order on the tables and take it home. Seemed like an even safer way to do it than handing the boxes to you with gloves on.
Thanks for your patience with yet another sort of complicated procedure, but it seemed like the safest way to do it. Thinking of all of you as you go through this difficult time and really hoping you and your loved ones are healthy and stay healthy.
Jenny
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JennyCakes is currently closed until things with this virus calm down enough for us to safely reopen.
However, we hope to occasionally do special sales, such as the recent JennyCakes Cookie Ball Bonanza, so long as we can find a way to do them that is manageable and safe for us and also ensures we can keep our customers safe.
When we do one of these, I will post something here on the website, on Facebook and on instagram, so stay tuned!
Thanks for all of your support and understanding during this tricky time. Please stay safe and healthy.
Jenny
Life in Quarantine — the JennyCakes Cookie Ball Bonanza!
JennyCakes is currently closed until things with this virus calm down enough for us to safely reopen.
But one thing we thought would be both fun and safe to do occasionally during this stretch would be what I’m calling a JennyCakes Cookie Ball Bonanza. Basically, we sell you the cookie balls and you bake them at home. See below for the process for participating in this. I’m hoping the process isn’t too much of a pain. I couldn’t figure out another way to do it so it’s manageable for us while making sure everyone stays healthy and safe.
1. Place order for cookie balls by email on Thurs 3/26 and Fri 3/27.
Don’t worry if you didn’t see this in time to order. We’ll hopefully do this every once in a while until we’re finally able to reopen. I’ll always post something on instagram and facebook (like I did this time) when we plan to do it.
Email address for orders: jenny@jennycakesbakery.net.
Flavors available: choc chip, oreo, everything, peanut butter, snickerdoodle (sorry no GF or vegan flavors at this point)
If at all possible, please order cookie balls in batches of 24 (that’s what a ziploc bag will hold) but OK if 12 are one flavor and 12 are another flavor. If we do flavor amounts less than that, it will take us forever to package them all.
2. Call me at 240 388 9989 on Monday 3/30 between 9 and 11am or so, to pay for the cookie balls by credit card over the phone. Cookie balls are the usual price for our cookies — so $1 each.
3. Pick up the cookie balls at the bakery on Tuesday 3/31 between 9 and 11am. Call us at 240 388 9989 when you arrive and we’ll bring your order out to you.
Please stay safe and healthy!
Jenny
It’s time for our…
Annual Cupcake Sale!
Tuesday March 3 – Tuesday March 17
Buy 6, GET ONE FREE! But 10, GET TWO FREE!
It happens only once a year and it’s a great chance to get out of your chocolate chocolate cupcake rut and try some new, fun flavors!
Also happening this month: lots of holidays! So scroll down to see our upcoming specials, including
King cakes for Fat Tuesday
Irish kickers for St. Patrick’s Day and
Hamentaschen for Purim
Enjoy!
Happy March!
Jenny
Start your order
King Cake
KING CAKES FOR MARDI GRAS!
Fat Tuesday is just a couple days away so be sure to order your king cake today! We’ll provide the yumminess and an itsy bitsy baby for you to bury in your cake. ?
Irish kickers
IRISH KICKERS ARE BACK!
I’ve completed my annual trip to the liquor store to load up on Guinness beer, Baileys Irish Cream and Jameson Irish Whiskey so we’re ready to go and will start carrying these on March 3! Order an Irish Kicker cake or cupcakes to help celebrate St. Patrick’s Day or really any other day (right?). The Guinness beer helps flavor the chocolate cake and the Baileys Irish Cream and Jameson Irish Whiskey flavor the frosting so it’s sweet but not TOO sweet.
Hamantaschen!
HAMANTASCHEN!
We’re baking hamantaschen with apricot, poppy seed, nutella and raspberry filling throughout the month of March. These have become one of my favorite winter cookies, especially the ones with the raspberry filling!
We’re heading into a fun, busy stretch here at JennyCakes as we celebrate:
Valentine’s Day on Fri Feb 14
Mardi Gras on Tues Feb 25, featuring our king cakes
(these can now be ordered through the website)
Our Annual Cupcake Sale from Tues Mar 3 to Tues Mar 17,
featuring Irish Kickers in honor of St. Patrick’s Day
Purim on Mon Mar 9 to Tues Mar 10,
featuring lots and lots of hamentaschen
But first off is VALENTINE’S DAY!
Try to place your VALENTINE’S DAY orders in advance so we can be sure we can complete them. Last year we were surprised by how many sweetheart cakes we sold! Even on Valentine’s Day itself, we were throwing 4″ cakes in the oven to try to keep up with the demand for them from walk-in traffic. We’re hoping to be better prepared this year and have lots on hand for walk-in customers, but it would help a lot if you order in advance. 🙂
For Valentine’s Day, get ready for lots of color (I know I say this every year but it’s honestly such a welcome site in the middle of the greyness of winter!) …
Champagne Cake with Raspberry Buttercream
Tiramisu for 2
Sweetheart cake
Heart cookies
and LOTS of chocolate!
Mint brownies
Triple threat cookies
Dark chocolate cream pie
Soft sugar cookies with buttercream frosting
We’ll also have heart-shaped cakes and lots of soft sugar cookies with buttercream frosting.
Just a reminder, here’s what’s coming up!
FAT TUESDAY – Tues Feb 25
Don’t forget to order your King Cake in advance! We’ll only be able to make a limited number.
ANNUAL CUPCAKE SALE – Tues Mar 3 to Tues Mar 17
Buy 6, get one free. Buy 10, get 2 free.
PURIM – Mon Mar 9 to Tues Mar 10
We’ll have lots and lots of hamentaschen on hand.
King Cake
Cupcakes!
Hamantaschen!
Thank you to all of our customers for being so kind and patient as we sprinted through the hectic Christmas season that came so quickly on the heels of the hectic Thanksgiving season! We hope you all had a cheerful holiday and enjoyed any goodies you bought or received from us. 🙂
The most exciting part of this post is that we are at last updating our Meet the Staff section, thanks to my Mom’s relentless lobbying for this to be done! I’m so glad she kept at it because I think you’ll enjoy learning about this wonderful group of people.
If you’d also like to hear about the new stuff we’re offering at the bakery, be sure to scroll down below the section called Meet the JennyCakes Staff.
Stay tuned on Feb 1 for information about Valentine’s Day, King Cakes for Mardi Gras, and our Annual Cupcake Sale.
Jenny
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Meet the JennyCakes Staff (Recently Updated)!
Jenny’s mom, Bev Stearns, used her remarkable writing and photography abilities to interview and take photos of our staff. Below are her blurbs about each, together with Jenny’s additions. The M is for Mom and the J is for Jenny!
Taylor!
M: Taylor strikes one as being reserved, confident, responsible and poised. She grew up in Prince George’s County and now commutes from Bowie. She loves Selena Quintanilla, the hugely popular Mexican American singer, songwriter, dancer, model, and fashion designer who passed away at the young age of 24. Taylor is quite a dancer herself and especially enjoys performing the Salsa and Bachata. What is she proud of? Her younger sister who is very independent, a characteristic Taylor regards as one of her own strengths. Being creative is another of Taylor’s strengths which comes through in the gorgeous cakes that she decorates at the bakery. She volunteers that she loves Jenny Cakes cheese muffins and Italian cream cupcakes.
J: Taylor is an amazing decorator, baker and manager. She has done a great job at helping with the management of JennyCakes during our transition to a whole new staff. She will be heading off to greener pastures soon. Among other things, we will miss her sense of humor, and especially her buche jokes. 🙂
Jen!
M: Jen is an inspiration, not only because she is an amazingly gifted cake decorator but because she’s the healthiest and most physically fit JennyCakes staff member EVER! She has been a vegan eater since she was 6 and she runs marathons – 12 so far – and intends to keep running one a year until she’s in her eighties. Low-key about her accomplishments, she’s friendly, outgoing and smart. Jen’s the proud owner of a house she bought in Frederick last year.
J: Although her commute from Frederick is a challenging one, Jen has yet to miss even one scheduled shift! Of course I so appreciate the amazingly creative and beautiful decorated cakes she makes, but I also appreciate the pragmatic advice she gives me when I occasionally get over-wrought about any drama at the bakery!
Ellee!
M: Ellee is a Jenny Cakes staff member you might not see because she’s usually in a random bakery nook or cranny decorating cookies. But if you’ve ever ordered decorated cookies, it was likely Ellee who decorated them for you! Ellie goes to Blake High School and was just 15 when she was hired. She will continue her studies, especially biology, in college next year.
J: I was immediately blown away by Ellee’s maturity when this 15-year-old asked about direct deposit two days after she accepted our job offer! She works incredibly hard (decorated every single Christmas cookie we offered this year!), is delightful to be in the kitchen with, and has a conscientiousness that has made her an absolutely wonderful employee. We will miss her terribly next year when she heads off to college.
Chie!
M: Kind, smart, friendly, loyal and knowledgeable are just some of the traits that come to mind when you get to know Chie. She’s from Tokyo, where she met her husband when he was teaching English there. They moved here when he sought a Masters Degree at GWU. Like the other staff members at Jenny Cakes, her talents and passions are fascinating. She’s a connoisseur of wine and can give excellent advice on which wines are best to serve with sweets, particularly chocolate. She is also a musician who plays classical and jazz pieces on the piano. Recently her favorite composers are Chopin and Elton John. She and her husband have two children, a daughter, aged 7, and a son, aged 10. Several in Chie’s birth family still live in Tokyo. When asked for her strengths, Chie said, “Being responsible.”
