The Birth of the Mini Cake

Here's how a new product begins:
  First, I (Lillian) recently had a terrible cupcake. I'm told there are a lot of great cupcakes shops in the world, but this was not from one of them (no, I won't tell you where I got it). The cake was dry and if it had been actually flavorless that would have been better. Instead it had a strange, what-is-that taste (turns out it was supposed to be peanut butter). Then the frosting was greasy and nauseating. Maybe that's a little redundant because frosting that makes you think of grease is inherently stomach-turning, right? Second, standing at work I often gaze over at the covers of cooking magazines and right now there is a beautiful pumpkin cake on the cover of Fine Cooking. Third, though we have plans for a lot of non-bacon products, currently we're selling sweets in a butcher shop so we're taking that combination to its tippy-top. We've been wanting to have a cake available for the Bacon Lover's Birthday, so we developed a Pumpkin Cake with Bacon Pecan Brittle and Browned Butter and Cream Cheese frosting. Fourth goes like this: But Johnny, can't we make them small and cute? I like things that are cute.
  So he did make them small and cute. And the cake turned out so insanely moist and I'm a sucker from cream cheese frosting and the middle bacon brittle layer provides the perfect crunch factor and that's how Mini Cakes are born. Available to start on the weekends and by special order for $4.95. Larger sizes coming soon.

Testing the for the perfect height of a Mini Cake

Thanks Voracious and Julien Perry

Gosh, this is such a nice post about us we can hardly stand it. We already loved Voracious, now we're even bigger fans.
Here's an etiquette question, would it be lame to send her some brownies? Too much self-promotion?

In the Test Kitchen

Bacon Joys and John's hand

Here are a few things I'm looking forward to this Fall - molasses cookies made with bacon (and maple frosting?), the finalized version of the peanut butter cup (with candied peanuts) and the almond butter cup (if almond butter wasn't so expensive I'm sure Reeses would make these), and getting all these things out to the public.
You can buy the caramels, Joys (bacon or baconless), brownies, and a couple other products at The Swinery (thanks guys) here in West Seattle. But what about the rest of the country (world!)? We have to wade through the regulations about online and mail-order sales to get this really up and going. In the meantime, you can call The Swinery (206.932.4211) or email us (sugarandsaltkitchen@gmail.com). We're going to put together a "Special Orders from Sugar & Salt" section on this site (and pamphlet to take away from The Swinery). You'll be able to order in advance just about everything we've ever talked about making (as long as we can make it legally in The Swinery kitchen).

Bacon Caramels, in case you couldn't guess.

Introducing the Betty Bar

When grandma calls and requests some sweets for a bake sale, how can I refuse? They have one every four months or so where she lives and I always look forward to it. She doesn't really care what I bring over as long as it includes her favorite treat. My grandma is hooked on a bar cookie that I've named after her because she loves them so much - Betty Bars start with a thick shortbread crust, the a layer of jam and a streusel topping that has enough seeds to energize you for hours. I made this batch with blackberry jam. Lil likes one with her tea in the morning and I'd have to agree that they're the perfect morning treat. These won't survive a trip through the mail but there's a chance they'll survive the cut for the retail counter. I'll have to run them by the Taste Testers for approval first. A pan of evil brownies and crunchy coconut macaroons rounded off the bake sale box.