It's been a crazy (good crazy) year so far over here at Steph's Sweet Treats!  With the year coming to an end...can you believe that?!..there are still a few events you can attend.  The first event you should know about is Off the Vine. 

I participated in Off the Vine in 2014 and had a blast.  It was not put on last year so I was very excited to hear it was back this year!  What is it?  It is an event put on by the Dodgeville Area Chamber of Commerce and local downtown businesses.  Each participating business has two wines and a snack; participants get to explore the businesses, meet the owners, snack, and taste great wines at each location.  If you are a wine lover, get your tickets now!  And don't forget to stop at Steph's Sweet Treats!  My snack will be some bite size cupcakes and cutout cookies.

Last year I did an event that I would love to do again, if time allows and if people are interested.  It was called "Ladies Night" and was held on a Friday night in April.  I had cupcakes for sale and then "hosted parties" of Norwex, Perfectly Posh, and Chloe+Isabel at the same time.  Anybody who stopped in had the opportunity to buy cupcakes, cleaning products, skin products, AND jewelry!  Sounds pretty amazing right?!  

Well I'd like to continuing doing events like this, but switch up the vendors every time so I can offer a good mix of goodies to people.  But I can't decide when to host the event and which vendors to have.  I do have a business card for a younique makeup consultant so I will probably contact them.  If you are a consultant for a company feel free to contact me!  I only have space for 3 (maybe 4 if you can take up a small amount of space) sellers and will have to weigh which vendors to take.  However, I can always keep a running list of people for future events so don't hesitate to contact me!

Please comment on here, on the Facebook post, or vote below.  

I hope to see you at these events!  As always, thanks for another week of orders!

I know a lot of people thought I was crazy...heck I even thought I was a bit crazy...to have weddings booked so close to my due date (2 weeks after).  Why did I allow this?  Well because I had to cancel and turn away enough weddings around my due date... I wanted to at least keep the weddings at the end of the month and just do whatever I had to do to make them happen.

I added to the craziness by agreeing to take on an additional wedding the weekend of August 20th.  I already had one booked, but since they were both on the small side and both in the same area delivery wise, I said yes....I have a bit of a problem with saying no (but I'm getting better at it now that I have a baby!)

If baking for two weddings, and a limited amount of orders, less than two weeks after having a baby doesn't sound crazy enough...I also decided my husband and I could pull off a double delivery with a newborn in tow!

I have had a lot people curious as to whether or not I am baking and I think some of these people are concerned that I am not taking advantage of the precious time with my newborn.  So I want to clarify that yes I am baking, and yes I certainly am taking advantage of EVERY moment.  I have the advantage of owning my own business...which means I'm on my own time and can take Wyatt with me when necessary or my husband can bring him so I don't have to go without seeing him (which he's amazing for doing for me!).  I'm adjusting my schedule to Wyatt; which means baking later in the day (reserving those 3 a.m. wake-ups for him rather than baking.  Between taking him with me when he was sleeping and my husband bringing him, I only had to go a 4 hour stretch of baking without seeing him last week.  And trust me...it was super hard and I probably didn't put him down for the rest of the night!  

Now onto the double delivery.  I would have had my parents babysit Wyatt...but they had a wedding of their own to attend...and well I just couldn't bear to go without him just yet!  We had to deliver to Richland Center and Spring Green and were on a tight timeline.  While we left promptly at the time I planned on leaving....Wyatt's schedule got a bit thrown off around lunch time (had to let him sleep when we planned on having him awake)..which meant I knew at some point we'd have a hungry baby on our hands right in the middle of delivering.  

So while it was a little more hectic than usual (yes he woke up and wanted food just like I predicted), we made it work!  While I set up the cupcakes my husband tended to Wyatt (again, did I mention how amazing he is?!).  And we still managed to get in and out of the venues with time to spare!  I know we can't take Wyatt on every delivery, but I think I may have just wanted to prove to myself that we could do it.  And we did!

Thanks for another week of orders everyone!