J: It has been an absolute joy to have Chie work at the bakery! She is not only remarkably skilled at baking but she is one of the most conscientious people I’ve ever known as she tackles every task at the bakery, from waiting on customers to putting orders together to teaching someone a new task to decorating cookies.
Mia!
M: Young, gentle, and hardworking, Mia is a student at Montgomery College where she studies nursing when she isn’t working at JennyCakes. She was pulled to nursing because of her mother’s stories about her work in a nursing home. She is proud of the values her mother has ingrained in her. Her strengths are that she’s “pretty compassionate and gets along with people.” Outside of work, she loves to read, especially biographies, and likes to run – – in high school she did cross country for two years. She has lived in this area all her life and has two brothers and a sister.
J: I always breathe a sigh of relief when Mia cruises through the front door for her shift because I know she will quietly, calmly and competently whip things under control. She gets along with absolutely everyone – customers and employees. It’s been fun watching her grow from a JennyCakes newbie to one of the employees with the most experience here!
Emily D!
M: Emily is full of surprises. She strikes one as a happy-go-lucky young woman, but my, does she have a variety of interests and talents. She’s fluent in Latin, majored in classics and fulfilled a pre-med track at Tufts University, enjoys weaving and making wall hangings, and is planning to go to medical school. She is an alum of both Blessed Sacrament and Stoneridge.
J: I have known Emily’s family (including her mom Martha, who works at the bakery on Saturday afternoons) for Emily’s entire life, so I’ve been lucky enough to watch Emily grow from an itty bitty baby to the terrific young woman she is today. I especially appreciate Emily’s sense of humor, cheerfulness, frequent laughter and down to earth attitude at the bakery!
Eric!
M: You will frequently see Eric at the front counter, ready to serve you, but you might also glimpse him doing a multitude of things in the kitchen as well. He sports a nice mustache and doesn’t seem to miss a thing. He has been at Jenny Cakes a little over a year. A life-long Kensington resident, Eric has an interesting hobby: live streaming on an internet platform. If you already know what that means, that’s great! He explained to me that he does AMA (Ask Me Anything) in a podcast scenario. He has podcast followers in California, Florida, and Maryland.
J: What I appreciate most about Eric are his somewhat sarcastic sense of humor and the meticulous care he uses when preparing anything at the bakery. 🙂
Sam!
M: If you listen to Sam for 2 seconds, you’ll realize she’s British. She’s from Derby, England, a beautiful British city (check it out on the internet). Sam, perky and bright, exudes good cheer with her quick laugh and happy demeanor. She has lived in the area only two years, moving to Chevy Chase when her husband took a position in the British Embassy. She’s another amazingly young looking mother at Jenny Cakes – – her son is 21, at UDC, and her daughter is 17, at BCC. During their 25 years of marriage, she and her husband have moved about a lot, living in Nigeria, Botswana, and Tunisia. Discovering Jenny Cakes was fate for her. What are Sam’s strengths? She regards herself as honest, trustworthy, and hardworking. Her loves are baking, animals (she has a dog and a cat), tennis, and reading.
J: One of my favorite Sam stories happened when she came in for her working interview. I kept asking her questions and she kept giving me cryptic answers as if to say, “Back off! I’m trying to work here!” She’s super quick and productive and, for better or worse, has become my primary source for good and bad TV. She feeds my Love Island obsession but she has also introduced me to some great British dramas. We will miss her (and the great British treats she brings in) when her time in DC is up and she heads off to her next adventure!
Vincent!
J: Vincent has been kind enough to mop our floors four times a week and fold our cupcake and cakes boxes four times a week. He is almost single-handedly responsible for the fact that our customers can leave the bakery with their cupcakes or cake in a box! He is cheerful, kind and incredibly easy to work with and we are super lucky to have him work here. 🙂
Henry!
J: Henry is one of our truly treasured employees. Every Thursday and Saturday morning, we all walk into the bakery and say “Ahhhhh” when we see how beautifully he’s mopped the floor. He is incredibly consistent and conscientious and goes the extra mile by reminding me when I’m out of something. We are so grateful to him for the work he does!
Jim!
M: Quiet, polite, responsible and quirky, Jim Gordon has a distinct style. Jenny and her neighbor Frank (of Frankly Pizza) discovered Jim early on, and both have benefited from his steady help since. You’ll see him frequently hauling ingredients into the bakery from a Costco run and on Saturday mornings at the front counter cheerfully waiting on customers. When not working, one activity that Jim especially enjoys is cosplay, which involves creating costumes and going to cosplay conventions. Jim was born in DC but he has also lived in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
J: I so appreciate Jim’s calm demeanor, conscientiousness and his long-term commitment to the bakery. We are so lucky he’s been willing to work here so long!
Martha!
M: You will usually see Martha Deale at the counter on Saturday, steadily and efficiently handling orders in the midst of the frequent crush of customers. She regards Jenny Cakes as her “fun job.” Her other job is being an occupational therapist, a career she has engaged in since college. She has known Jenny for 25 years – since Jenny moved to a house next to her in Kensington. Her daughter Emily, who also works at Jenny Cakes, says that Martha’s strengths are that she’s “patient, pragmatic and loving, and she is good at remaining calm.” Martha’s family (her husband and two daughters) appreciate her baking talents, with her pies being their favorite dessert. Martha is passionate about doing needlepoint, quilting and sewing, and is an ardent fan of Washington sports, especially the Nationals and the Capitals.
J: I of course love the way Martha so adeptly manages the front counter on crazy Saturdays, but I also love her wicked sense of humor. Nothing makes both of us happier on a Saturday than giving each other grief!
Emily C.!
M: Emily moved to Wheaton from West Virginia when her sister came to the area as an NIH scholar. She misses her garden but has lots of houseplants. Growing up, Emily enjoyed working in her parents’ bakery and was drawn to the similar family atmosphere of Jenny Cakes. What is she proud of? Her family, especially her parents who participate in foster care. Outside of work, she writes poetry and short stories, focusing on nature and the people she encounters. She also likes the outdoors and hiking.
J: What a stroke of luck it was when we hired Emily C.! We call her Carter (that’s her last name – not just one we made up!) because there are so many Emilys working at the bakery already. Not only does she have tons of experience working in a bakery, but she is also remarkably helpful, pragmatic, patient and calm and catches on to things very quickly.
Chelsea!
M: Chelsea is one of Jenny’s gifted cake decorators. She moved to the area from her hometown, Pensacola, Florida six months ago when her fiancé was drawn here by a work opportunity. They married in November. She commutes to JennyCakes from Fairfax, Virginia. Chelsea’s an artist at heart and loves drawing and “working with different color palettes.” What does she do for fun? Play the ukulele and go on hikes or play video games with her new husband. She has six siblings: five sisters and one brother.
J: I so appreciate Chelsea’s beautiful, crisp, clean cake designs and the lightness and positivity that Chelsea brings to the bakery that rubs off on each of us and makes it difficult for us to be grumpy or negative!
Emily M.
M: Emily is usually at the counter, serving customers, stocking the shelves, and moving quietly about to assist others. She came to Jenny Cakes when she felt it was time for a change from selling technology. Baking is her passion – “It’s why I’m here.” She’s married and has two teenage sons, a freshman at Catholic University and a junior at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School. She has lived in Kensington since 1998. She loves to travel – has been to Japan, Australia, and Europe a few times. Recently she traveled to Romania and Germany for a wedding. Her strengths? “I like people and am good at listening.” Surprisingly, this gentle and deep woman has a Brown Belt in Karate!
J: Some of my happiest moments at the bakery are when I can get Emily M. to bust out laughing. She has the greatest laugh. I try to stoke the fire a bit on the old WJ v. BCC rivalry, but so far she maturely won’t bite. Probably for the best given the whole Brown Belt in Karate thing. But seriously, I love having Emily’s calm, reliable and cheerful presence at the bakery.
Susie!
M: It’s hard to believe that this young-looking woman with a quick smile and high energy has four fairly old children – – two daughters in college, one daughter in high school, and a son in 8th grade. She always seems to be on top of things and happy. She is at Jenny Cakes because of her “love of baking,” which she gained as a child baking with her mom and later baking with her kids. Susie lives nearby in Chevy Chase. She regards her strengths as being very organized and creative – she loves arts and crafts. What is something unusual that others might not know about her? She is one of 16 children, 9 girls and 7 boys! Her oldest sibling turns 70 this year. Twelve of her siblings live in the local area. Just imagine their family reunions!
J: So lucky to have Susie working at the bakery! Not only does she thrive on being super productive but apparently she knows pretty much everyone in this area. I get a kick out of overhearing her quick conversations at the front counter with people she hasn’t seen for a while!
Lily!
J: Lily, my daughter, who is now age 20, helped convince me to open the bakery way back in 2012 when she was 12. Our brains are scarily in sync. When we work together at the bakery, I’ll say, “Lily, can you…” and before I get any further with my question, she’ll say, “Yep, I did that” and she has! She appears to have inherited my organizational gene and is great at keeping track of things and figuring out what needs to happen next. Although she is away in college at the University of Wisconsin, Lily still occasionally makes an appearance at the bakery when she’s craving underdone chocolate chip cookies.
Geneva!
J: Geneva, my daughter who is now age 17, was the second accomplice in convincing me to open the bakery way back in 2012 when she was 10. She knows how to do literally everything at the bakery from checking the oven to doing dishes to making batters to answering the phone to running the front counter. But she won’t let me pay her. Her reasoning cracks me up: she doesn’t want the pressure of keeping up with her bakery work at the expense of being able to chat with everyone there!
Doug!
