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

A series of posts during our Life in Quarantine!
(oldest at bottom, newest at top)

Update to update – Hadn’t focused on conflict between order pickups 8am to 11am but being open 9am to 5pm. So let’s change order pickups to 9am to noon each day. Thanks. Sorry for not focusing on this sooner. 

Update as of Sun 6/7
Believe it or not, this may be my last entry under Life In Quarantine because Montgomery County may be moving into Phase 2 this week!  We’ll see what happens.  

A few JennyCakes changes for the foreseeable future:

— We already have a lot of orders for June, so if you’re interested in placing an order with us, you might want to do that sooner rather than later.

— Until Phase 2 kicks in, we’ll continue to do order pick-ups Tuesday through Saturday from 9am to noon and we’ll have limited curbside pickup from 9am to 5pm. If you’d like curbside pickup, please give us a call so we can let you know what we have on hand.

— On Tuesday we will begin carrying our breakfast stuff again!  For as long as supplies last, we’ll have on hand scones, blueberry muffins and cheese muffins. You can also order them in advance on the website.

— Once it is announced that we are permitted to move into Phase 2, we will be open to walk-in traffic 9am to 5pm so long as you wear a mask and you’re super careful about maintaining the 6-foot distance.

— As we transition and remain understaffed, we will try our best to stay stocked in all items but you may find that sometimes we run out. Your patience on this is so appreciated! 

Once again, thanks very very much for all of your kindness and support during this stretch of time! 

Jenny

Update as of Sun 5/31

Some of my employees are thankfully coming back this week! A huge shoutout to my daughter, Lily, who has been an AMAZING help at the bakery but will be returning to Madison tomorrow. I’m really, REALLY going to miss her.  🙁
A few things for this week:
— Please continue to place your orders online.  All of the dates in June are open, except that I’ve had to close off CAKE orders only for this coming week (week ending on Sat 6/6) because we already have so many. But feel free to order anything else.
— Pickups will be TUES through Sat 8am to 11am.
— We hope to keep up the safer contact-free customer interactions. So please continue to call us when you arrive at the bakery parking lot with your credit card information.  Then we’ll place your goodies on the table out front for pickup.

— We’ll be offering the same items as last week but feel free to email me if you are interested in something that you don’t see there and we’ll see if we can make it.
Thank you so much for your kind support and understanding during this crazy stretch!
Jenny

 

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Update as of Sun 5/24
I hope you’re all hanging in there!  Please see Menu and Order for what we’re offering this week.
A few reminders:
— Pickups will be Weds (we’ve added Weds as a pickup day) through Sat 8am to 11am.
— When you arrive at the bakery parking lot, please call 240 388 9989 with your credit card information. We’ll place your goodies on the table outside for pickup.
— Please keep in mind that any cakes will need to be simple with just a message and sprinkles.
Thanks very much for all of your kind support.

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Update as of Sun 5/17
On to another week!  New goodies: cranberry granola cookies, cheese crackers, raspberry squares and peanut butter blossoms. We’ve taken tiramisu off the menu for this year and we’ve taken frosted brownies off the menu for this week.

Please order through the website. We’ll take as many orders as we think we can handle!

Pickups are between 8 and 11am this Thurs 5/21, Fri 5/22 and Sat 5/23.

The process for pickup and payment is the same as the last few weeks. Please call us at 240 388 9989 with your credit card info when you arrive at the bakery parking lot. Then we’ll place your goodies on the table out front for pickup.
 

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Update as of Sun 5/10
Happy Mother’s Day! For next week, I’ve again revised the website so it shows what we’re able to offer.
We’ve taken a few things off but we’ve added the individual-sized strawberry shortcake cups and salted caramel cakes/cupcakes, and we’ll be making tiramisu again. 🙂

Please order through the website.

Pickups are between 8 and 11am this Thurs 5/14, Fri 5/15 and Sat 5/16.

The process for pickup and payment is the same as the last couple of weeks. Please call us at 240 388 9989 with your credit card info when you arrive at the bakery parking lot. Then we’ll place your goodies on the table out front for pickup.    

It’s still just my daughters and I doing the work at the bakery. So I still have to accept fewer orders than usual, and we still need to offer a smaller variety of baked goods than usual.

Also, since I’m doing all of the cake preparation these days and I have zero experience at doing that (being the make it yummy person rather than the make it pretty person), we still can only do simple cakes with a message and/or sprinkles.

At some point I need to find a way to truly thank all of you for your incredible kindness during this stretch. I so appreciate your orders and the wonderfully compassionate, patient, friendly and cheerful interactions we’ve had with all of you. Running a bakery is much, much harder than I thought it would be, but going through these last few weeks at the bakery has reminded me why I do it and how wonderful JennyCakes customers are! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Jenny  

 

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Update as of Mon 5/4 – Thanks for all your orders! My apologies but we already have to close off orders for this week because we have so many. However, depending on how far we get how quickly, there’s a slight chance we’ll be able to squeeze in a few more orders, so if you’d like us to add you to a waitlist, please email me at jenny@jennycakesbakery.net. Thanks. Jenny

Update as of Sun 5/3 – Mother’s Day at JennyCakes!

I’ve revised the website so that you can now see under the Menu and Order tab what we’re offering this week and place your orders through the website instead of by email. I think this will make things go more smoothly. Thank you so much for all of your patience while we figure all this stuff out!
We’ll be offering quite a few flavors of cakes, as well as 9″ key lime pies and quiches, cookie cakes, strawberry and banana bread, lemon bars, soft sugar cookies and chocolate chip, oreo and everything cookie balls. We’ll also have on hand for sale the 2.5# bags of flour if you want to add those to your order when you pickup (they aren’t on the website menu).
Orders will be available for pickup on Thurs 5/7, Fri 5/8 and Sat 5/9. I’m having trouble adjusting the time slots on the website but just know that regardless of what time you pick we’ll be open each of those days from 8-11am for pickups. 
When we fill up on any particular day, I’ll block that day off and post something about that at the top of the homepage of the website.
Sorry so many details! Thanks to all of you for being so kind and supportive!
Jenny

Update as of 4/29: Thanks for all your orders! Orders are now closed for the week ending on Sat 5/2. For those of you picking up on Sat, feel free to come any time between 8 and 11am. I think the parking lot will get too congested if we try to stick with the original 9 to10am timeframe. Thanks!

