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
Lemon bars
Spring descended upon us quickly! Seems like there was hardly a break between Valentine’s Day and Easter and some great warm, sunny weather. Now — on May 16 — we’ve had a record-breaking stretch of rainy weather and the Caps lost in the second round. But I know spring and then quickly summer will be here ANY…DAY…NOW.
Here’s what’s new at the bakery:
Cassata cake
- More technology – Yes, I broke down and got internet service for the bakery as well as a computer so, if you’re uncomfortable ordering through the website, we can do it for you right there at the bakery.
- More employees – Yes, we hired five new people. They’re LOVELY! (I’ve been watching a British mystery series while folding boxes; I suspect that’s where the “LOVELY!” came from.)
Mary is a HUGE Caps fan — like bigger than me — and works hard every second she’s at the bakery.
Brown sugar cookies
Melanie is a local mom and batter-making guru.
Diane is new to the area and frosts cupcakes like a pro already.
Jeffrey is the younger brother of Ingrid, one of our decorators; he’s slowly getting used to working with lots and lots of women.
Troix, who has become our expert cookie ball and banana bread maker, is the new wife of our decorator Kristen.
Strawberry icebox pie
Say hi to them next time you come in!
- More orders – We’ve hit yet another all-time high in terms of our weekly volume of business. Thanks, everyone! I promise we’re trying our best to keep the quality consistent and all the specifics of each order correct. But if we fail at this, please let me know, OK?
Now to the main reason you’re reading this: the changes to our menu.
Strawberry bread
Returning: strawberry mini-loaves, cassata cake, strawberry ice box pies, LEMON cupcakes (because, as I’ve said before, you lemon cupcake people scare me when we don’t have them on-hand), lemon bars and brown sugar cookies with pecans.
New this spring: chocolate strawberry shortcake which has layers of chocolate cake and fresh strawberries, a touch of ganache in the middle, and whipped cream on top.
Retiring for now: bran muffins with mixed dried fruit (we’ll bring them back again next January to help with your New Year’s resolutions), snickerdoodles (they’re sort of a snuggle in bed wintertime thing, right?), Aunt Val’s coffee cake (she had a productive but exhausting winter), pecan pie bars (too heavy for spring and summer, I think), dark chocolate cream pies (I actually miss these quite a bit, hmmm….), Boston cream cupcakes (fun winter thing) and rum cupcakes/bites/cakes (really more of a winter holiday treat).
Come by and see what’s baking! These days you can count on SOMEthing baking almost every second between 5am and 9pm.
Jenny
Coming up for summer:
key lime/mango cupcakes
lemon ricotta cookies
OUR ICE CREAM SANDWICHES
Ovechkin scoring on Lundquist
Ah winter. As you likely know by now, winter is not my favorite time of year, but at least this year we can cheer on the Caps as they march through what so far has been their best season in years! Nothing is more fun than folding bakery boxes and watching the Caps score multiple goals on Henrik Lundqvist.
Here’s what’s new at JennyCakes:
Bran muffins with lots of dried mixed fruit and slivered almonds
Some healthy stuff!
We’re bringing back our healthy Bran Muffins with Lots of Dried Mixed Fruit and Slivered Almonds. Yes, I put all those words in there to make sure everyone knows they aren’t just boring old bran muffins.
Chocolate and vanilla vegan cupcakes
I also finally found a vanilla vegan cake/cupcake flavor that I like. It’s actually a brown sugar cupcake with whipped vanilla frosting that tastes remarkably like our regular buttercream. So now you vegan food lovers will have both the dark chocolate and the vanilla options available in cupcakes and frostings. Just think of the possible combinations!
We’re also trying to have on-hand in the case a wider variety of gluten-free cupcakes: chocolate and yellow cupcakes with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry buttercream, and upon special request, German chocolate frosting.
I’m still hunting for a tasty and attractive sugar-free option. Send your recipes to jenny@jennycakesbakery.net. In the meantime, reduce your sugar intake by buying a whole cupcake but sharing it with three friends!