M: Doug is the perfect husband for Jenny. His humor, wisdom and calm nature fit well with Jenny’s adventurous drive and passionate spirit. You will get to know Doug best by watching him. He is definitely a man of action not words. His peaceful spirit, quiet kindness and responsible manner reflect his Quaker beliefs. His know-how and no-nonsense response to decisions and challenges are always on target. Though working full-time as a busy attorney, he willingly uses his weekends to help at the bakery. I think he secretly loves it!
J: Doug has helped in every difficult aspect of owning and operating a bakery — from negotiating the initial lease and acquisition of equipment from the old bakery to dealing with a long-term incredibly-frustrating plumbing problem (which appears to at last be resolved) to figuring out how and whether to expand into the space next door. But most importantly, every three months or so he has found a way to calm down a wife who periodically falls apart because she is having trouble figuring out how to own and operate a bakery! He works every Saturday from 4 on, pretty much single-handedly washes and folds the millions of aprons and rags we use at the bakery, hauls nearly all of our recyclables home every week and does many more things around the house than I do even though he’s a full-time partner at a law firm! Obviously, JennyCakes would not have happened and would not still be here today without the incredible amount of support he’s given it. Thanks, honey!
Jenny! Yes that’s a photo of Brayden Holtby on the fridge next to me!
Jenny!
M: Jenny has always loved organizing things: in 3rd grade it was a Jerry Lewis Carnival for Muscular Dystrophy, in 5th grade it was a makeshift library in the basement of the apartment complex where she lived, in high school it was a variety of activities including Homecoming , in early adulthood it was birthday bashes (including lots of cakes of course) for her friends, as a mom it was guiding her young daughters in delivering homemade bread to the residents of Circle Manor, a nursing home that used to be across from Noyes Children’s Library. So it’s no wonder that as her four children grew, Jenny stopped practicing law and instead organized events that mattered to her family and her community. For a decent stretch of time, she organized countless sports teams, the Kensington 8K Race (which benefits local schools), the Kensington Labor Day Parade, and many events at her kids’ schools like International Night and the Holiday Bazaar.
But the activity that captured her heart the most was planning and organizing JennyCakes Bakery. Her children pushed her into it, but launching JennyCakes tapped into her drive to organize and her desire to create a place that would play a small part in the many celebrations of the people in her community.
J: What do I do in my role as owner and manager of the bakery? Everything from creating recipes to crawling on my knees to try to fix the plumbing to doing payroll to keeping track of each order that comes in. What do I enjoy most at the bakery? Creating a recipe and having someone say that’s the best __ I’ve ever tasted! What do I do for fun when I’m not working at the bakery? Watch the Caps with my family. Enjoy our new puppy. Read read read – especially mystery/detective novels. Watch good TV, most recently The Stranger. Watch bad TV: Love Island, the Bachelor / Bachelorette.
New Fun Goodies at JennyCakes!
All of the following goodies are mouth-wateringly yummy and super popular with our customers, but next January I have GOT to find a way to add a bit more color to this month’s new stuff!
Mini chocolate pies
Coconut Cream Pie
Mint brownies
Triple Threat Cookies
Tiramisu for 2
Tiramisu for 1
Boston Cream Cupcake
Aunt Val’s coffee cake
Snickerdoodles
Modified schedule for Christmas holiday:
Mon 12/23 — CLOSED as usual
Tues 12/24 — OPEN 8am to 2pm
Weds 12/25 to Weds 1/1 — CLOSED
Thurs 1/2 — Back to our usual schedule so OPEN 8am to 7pm
Gingerbread men
Chocolate cupcake with peppermint buttercream
Decorated cutout cookies
What’s Available at the Bakery Now
As we head into the holiday season, we are already stocking our cases with lots of goodies, including gingerbread men, chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream, frosted sugar cookie bars, rum bites, decorated cutouts, jam thumbprints, pecan snowballs and Scottish shortbread.
As of today, all of these items will be on the website menu in addition to small and large holiday cookie boxes and our other bigger offerings like buche de noel.
Pumpkin and banana bread
Small and large holiday cookie boxes
Buche de Noel
Christmas Orders!
We will accept Christmas orders until we reach capacity. When we do reach capacity, I will post something at the top of our website.
Please pick up your order no later than 2pm on Tues 12/24.
The specific items available for Christmas orders are listed below.
We hope you have a wonderful holiday!
Jenny
Christmas cake
Poinsettia cake
Frosted sugar cookie bars
Christmas Goodies
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buche de noel
-
pumpkin roll (with or without toasted pecans)
-
pecan pie (with or without bourbon)
-
pumpkin pie
-
dark chocolate cream pie (we’ll be offering only a limited number of these because they are difficult to make in bulk)
-
key lime pie
-
any of our cakes (if you like the Christmas Cake or Poinsettia Cake in photos above, order under All Classic Yellow or Chocolate and mention “Christmas Cake” or “Poinsettia Cake” under Special Instructions)
-
any of our smaller items, such as cookies and cupcakes, BUT ONLY IN BATCHES OF 12 OF A PARTICULAR FLAVOR/BAKED GOOD (or in batches of 24 if ordering mini cupcakes)
For the smaller items, if you would like a wider variety, please consider stopping by the bakery on Tues Dec 24 between 8am to 2pm. We will be fully stocked with our usual items and we will work hard to stay stocked for as long as possible. We would suggest you come early though because we are likely to sell out quickly. Thanks!
As of Nov 12 JennyCakes had to cut off Thanksgiving orders because we already have so many. On Weds 11/27 we will be open from 8am to 2pm and will have available then some extra pies, cakes and other Thanksgiving treats, as well as our usual items. We would suggest you come early though because we are likely to sell out quickly. Thanks!
JennyCakes schedule for week of Thanksgiving:
Mon 11/25 CLOSED
Tues 11/26 CLOSED (except for special order pick-ups) so we can
prepare Thanksgiving orders
Weds 11/27 OPEN 8am to 2pm
Thurs 11/28 CLOSED
Fri 11/29 CLOSED
Sat 11/30 OPEN 8am to 7pm for Small Business Saturday!
Welcome to another Thanksgiving at JennyCakes! Please order early! The deadline for orders is Thurs Nov 14, but if we reach capacity before then, we will have to close off orders earlier than that.
All orders must be picked up no later than 2pm on Weds Nov 27.
Our list of specific items available for Thanksgiving orders is are below. We hope you have a wonderful holiday!
Baked goods available for Thanksgiving orders:
-
pumpkin pie
-
pecan pie (with or without bourbon)
-
coconut cream pie
-
key lime pie
-
frosted pumpkin roll (with or without nuts)
-
any of our cakes
-
any of our smaller items, such as cookies and cupcakes, BUT ONLY IN AMOUNTS OF 12 or more OF A PARTICULAR FLAVOR/BAKED GOOD (or in batches of 24 if ordering mini cupcakes)
Several newer yummy items available in that “smaller items” category:
-
cheddar cheese crackers (great as a Thanksgiving appetizer)
-
spiced pumpkin muffins with mini chocolate chips (incredibly moist and tasty and perfect for a light Thanksgiving breakfast)
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pumpkin bread with or without chocolate chips (we have had trouble this fall keeping up with the demand for this!)
For the smaller items, if you would like a wider variety, please consider stopping by the bakery on Weds Nov 27. We will be fully stocked with our usual items and you will be able to pick and choose. We would suggest you come early though because we are likely to sell out quickly. Thanks!
Jenny
We did a very quick hop, skip and a jump through the remainder of spring and we’re now poised to head into summer.
As most of you know, we’ve been having trouble keeping up with our cake orders this spring so at this point we would suggest you place any cake order at least 2 weeks before you’d like to pick it up.
BUT, I thought I’d take a second to remind you of our cool NON-cake options at the bakery like chocolate chip cookie cakes, festive cupcakes (and we’re happy to provide a cardboard cake round with a message on it as a way to display the cupcakes), cookie platters and pies (full size or minis, key lime or our new coconut cream). Some fun options, right?
Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Cookie platter
Coconut cream pie
Partycakes!
Popular This Spring!
We’ve been celebrating spring with strawberry shortcakes, strawberry bread, lemon bars and the increasingly beloved and popular Mary’s raspberry squares. We’ll carry the strawberry shortcake and strawberry bread through mid-June and we’ll carry the lemon bars and Mary’s raspberry squares through the end of summer.
Strawberry shortcake
Strawberry bread
Lemon bars
Mary’s raspberry squares
Coming Up for Summer!
We’ve been getting a lot of inquiries about when the key lime mango cakes and cupcakes will be back and the answer is on Tues June 18! We’ll also bring back on that day our orange creamsicle cupcakes, blueberry crumb bars, lemon ricotta cookies and glazed lemon cupcakes.
Key lime mango cupcakes
Orange creamsicle cupcake
Chilled lemon ricotta cookies
Blueberry crumb bars
Coming Up This Fall
Don’t forget the Big JennyCakes Labor Day Chocolate Chip Cookie Give-Away (I just came up with that title). We’ll be handing out a free chocolate chip cookie to everyone who stops by the store on Labor Day (and you don’t even need to buy anything). We hope to see you then!
Have a fun rest of your summer!
Jenny
Easter!
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G16A (ears provided by customer)
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For Easter this year, we’ll again offer a variety of Easter cakes. We can make any design you’d like so long as it can be done with buttercream. Above are a few bunny and Easter themed cakes we’ve made in the past. You can see others if you click on the PHOTOS tab on our website and go to the section called “Seasonal Cakes”. If you like any of these, when you order your cake, be sure to reference the image number under Special Instructions.