Update as of 4/27:
For the week ending on Sat May 2, we will be offering the following items for pick-up on Weds, Thurs, Fri and Sat between 9 and 10am. Stay tuned for info about the following week’s Mother’s Day sale. 

To order: Email me at jenny@jennycakesbakery.net.
To pay and pick-up:   When you arrive at bakery parking lot, call 240-388-9989 with cc info. Then we’ll place your goodies on the table outside for you to take home. 🙂  

Tiramisu for 1


TIRAMISU because I’ve missed it!  
Tiramisu for 1  $3.50
Tiramisu for 2  $7 

 

 

 

Carrot cake

6″ simple cakes with message and/or sprinkles
Flavors:
Red velvet cake with traditional cream cheese frosting
Carrot cake
Yellow or chocolate cake with buttercream, chocolate, cream cheese, mocha or peanut butter frosting.

We can make any of those flavors into a pinata cake (the one with the candy inside) EXCEPT the carrot cake because it’s too moist to keep its shape if we carve out the middle.
6″ cake $28 (carrot is $35)
6″ pinata cake $40

Banana bread

 

Banana bread with or without nuts $4

 

 

 

 

 

Everything cookie


Cookie balls: choc chip, oreo and everything  (in batches of 24 — $1 each)

 

 

 

 

Lemon ricotta cookies


Lemon ricotta cookies – another thing I’ve missed — $1.50 each

 

 

 

 

 

Update as of 4/22: Thanks so much for all of your orders! We will be closing off orders at this point so we can start working toward completing them all. 🙂 Jenny

New JennyCakes One-Day Sale this Sat 4/25!  See items we’re offering this time (list is below photos).  

To order: Email me at jenny@jennycakesbakery.net sometime before Thurs 4/23 to place your order.
To pay:   Call me at 240-388-9989 between 8 and 11am on Fri 4/24 to pay for your order by credit card.
To pick-up:  Pick-up at the bakery between 8 and 11am on Sat 4/25.

Ferrero Rocher cupcakes

Pinata cake

Lemon bars

 

 

 

 

 

 

6″ cake

Banana bread

Chocolate Frosted Brownies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Items offered (all can be ordered with lots of spring-colored sprinkles!):

  • Simple 6” cakes ($28)
    Flavors: red velvet, or yellow or chocolate cake with vanilla, chocolate or coffee/mocha buttercream frosting.
    Since my daughters and I are doing all the work at the bakery these days and none of us is a cake decorator, these cakes will need to be simple and might not be as pretty as our talented decorators’ cakes but we guarantee they will be just as yummy as our usual cakes!
    We can add a simple message and/or sprinkles if you’d like.

  • The new piñata cake filled with candy ($40)
    Flavors: same flavors as above flavors for simple 6” cakes.

    For the piñata cake, we cut two cake layers in half to make four layers. Then we cut a hole through the middle and fill it with candy that spills out when the cake is cut. Seemed like a fun option for youngsters and the young at heart!

  • Cupcakes (min. of a dozen / $30 per dozen)
    Flavors:
    Chocolate or yellow with choc chip cookie dough frosting, whipped peanut butter frosting, or vanilla, chocolate or coffee/mocha buttercream
    Cookies and cream
    Red velvet
    German chocolate (while supplies last)
    Gluten free and vegan in chocolate and vanilla flavors (while supplies last)

  • New Ferrero Rocher cupcakes ($3 each)

    Chocolate cupcake with hazelnut buttercream sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts and topped with a Ferrero Rocher candy.

  • Cookie balls (sold in batches of 24 — $24)
    Chocolate chip
    Cookies and cream
    Everything

  • Banana bread with or without nuts ($4 each)

  • Bars (sold in batches of 6 — $12)
    Lemon bars
    Brownies
    Magic bars

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Week of Sat 4/11:
Update to the update!  We’re all filled up on orders for cupcakes, hot cross buns and cookie balls for pickup this Sat 4/11. Thanks very much!  We’ll hopefully have another sale in the next week or so. Stay safe and healthy!  Jenny

Update — JennyCakes will be offering a few items for pick up on Sat 4/11. See below!

So that we can minimize the risk to our staff and customers, the JennyCakes staff for this sale will be my daughters, Lily and Geneva, and me. Since we’ll have such a small staff, the selection of what we can offer is very limited and unfortunately does not include any cakes. We will take as many orders as we think we can manage! 

We will be wearing homemade masks and food service quality plastic gloves as we prepare the orders, and we will do all the other things that we know will minimize the risk, like LOTS of handwashing and LOTS of wiping down surfaces.

Here’s what we’ll be offering:

  • Boxes of a dozen cupcakes — 3 yellow/choc, 3 choc/choc, 3 yellow/buttercream, 3 choc/buttercream.
    Options: Easter sprinkles/decorations, cheerful sprinkles/decorations, or no sprinkles/decorations. 

    Price:  $30 (I promise we’ll go back to the $27 discounted price once we get through this challenging stretch!)

  • Bags of 24 cookies balls of a particular flavor.
    Options: chocolate chip, cookies and cream, everything and snickerdoodle.
    Price: usual price of $1.50 each for snickerdoodles and $1 each for the three others.

  • Hot cross buns in batches of 6.
    Price: $2 each.

Schedule:

  • Place orders by email to jenny@jennycakesbakery.net. 

  • Pay for orders by credit card by calling 240 388 9989 on Fri 4/10 between 8am to 11am but if that window is tricky for you, feel free to call to pay on Sat 4/11.

  • Pick-up will be on Sat 4/11 from 8am to 11am. We’ll do this a little differently from the Cookie Ball Bonanza pick-up. I plan to set up long tables outside the bakery and display on the tables each order separately (not stacked with the other orders) in alphabetical order by first name. You’ll arrive at the parking lot, find your order on the tables and take it home. Seemed like an even safer way to do it than handing the boxes to you with gloves on.   