And NOW a few fun, not-so-healthy new things to help you conquer the winter doldrums.
Boston cream cupcakes
Soft sugar cookies with buttercream frosting
We have a new Boston cream cupcake. To maximize the fun of eating it, we take a lighter than usual yellow cupcake, cut it in half, put the bottom half in the bottom of a small plastic cup, cover it with a really decent amount of pastry cream (Yes real pastry cream! I figured out how to make it!), cover that with the other half of the cupcake and then drizzle it with a lot of thinned chocolate ganache (made with dark chocolate). Yum!
We also have new soft sugar cookies with buttercream frosting. We frost these with bright colored buttercream and then decorate them with bright sprinkles. But on a sort of blah Saturday afternoon last week, I frosted them with chocolate buttercream and they flew off the shelves!
Dark chocolate cream pie
Last thing — a dark chocolate cream pie. I searched forever for a recipe I liked. Finally found it right before Christmas. It’s creamy and VERY chocolatey. We sell it in the case as a mini pie, and by special order as a 9-inch. A good idea for when Valentine’s Day hits.
And speaking of Valentine’s Day, we’ll be sure to have on hand lots of 4-inch “sweetheart” cakes, chocolate goodies and cheerful cutout cookies.
And don’t forget St. Patrick’s Day and our Irish Kickers (chocolate cupcakes made with Guinness beer and frosted with buttercream flavored with Baileys Irish Cream and Jameson whiskey), as well as our Annual Cupcake Sale, which happens in March!
Jenny
So we’re changing a few things about how we do our Christmas special orders. The changes mostly involve scaling back a bit on the variety of things that we make. With these high-volume holidays, we’ve found it’s really hard to make so many different things while keeping our sanity and overall cheerfulness at the bakery! I hope you understand and won’t be too disappointed. We’ll still have lots of yummy stuff, I promise!
Frosted sugar cookie bars
We have a few new items for this Christmas season, including frosted sugar cookie bars with rainbow sprinkles, dark chocolate cream pie, holiday cookie platters (a variety of cookies on a pretty tray wrapped in cellophane secured with a ribbon), and holiday cookie goody bags (6 of our cookies in a clear cellophane bag with a pretty ribbon).
Returning goodies include pecan snowballs, jam thumbprints, shortbread cookies, gingerbread men, cut-out Xmas cookies, chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream, buche de noel and rum cupcakes.
We’ve cycled out some of our fall specialties to make room for the new stuff but you’ll see them again next fall!
Christmas orders:
- How to place your order. Please place your Christmas orders online through our website. This is the best way we can keep track of them!
- When to place your order. We are accepting orders now and we will stop taking orders on Sat, Dec 19, BUT as we always say, we may need to stop accepting orders before then if the volume of orders becomes more than we can handle.
- When to pick up your order. All orders may be picked up on Thurs 12/24 between 8am and 1pm.
Baked goods available for Christmas orders:
- buche de noel
- apple pie with streusel
- pumpkin pie
- dark chocolate cream pie
- any of our cakes
- cookies (for a special order, please order at least 12 of a particular flavor)
- Christmas cupcakes — order cupcakes as usual but stick to chocolate or yellow cupcakes with chocolate, vanilla or peppermint buttercream and under Special Instructions mention you’d like Christmas sprinkles (for a special order, please order at least 12)
Here’s our schedule for this stretch of time:
Sun Dec 20 – closed as usual
Mon Dec 21 – closed as usual
Tues Dec 22 – open as usual 8am to 6pm
Weds Dec 23 – closed in order to BAKE
Thurs Dec 24 – open from 8am to 1pm for order pickups and walk-in traffic (we will have on-hand in the case Christmas cupcakes and cookies)
Fri Dec 25 through Fri Jan 1 – CLOSED
Sat Jan 2 – open from 8am to 6pm as usual
Have a wonderful holiday season!
