Well, we're down to the last few days before we open which means I've got a bit more time to blog. They've taken down the wooden partition in front of our space (Yay!) and they're just finishing up the last few details in our space, which means we should be in by the start of next week. (We're hoping!)
In the meantime, most of our boxes, promotional material and decorations are at my place. There's barely any room to walk around and every day I'm reminded of the choices we've made for our little shop.
At The Cupcake Conspiracy we believe very strongly in being as earth friendly as possible. All of our packaging is 100% recyclable and our boxes are made from natural paperboard that typically uses 25-30% less fibre than other box materials. Our box manufacturer recycles all scrap materials, doesn’t coat the boxes with harmful chemicals or use bleaches to process the pulp. Additionally, the fibre comes from SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) lumber. That’s lumber that has been collected and reforested utilizing environmentally friendly practices.
In our shop we've used as many environmentally friendly materials as we could and all the stickers, napkins and packaging materials are also reusable or recyclable. You’ll see recycle bins in our shop and we compost as much as possible. We only use environmentally friendly cleaning products in the shop and use energy star rated bakery equipment.
Outside of the shop, we're trying to be as responsible as possible too! We take the bus, ride our bike or walk to work nearly every day and most of our downtown deliveries are done on foot.
At The Cupcake Conspiracy, we source as many of our ingredients locally as possible. This means we will often have new cupcake flavours based on what is seasonally available at the market.
We’ve been very lucky to grow up in such a beautiful and abundant province and want to keep it this way for many generations to come.
We're so excited to open and hope to see you in the shop soon!
Happy Cupcakes,
Christin
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Community, Cupcakes & Dreams!
As we get closer to opening our doors (which will be very soon!) we've decided to slow down in the kitchen a bit and focus on perfecting new recipes for our flavour of the week cupcakes. Which has got us thinking about Thursday nights. I know, kind of a strange jump to make, but let me tell you a little more about Thursday nights at The Cupcake Conspiracy.
Every Thursday night we'll be hosting Cupcakes & Dreams from 5-8pm. Our prices will drop to $2.25/cupcake and we'll have all of our icings available as icing shots for $1. We'll also have some interesting theme nights and you may find yourself in the middle of a flavor of the week taste testing, a Bizarro cupcake day or a seasonal fruit flavoured cupcake festival.
Thursday nights are also very special to us because we've decided to donate the proceeds from icing shot sales to local charities. We've got a few special ones in mind (CHEP, Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre, SWITCH, Station 20 West, etc.) but would like to hear from you. If you have a charity that you think would fit in with our philosophies, please give us a shout and we'll see what we can do to help them.
So, what are those philosophies exactly? We focus on donating to charities that help feed and house people in need.
The Cupcake Conspiracy is proud to be a locally owned and operated business. We both grew up in Saskatoon and are excited to own a business in our home town. We’ve talked a lot about the type of business we run and have made some important decisions about our commitment to the community.
This commitment extends beyond our weekly Cupcakes & Dreams to our everyday practices. We purchase most of our ingredients from local suppliers and farmers, ensuring we get the freshest and highest quality product available. We can also shrink our carbon footprint by reducing the distance the ingredients have to travel to reach our shop (more on our environmental philosophies later!). One of the other benefits of buying locally is the access to delicious seasonal fruit which gets turned into our yummy flavours of the week.
We bake fresh every day and we'd like to think we've figured out how many cupcakes to make every day but we know there are going to be days when we make too many. We're going to be taking them over to the Food Bank, the Crisis Nursery and a few other places around town to give everyone a special treat.
We're hoping to start spending a few of our afternoons volunteering every month and are really looking forward to giving back to the community that has treated us so well.
We are always interested in new ways of connecting with our community and would love to hear from you if you have an event or charity that you think would fit in with our philosophy. Please give us a call at 306.374.5401 or email us at cupcakes@thecupcakeconspiracy.ca.
Keep an eye out for more exciting news coming very soon!
Happy Cupcakes!
Christin
Every Thursday night we'll be hosting Cupcakes & Dreams from 5-8pm. Our prices will drop to $2.25/cupcake and we'll have all of our icings available as icing shots for $1. We'll also have some interesting theme nights and you may find yourself in the middle of a flavor of the week taste testing, a Bizarro cupcake day or a seasonal fruit flavoured cupcake festival.