Thanks for your patience with yet another sort of complicated procedure, but it seemed like the safest way to do it. Thinking of all of you as you go through this difficult time and really hoping you and your loved ones are healthy and stay healthy.

Jenny

 

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JennyCakes is currently closed until things with this virus calm down enough for us to safely reopen.

However, we hope to occasionally do special sales, such as the recent JennyCakes Cookie Ball Bonanza, so long as we can find a way to do them that is manageable and safe for us and also ensures we can keep our customers safe.   

When we do one of these, I will post something here on the website, on Facebook and on instagram, so stay tuned!

Thanks for all of your support and understanding during this tricky time. Please stay safe and healthy.

Jenny

 

Life in Quarantine — the JennyCakes Cookie Ball Bonanza!

   

JennyCakes is currently closed until things with this virus calm down enough for us to safely reopen.

But one thing we thought would be both fun and safe to do occasionally during this stretch would be what I’m calling a JennyCakes Cookie Ball Bonanza. Basically, we sell you the cookie balls and you bake them at home. See below for the process for participating in this. I’m hoping the process isn’t too much of a pain. I couldn’t figure out another way to do it so it’s manageable for us while making sure everyone stays healthy and safe. 

1. Place order for cookie balls by email on Thurs 3/26 and Fri 3/27.

Don’t worry if you didn’t see this in time to order. We’ll hopefully do this every once in a while until we’re finally able to reopen. I’ll always post something on instagram and facebook (like I did this time) when we plan to do it.  

Email address for orders:  jenny@jennycakesbakery.net.

Flavors available: choc chip, oreo, everything, peanut butter, snickerdoodle (sorry no GF or vegan flavors at this point)

If at all possible, please order cookie balls in batches of 24 (that’s what a ziploc bag will hold) but OK if 12 are one flavor and 12 are another flavor. If we do flavor amounts less than that, it will take us forever to package them all.

2. Call me at 240 388 9989 on Monday 3/30 between 9 and 11am or so, to pay for the cookie balls by credit card over the phone. Cookie balls are the usual price for our cookies — so $1 each.

3. Pick up the cookie balls at the bakery on Tuesday 3/31 between 9 and 11am. Call us at 240 388 9989 when you arrive and we’ll bring your order out to you.

Please stay safe and healthy!

Jenny

  

It’s time for our…

Annual Cupcake Sale!

Tuesday March 3 – Tuesday March 17

 

Buy 6, GET ONE FREE!  But 10, GET TWO FREE!

It happens only once a year and it’s a great chance to get out of your chocolate chocolate cupcake rut and try some new, fun flavors!  

Also happening this month: lots of holidays! So scroll down to see our upcoming specials, including

King cakes for Fat Tuesday

Irish kickers for St. Patrick’s Day and

Hamentaschen for Purim

Enjoy!

Happy March!

Jenny

 

Start your order

King Cake

 

 

KING CAKES FOR MARDI GRAS!

Fat Tuesday is just a couple days away so be sure to order your king cake today! We’ll provide the yumminess and an itsy bitsy baby for you to bury in your cake. ?

 

 

 

 

Irish kickers

 

IRISH KICKERS ARE BACK!

I’ve completed my annual trip to the liquor store to load up on Guinness beer, Baileys Irish Cream and Jameson Irish Whiskey so we’re ready to go and will start carrying these on March 3!  Order an Irish Kicker cake or cupcakes to help celebrate St. Patrick’s Day or really any other day (right?). The Guinness beer helps flavor the chocolate cake and the Baileys Irish Cream and Jameson Irish Whiskey flavor the frosting so it’s sweet but not TOO sweet.

 

 

 

Hamantaschen!

 

 

HAMANTASCHEN!

We’re baking hamantaschen with apricot, poppy seed, nutella and raspberry filling throughout the month of March. These have become one of my favorite winter cookies, especially the ones with the raspberry filling!

 

 

 

 

We’re heading into a fun, busy stretch here at JennyCakes as we celebrate:

Valentine’s Day on Fri Feb 14

Mardi Gras on Tues Feb 25, featuring our king cakes
(these can now be ordered through the website)

Our Annual Cupcake Sale from Tues Mar 3 to Tues Mar 17, 
featuring Irish Kickers in honor of St. Patrick’s Day

Purim on Mon Mar 9 to Tues Mar 10,
featuring lots and lots of hamentaschen

But first off is VALENTINE’S DAY!

Try to place your VALENTINE’S DAY orders in advance so we can be sure we can complete them. Last year we were surprised by how many sweetheart cakes we sold! Even on Valentine’s Day itself, we were throwing 4″ cakes in the oven to try to keep up with the demand for them from walk-in traffic. We’re hoping to be better prepared this year and have lots on hand for walk-in customers, but it would help a lot if you order in advance. 🙂

For Valentine’s Day, get ready for lots of color (I know I say this every year but it’s honestly such a welcome site in the middle of the greyness of winter!) …

Champagne Cake with Raspberry Buttercream

Tiramisu for 2

Sweetheart cake

Heart cookies

 

 

 

 

 

and LOTS of chocolate!

Mint brownies

Triple threat cookies

Dark chocolate cream pie

 

 

 

 

 

Soft sugar cookies with buttercream frosting

 
 
 
We’ll also have heart-shaped cakes and lots of soft sugar cookies with buttercream frosting.
 

 

 

 

 

 Just a reminder, here’s what’s coming up!

 
FAT TUESDAY – Tues Feb 25
Don’t forget to order your King Cake in advance! We’ll only be able to make a limited number.
ANNUAL CUPCAKE SALE – Tues Mar 3 to Tues Mar 17
Buy 6, get one free. Buy 10, get 2 free.
PURIM – Mon Mar 9 to Tues Mar 10
We’ll have lots and lots of hamentaschen on hand.
 

King Cake

Cupcakes!

Hamantaschen!

Winter 2020!