Hot cross buns
JennyCakes will offer again this year hot cross buns for Easter. You’ll find them on the website under Seasonal Specials. They’re not too dense and filled with lots of dried fruit (cranberries, cherries, golden raisins, currants, depending on the batch). We add a thin sugar glaze, spices you can taste in each bite, and a bit of orange zest to give them a little zing. Available through Easter.
Passover!
Flourless Chocolate Cake
JennyCakes now carries on a year-round basis a flourless chocolate cake. It’s a single-layer, rich, moist cake made with our best dark chocolate. It’s covered with a not so thin layer of chocolate ganache flavored with a bit of coffee liqueur. It does have dairy ingredients, and it is not kosher, but it’s my understanding that it can be eaten at a Passover meal where no meat is served.
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We will start carrying our spring specials, otherwise now known as strawberry-palooza (catchy, eh?), on May 1.
Happy beginning of Spring!
Jenny
Friday March 1 – Saturday March 16
Annual Cupcake Sale!
Buy 6, GET ONE FREE! But 10, GET TWO FREE!
Our cupcake sale is the perfect time to try every flavor! Believe it or not, my favorite is the yellow cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting. If I’m feeling wild and crazy, I sometimes add some rainbow sprinkles. Simple is sometimes best, right? Yum!
Scroll down to see our seasonal specials, including
King cakes for Fat Tuesday
Irish kickers for St. Patrick’s Day and
Hamentaschen for Purim
Enjoy!
Happy March!
Jenny
Start your order
King Cake
KING CAKES FOR MARDI GRAS!
Fat Tuesday is less than a week away so be sure to order your king cake soon! We’ll provide the yumminess and an itsy bitsy baby for you to bury in your cake. 🙂
Irish kickers
IRISH KICKERS ARE BACK!
Just in time for the cupcake sale and St. Patrick’s Day, we’re bringing back our Irish kickers – a chocolate cupcake flavored with Guinness beer and frosted with buttercream spiked with Baileys Irish Cream and Jameson Irish Whiskey.
Hamantaschen!
HAMANTASCHEN!
We’re baking hamantaschen with apricot, poppy seed, nutella and raspberry filling throughout the month of March.
So ON TO VALENTINE’S DAY and an excuse to infuse the bakery with lots and lots of COLOR, especially pink and red! Hopefully, this will keep our winter doldroms at bay. Just think — we could be attending school in Madison, Wisconsin like my daughter is. The high there for today (Tues 1/29) will be 0 degrees and the low is expected to be -24. Tomorrow’s supposed to be even colder with a low of -30. Makes my whining about that brisk walk from the church parking lot to the bakery seem just a wee bit silly, eh?
Try to place your VALENTINE’S DAY orders in advance so we can be sure we can complete them, but we’ll also plan to have lots on hand for last-minute purchases.
We’ll again have lots of color…
Champagne Cake with Raspberry Buttercream
Tiramisu for 2
Sweetheart cake
Heart cookies
and LOTS of chocolate!
Mint brownies
Triple threat cookies
Dark chocolate cream pie
Soft sugar cookies with buttercream frosting
We’ll also have heart-shaped cakes and lots of soft sugar cookies with pink buttercream frosting.
Place your order soon at jennycakesbakery.net!
FAT TUESDAY – Tues Mar 5!
Don’t forget to order your King Cake in advance!
ANNUAL CUPCAKE SALE – Fri Mar 1 to Sat Mar 16. Buy 6, get one free. Buy 10, get 2 free.
PURIM – Weds Mar 20 to Thurs Mar 21. We’ll have lots of hamentaschen on hand.
King Cake
Cupcakes!
Hamantaschen!
I always think of THE HOLIDAYS (Thanksgiving and Christmas) as that dreaded time of year when I, the embodiment of anxiety, constantly worry that we’re going to forget something, get something wrong, or otherwise disappoint someone during an important holiday meant for wonderful family memories. Most of the time we’re successful at making sure everything goes smoothly and tastes and looks good. Occasionally we aren’t and then I’m devastated and spend a lot of time worrying about why this happened and how to fix it. It just seems like there’s so much more at stake during the holidays!
Once we hit January, although I’m still worried about making sure customers are happy with what they order and purchase from us, I notice that I start to relax just a touch and that tightness in my chest eases up a bit. With this incredibly sophisticated psychological insight in hand, I’ve decided that, even though I usually think of January as the most “blah” and depressing month of the year, THIS year I’m going to think of it as a bit more care-free, easy-going, playful and maybe even creative, especially in contrast to November and December. It’s worth at least TRYING to change my outlook, right?
This month we say goodbye until next year to: pecan snowballs, jam thumbprints, frosted sugar cookie bars, gingerbread people, buche de noel, frosted pumpkin rolls and shortbread.
BUT, we say hello to my Aunt Val’s coffee cake, mint brownies, triple threat chocolate cookies, snickerdoodles and Boston cream cakes and cupcakes.
Then in February, we’ll bring back tiramisu (for 1 or FOR 2 because, you know, Valentine’s Day), mini dark chocolate pies (again Valentine’s Day idea), lots of frosted heart cookies and sweetheart cakes (4″ cakes with Valentine’s Day designs on them).
I know I say this every January, but THIS JANUARY I really am going to experiment with recipes for gluten-free cookies and vegan cookies. I know many of you with restricted diets are getting tired of just the cupcakes/cakes we offer, so I’ll work hard to expand our offerings. If you happen to have a recipe for either kind of cookie that you LOVE and are willing to share it with me, please feel free to email it to me at jenny@jennycakesbakery.net.
We continue to offer the HadiCakes, both at the bakery and online for special orders. If you haven’t heard of this effort before, the HadiCake is in memory of Hadi, an incredible kid who we were lucky to get to know through his amazing family and especially the posts of his mom Saira Sufi. Among many other things, he loved blueberries, rainbow sprinkles and Star Wars. So these are blueberry cupcakes with buttercream sprinkled with blue rainbow nonpareils with a silver star added on top. In celebration of Hadi, $1 from each cupcake will go to bethematch.org.
Also, stay tuned for a new round of Meet the Staff with some updates on current staff members and some new staff member entries. ?
Have a fun January and February!
Jenny
Modified schedule for Christmas holiday:
Mon 12/24 — OPEN 8am to 2pm
Tues 12/25 to Tues 1/1 — CLOSED
Weds 1/2 — Back to our usual schedule so OPEN 8am to 7pm
Gingerbread men
Chocolate cupcake with peppermint buttercream
Decorated cutout cookies
What’s Available at the Bakery Now
As we head into the holiday season, we are already stocking our cases with lots of goodies, including gingerbread men, chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream, frosted sugar cookie bars, decorated cutouts, jam thumbprints, pecan snowballs, Scottish shortbread and rum bites.
During this season of kind gestures, think about giving a neighbor, a favorite teacher, a co-worker or anyone else who you appreciate – or simply want to reach out to – a holiday cookie box or a festively wrapped loaf of banana or pumpkin bread.
Pumpkin and banana bread
Small and large holiday cookie boxes
Buche de Noel
Christmas Orders!
We hope to accept Christmas orders through Mon 12/17, UNLESS WE REACH CAPACITY BEFORE THEN. I will post something at the top of our website if we close out orders before Mon 12/17.
Please pick up your order no later than 2pm on Mon 12/24.
The specific items available for Christmas orders are listed below.
We hope you have a wonderful holiday!
Jenny
Christmas cake
Poinsettia cake
Frosted sugar cookie bars
Christmas Goodies
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buche de noel
-
pumpkin roll (with or without toasted pecans)
-
pecan pie (with or without bourbon)
-
apple pie with streusel
-
pumpkin pie
-
dark chocolate cream pie
-
key lime pie
-
any of our cakes (if you like the Christmas Cake or Poinsettia Cake in photos above, order under All Classic Yellow or Chocolate and mention “Christmas Cake” or “Poinsettia Cake” under Special Instructions)
-
any of our smaller items, such as cookies and cupcakes, BUT ONLY IN BATCHES OF 12 OF A PARTICULAR FLAVOR/BAKED GOOD (or in batches of 24 if ordering mini cupcakes)
For the smaller items, if you would like a wider variety, please consider stopping by the bakery on Mon Dec 24 between 8am and 2pm. We will be fully stocked and you will be able to pick and choose. We would suggest you come early though because we are likely to sell out quickly. Thanks!
Time for Thanksgiving!
We’re doing things pretty much the same way we’ve done them the last few years.
We hope to be able to accept Thanksgiving orders through Sat Nov 17. If we have to close out orders before then, I will post something at the top of the website.
Pumpkin pie
Pecan pie
Apple pie with streusel
All orders must be picked up no later than 7pm on Weds Nov 21.
Our schedule for the week of Thanksgiving, and the list of specific items available for Thanksgiving orders, are below.
We hope you have a wonderful holiday!
Jenny
JennyCakes schedule for week of Thanksgiving:
Mon 11/19 CLOSED
Tues 11/20 CLOSED (except for special order pick-ups) so we can prepare Thanksgiving orders
Weds 11/21 OPEN 8am to 7pm for special order pick-ups and walk-in traffic
THUR 11/22 CLOSED
FRI 11/23 CLOSED
SAT 11/24 OPEN 8am to 7pm for Small Business Saturday!
Thanksgiving Goodies!