Thursday nights are also very special to us because we've decided to donate the proceeds from icing shot sales to local charities. We've got a few special ones in mind (CHEP, Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre, SWITCH, Station 20 West, etc.) but would like to hear from you. If you have a charity that you think would fit in with our philosophies, please give us a shout and we'll see what we can do to help them.
So, what are those philosophies exactly? We focus on donating to charities that help feed and house people in need.
The Cupcake Conspiracy is proud to be a locally owned and operated business. We both grew up in Saskatoon and are excited to own a business in our home town. We’ve talked a lot about the type of business we run and have made some important decisions about our commitment to the community.
This commitment extends beyond our weekly Cupcakes & Dreams to our everyday practices. We purchase most of our ingredients from local suppliers and farmers, ensuring we get the freshest and highest quality product available. We can also shrink our carbon footprint by reducing the distance the ingredients have to travel to reach our shop (more on our environmental philosophies later!). One of the other benefits of buying locally is the access to delicious seasonal fruit which gets turned into our yummy flavours of the week.
We bake fresh every day and we'd like to think we've figured out how many cupcakes to make every day but we know there are going to be days when we make too many. We're going to be taking them over to the Food Bank, the Crisis Nursery and a few other places around town to give everyone a special treat.
We're hoping to start spending a few of our afternoons volunteering every month and are really looking forward to giving back to the community that has treated us so well.
We are always interested in new ways of connecting with our community and would love to hear from you if you have an event or charity that you think would fit in with our philosophy. Please give us a call at 306.374.5401 or email us at cupcakes@thecupcakeconspiracy.ca.
Keep an eye out for more exciting news coming very soon!
Happy Cupcakes!
Christin
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Who We Are
The story of The Cupcake Conspiracy begins too many years ago to mention in polite company. Kim and I were born a year apart and almost instantly became best friends. We're cousins and have spent so much time together we often complete each other's sentences. We've been baking together for as long as we've been allowed to use the oven and have tried everything from cake mix to recipes found on the internet but nothing ever seemed to be quite as good as the recipes passed down to us by our grandmothers.
We both grew up in Saskatoon but I left shortly after high school for bigger cities. Last year, I was living in Toronto and travelling back so often for weddings and other special events that I decided to pack up and move home. While I was away, Kim was busy with university classes but often spent more time baking for her study groups than actually studying. When I arrived home I wanted one thing, a really delicious cupcake, but the only place I could find it was in the kitchen with Kim. We started baking for our friends and family members and the cupcake quickly became the most requested item. In the spring we decided to make it official and opened our doors as a home based catering company specializing in cupcakes.
Business was booming and by the summertime we decided to seriously look for the perfect location to open up shop. We searched everywhere and on the day Kim called the King George, they had just decided to open a little space that would be absolutely perfect for us. We said yes and immediately began preparations. We assembled our top fourteen flavours, put together a list of flavours we wanted to try and got to work setting up suppliers, ordering equipment and picking out paint colours.
We've also spent a lot of time talking about who we are and how we want our shop to be run. In the coming weeks you'll see a lot of new content on our website and facebook page. I will be writing more about our environmental philosophies, our commitment to the community and some fun contests and future events.
We're so very excited to be opening mid-October in the King George Building in downtown Saskatoon and hope you will join us for a cupcake or two soon.
Happy Cupcakes!
Christin
We both grew up in Saskatoon but I left shortly after high school for bigger cities. Last year, I was living in Toronto and travelling back so often for weddings and other special events that I decided to pack up and move home. While I was away, Kim was busy with university classes but often spent more time baking for her study groups than actually studying. When I arrived home I wanted one thing, a really delicious cupcake, but the only place I could find it was in the kitchen with Kim. We started baking for our friends and family members and the cupcake quickly became the most requested item. In the spring we decided to make it official and opened our doors as a home based catering company specializing in cupcakes.
Business was booming and by the summertime we decided to seriously look for the perfect location to open up shop. We searched everywhere and on the day Kim called the King George, they had just decided to open a little space that would be absolutely perfect for us. We said yes and immediately began preparations. We assembled our top fourteen flavours, put together a list of flavours we wanted to try and got to work setting up suppliers, ordering equipment and picking out paint colours.