February 3, 2020 2020 Winter

Thank you to all of our customers for being so kind and patient as we sprinted through the hectic Christmas season that came so quickly on the heels of the hectic Thanksgiving season! We hope you all had a cheerful holiday and enjoyed any goodies you bought or received from us. 🙂

The most exciting part of this post is that we are at last updating our Meet the Staff section, thanks to my Mom’s relentless lobbying for this to be done!  I’m so glad she kept at it because I think you’ll enjoy learning about this wonderful group of people.

If you’d also like to hear about the new stuff we’re offering at the bakery, be sure to scroll down below the section called Meet the JennyCakes Staff.

Stay tuned on Feb 1 for information about Valentine’s Day, King Cakes for Mardi Gras, and our Annual Cupcake Sale.
Jenny

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Meet the JennyCakes Staff (Recently Updated)! 

Jenny’s mom, Bev Stearns, used her remarkable writing and photography abilities to interview and take photos of our staff.  Below are her blurbs about each, together with Jenny’s additions.  The M is for Mom and the J is for Jenny! 
Taylor!
M: Taylor strikes one as being reserved, confident, responsible and poised. She grew up in Prince George’s County and now commutes from Bowie. She loves Selena Quintanilla, the hugely popular Mexican American singer, songwriter, dancer, model, and fashion designer who passed away at the young age of 24. Taylor is quite a dancer herself and especially enjoys performing the Salsa and Bachata. What is she proud of? Her younger sister who is very independent, a characteristic Taylor regards as one of her own strengths. Being creative is another of Taylor’s strengths which comes through in the gorgeous cakes that she decorates at the bakery. She volunteers that she loves Jenny Cakes cheese muffins and Italian cream cupcakes. 
J: Taylor is an amazing decorator, baker and manager.  She has done a great job at helping with the management of JennyCakes during our transition to a whole new staff.  She will be heading off to greener pastures soon. Among other things, we will miss her sense of humor, and especially her buche jokes. 🙂
Jen!
M: Jen is an inspiration, not only because she is an amazingly gifted cake decorator but because she’s the healthiest and most physically fit JennyCakes staff member EVER! She has been a vegan eater since she was 6 and she runs marathons – 12 so far – and intends to keep running one a year until she’s in her eighties. Low-key about her accomplishments, she’s friendly, outgoing and smart. Jen’s the proud owner of a house she bought in Frederick last year.
J:  Although her commute from Frederick is a challenging one, Jen has yet to miss even one scheduled shift! Of course I so appreciate the amazingly creative and beautiful decorated cakes she makes, but I also appreciate the pragmatic advice she gives me when I occasionally get over-wrought about any drama at the bakery! 
Ellee! 
M: Ellee is a Jenny Cakes staff member you might not see because she’s usually in a random bakery nook or cranny decorating cookies. But if you’ve ever ordered decorated cookies, it was likely Ellee who decorated them for you!  Ellie goes to Blake High School and was just 15 when she was hired.  She will continue her studies, especially biology, in college next year. 
J: I was immediately blown away by Ellee’s maturity when this 15-year-old asked about direct deposit two days after she accepted our job offer!  She works incredibly hard (decorated every single Christmas cookie we offered this year!), is delightful to be in the kitchen with, and has a conscientiousness that has made her an absolutely wonderful employee. We  will miss her terribly next year when she heads off to college. 
Chie!
M:  Kind, smart, friendly, loyal and knowledgeable are just some of the traits that come to mind when you get to know Chie.  She’s from Tokyo, where she met her husband when he was teaching English there.  They moved here when he sought a Masters Degree at GWU.  Like the other staff members at Jenny Cakes, her talents and passions are fascinating.  She’s a connoisseur of wine and can give excellent advice on which wines are best to serve with sweets, particularly chocolate.  She is also a musician who plays classical and jazz pieces on the piano.  Recently her favorite composers are Chopin and Elton John.  She and her husband have two children, a daughter, aged 7, and a son, aged 10. Several in Chie’s birth family still live in Tokyo.  When asked for her strengths, Chie said, “Being responsible.”
J: It has been an absolute joy to have Chie work at the bakery! She is not only remarkably skilled at baking but she is one of the most conscientious people I’ve ever known as she tackles every task at the bakery, from waiting on customers to putting orders together to teaching someone a new task to decorating cookies.
Mia!
M: Young, gentle, and hardworking, Mia is a student at Montgomery College where she studies nursing when she isn’t working at JennyCakes. She was pulled to nursing because of her mother’s stories about her work in a nursing home. She is proud of the values her mother has ingrained in her.  Her strengths are that she’s “pretty compassionate and gets along with people.” Outside of work, she loves to read, especially biographies, and likes to run – – in high school she did cross country for two years. She has lived in this area all her life and has two brothers and a sister.
J:  I always breathe a sigh of relief when Mia cruises through the front door for her shift because I know she will quietly, calmly and competently whip things under control. She gets along with absolutely everyone – customers and employees. It’s been fun watching her grow from a JennyCakes newbie to one of the employees with the most experience here!
Emily D!
M:  Emily is full of surprises.  She strikes one as a happy-go-lucky young woman, but my, does she have a variety of interests and talents. She’s fluent in Latin, majored in classics and fulfilled a pre-med track at Tufts University, enjoys weaving and making wall hangings, and is planning to go to medical school. She is an alum of both Blessed Sacrament and Stoneridge. 
J: I have known Emily’s family (including her mom Martha, who works at the bakery on Saturday afternoons) for Emily’s entire life, so I’ve been lucky enough to watch Emily grow from an itty bitty baby to the terrific young woman she is today. I especially appreciate Emily’s sense of humor, cheerfulness, frequent laughter and down to earth attitude at the bakery!
Eric!
M: You will frequently see Eric at the front counter, ready to serve you, but you might also glimpse him doing a multitude of things in the kitchen as well. He sports a nice mustache and doesn’t seem to miss a thing.  He has been at Jenny Cakes a little over a year.  A life-long Kensington resident, Eric has an interesting hobby: live streaming on an internet platform. If you already know what that means, that’s great! He explained to me that he does AMA (Ask Me Anything) in a podcast scenario.  He has podcast followers in California, Florida, and Maryland.  
J: What I appreciate most about Eric are his somewhat sarcastic sense of humor and the meticulous care he uses when preparing anything at the bakery. 🙂
Sam!
M:  If you listen to Sam for 2 seconds, you’ll realize she’s British. She’s from Derby, England, a beautiful British city (check it out on the internet). Sam, perky and bright, exudes good cheer with her quick laugh and happy demeanor. She has lived in the area only two years, moving to Chevy Chase when her husband took a position in the British Embassy. She’s another amazingly young looking mother at Jenny Cakes – – her son is 21, at UDC, and her daughter is 17, at BCC. During their 25 years of marriage, she and her husband have moved about a lot, living in Nigeria, Botswana, and Tunisia.  Discovering Jenny Cakes was fate for her. What are Sam’s strengths?  She regards herself as honest, trustworthy, and hardworking.  Her loves are baking, animals (she has a dog and a cat), tennis, and reading.
J:  One of my favorite Sam stories happened when she came in for her working interview.  I kept asking her questions and she kept giving me cryptic answers as if to say, “Back off! I’m trying to work here!”  She’s super quick and productive and, for better or worse, has become my primary source for good and bad TV. She feeds my Love Island obsession but she has also introduced me to some great British dramas. We will miss her (and the great British treats she brings in) when her time in DC is up and she heads off to her next adventure! 