Don't get scared by the words "new policy"....it's really not all that new.  I should probably reword that to "policy that will now actually be enforced."  As much as I HATE to do it...I've talked about it for a long time and it has now become more important than ever.  Steph's Sweet Treats will now have a late fee for pickups. 

I know, I know...boo right?!  I apologize, but since I do not have regular hours and all pickups are scheduled, it is very important that people show up on time for their pickups.  I have talked about this on the blog before but have never actually made the move to enforce it.  Mostly because it's going to be very hard (and awkward) for me to enforce the fee...but I know I have to do it if I want people to make more of an effort to show up on time and respect my time.  

Why now?  Well, like I said,  It has been a long time coming...but having a newborn definitely pushed me to toughen up and just enforce it.  Time is precious; time with your baby is even more precious! My method of feeding also makes it very important for customers to arrive on time....otherwise you might find yourself locked out for a period of time until I can get to the door/help you.

In addition to all of this, I will be moving in a few months.  Not far, but no longer a minute from my shop. (Which reminds me- if you or someone you know is interested in buying a 3 bedroom one bathroom house in Dodgeville message me!)  Being close to the shop made running back and forth for people who were late not that big of a deal.  Now, it will take me at least 10-15 minutes to get back to my shop...and that's not taking into account packing up a baby.  

All customers are made aware that their pickups are scheduled; I am not there all day every day...and sometimes I am just there for one specific pickup.  So coming on time is expected.  I have made an extra effort myself as well to send a quick text, message, or email or phone call the night before or day of the pickups to remind people of their pickups. I understand that things come up that can make you late....that's fine...just let me know.  Not letting me know and leaving me sitting and waiting for 15 minutes- to an hour + sometimes ends up meaning I leave the shop and then have to return once I can get a hold of the customer- having a baby and living farther away will make that trickier.

So what's the policy?  This is what I have been attaching to messages, texts, emails, and what I will tell people over the phone and post in my shop: Late Fee- Steph's Sweet Treats schedules pickups. Customers are expected to show up at their scheduled pick up times.  If customers show up 15 minutes or more late (without notice) there is a $5 late fee for every 15 minutes.  If I have to leave and return due to lateness there is an additional fee.

I hope everyone can understand why I have choosen to go this route.  I have debated on it for a long time and have finally decided to do it.  If you have been late in the past please do not think this policy is being put into place because of you.  This has been a slow build up of events and is certainly not being done because of anyone specific.

Thank you for another week of orders!

The last week has been a crazy one folks!  Wyatt William Halvorson entered this world on his due date-August 7 at 8:42 p.m.  Want to here a little about his entrance into the world?  Don't worry I won't insert any of the stuff you don't want to hear about!

Let me start by saying this little man put me to the test!  And as any mom would say, it was worth every second of it and more! So I filled orders last Friday like any normal Friday and did the pickups Saturday morning at 10am.  However, that Saturday morning was different....I woke up Saturday morning around 4 with contractions.  I had A LOT of braxton hicks contractions during my pregnancy but I was pretty positive these were different because they weren't going away...but they weren't exactly regular.  

Shortly after my 10am pickups I got some signs that yes this really was labor but still, having never gone through it before, I didn't want to alert anyone and I wanted to ride out as much of it at home as I could.  Funny thing though....my cousin and godson came to visit...which is a big deal!  They live all the way in LaCrosse and they came to see me and I got to give my godson his birthday present (his is August 8th!).  We chatted, hung out, and even got lunch together...all while I quietly hid contractions that were starting to get a little more uncomfortable, but still 15-20 minutes apart.  

In the afternoon things started getting a bit more serious and around 5 I called the OB to tell them what had occurred throughout the day and they said that I did in fact need to come in.  After some checking, it was confirmed that I was in the early stages of labor.  They let me go home to labor as long as I wanted, but told me to for sure come back when the contractions got to 5 minutes apart. 