We've also spent a lot of time talking about who we are and how we want our shop to be run. In the coming weeks you'll see a lot of new content on our website and facebook page. I will be writing more about our environmental philosophies, our commitment to the community and some fun contests and future events.
We're so very excited to be opening mid-October in the King George Building in downtown Saskatoon and hope you will join us for a cupcake or two soon.
Happy Cupcakes!
Christin
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Gluten, Peanut and Tree Nut Allergies and The Cupcake Conspiracy
We took a trip down to the King George today to check out the progress and wow is it looking great! Kim and I are so very excited to share our cupcakes with you and are counting down the days until we open.
Which is... drum roll please... less than a month away! We don't have an exact open date but our contractors assure us we'll be in the space and selling cupcakes in less than a month! We were so excited today we had to celebrate!
And how better to celebrate than to work on our gluten free cupcakes? We hadn't originally intended to offer gluten free cupcakes but we've had a lot of special requests and wanted to provide a delicious dessert option for people with gluten sensitivities. So Kim decided to test herself in the kitchen and has created two of most delicious cupcake recipes ever made! We're delighted to begin offering them by special order (give us a days notice and we'll have them ready for you when you arrive!) in store.
Speaking of allergies, we're completely nut free! Kim and I talk an awful lot about the things that are important to us. We are strongly committed to the environment, the community and providing the tastiest and freshest possible cupcake. While not all of us have a nut allergy, most of us have a friend or relative that is allergic to peanuts or tree nuts. Kim and I both love nuts but after talking with a few of our allergic friends, we decided to give up our peanut butter cup cupcake in order to ensure EVERYONE could enjoy our cupcakes. This means our cupcakes don't have peanuts or tree nuts in them, are produced in a completely nut free environment AND all of our ingredients are guaranteed nut free from our local suppliers.
We hope this decision will make your lives a little easier. You can provide any of our cupcakes at a wedding, a boardroom, a classroom or your dinner table and not worry one bit about providing a delicious nut free dessert to the people you love (and your coworkers!) And for the rest of you without nut allergies, we're sure you'll love all of our flavours so much you won't even notice we're nut free.
Happy Cupcakes!
Christin
Which is... drum roll please... less than a month away! We don't have an exact open date but our contractors assure us we'll be in the space and selling cupcakes in less than a month! We were so excited today we had to celebrate!
And how better to celebrate than to work on our gluten free cupcakes? We hadn't originally intended to offer gluten free cupcakes but we've had a lot of special requests and wanted to provide a delicious dessert option for people with gluten sensitivities. So Kim decided to test herself in the kitchen and has created two of most delicious cupcake recipes ever made! We're delighted to begin offering them by special order (give us a days notice and we'll have them ready for you when you arrive!) in store.
Speaking of allergies, we're completely nut free! Kim and I talk an awful lot about the things that are important to us. We are strongly committed to the environment, the community and providing the tastiest and freshest possible cupcake. While not all of us have a nut allergy, most of us have a friend or relative that is allergic to peanuts or tree nuts. Kim and I both love nuts but after talking with a few of our allergic friends, we decided to give up our peanut butter cup cupcake in order to ensure EVERYONE could enjoy our cupcakes. This means our cupcakes don't have peanuts or tree nuts in them, are produced in a completely nut free environment AND all of our ingredients are guaranteed nut free from our local suppliers.
We hope this decision will make your lives a little easier. You can provide any of our cupcakes at a wedding, a boardroom, a classroom or your dinner table and not worry one bit about providing a delicious nut free dessert to the people you love (and your coworkers!) And for the rest of you without nut allergies, we're sure you'll love all of our flavours so much you won't even notice we're nut free.
Happy Cupcakes!
Christin
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Photo Shoot
A few weeks ago Kim and I headed out around town to take some pictures of our cupcakes. The original concept was fairly vague and mostly centered around "cupcakes in strange places." We had a look around the city and decided to call in a professional.
Josie Freeborn of Freeborn Photography (www.freebornphotography.com) stepped up to the plate and was eager to get out and shoot our little beauties around the city. She even suggested we meet at 5am to get the shot we wanted. What a trooper! We headed down to the Victoria bridge and started placing cupcakes on the roadway. We were almost run over a few times but managed to get the shot. I can't wait for everyone to see it! I'm not going to describe it, you'll just have to come down to the shop in a few weeks and take a look.