Vincent!
J: Vincent has been kind enough to mop our floors four times a week and fold our cupcake and cakes boxes four times a week. He is almost single-handedly responsible for the fact that our customers can leave the bakery with their cupcakes or cake in a box!  He is cheerful, kind and incredibly easy to work with and we are super lucky to have him work here.  🙂

 

Henry!
J: 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!

 

Jim! 
M:  Quiet, polite, responsible and quirky, Jim Gordon has a distinct style. Jenny and her neighbor Frank (of Frankly Pizza) discovered Jim early on, and both have benefited from his steady help since.  You’ll see him frequently hauling ingredients into the bakery from a Costco run and on Saturday mornings at the front counter cheerfully waiting on customers. When not working, one activity that Jim especially enjoys is cosplay, which involves creating costumes and going to cosplay conventions.  Jim was born in DC but he has also lived in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
J:  I so appreciate Jim’s calm demeanor, conscientiousness and his long-term commitment to the bakery. We are so lucky he’s been willing to work here so long! 
Martha! 
M:  You will usually see Martha Deale at the counter on Saturday, steadily and efficiently handling orders in the midst of the frequent crush of customers. She regards Jenny Cakes as her “fun job.” Her other job is being an occupational therapist, a career she has engaged in since college.  She has known Jenny for 25 years – since Jenny moved to a house next to her in Kensington. Her daughter Emily, who also works at Jenny Cakes, says that Martha’s strengths are that she’s “patient, pragmatic and loving, and she is good at remaining calm.” Martha’s family (her husband and two daughters) appreciate her baking talents, with her pies being their favorite dessert. Martha is passionate about doing needlepoint, quilting and sewing, and is an ardent fan of Washington sports, especially the Nationals and the Capitals. 
J:  I of course love the way Martha so adeptly manages the front counter on crazy Saturdays, but I also love her wicked sense of humor. Nothing makes both of us happier on a Saturday than giving each other grief!
Emily C.!
M:  Emily moved to Wheaton from West Virginia when her sister came to the area as an NIH scholar. She misses her garden but has lots of houseplants. Growing up, Emily enjoyed working in her parents’ bakery and was drawn to the similar family atmosphere of Jenny Cakes. What is she proud of?  Her family, especially her parents who participate in foster care. Outside of work, she writes poetry and short stories, focusing on nature and the people she encounters. She also likes the outdoors and hiking.
J:  What a stroke of luck it was when we hired Emily C.!  We call her Carter (that’s her last name – not just one we made up!) because there are so many Emilys working at the bakery already.  Not only does she have tons of experience working in a bakery, but she is also remarkably helpful, pragmatic, patient and calm and catches on to things very quickly.   
Chelsea!
M:  Chelsea is one of Jenny’s gifted cake decorators. She moved to the area from her hometown, Pensacola, Florida six months ago when her fiancé was drawn here by a work opportunity. They married in November.  She commutes to JennyCakes from Fairfax, Virginia.  Chelsea’s an artist at heart and loves drawing and “working with different color palettes.” What does she do for fun?  Play the ukulele and go on hikes or play video games with her new husband. She has six siblings: five sisters and one brother. 
J:   I so appreciate Chelsea’s beautiful, crisp, clean cake designs and the lightness and positivity that Chelsea brings to the bakery that rubs off on each of us and makes it difficult for us to be grumpy or negative!  
Emily M.
M: Emily is usually at the counter, serving customers, stocking the shelves, and moving quietly about to assist others.  She came to Jenny Cakes when she felt it was time for a change from selling technology. Baking is her passion – “It’s why I’m here.”  She’s married and has two teenage sons, a freshman at Catholic University and a junior at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School.  She has lived in Kensington since 1998.  She loves to travel – has been to Japan, Australia, and Europe a few times.  Recently she traveled to Romania and Germany for a wedding.  Her strengths?  “I like people and am good at listening.” Surprisingly, this gentle and deep woman has a Brown Belt in Karate! 
J: Some of my happiest moments at the bakery are when I can get Emily M. to bust out laughing. She has the greatest laugh. I try to stoke the fire a bit on the old WJ v. BCC rivalry, but so far she maturely won’t bite. Probably for the best given the whole Brown Belt in Karate thing. But seriously, I love having Emily’s calm, reliable and cheerful presence at the bakery.
Susie!
M: It’s hard to believe that this young-looking woman with a quick smile and high energy has four fairly old children – – two daughters in college, one daughter in high school, and a son in 8th grade.  She always seems to be on top of things and happy.  She is at Jenny Cakes because of her “love of baking,” which she gained as a child baking with her mom and later baking with her kids.  Susie lives nearby in Chevy Chase.  She regards her strengths as being very organized and creative – she loves arts and crafts.  What is something unusual that others might not know about her? She is one of 16 children, 9 girls and 7 boys! Her oldest sibling turns 70 this year. Twelve of her siblings live in the local area.  Just imagine their family reunions!
J: So lucky to have Susie working at the bakery!  Not only does she thrive on being super productive but apparently she knows pretty much everyone in this area.  I get a kick out of overhearing her quick conversations at the front counter with people she hasn’t seen for a while!   
Lily!
J: Lily, my daughter, who is now age 20, 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 appears to have inherited my organizational gene and is great at keeping track of things and figuring out what needs to happen next.  Although she is away in college at the University of Wisconsin, Lily still occasionally makes an appearance at the bakery when she’s craving underdone chocolate chip cookies. 
Geneva!
J: Geneva, my daughter who is now age 17, was the second accomplice in convincing 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!
 