Cakes, pies and smaller items in batches of 12
Caramel apple cake
Iced pumpkin cookies
Pumpkin roll
Baked goods available for Thanksgiving orders:
-
pumpkin pie
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pecan pie (with or without bourbon)
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apple pie with streusel
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dark chocolate cream pie
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key lime pie
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pumpkin roll (comes with cream cheese frosting on the inside and a thin layer of cream cheese frosting on the outside together with a sprinkling of pumpkin pie spice)
-
any of our cakes
-
any of our smaller items, such as cookies and cupcakes, BUT ONLY IN BATCHES OF 12 OF A PARTICULAR FLAVOR/BAKED GOOD (or in batches of 24 if ordering mini cupcakes)
Cheddar cheese crackers
Spiced pumpkin muffins with mini chocolate chips
Pumpkin cheesecake bars
Several new yummy items available in that “smaller items” category:
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cheddar cheese crackers – great as a Thanksgiving appetizer
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pumpkin cheese cake bars – my current irresistible treat
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Ingrid’s apple pie bars – my daughter Geneva’s current irresistible treat
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spiced pumpkin muffins with mini chocolate chips – yummy and incredibly moist
For the smaller items, if you would like a wider variety, please consider stopping by the bakery on Weds Nov 21. We will be fully stocked with our usual items and you will be able to pick and choose. We would suggest you come early though because we are likely to sell out quickly. Thanks!
You probably aren’t aware of this but standing behind our big mixer Mon through Fri from 7am to noon is someone who is INCREDIBLY gifted as an FX makeup artist specializing in horror and haunt makeup. This past Sunday afternoon, Helen Snell invited 5 of our employees to a photo shoot for her portfolio. So, to get you in the Halloween spirit, below are the AMAZING results. Anyone who can guess which of our employees are in these five photos gets a free cupcake!
Here’s what we now have on hand for the fall season:
Caramel apple cake
Caramel apple cakes and cupcakes — a cupcake chock full of apple pieces, frosted with cream cheese frosted, drizzled with caramel and then sprinkled with toasted pecans. Always a crowd-pleaser in cupcake or cake form.
Pumpkin cakes and cupcakes – a pumpkin cupcake flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and a bit of orange juice, frosted with cream cheese frosting with the same spices and a bit of orange peel, then sprinkled with nutmeg. These took a while to take off but last year people FINALLY discovered them and we couldn’t keep up with the demand!
Iced pumpkin cookies
Iced pumpkin cookies – a pumpkin cookie frosted with a big dollop of vanilla frosting. A perennial favorite. As you can guess, we don’t skimp on the frosting!
Pumpkin mini-loaves – from the recipe I discovered last year. We make these plain, with toasted pecans, with mini chocolate chips, with cranberries and if we’re really feeling crazy with Mary’s cinnamon sugar crust baked on.
Spiced pumpkin muffins — NEW THIS YEAR. We think we’ve finally found a recipe that is tasty but also results in big fluffy muffins. Stop by and try one!
Pecan pie bars
Pecan Pie Bars – our ooey gooey pecan pie filling on top of a buttery shortbread crust.
Ingrid’s Apple Pie Bars — my personal favorite, especially as in the way we now servie them. Because they were so messy as bars, we now cut them into pieces and place them in a plastic cup. Then we cover them with whipped cream and add a pinch of nutmeg. Heaven!
And of ourse Halloween is coming up! Love this holiday! We’ve started making Halloween decorated cookies and hope to have some always on-hand at the bakery through Halloween. Don’t forget our Halloween decorated cakes. My decorators, especially Don, have a lot of fun with this holiday!
THANKSGIVING ORDERS: On or about November 1, I’ll send out a Constant Contact email that describes what we will be offering for Thanksgiving and how to place your orders. If you’d like to be added to our Constant Contact email list, feel free to email me at jenny@jennycakesbakery.net.
Enjoy the fall!
Jenny
A reminder that we’ll be closed from Sun July 22 through Mon Aug 6. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
JENNYCAKES NEWS:
After a fun and very busy spring, we’ve finally gotten organized enough to switch over from our spring goodies to our summer goodies.
So, we’re back to making blueberry crumb bars, lemon ricotta cookies, key lime mango cupcakes, glazed lemon cupcakes and lemon bars.
Blueberry crumb bars
Key lime mango cupcakes
Chilled lemon ricotta cookies
Glazed lemon cupcake
We will also continue to offer our recently-introduced and instantly popular raspberry squares, a recipe that was developed by manager Mary 🙂 , as well as our summertime ice cream cookie sandwiches.
Mary’s raspberry squares
Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich
And we’re having a LOT of fun experimenting with a new cupcake that I’m really
excited about. It’s a yellow cupcake flavored with orange zest that is frosted AND filled (yes, a first for us!) with an orange flavored whipped cream cheese frosting (like our regular cream cheese frosting except lighter because we fold whipped cream into it). Thinking about adding a little slice of orange on top like on the cupcake shown to the right, a yummy-looking one from My Baking Addiction. Keep an eye out for this new cupcake coming soon!
Stuff that is coming up!
Labor Day (Monday, Sept 3) when we hand out free chocolate chip cookies after the parade!
Savor this wonderful and usually way too short season!
Jenny
We are already in the midst of spring at JennyCakes! Such a lively time of year with so many things to celebrate — moms, dads, teachers, confirmations, first communions, graduations, the end of a fun sports season, and of course BIRTHDAYS! We’ve been busy, busy, busy so be sure to place your orders well in advance so we can be sure we can do them for you. We recommend a week ahead of time but we can sometimes do a cake with less notice — it just depends on how busy we are that particular week. Here’s what’s new and returning at JennyCakes.
Strawberries!
They’re finally tasty and reasonably priced. So we’re back to making these strawberry items:
Strawberry shortcake
Strawberry bread
Strawberry icebox pie
Cassata cake
Lemon bars
Lemon stuff!
We’re bringing back our lemon bars now and the lemon cupcakes and lemon ricotta cookies will be back in mid to late June.
Brown sugar pecan cookies
An old favorite!
Brown sugar pecan cookies (Ingrid’s favorites) are back! They’re a melt in your mouth brown sugar shortbread with a brown sugar frosting with a few toasted pecans sprinkled on top.
Our first raspberry flavored item!
Mary’s raspberry squares
Mary’s raspberry squares are literally FLYING off the plate we’ve been placing them on at the bakery. My new favorites, these have a yummy moist crust on the bottom and streusel on the top, both oatmeal in them, and then a combination of raspberry jam and fresh raspberries in the middle. The fresh raspberries give them a nice strong raspberry flavor while the raspberry jam gives them this really great tang. We can’t seem to bake them fast enough. Thanks to my manager, Mary Williams, for creating the recipe for them!
A new crazy, decadent cake!
A very kind man hoping to make his Ferrero Rocher-loving wife happy on her birthday asked us to make one of these and I couldn’t turn him down despite how busy we were. 🙂 So after a few shopping trips to various stores for ingredients and some experimenting, we came up with the Ferrero Rocher cake. It’s four thin layers of our chocolate cake frosted with smooth and fluffy hazelnut buttercream in between the layers and on the outside, with some slightly softened hazelnut wafers in the middle (to give it the touch of crunch that the Ferrero Rocher candies have), topped with dollops of hazelnut buttercream and Ferrero Rocher candies, then cover the sides with chopped hazelnuts. So beautiful and so yummy!
Ferrero rocher cake
Enjoy the rest of your spring!
Jenny
Passover!
During Passover, JennyCakes will offer again this year our flourless chocolate cake. It’s a single-layer, rich, moist cake made with our best dark chocolate, then covered with a not so thin layer of ganache flavored with a bit of coffee liqueur. It does have dairy ingredients, and it is not kosher, but it’s my understanding that it can be eaten at a Passover meal where no meat is served.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Easter!
Our usual crazy amount of experimenting went into these hot cross buns. Really happy with them now — they’re not too dense and nice and browned on top, and they have lots of dried fruit (cranberries, cherries, golden raisins, currants, depending on the batch), spices that you can taste in each bite, and enough orange zest to give them just a little zing. Available through Easter.
Hot cross buns
And don’t forget our Easter cakes. We can make any design you’d like so long as it can be done with buttercream. Below are a few bunny and Easter themed ones we made last year. If you like any of these, when you order your cake, be sure to reference the image number under the Special Instructions.
G15
G18
A113
Happy Spring!
Jenny
Hamantaschen!
We’re heading into spring at last! Here’s what’s up at JennyCakes!
JennyCakes is selling hamantaschen with apricot, poppy seed, nutella and raspberry filling through and including Saturday March 3. Price is $1.50 each. Click on photo to place an order!
Our Annual Cupcake Sale will be Thurs March 1 through Sat March 17 — Buy 10 cupcakes, get 2 free! Buy 5 cupcakes, get 1 free!
Irish kickers
Just in time for the sale and St. Patrick’s Day, we’re bringing back our Irish kickers – a chocolate cupcake flavored with Guinness beer and frosted with buttercream spiked with Baileys Irish Cream and Jameson Irish Whiskey.
In anticipation of the coming warmer months (we’re SO ready for them), our JennyCakes t-shirts will also be on sale from Thurs March 1 to Sat March 17.
Usually $12 each. Now $8 each.
And the following goodies are doing their swan song until next year so if you’re going to miss them, order some now!
Champagne Cake / Cupcake with Raspberry Buttercream
Tiramisu
Boston Cream Cake / Cupcake
Have a wonderful end of winter. Here’s to a fun spring and summer!
Jenny
One quick thing before I start in with the fun stuff. All of a sudden we’ve been having trouble with our emails and order confirmations landing in our customers’ spam folders. So, if you emailed me and didn’t hear back, or you placed an order and didn’t receive a confirmation, please check your spam folder and “whitelist” jennycakesbakery.net. Thanks! Jenny
Fun holidays are coming up and we’re getting ready to celebrate!