Jenny
Pumpkin cupcake
Because I know all of us are starting to gear up for the upcoming holidays, I’m just going to get right down to it instead of attempting to wax eloquent about some random subject!
Caramel apple cake
New stuff for this fall: pumpkin chocolate chip mini-loaves, pumpkin cakes and cupcakes with lots of fall spices and a cream cheese frosting flavored with orange zest, and our “everything” cookies which, for kicks and grins, have M&Ms, Oreo pieces AND chocolate chips in them.
Iced pumpkin cookies
Making their return this fall: our ever-popular caramel apple cakes and cupcakes, iced pumpkin cookies, and especially for my mom, Aunt Val’s coffee cake (Aunt Val is her sister who passed away a few years back). After a summer hiatus, we are also back to making challah on analmost daily basis and cinnamon rolls on Saturdays.
Now here’s the deal on Thanksgiving:
Pumpkin chocolate chip mini-loaf
- How to place your order. Please place your Thanksgiving orders online through our website. This is the best way we can keep track of our high volume of orders these days!
- When to place your order. We will start accepting orders for Thanksgiving on Sun, Nov 1 and we will stop taking orders on Sat, Nov 21, BUT we may need to stop accepting orders before then if the volume of orders becomes more than we can handle.
- When to pick up your order. All orders may be picked up on Weds Nov 25 any time between 8am and 6pm.
Pecan pie with or without bourbon
Baked goods available for Thanksgiving orders:
- pumpkin pie
- pecan pie (with or without bourbon)
- apple pie with streusel
- pumpkin roll (with our without toasted pecans)
- any of our cakes
- any of our smaller items, such as cookies, muffins and cupcakes, so long as the order is for a minimum of 12 of a particular flavor
Pumpkin roll
For the smaller items, if you would like a wider variety, please consider stopping by the bakery on Weds Nov 25. 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.
JennyCakes will be closed on Thanksgiving Day and the day after (Fri Nov 27) but we will be open on Sat Nov 28 for Small Business Saturday.
Have a fun fall and a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Jenny
Now that we’re through the busy spring season of confirmations, first communions, graduations and lots of birthdays, we can settle into summer and start having fun again experimenting with new stuff! This is my absolute favorite thing to do as a bakery owner. My fingers literally start to tingle when I get on the computer and start hunting for new ideas.
Chocolate frosted brownies
One thing I love to experiment with is finding a way for the flavor of the baked good to really pack a punch. So when we do CHOCOLATE brownies, I won’t settle on a recipe until I’m sure that a decent number of people tasting that brownie will say, “Oooh, chocolate!” Otherwise what’s the point in calling it a “chocolate” brownie, right?
We do go over the top sometimes (perhaps a chocolate brownie could be enjoyed without a half inch of chocolate frosting on it) but it’s worth it to me so long as it means that the eating experience of a couple of people will be a memorable one!
I’ve had a lot of fun developing our new key lime cupcake with mango buttercream. It’s always a challenge to create a strong fruit flavor because of the amount of water found in fruit. I spent almost a year fooling around with our strawberry buttercream until I finally figured out a way to make it taste like real strawberries.
It has been a similar challenge to get the mango buttercream to REALLY taste like mangos. But by using some combination of natural mango flavoring, mango coulis (yes I know that word and it makes me sound like a chef, right?), mango puree and mango pulp, I think we’re 99% there.
Three cupcake cones
Another thing I totally enjoy experimenting with is making fun baked goods that will appeal to kids. What better thing to do on a Monday morning than to return to your 5-year-old self and think about what you liked to eat. When we make our oreo cupcakes, our bakers always ask me how many oreo pieces to put in the batter. I always say, “Pretend you’re a kid and put in as much as you think a kid would like!”
Lemon and key lime bars will be returning this summer as well.