So of course I did what any person would do....stop by the bakery! I make baked goodies for people to give to the OB staff all the time after they have babies so I couldn't just walk in as the actual "cupcake lady" empty handed now could I?! (Note- I do not freeze customers orders-although some people do choose to do that on their own-but since I wanted to make sure I had cupcakes and cookies to take, so I had to have them ready to go in the freezer).  I also had to eat something because I knew there would be no food once I was admitted to the hospital..and for some reason I really wanted pancakes....so I made pancakes through the contractions!

Once things got a little more intense and hit the under 5 minute apart mark (around 9:30 Saturday night) we headed to the hospital.  Of course we assumed things would progress quickly since from 5-9pm things seemed like they had....boy were we wrong!  This not so little man (8 pounds 3 oz and 21 1/2 inches long-holy moly nobody was expecting that!  We weren't expecting the head full of dark brown hair either!) wasn't born until 8:42 the next night!  Not that I'm counting or anything....but if you start the clock at 10am that's a good 34 hours!  But like I said, worth every bit of it!

I wanted to do this post since customers know my due date was this month and so people know about ordering.  You are welcome to still inquire about any order you may have.  I am taking it one day at a time and doing orders based on how I feel and how my schedule is going with Wyatt.  So if I feel okay and I can fit the order in, I will certainly do it.  Don't be deterred from asking; I am doing whatever I can.  

Thanks for another week of orders!  Especially those who were brave enough to order the last week of my pregnancy :)  Thanks for taking the risk!  

As you probably know, I'm constantly trying to come up with new goodies to offer you guys.  This new line of specialty cakes is something I've toyed with for quite awhile, I just never got around to actually doing it.  So what are they? 

Just like with cupcakes, cakes can be ordered in three different levels: standard, deluxe, and specialty.  Well these specialty pre-designed cakes are another step up! A regular specialty cake involves a specialty cake flavor (for example: banana), or can be specialty because it has filling added and a flavored frosting added to a standard level cake flavor (for example: vanilla cake with raspberry filling and whipped frosting).  

These specialty pre-designed cakes are based off of some of the specialty cupcake flavors and have all kinds of extra goodies in and on them to jazz them up and make them extra special.  Since they are pre-designed, they cannot be decorated beyond the pre-design...although, I may be able to add a small message to the top if needed.

I think these cakes are great for so many situations.  Adults don't necessarily have themes for their birthdays, so a pre-design is perfect; work events; family gatherings; treat for a friend or loved one; gift; and sometimes you just want a cake for no reason at all...these are perfect for those times!  They can be ordered in a 6" round or an 8" round.

I may still add a few flavors to the list, but here are some of them that I have come up with so far.  Below are the five I tested and photographed, along with a description of what they are made up of (so you can see the added complexity of them!)  They aren't your ordinary cake folks!

Flavors so far:

• Cookies n cream
• Cookie dough lover
• Peanut butter cup madness
• Chocolate salted caramel
• Smore
• Chocolate dream
• Banana split
• Lemon lover
• Chocolate mintaholic
• Lemon raspberry
• Raspberry cheesecake

Like I said it's just a start...you know how I am with flavors...I can get a little carried away!  These can all be ordered-keep an eye on the Facebook page for new additions and photos/descriptions.

​Peanut butter cup madness-  
Chocolate cake
Peanut butter filling
Peanut butter buttercream
Ganache drip
Chocolate sprinkles
Peanut butter cup border

​Chocolate salted caramel-
Chocolate cake
Buttercream and caramel filling
Topped with chocolate caramel buttercream
Top flooded with more caramel
Bordered with sea salt

​Raspberry cheesecake-
Vanilla cake
Graham cracker layer between cake layers
Raspberry filling
Cream cheese frosting
Graham cracker bottom border
Graham cracker and raspberry border on top

​Cookies n cream-
Vanilla cake
Cookies n cream filling
Vanilla buttercream
Oreo crumble bottom border
Ganache drip
Crumbled Oreo top border

​Cookie dough lover-
Brown sugar cake
Chocolate chip cookie dough filling
Cookie dough frosting
Bottom border of mini chocolate chips
Ganache drip
Topped with a chocolate chip cookie dough ball border

I hope you all enjoy this new line of cake and thanks for another week of orders!!