After the bridge shoot we were pretty excited about the pictures and spent the rest of the morning toting our cupcakes around town and taking pictures of them in some familiar and not so familiar places. We've been so busy working on other things since then that I completely forgot about the pictures. Luckily, no one else had. Kim and I met with Josie this afternoon to take a look.
They are stunning.
We're so excited to share them with you on the website and in our store. We will let you know when they are posted to the site and we hope to see you in a few weeks to check them out in store.
Happy Cupcakes!
Christin
Josie Freeborn of Freeborn Photography (www.freebornphotography.com) stepped up to the plate and was eager to get out and shoot our little beauties around the city. She even suggested we meet at 5am to get the shot we wanted. What a trooper! We headed down to the Victoria bridge and started placing cupcakes on the roadway. We were almost run over a few times but managed to get the shot. I can't wait for everyone to see it! I'm not going to describe it, you'll just have to come down to the shop in a few weeks and take a look.
After the bridge shoot we were pretty excited about the pictures and spent the rest of the morning toting our cupcakes around town and taking pictures of them in some familiar and not so familiar places. We've been so busy working on other things since then that I completely forgot about the pictures. Luckily, no one else had. Kim and I met with Josie this afternoon to take a look.
They are stunning.
We're so excited to share them with you on the website and in our store. We will let you know when they are posted to the site and we hope to see you in a few weeks to check them out in store.
Happy Cupcakes!
Christin
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Cupcakes are coming!
Fall is fast approaching and we've been very busy at The Cupcake Conspiracy!
We've found an amazing space in the King George and will be opening our doors sometime in the next month. Don't worry, we'll let you know when you can check out the shop. In the meantime you can still order cupcakes by sending us an email (cupcakes@thecupcakeconspiracy.ca) or calling us (306.880.1872.)
As you may have noticed, the website has been looking much different lately! Our crack team of developers has been working hard to get a fabulous new website ready for our store opening. The website will include new pictures by Freeborn Photography, our complete flavour list (including upcoming flavours of the week,) a new blog, an events page and a very cool online order form.
If you just can't wait for us to open, why not come down and grab a cupcake at one of our upcoming events? We'll be at Willow Studio this Friday helping celebrate their one year anniversary. If you can't make it on Friday, come out to Paisley Party and Gift Boutique on Saturday for their grand opening. We'll be at both events and hope you can make it too.
We've also created a fan page on facebook (search for The Cupcake Conspiracy!) which will help us keep you updated on all of our exciting events and flavours. Speaking of flavours, Kim has been busy developing a VERY delicious list of flavours of the week for the first three months of business. If you've got a flavour suggestion, get it in quick and if we decide to use your flavour, you'll get a free cupcake and get to name your flavour!
We can't wait to open our doors and hope to see you soon.
Happy Cupcakes,
Christin and Kim
Check out our new website at www.thecupcakeconspiracy.ca
We've found an amazing space in the King George and will be opening our doors sometime in the next month. Don't worry, we'll let you know when you can check out the shop. In the meantime you can still order cupcakes by sending us an email (cupcakes@thecupcakeconspiracy.ca) or calling us (306.880.1872.)
As you may have noticed, the website has been looking much different lately! Our crack team of developers has been working hard to get a fabulous new website ready for our store opening. The website will include new pictures by Freeborn Photography, our complete flavour list (including upcoming flavours of the week,) a new blog, an events page and a very cool online order form.
If you just can't wait for us to open, why not come down and grab a cupcake at one of our upcoming events? We'll be at Willow Studio this Friday helping celebrate their one year anniversary. If you can't make it on Friday, come out to Paisley Party and Gift Boutique on Saturday for their grand opening. We'll be at both events and hope you can make it too.
We've also created a fan page on facebook (search for The Cupcake Conspiracy!) which will help us keep you updated on all of our exciting events and flavours. Speaking of flavours, Kim has been busy developing a VERY delicious list of flavours of the week for the first three months of business. If you've got a flavour suggestion, get it in quick and if we decide to use your flavour, you'll get a free cupcake and get to name your flavour!
We can't wait to open our doors and hope to see you soon.
Happy Cupcakes,
Christin and Kim
Check out our new website at www.thecupcakeconspiracy.ca
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