I used to make all the snacks for the Vacation Bible School at my church (located just two buildings away from the bakery). One of the favorites was cupcake cones with rainbow sprinkles. We always did this on the first day and the kids LOVED them. I like to think that those cupcake cones helped break the ice for those kids who were feeling a little nervous on their first day. To kids, I think the cupcake cones just seem playful and fun — a special and somewhat unusual treat.
So when I was at the grocery store last week, I bought a box of cones and we’re going to make some. It’ll be REALLY fun figuring out how to take those over the top! Maybe add oreo crumbs on top? Maybe drizzle them with a little hot fudge and then sprinkle with mini M&Ms? But for sure, there will be rainbow sprinkles involved!
It’s summer! Be sure to play a lot, enjoy a lot, and occasionally treat yourself to a sweet something or other that packs a punch of taste and playfulness!
Jenny
Carly, Jenny and Bonnie display sweetheart cakes.
It’s finally starting to feel a LITTLE bit like spring around here but I bought a quart of strawberries at the store the other day and they were TERRIBLE. So we’re a little ways from strawberry season but at least the daffodils are blooming!
Kristen on Halloween
In late winter JennyCakes faced a spate of health issues as one employee dealt with a kidney infection, another struggled with a strained ligament in her elbow and the husband of another suffered a terrible shoulder injury. My daughter Lily tore her ACL in her first-ever high school lacrosse scrimmage and I had to have a basal cell carcinoma removed from my left cheek.
Look who coordinated their outfits!
We are all better or at least on the mend, but this stretch of bad luck reminded me that behind all the yummy baked goods at the bakery is a tiny army of people trying their best and going through the myriad of ups, downs and struggles that everyone goes through, health-related and otherwise.
Jenny and long-time friend Martha.
In this post, I celebrate this wild and crazy group of people!
Each person who works at the bakery brings to us a unique set of talents (or “mad skills” as Aidan calls them) and quirks (such as Bonnie’s murmurings as people select cupcakes — oooh, that’s a good one, ohhhh, that’s one of my favorites). And while clocking long hours together in such a tiny space, we can’t help but share in each other’s lives.
Aidan checking out our ginormous order sheet
Our little band of bakers has fun (Kristen’s response to my question “Is anything in particular a priority for the oven?” was “Perhaps it should think about getting its GED?”), is sometimes stressed out (mostly due to my propensity for worrying) but no one can argue it’s anything short of extremely real and very human!
Jim at the front counter per usual.
I love this group of people and feel very lucky that they want to work at the bakery. I know, I know, enough sappy stuff!
Strawberry icebox pie
On to what we’re excited about making for the spring! Once we finally get to strawberry season, we’ll bring back our strawberry bread, strawberry icebox pie and cassata cake. We also plan to bring back the JennyCakes — remember those?
One of our JennyCakes
The blueberry slabs (or crumb bars) will be back and the brown sugar cookies were such a success that I think we’ll start selling those on a regular basis as well. You may notice that a few things disappear but remember you can always email me and ask for me to make a batch of them.
Happy Spring!
Jenny
I’m so happy that we made it through the holidays largely unscathed! If you bought baked goods from us, we at JennyCakes truly hope they made your holidays a tiny bit more special.
NEW HOURS! Don’t forget that we are now open Tuesday through Saturday 8am to 6pm. We’ve added Tuesdays and Wednesdays on a 6-month trial basis. Hopefully this change will be good for both JennyCakes Bakery and our customers.
Ah, the doldrums of winter are upon us and I’m already complaining about the cold and the blah-ness of the winter months. Two things perk me up though: watching the Caps (just finished watching the Winter Classic – woo hoo!), and creating what I hope will be a cheerful new winter menu.
So here’s what’s new or coming back this winter:
Aunt Val’s coffee cake (we’ve missed her!)
Chocolate cupcakes with whipped peanut butter frosting (I’m looking forward to cutting up Reese’s cups to put on top and occasionally making a piece or two mysteriously disappear)
Pecan pie bars (especially for the very patient woman who comes in frequently wondering when we’re bringing them back)
Rum cakes, both CHOCOLATE and vanilla (still in love with these and can’t wait to try the chocolate one at the suggestion of my friend Angelika — I even bought a new mini bundt cake pan!)