Doug! 
M: Doug is the perfect husband for Jenny. His humor, wisdom and calm nature fit well with Jenny’s adventurous drive and passionate spirit.  You will get to know Doug best by watching him.  He is definitely a man of action not words.  His peaceful spirit, quiet kindness and responsible manner reflect his Quaker beliefs.  His know-how and no-nonsense response to decisions and challenges are always on target.  Though working full-time as a busy attorney, he willingly uses his weekends to help at the bakery. I think he secretly loves it!
J:  Doug 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!

Jenny! Yes that’s a photo of Brayden Holtby on the fridge next to me!


Jenny!
M: Jenny has always loved organizing things: in 3rd grade it was a Jerry Lewis Carnival for Muscular Dystrophy, in 5th grade it was a makeshift library in the basement of the apartment complex where she lived, in high school it was a variety of activities including Homecoming , in early adulthood it was birthday bashes (including lots of cakes of course) for her friends, as a mom it was guiding her young daughters in delivering homemade bread to the residents of Circle Manor, a nursing home that used to be across from Noyes Children’s Library.  So it’s no wonder that as her four children grew, Jenny stopped practicing law and instead organized events that mattered to her family and her community.  For a decent stretch of time, she organized countless sports teams, the Kensington 8K Race (which benefits local schools), the Kensington Labor Day Parade, and many events at her kids’ schools like International Night and the Holiday Bazaar. 
But the activity that captured her heart the most was planning and organizing JennyCakes Bakery.  Her children pushed her into it, but launching JennyCakes tapped into her drive to organize and her desire to create a place that would play a small part in the many celebrations of the people in her community.   
J:  What do I do in my role as owner and manager of the bakery? Everything from creating recipes to crawling on my knees to try to fix the plumbing to doing payroll to keeping track of each order that comes in. What do I enjoy most at the bakery? Creating a recipe and having someone say that’s the best __ I’ve ever tasted! What do I do for fun when I’m not working at the bakery?  Watch the Caps with my family.  Enjoy our new puppy.  Read read read – especially mystery/detective novels. Watch good TV, most recently The Stranger. Watch bad TV: Love Island, the Bachelor / Bachelorette.   

New Fun Goodies at JennyCakes!

All of the following goodies are mouth-wateringly yummy and super popular with our customers, but next January I have GOT to find a way to add a bit more color to this month’s new stuff!

 

Mini chocolate pies

Coconut Cream Pie

Mint brownies

Triple Threat Cookies

Tiramisu for 2

Tiramisu for 1

Boston Cream Cupcake

Aunt Val’s coffee cake

Snickerdoodles

     
 

Christmas 2019

January 9, 2020 2019 Winter

Modified schedule for Christmas holiday:

Mon 12/23 —   CLOSED as usual
Tues 12/24 —  OPEN 8am to 2pm
Weds 12/25 to Weds 1/1 — CLOSED
Thurs 1/2 — Back to our usual schedule so OPEN 8am to 7pm

Gingerbread men

Chocolate cupcake with peppermint buttercream

Decorated cutout cookies

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 gingerbread men, chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream, frosted sugar cookie bars, rum bites, decorated cutouts, jam thumbprints, pecan snowballs and Scottish shortbread.
As of today, all of these items will be on the website menu in addition to small and large holiday cookie boxes and our other bigger offerings like buche de noel.  

Pumpkin and banana bread

Small and large holiday cookie boxes

Buche de Noel

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Orders!

We will accept Christmas orders until we reach capacity. When we do reach capacity, I will post something at the top of our website.
Please pick up your order no later than 2pm on Tues 12/24.
The specific items available for Christmas orders are listed below.
We hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Jenny

 

Christmas cake

Poinsettia cake

Frosted sugar cookie bars

Christmas Goodies

  • buche de noel
  • pumpkin roll (with or without toasted pecans)
  • pecan pie (with or without bourbon)
  • pumpkin pie
  • dark chocolate cream pie (we’ll be offering only a limited number of these because they are difficult to make in bulk)
  • key lime pie
  • any of our cakes (if you like the Christmas Cake or Poinsettia Cake in photos above, order under All Classic Yellow or Chocolate and mention “Christmas Cake” or “Poinsettia Cake” under Special Instructions)
  • 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 Tues Dec 24 between 8am to 2pm. We will be fully stocked with our usual items and we will work hard to stay stocked for as long as possible. We would suggest you come early though because we are likely to sell out quickly. Thanks! 

As of Nov 12 JennyCakes had to cut off Thanksgiving orders because we already have so many. On Weds 11/27 we will be open from 8am to 2pm and will have available then some extra pies, cakes and other Thanksgiving treats, as well as our usual items. We would suggest you come early though because we are likely to sell out quickly. Thanks!  