King Cake
FAT TUESDAY – Tues Feb 13!
Don’t forget to order your King Cake in advance!
VALENTINE’S DAY – Weds Feb 14!
Place your orders soon so you can be sure we’ll be able to complete them. We’ll also aim to have lots of goodies on hand for walk-in customers.
We’ll have lots of color…
Champagne Cake with Raspberry Buttercream
Tiramisu for 2
Sweetheart cake
Heart cookies
and LOTS of chocolate!
Mint brownies
Triple threat cookies
Dark chocolate cream pie
Soft sugar cookies with buttercream frosting
We’ll also be baking heart-shaped cakes and soft sugar cookies with pink buttercream frosting.
Place your order soon at jennycakesbakery.net!
Jenny
Christmas cake
Buche de Noel
Gingerbread
Peppermint cupcake
Modified schedule for Dec 22 to Jan 1
Fri 12/22 – OPEN 8am to 7pm
Sat 12/23 – OPEN ONLY FOR SPECIAL ORDER PICK-UPS so we can prepare Xmas orders
Sun 12/24 – OPEN 8am to 2pm
Mon 12/25 – CLOSED so our staff can recover from the holidays! to Mon 1/1
Tues 1/2 – Back to our usual schedule – OPEN 8am to 7pm
What’s Available at the Bakery Now
As we head into the holiday season, we are already stocking our cases with lots of goodies, including jam thumbprints, pecan snowballs, Scottish shortbread, frosted sugar cookie bars, decorated Christmas cookies, chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream, gingerbread boys and girls, and rum bites and cupcakes.
Pecan snowballs
Decorated cut-outs
Scottish shortbread
Rum bites
Christmas Orders!
We hope to accept Christmas orders through Sun 12/17, unless we reach capacity before then. I will post something at the top of our website if we close out orders before Sun 12/17.
All orders must be picked up no later than 2pm on Sun 12/24.
The specific items available for Christmas orders are listed below.
We hope you have a wonderful holiday!
Jenny
Christmas Goodies!
- buche de noel
- pumpkin roll (with or without toasted pecans)
- pecan pie (with or without bourbon)
- apple pie with streusel
- pumpkin pie
- dark chocolate cream pie
- key lime pie
- any of our cakes
- any of our smaller items, such as cookies and cupcakes, BUT ONLY IN BATCHES OF 12 OF A PARTICULAR FLAVOR/BAKED GOOD (or in batches of 24 if ordering mini cupcakes)
For the smaller items, if you would like a wider variety, please consider stopping by the bakery on Sun Dec 24 between 8am to 2pm. We will be fully stocked with our usual items and you will be able to pick and choose. We would suggest you come early though because we are likely to sell out quickly. Thanks!
Time for Thanksgiving!
We’re doing things pretty much the same way we have done them the last few years.
Pumpkin pie
Pecan pie with or without bourbon
Apple pie with streusel
We will accept Thanksgiving orders through Sat Nov 18, unless we reach capacity before then. I will post something at the top of the website if we close out orders before Sat Nov 18.
All orders must be picked up by 7pm on Weds Nov 22.
Our schedule for the week of Thanksgiving, and the list of specific items available for Thanksgiving orders, are listed below.
We hope you have a wonderful holiday!
Jenny
Baked goods available for Thanksgiving orders:
Caramel apple cake
- pumpkin pie
- pecan pie (with or without bourbon)
- apple pie with streusel
- dark chocolate cream pie
- key lime pie
- pumpkin roll (with or without toasted pecans)
- any of our cakes
- any of our smaller items, such as cookies and cupcakes, BUT ONLY IN BATCHES OF 12 OF A PARTICULAR FLAVOR/BAKED GOOD (or in batches of 24 if ordering mini cupcakes)
Iced pumpkin cookies
For the smaller items, if you would like a wider variety, please consider stopping by the bakery on Weds Nov 22. We will be fully stocked with our usual items and you will be able to pick and choose. We would suggest you come early though because we are likely to sell out quickly. Thanks!
JennyCakes schedule for week of Thanksgiving:
Mon 11/20- CLOSED
Tues 11/21 – CLOSED (except for special order pick-ups) so we can prepare Thanksgiving orders
Weds 11/22 – OPEN 8am to 7pm for special order pick-ups and walk-in traffic
Thurs 11/23 – CLOSED
Fri 11/24 – CLOSED
SAT 11/25 – OPEN 8am to 7pm for Small Business Saturday!
We’ve slowly been rolling out our fall specialties:
Caramel apple cakes and cupcakes – a cupcake chock full of apple pieces, frosted with cream cheese frosted, drizzled with caramel and then sprinkled with toasted pecans.
Pumpkin cakes and cupcakes – a pumpkin cupcake flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and a bit of orange juice, frosted with cream cheese frosting with the same spices and a bit of orange peel, then sprinkled with nutmeg.
Iced pumpkin cookies – a pumpkin cookie frosted with a big dollop of vanilla frosting
Pumpkin mini-loaves – from a new recipe I’m FINALLY happy with, we make these plain, with toasted pecans, with mini chocolate chips, with cranberries and if we’re really feeling crazy with Mary’s cinnamon sugar crust baked on.
Pecan Pie Bars – our ooey gooey pecan pie filling on top of a buttery shortbread crust
Ah, and Halloween is just around the corner! Such a fun, and as I’ve said before, family angst-free holiday! We’ve started making Halloween decorated cookies and hope to have some on-hand at the bakery through Halloween. Don’t forget our Halloween decorated cakes and cupcakes. My decorators, especially Kristen, have a lot of fun with this holiday!
THANKSGIVING ORDERS: On or about November 1, I’ll send out a Constant Contact email that describes what we will be offering for Thanksgiving and how to place your orders. If you’d like to be added to our Constant Contact email list, feel free to email me at jenny@jennycakesbakery.net.
Enjoy this calm before the storm — the December holidays will be upon us in a flash!
Jenny
Another reminder that we’ll be closed from Sun July 30 through Mon Aug 14. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
JENNYCAKES NEWS:
Return of some favorites!
Making their triumphant return to the bakery line-up are the lemon ricotta cookies, the key lime/mango cupcakes, the blueberry crumb bars and our ice cream cookie sandwiches. *** Don’t forget to check out not only our two cases, but the refrigerator right inside the front door where we keep some of our goodies that melt easily in this weather. ***
Blueberry crumb bars
Cookies and cream ice cream cookie sandwich
Key lime mango cupcakes
Chilled lemon ricotta cookies
New stuff I’m working on!
Fluffy cheesecake bars with a thick graham cracker crust — something like these but even fluffier.
A tres leches cake with fruit.
A mandarin orange cake/cupcake based on a really yummy grapefruit Brown Derby cake that a customer asked me to make for him this past winter. Here’s a preliminary attempt at one — tasted great, especially the longer it was chilled, but need to work a bit on appearance!
We’ll let you know when we’re happy enough with these to start selling them!
Stuff that is coming up!
Labor Day (Monday, Sept 4) when we hand out free chocolate chip cookies after the parade!
Our final installment of Meet the JennyCakes staff!
Meet my husband Doug, daughters Lily and Geneva, as well as staff members Gabi, Anna, Sam and Payton.
My husband Doug!
When I proposed opening a bakery to my logic-driven husband Doug, he had all kinds of reservations. After lengthy discussions about the pros and cons of doing it, he finally said, “But it WOULD mean that on Mondays I could bring leftovers into my office. Hmmm…” That’s when I knew he was on board. He has helped in every difficult aspect of owning and operating a bakery — from negotiating the initial lease and acquisition of equipment from the old bakery to dealing with a long-term incredibly-frustrating plumbing problem (which appears to at last be resolved) to figuring out how and whether to expand into the space next door. But most importantly, every three months or so he has found a way to calm down a wife who periodically falls apart because she is having trouble figuring out how to own and operate a bakery! He works every Saturday from 4 on, pretty much single-handedly washes and folds the millions of aprons and rags we use at the bakery, hauls nearly all of our recyclables home every week and does many more things around the house than I do even though he’s a full-time partner at a law firm! Obviously, JennyCakes would not have happened and would not still be here today without the incredible amount of support he’s given it. Thanks, honey!
Lily!
Lily, my daughter who is now age 17, helped convince me to open the bakery way back in 2012 when she was 12. Our brains are scarily in sync. When we work together at the bakery, I’ll say, “Lily, can you…” and before I get any further with my question, she’ll say, “Yep, I did that” and she has! She is great at keeping track of several things at once and she quickly picks up on all the little detailed things we are constantly tweaking. I personally love having her at the bakery because it’s the only time she admits that I can occasionally be funny. 🙂
Geneva!
Geneva, my daughter who is now age 15, helped convince me to open the bakery way back in 2012 when she was 10. She knows how to do literally everything at the bakery from checking the oven to doing dishes to making batters to answering the phone to running the front counter. But she won’t let me pay her. Her reasoning cracks me up: she doesn’t want the pressure of keeping up with her bakery work at the expense of being able to chat with everyone there! When we first opened, one of my favorite things was to listen to Geneva and Kara Knips (a beloved bakery alum) play the “Question Game”.
Geva: Kara, what’s my favorite color? Kara: Green. Geneva: Right!
Kara: Geva, what do I plan to have to eat at my wedding reception. Geva: a Chipotle buffet! Kara: Right!
The game spilled over to other people at the bakery and became a fun way to get to know each other during the somewhat quiet hours of Sat morning before it got crazy. And by the way, Kara is getting married sometime around New Year’s and she is NOT having a Chipotle buffet!
Gabi!
