We’re finally getting around to making the official transition from spring to summer so we will be making a few changes at the bakery to keep things fun.

We will slowly phase out our strawberry mini-pies and strawberry bread as strawberries go out of season. BUT, we’ll keep our seasonal blueberry crumb bars on the menu for now since they’ve been so popular!

We have a couple of new summer specials: chilled lemon ricotta cookies, chocolate chip cookie dough frosting and oreo cookies. We’ll also bring back our key lime and lemon bars (alternating weeks) which have become a JennyCakes summertime favorite.

I bring the lemon ricotta cookies on our annual trip with friends to Knoebels Amusement Park in Pennsylvania. In the morning we parents sit on the lovely front porch of the farmhouse where we stay and drink coffee and eat chilled lemon ricotta cookies. At the encouragement of many of these friends — especially Kensington 8K Race director John Seabreeze! – I am now offering these at the bakery and have a hard time resisting them myself. You’ll see them on a plate in our refrigerated case.

Within five minutes of posting on facebook a photo of a chocolate cupcake with a big scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough frosting on top, I received a phone call from two little girls who wanted me to put some aside for them! The frosting is decadent and yummy. I use mini-chocolate chips so the frosting will be more creamy and less chunky. And don’t worry about salmonella, there are no eggs in the frosting.

Also at Knoebels I saw such a simple idea for a cookie: the base of a chocolate chip cookie but with cookies and cream cookie chunks in it instead of chocolate chips. Given how quickly the cookies and cream cupcake gained in popularity, I’m guessing that our customers will love this cookie flavor as well.

We’ve also introduced a new permanent item on the menu: the JennyCake. It’s a sliced cupcake with something fun in between the layers and something fun on top. We’ve recently been doing fruit-based JennyCakes: a yellow cupcake sliced in half, with blueberries or strawberries and whipped cream in between and also on top. The combination possibilities are infinite. Feel free to email me at jenny@jennycakesbakery.net if you have some ideas!

Try to find a way to enjoy these summer days! It seems like summer used to pass by so slowly, giving me a chance to relax, savor and enjoy each hot humid day. Now summer whizzes by filled with lots of activities. Every once in a while I get a glimpse of those slower summers and force myself to stop moving, sit down and enjoy that slowness, usually with a lemon ricotta cookie! I hope you can find a way to do that as well.

Love, Jenny