JennyCakes schedule for week of Thanksgiving:

Mon    11/25     CLOSED
Tues   11/26     CLOSED (except for special order pick-ups) so we can
prepare Thanksgiving orders
Weds  11/27     OPEN 8am to 2pm
Thurs 11/28      CLOSED
Fri     11/29       CLOSED
Sat   11/30        OPEN 8am to 7pm for Small Business Saturday!
Welcome to another Thanksgiving at JennyCakes! Please order early! The deadline for orders is Thurs Nov 14, but if we reach capacity before then, we will have to close off orders earlier than that.
All orders must be picked up no later than 2pm on Weds Nov 27.
Our list of specific items available for Thanksgiving orders is are below.  We hope you have a wonderful holiday! 
Baked goods available for Thanksgiving orders:
  • pumpkin pie  
  • pecan pie (with or without bourbon)
  • coconut cream pie
  • key lime pie
  • frosted pumpkin roll (with or without nuts)
  • any of our cakes
  • any of our smaller items, such as cookies and cupcakes, BUT ONLY IN AMOUNTS OF 12 or more OF A PARTICULAR FLAVOR/BAKED GOOD (or in batches of 24 if ordering mini cupcakes)
Several newer yummy items available in that “smaller items” category:
  • cheddar cheese crackers (great as a Thanksgiving appetizer)
  • spiced pumpkin muffins with mini chocolate chips (incredibly moist and tasty and perfect for a light Thanksgiving breakfast)
  • pumpkin bread with or without chocolate chips (we have had trouble this fall keeping up with the demand for this!)
For the smaller items, if you would like a wider variety, please consider stopping by the bakery on Weds Nov 27. 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!
Jenny

Check out all our yummy seasonal specials!

Carmel apple cupcakes and cakes

Caramel apple cakes and cupcakes – a cupcake or cake chock full of apple pieces, frosted with cream cheese frosted, drizzled with caramel and then sprinkled with toasted pecans. Our most popular fall special!
Pumpkin cakes and cupcakes – we start with our perfect pumpkin cake recipe flavored with all the seasonings associated with fall — nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger. We top it with a whipped cream cheese frosting flavored with a hint of orange zest. Then we add a little dusting of nutmeg.

Iced pumpkin cookies

Iced pumpkin cookies – we loved these the first time we tried the recipe! A pumpkin cookie frosted with a big dollop of fresh vanilla frosting. A perennial favorite. As you can guess, we don’t skimp on the frosting!
Pumpkin spiced mini-loaves – our favorite homemade pumpkin bread recipe because it tastes like fall. We step it up a level by adding fun stuff like mini chocolate chips, toasted pecans or craisins. They are mini so try a loaf of each.

Pecan Pie Bars

Pecan Pie Bars – our ooey gooey goodness! It starts with a toasted pecan shortbread base topped with a nice thick layer of pecan pie filling made from scratch. The prevalent taste of toasted pecans makes it appealing to someone who wants something a little less sweet. So good.  
Coconut Cream Pie – we’ve had since this summer and keeping it this fall — my new favorite and I know I say that a lot, but REALLY this is my favorite right now. It’s a graham cracker crust that has toasted coconut mixed into it filled with a really creamy coconut cream filling, then topped with whipped cream and a bit of toasted coconut. 

Halloween decorated treats

And of course Halloween is coming up! Love this holiday! We’ve started making Halloween decorated cookies and hope to have some always on-hand at the bakery through Halloween. Don’t forget our Halloween decorated cakes
THINKING AHEAD TO 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 the fall!
Jenny

We did a very quick hop, skip and a jump through the remainder of spring and we’re now poised to head into summer. 

As most of you know, we’ve been having trouble keeping up with our cake orders this spring so at this point we would suggest you place any cake order at least 2 weeks before you’d like to pick it up. 

BUT, I thought I’d take a second to remind you of our cool NON-cake options at the bakery like chocolate chip cookie cakes, festive cupcakes (and we’re happy to provide a cardboard cake round with a message on it as a way to display the cupcakes), cookie platters and pies (full size or minis, key lime or our new coconut cream). Some fun options, right?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Cookie platter

Coconut cream pie

Partycakes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Popular This Spring!

We’ve been celebrating spring with strawberry shortcakes, strawberry bread, lemon bars and the increasingly beloved and popular Mary’s raspberry squares. We’ll carry the strawberry shortcake and strawberry bread through mid-June and we’ll carry the lemon bars and Mary’s raspberry squares through the end of summer. 

Strawberry shortcake 

Strawberry bread

Lemon bars

Mary’s raspberry squares

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming Up for Summer!

We’ve been getting a lot of inquiries about when the key lime mango cakes and cupcakes will be back and the answer is on Tues June 18! We’ll also bring back on that day our orange creamsicle cupcakes, blueberry crumb bars, lemon ricotta cookies and glazed lemon cupcakes.

Key lime mango cupcakes

Orange creamsicle cupcake

Chilled lemon ricotta cookies

Blueberry crumb bars

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming Up This Fall

Don’t forget the Big JennyCakes Labor Day Chocolate Chip Cookie Give-Away (I just came up with that title). We’ll be handing out a free chocolate chip cookie to everyone who stops by the store on Labor Day (and you don’t even need to buy anything). We hope to see you then!

 

Have a fun rest of your summer! 

Jenny

Easter!

G14A

G16A (ears provided by customer)

G17

 

 

 

 

 

 

G15       

G18     

A113

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Easter this year, we’ll again offer a variety of Easter cakes. We can make any design you’d like so long as it can be done with buttercream. Above are a few bunny and Easter themed cakes we’ve made in the past. You can see others if you click on the PHOTOS tab on our website and go to the section called “Seasonal Cakes”. If you like any of these, when you order your cake, be sure to reference the image number under Special Instructions.

 

Hot cross buns

JennyCakes will offer again this year hot cross buns for Easter. You’ll find them on the website under Seasonal Specials. They’re not too dense and filled with lots of dried fruit (cranberries, cherries, golden raisins, currants, depending on the batch). We add a thin sugar glaze, spices you can taste in each bite, and a bit of orange zest to give them a little zing.  Available through Easter.

 

Passover!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

JennyCakes now carries on a year-round basis a flourless chocolate cake. It’s a single-layer, rich, moist cake made with our best dark chocolate. It’s covered with a not so thin layer of chocolate ganache flavored with a bit of coffee liqueur. It does have dairy ingredients, and it is not kosher, but it’s my understanding that it can be eaten at a Passover meal where no meat is served.

****

We will start carrying our spring specials, otherwise now known as strawberry-palooza (catchy, eh?), on May 1.