Gabi came to us when she was just 14 through an internship program at her school, The Siena School. One cold, dark night when her mom was picking her up from her internship, I remember running out to her car to ask her mom how much free time Gabi had during the year because I REALLY wanted to hire her RIGHT THEN! And when I get a bee in my bonnet, it’s hard to distract me. 🙂 So, since her internship Gabi has worked for us, fitting us in around an already busy school schedule. Now, at the ripe old age of 16, she is essentially in charge of the final weekly clean-up of the bakery every Saturday afternoon.
Anna!
Anna (pronounced Ah-na when you see her!) joined us last fall after I saw a cake she did on facebook with buttercream rosettes. Because she has been very active in ice hockey, dance and lots of Einstein HS activities, we haven’t been able to involve her much in the decorating side of things yet, but hopefully we’ll be able to do that a bit this summer. During the course of this year, she has demonstrated that she’s a hard worker on Saturday afternoons when we do our weekly “deep cleaning” of the bakery, but she’s not above having a bit of fun. Rumor has it that on occasion she will do a few dance steps in the kitchen when she thinks no one but Gabi is looking. 🙂
Samantha!
Samantha began working at JennyCakes this past spring. She is a fierce froster of cupcakes and great at keeping track of what is needed in our cases. She’s incredibly smart, hard-working and fastidious about getting done what needs to get done. I can hand her a list of outstanding orders on Saturday morning and an hour later, everything is completed and done perfectly. We are really going to miss her when she heads to the College of William and Mary in the fall.
Payton!
We sure wish we found Payton earlier than a couple months before her graduation from WJHS! Such a find. AMAZING at frosting and decorating our very popular cut-out cookies (much to the relief of Ingrid and Kristen who had been splitting their time between 10,000 cakes and the cut-out cookies), quick to catch onto all the ins and outs of the bakery, great under pressure and fun to be around, she has been a HUGE asset. We will be really, really sad when she heads to the University of Charleston in the fall and we REALLY wish her university would ease up on the amount of time given to students for vacation so she can come back and work for us more during her breaks. Is that selfish?
Welcome to JennyCakes Bakery, a tiny bakery with a BIG heart! We opened in April 2012 with the hope of creating a cheerful place where people could buy baked goods that look and taste like food baked in a cozy kitchen at someone’s home. We love it that we know the names and favorite orders of many of our customers. We love being nestled into such a bustling community and finding ways to support the many local schools and charities. And we love it when our customers exclaim “these are just like my grandma used to bake!”
Stop by sometime and see what’s baking!
Jenny
It’s springtime and we’re all about strawberries — strawberry ice box pie, strawberry bread, strawberry shortcake, strawberry buttercream. I love seeing so much color in our cases!
I’ve been having a strange burst of desire to come up with new stuff for the bakery. I love the challenge of prowling the internet for a recipe I like, making whatever changes I think will make it better, and then practicing it enough times that I know everything that can go wrong and how to fix it! Recent new things include:
King Cakes — loved the taste but will probably leave the decorating to my experts — Kristen and Ingrid — next year!
Hot Cross Buns — a collaborative effort with bakery neighbors Steve and Anna McHale — I love these not too dense, not too fluffy, nicely browned, full of dried fruit buns
Flourless Chocolate Cake — has a deep rich chocolate flavor with a REALLY moist texture — good for a non-kosher, non-meat meal during Passover and for true chocolate lovers any time
Egg Cups — we add veggies or sausage/bacon/proscuitto to a mixture of eggs, milk, cheese and lots of seasonings — a response to some customer feedback about having something else savory (besides the cheese muffins) available for breakfast 
Creme de Menthe brownies — a layer of moist rich brownie, then a layer of mint buttercream, then a layer of chocolate ganache — seriously, what’s not to LOVE? Thanks to customer Elise LaPrade for encouraging us to make these!
April 5th marked our 5-year anniversary. We’ve come a long way from working with one 5-quart mixer in a space the size of a postage stamp (OK — that’s a slight exaggeration) to the recent renovation of our new additional space and the recent purchase of a commercial 20-quart mixer! Thank you to all of our wonderful customers who kept buying stuff from us — some of you have been with us for 5 years! We couldn’t have stayed open if you guys didn’t keep coming!
I’m excited to introduce you to 8 more prized JennyCakes staff members!
Christine!
Christine Tenorio — Christine is a student at Walter Johnson HS. As you can see, she has a winning smile! She also has a quiet, cheerful and calm disposition, which is VERY handy at a bakery as busy as ours. In addition to her stellar baking skills, she also loves to reorganize things — a quality I can TOTALLY relate to!
Henry!
Henry Vaccaro — Henry is one of our truly treasured employees. Every Thursday and Saturday morning, we all walk into the bakery and say “Ahhhhh” when we see how beautifully he’s mopped the floor. He is incredibly consistent and conscientious and goes the extra mile by reminding me when I’m out of something. We are so grateful to him for the work he does!
Kat!
Kat Duckworth — Kat is one of our newest staff members. She has quickly fit right in and become a pro at making a wide variety of items at the bakery. She’s our current expert on baking banana bread, which is wonderful because we never seem to have enough of it! Kat has two beautiful children and in her free time at home she likes to bake, frost and decorate beautiful cakes. Go figure! So far we’ve seen photos of two of her gorgeous cakes and we’re looking forward to seeing more photos and hopefully getting her more involved in the decorating side of the bakery!
“K”!
Kristen (“K”) Perera — K (as we call her since we already have a Kristen!) walked into the bakery one afternoon and said “I’d like to work here” in a way that sort of sounded to me like “I’m going to work here”. And just like that she started working here! She’s a huge asset — catches onto things quickly, juggles lots at once, figures out on her own what needs to get done next. Oh, and in addition to this job, she holds another full-time job at a pizza restaurant and volunteers at the Kensington Volunteer Fire Department. We’re lucky to have her for the hours that we do!
Martha!
Martha Deale — Martha is an old, OLD friend of mine, or rather a LONG-TIME friend. She’s not THAT old. 🙂 She lived in the house directly behind us when we moved to Kensington 23 years ago! The longevity of our friendship is conducive to lots of ribbing each other when we work together. Martha knows more about the Nationals than anyone else I know. And, bless her heart, she’s also a Caps fan so Mary and I have someone to commiserate with during this difficult playoff season!
Mason!
Mason Saphire — Mason came to JennyCakes and jumped right in with both feet. Within half an hour of coming in for his try-out, we offered him the job. We felt comfortable with him instantly and it seemed like he’d work here forever. He’s good at everything — from keeping track of orders to helping to frost and decorate cakes and cookies to making bars and quiche to helping customers. He has a particularly nice manner with customers so he’s starting to take the lead on answering the phone. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to talk to him!
Susan!
Susan VanHorn — Susan starting working at JennyCakes last fall. A mother of two kids at Kensington Parkwood, Bonnie and I particularly enjoy the fact that she keeps us apprised of KP gossip. She’s a terrific worker and she has great baking common sense so she can do pretty much anything in the kitchen. She has a wonderful manner with customers and seems to already know a rather huge number of people who come in. It’s truly a joy to have her here with us at JennyCakes!
Vincent!
Vincent Wilson — Vincent not only makes our floors sparkle (literally and I’m not even kidding!) four times a week, but he helps with the gigantic chore of keeping us stocked in folded boxes. In addition, we recently found out how willing he is to help out in a pinch! During a recent rainstorm our ceiling in back started to leak huge — and I mean like trash-can sized — amounts of water. As we all pitched in to put buckets, trash cans and any other container we could find under the area where the water was leaking, I looked to my side and there was Vincent in there with us hauling water to dump outside, sweeping up water that leaked on the floor, adjusting all the buckets so they were under the worst leaks. Needless to say, he’s willing to go way above and beyond the call of duty and we so appreciate that!
Stay tuned for one more round of meet the JennyCakes staff. Then you’ll all be tested on their names and skills. Get ready!
Jenny
As Doug and I were driving to the wedding of former JennyCakes employee Janine Joly, we started talking about all the great employees JennyCakes has had since it opened nearly 5 years ago. Doug thought we should have a section on the website that includes info on current staff as well as updates on where previous staff are now. I think this is a GREAT idea!
So below is part one of Meet the JennyCakes Staff (parts two and three to follow in the next two blog posts), but first I have to tell you about some new fun stuff at the bakery.
First, we’ve started making tiramisu! It’s so much easier than I thought and I love the process of perfecting it so that the coffee, custard, whipped cream, alcohol and soaked lady fingers come together in such a way that I’m hoping you’ll have to say “oh my”! We’ll be selling tiramisu in double helpings so think about it for Valentine’s Day!
Second, we’ve started making granola! We’ll have two kinds: mine, which includes toasted pecans, dried cranberries, unsweetened coconut, maple syrup, honey, oatmeal, and Mary’s which includes almonds, coconut oil, sunflower seeds, oatmeal, dried cherries and honey. For a while, we’ll be selling both in little bags ($1.50 each) with just 1 cup in them so you can try them out. Later, we’ll be selling bigger bags of it.
Third, a few old things have come back, including Boston cream cake and cupcakes 
(made with the classic custard of egg yolks, fresh cream and butter in the middle and chocolate ganache on top), perennial favorite snickerdoodles, bran muffins with mixed dried fruit and toasted pecans, and triple threat chocolate cookies (yes, three kinds of chocolate!).
Come by and check out the new stuff! See below for fun info about eight of our staff members!
Jenny
Bonnie!