Triple threat chocolate cookies (insanely yummy and gooey, these will be a great gift for a favorite Valentine 🙂
Irish kickers (in March only) — chocolate cupcakes made with Guinness beer then frosted with buttercream flavored with Baileys Irish Cream and Jameson whiskey
I also plan to fool around some with ganache this month as a possible new frosting, and tweak Hillary’s Heart Healthy Bran Muffins so that we have a decent answer to the question, “Do you have anything healthy?”
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. We’ll be sure to have lots of chocolate goodies as well as cutout cookies decorated with tons of pink and red.
So January, February and March don’t sound quite so bad now, right? Right?
Jenny
Whew! Thanksgiving was a little wilder than I thought and it turns out pies take FOREVER to bake (even longer than I remembered from last year) so there’s a lot of hurry up and wait involved. I pulled my first almost-all-nighter (1.5 hours of sleep Tuesday night) since college and may have whined to a few too many customers about this on Wednesday. My apologies!
So with a deep breath, we now head to Hanukkah and Christmas! I’m more excited about this holiday season than usual, which may have something to do with discovering the Hallmark channel recently and their endless stream of bright, cheerful and yes, cheesy, holiday movies. 🙂 
For Christmas, we’ll do things the same way we did for Thanksgiving because in general that worked pretty well. Please place your orders no later than Sat Dec 20 but keep in mind that we may have to stop accepting orders sooner than that if we get worried that the volume has become more than we can handle.
All orders may be picked up on Weds Dec 24 between 8am and noon. We will be open for foot traffic and fully stocked during those hours as well. We will be closed from Thurs Dec 25 through and including Thurs Jan 1 but we will reopen on Fri Jan 2 and will start our NEW SCHEDULE: Tues through Sat 8am to 6pm. Woo-hoo!
For the holidays, we’ll bring back the coconut almond cupcakes (because they look like snow and snow makes me think of Christmas), jam thumbprints, pecan snowballs, Scottish shortbread, the buche de noel, peppermint buttercream and gingerbread boys and girls.
Below is a list of what we’ll be offering for special orders this Christmas. We hope you have a wonderful holiday!
Love, Jenny and many bakery elves
Baked goods available for Christmas orders:
- whipped pumpkin pie
- pecan pie (with or without bourbon)
- apple pie with streusel
- pumpkin roll
- buche de noel (or yule log) — flourless chocolate sponge cake rolled up with chocolate whipped cream and covered with a chocolate coffee frosting
- any of our cakes
- any of our smaller items, such as cookies, muffins and cupcakes, so long as the order is for a minimum of 12 of a particular flavor
For the smaller items, if you would like a wider variety, please stop by on Weds Dec 24 during our hours of 8am to noon. 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!
Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we’re busy getting ready for it! We will accept orders through Sat Nov 22, BUT we may need to stop accepting orders before then if the volume becomes more than we can handle.
All orders may be picked up on Weds Nov 26 any time between 8am and 6pm. The specific items available for Thanksgiving orders are listed below.
JennyCakes Bakery will be open for order pick-up as well as walk-in traffic on Weds Nov 26. We will be closed on Thanksgiving Day and the day after (Fri Nov 28) but we will be open on Sat Nov 29 for Small Business Saturday.
We hope you have a wonderful holiday!
Jenny
Baked goods available for Thanksgiving orders:
- pumpkin pie (we’re trying a new one this year that has a touch of cream cheese that makes it even tastier than last year’s pie)
- pecan pie (with or without bourbon)
- apple pie with streusel
- pumpkin roll (with our without toasted pecans)
- any of our cakes
- any of our smaller items, such as cookies, muffins and cupcakes, so long as the order is for a minimum of 12 of a particular flavor
For the smaller items, if you would like a wider variety, please consider stopping by the bakery on Weds Nov 26. 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!
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