Bonnie Lutz — Bonnie has been with us since Labor Day 2012! I remember cornering her at Kenmont Pool, after observing her get-it-done skills at the snack bar, and asking if she would consider (oh please please) working at JennyCakes. We are so lucky to have her! She’s the master of great customer service and efficiency. She was sick one day and I had to fill her shoes. I was so proud of myself when the entire cupcake case was nice and full and I could finally take a breath… until I realized she also handles all the cookies! I have no idea how she does it all, but she does! Little known fact about Bonnie: her other job involves gardening!
Kristen!
Kristen Kellogg — Kristen is one of our amazing decorators. She’s been at JennyCakes since July 2013 so, like Bonnie, she’s a long-timer! Kristen has the gift of gab, which is especially appreciated when we bring new people in to check out the bakery and when we come in sleepy and non-communicative on Saturday mornings. She brings to the bakery incredible exuberance, fierce opinions, and a scary amount of knowledge about Broadway musicals. Amazingly gifted as a decorator, she’s done phenomenal designs from a wonderful depiction of Darth Vader fighting Elsa (yes, someone requested this!) to a huge variety of My Little Pony designs. And if you really want to make her happy, ask her about the musical “Title of Show” (it’s her favorite).
Mary!
Mary Williams — One beautiful spring day last year, a woman named Mary came to us! She has been a tremendous asset to the bakery. She’s remarkably productive while somehow remaining kind, calm and compassionate (not something I accomplish very often — at least the calm part!). She’s an avid Caps fan (yes, that’s the sport that allows hand to hand combat as a part of the game!) and knows everything you could want to know about CORSI, the most recent players brought up from or sent back to Hershey, which lines Trotz is running in the next game, etc. Next time you come in, duck into the kitchen and see if a pretty woman with a high bun is at the mixers, and if she is, say “How ’bout those Caps?!?”
Ingrid!
Ingrid Ramos — Ingrid, our other gifted decorator, has worked at JennyCakes since December 2014. Immediately, she jumped right in and sometimes it scares me how reliant we all are on her to know what’s happening at the bakery, where everything is, and how to do anything that needs to be done. She does incredibly artistic and beautiful decorating, is super efficient, and has this wonderful aura of lightness and kindness that surrounds her. She is the first to sense when someone is stressed or out of sorts (OK, that’s usually me) and figure out a way to help. If you want to make Ingrid’s day, ask her how her new kitten is!
Karen and Abigail (Gali’s baby)
Karen Richardson — With us since September 2014, Karen has become the master of all cookies, bars and batters. She is always eager to help me puzzle through ways to make the bakery run more smoothly. Some of her favorite things are: daily walks with several long-time friends, visits to her sister in Boston, classic, jazz and blues music and old rock and roll, and sparring over politics with our wonderful former manager Gali Sapir.
Jim!
Jim Gordon — Yes, you’ve seen him making pizzas at Frankly Pizza as well but he ALSO likes (at least a bit) doing a weekly stint at JennyCakes. He handles our inventory and runs the front counter on Saturday mornings with incredible calm and poise, as in I’ve never heard him speak above a whisper! Rumor has it that he likes the Halo series of video games so ask him about that next time you come in on a Saturday morning!
Melanie!
Melanie Donohue — Melanie has been with us since the spring of last year. She’s a local mom who works not only at JennyCakes but at Sage, a really cool store on Antique Row around the corner from us. She brings with her lots of general baking knowledge and experience, as well as a very gentle and kind manner with other employees and customers alike. Very fun thing: we’ve recently discovered she’s amazing at decorating cookies and cakes!
Tully!
Tully Hudson — We really lucked out on this hire! Not only does Tully have a wonderful manner with our customers at the front counter and a quickly-acquired acumen in the kitchen, but he’s done a great job of supervising the preparation of the hundreds of boxes the bakery goes through each week.. Extra bonus: he keeps us stocked in toffee at Christmas. Funny how an entire bakery staff can be so excited about toffee in the face of so many other available goodies!
Christmas cake
Buche de Noel
Gingerbread boys & girls
We have lots of goodies on-hand now at the bakery, including jam thumbprints, pecan snowballs, decorated Christmas cookies, chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream, gingerbread boys and girls and, MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE (I’m not even kidding), rum bites and rum cupcakes.
Our schedule for the week of Christmas:
Mon 12/19 – CLOSED
Tues 12/20 – OPEN
Wed 12/21 – OPEN
Thur 12/22 – OPEN 8am to noon so we can start preparing Christmas orders
Fri 12/23 – CLOSED so we can prepare Christmas orders
Sat 12/24 – OPEN 8am to 1pm
Rum bites
Thumbprints
Decorated cut-outs
We will accept as many orders for Christmas as we possibly can. I don’t think I’ll give a deadline because it always seems like we have to cut off orders earlier than whatever date I say. To make sure we’ll be able to complete your order, please submit it through the website sooner rather than later. I’ll post something across the top of the website and on facebook if we decide we can’t take any more orders.
All orders must be picked up no later than 1pm on Sat Dec 24.
Here is a list of baked goods that we will be offering for Christmas this year:
- ONLY IN BATCHES OF 12 OF A PARTICULAR FLAVOR/BAKED GOOD for any of our smaller items, such as cookies, bars, muffins and cupcakes. We’ve found it’s difficult to prepare variety packages when we’re doing such a large volume of orders. But we plan to have our cases fully stocked on Sat 12/24 so you should be able to pick and choose then. Come on the early side because we may sell out of some items quickly.
- buche de noel
- pecan pie (with or without bourbon but with a different, drier filling than we did for Thanksgiving because I think the pecan pie bar filling we used then was too moist for a pie crust — my apologies!)
- apple pie with streusel
- pumpkin pie
- dark chocolate cream pie
- pumpkin roll (with or without toasted pecans)
- any of our cakes, full size pies or full size quiches
We hope you have a wonderful holiday!
Jenny
Here’s the scoop on Thanksgiving orders:
Pumpkin roll
We hope to accept Thanksgiving orders through Sat Nov 19, BUT we may need to stop accepting orders before then if the volume becomes more than we can handle.
All orders must be picked up no later than 6pm on Weds Nov 23.
Pecan pie
Baked goods available for Thanksgiving orders:
- pumpkin pie
- pecan pie (with or without bourbon)
- apple pie with streusel
- pumpkin roll (with or without toasted pecans)
- dark chocolate cream pie
- any of our cakes
- ONLY IN BATCHES OF 12 OF PARTICULAR FLAVOR/BAKED GOOD: any of our smaller items, such as iced pumpkin cookies, cheese muffins, cupcakes.
Apple pie with streusel
For the smaller items, if you would like a wider variety, please consider stopping by the bakery on Weds Nov 23. We will be fully stocked with our usual items and you will be able to pick and choose. We would suggest you come early though because we are likely to sell out quickly. Thanks!
Schedule for the week of Thanksgiving:
Mon 11/21 – CLOSED
Tues 11/22 – CLOSED so we can prepare Thanksgiving orders
Weds 11/23 – OPEN 8am to 6pm for order pick-up and walk-in traffic
THURS 11/24 – CLOSED
FRI 11/25 – CLOSED
SAT 11/26 – OPEN 8am to 6pm for Small Business Saturday!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Jenny
I’m always amazed at how quickly summer goes by. Seems like the kids are finally out of school and then in the blink of an eye it’s August and things are winding down. It’s bittersweet, unlike EVERYTHING at the bakery this summer (tee hee — lame older woman joke).
Here’s what’s new for summer:
M&M cookie ice cream sandwich
Scones with dried cranberries
ICE CREAM SANDWICHES — one word, DECADENT
SCONES! We’ve made them several times now and they’re yummy!
GALI’S WHIMSICALLY FROSTED CUPCAKES. See photos!
And here’s what’s returning at long last!
LEMON STUFF — the chilled lemon ricotta cookies and lemon bars.
BLUEBERRY CRUMB BARS — crumbly because of the butter in the crust, summery because of the fresh blueberries.
KEY LIME CUPCAKES WITH MANGO BUTTERCREAM — my new favorite cupcake.
Key lime mango cupcakes
Blueberry crumb bars
Gom’s lemon bars
Some other items will be taking a little siesta this summer but they’ll be back, I promise! In the meantime, savor these summer days while we have them!
Jenny
Chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich
Chilled lemon ricotta cookies
JennyCakes is pleased to announce that we have expanded into the space next door where Allay Yoga used to be. The commercial kitchen will stay right where it is, but our retail space will now be next door. We have lots more refrigerator space for orders, storage space for boxes and ingredients, and most importantly, work space so we aren’t packed in the kitchen like a can of sardines!
PLEASE feel free to come in through the door to the kitchen or the door to the retail space. We bakers LOVE to see customers so please don’t worry if you come in through the kitchen — it makes us happy!
We love how the new retail space turned out and we hope you do too. Our goal was to create a space that is airy, cheerful, bright, friendly and harkens back to the time of general stores with wide wood plank floors and old-time candy stores with white marble counters. Our designer, Cinda Debbink, and our contractor, Ed Castle (both of whom I would highly recommend!), did an absolutely amazing job of bringing this goal to fruition.
Halloween cake
Now we’re well into the fall and quickly approaching Halloween! We’ve brought back some fall favorites, including the iced pumpkin cookies, the everything cookies, Aunt Val’s coffee cake, pecan pie bars, pumpkin cakes and cupcakes and caramel apple cakes and cupcakes.
Pumpkin cookies
Caramel apple cake
We’ve started making Halloween cut-out cookies to stock at the bakery and we’re using the Halloween sprinkles from my new sprinkle cupboard to decorate our cupcakes. And don’t forget to order a Halloween cake to take to your next Halloween party!
Come enjoy our new space and treat your self to a fall goody.
Jenny