Happy beginning of Spring!

Jenny

Happy March!

April 10, 2019 2019 Winter

 

Friday March 1 – Saturday March 16

Annual Cupcake Sale!

Buy 6, GET ONE FREE!  But 10, GET TWO FREE!

Our cupcake sale is the perfect time to try every flavor! Believe it or not, my favorite is the yellow cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting. If I’m feeling wild and crazy, I sometimes add some rainbow sprinkles. Simple is sometimes best, right? Yum!
Scroll down to see our seasonal specials, including
King cakes for Fat Tuesday
Irish kickers for St. Patrick’s Day and
Hamentaschen for Purim
Enjoy!
Happy March!
Jenny

 

Start your order

King Cake

 

 

KING CAKES FOR MARDI GRAS!

Fat Tuesday is less than a week away so be sure to order your king cake soon! We’ll provide the yumminess and an itsy bitsy baby for you to bury in your cake. 🙂

 

 

 

 

Irish kickers

 

IRISH KICKERS ARE BACK!

Just in time for the cupcake sale and St. Patrick’s Day, we’re bringing back our Irish kickers – a chocolate cupcake flavored with Guinness beer and frosted with buttercream spiked with Baileys Irish Cream and Jameson Irish Whiskey.

 

 

 

 

 

Hamantaschen!

 

 

HAMANTASCHEN!

We’re baking hamantaschen with apricot, poppy seed, nutella and raspberry filling throughout the month of March. 

 

 

 

 

 

So ON TO VALENTINE’S DAY and an excuse to infuse the bakery with lots and lots of COLOR, especially pink and red! Hopefully, this will keep our winter doldroms at bay.  Just think — we could be attending school in Madison, Wisconsin like my daughter is. The high there for today (Tues 1/29) will be 0 degrees and the low is expected to be -24.  Tomorrow’s supposed to be even colder with a low of -30.  Makes my whining about that brisk walk from the church parking lot to the bakery seem just a wee bit silly, eh?
Try to place your VALENTINE’S DAY orders in advance so we can be sure we can complete them, but we’ll also plan to have lots on hand for last-minute purchases.  
We’ll again have lots of color…

Champagne Cake with Raspberry Buttercream

Tiramisu for 2

Sweetheart cake

Heart cookies

 

 

 

 

 

 

and LOTS of chocolate!

Mint brownies

Triple threat cookies

Dark chocolate cream pie

 

 

 

 

 

Soft sugar cookies with buttercream frosting

 
We’ll also have heart-shaped cakes and lots of soft sugar cookies with pink buttercream frosting.
Place your order soon at jennycakesbakery.net!

 

 

 

 

 

FAT TUESDAY – Tues Mar 5!
Don’t forget to order your King Cake in advance!
ANNUAL CUPCAKE SALE – Fri Mar 1 to Sat Mar 16. Buy 6, get one free. Buy 10, get 2 free.
PURIM – Weds Mar 20 to Thurs Mar 21. We’ll have lots of hamentaschen on hand.

King Cake

Cupcakes!

Hamantaschen!

Welcome 2019!

January 30, 2019 2019 Winter

I always think of THE HOLIDAYS (Thanksgiving and Christmas) as that dreaded time of year when I, the embodiment of anxiety, constantly worry that we’re going to forget something, get something wrong, or otherwise disappoint someone during an important holiday meant for wonderful family memories. Most of the time we’re successful at making sure everything goes smoothly and tastes and looks good. Occasionally we aren’t and then I’m devastated and spend a lot of time worrying about why this happened and how to fix it. It just seems like there’s so much more at stake during the holidays!

Once we hit January, although I’m still worried about making sure customers are happy with what they order and purchase from us, I notice that I start to relax just a touch and that tightness in my chest eases up a bit. With this incredibly sophisticated psychological insight in hand, I’ve decided that, even though I usually think of January as the most “blah” and depressing month of the year, THIS year I’m going to think of it as a bit more care-free, easy-going, playful and maybe even creative, especially in contrast to November and December. It’s worth at least TRYING to change my outlook, right?

This month we say goodbye until next year to: pecan snowballs, jam thumbprints, frosted sugar cookie bars, gingerbread people, buche de noel, frosted pumpkin rolls and shortbread.

BUT, we say hello to my Aunt Val’s coffee cake, mint brownies, triple threat chocolate cookies, snickerdoodles and Boston cream cakes and cupcakes.

Then in February, we’ll bring back tiramisu (for 1 or FOR 2 because, you know, Valentine’s Day), mini dark chocolate pies (again Valentine’s Day idea), lots of frosted heart cookies and sweetheart cakes (4″ cakes with Valentine’s Day designs on them).

Sweetheart cakes

 

Tiramisu for 2

I know I say this every January, but THIS JANUARY I really am going to experiment with recipes for gluten-free cookies and vegan cookies. I know many of you with restricted diets are getting tired of just the cupcakes/cakes we offer, so I’ll work hard to expand our offerings. If you happen to have a recipe for either kind of cookie that you LOVE and are willing to share it with me, please feel free to email it to me at jenny@jennycakesbakery.net.

We continue to offer the HadiCakes, both at the bakery and online for special orders. If you haven’t heard of this effort before, the HadiCake is in memory of Hadi, an incredible kid who we were lucky to get to know through his amazing family and especially the posts of his mom Saira Sufi. Among many other things, he loved blueberries, rainbow sprinkles and Star Wars. So these are blueberry cupcakes with buttercream sprinkled with blue rainbow nonpareils with a silver star added on top. In celebration of Hadi, $1 from each cupcake will go to bethematch.org.

Also, stay tuned for a new round of Meet the Staff with some updates on current staff members and some new staff member entries. ?

Have a fun January and February!

Jenny

Modified schedule for Christmas holiday:

Mon 12/24 — OPEN 8am to 2pm
Tues 12/25 to Tues 1/1 — CLOSED 
Weds 1/2 — Back to our usual schedule so OPEN 8am to 7pm

Gingerbread men

Chocolate cupcake with peppermint buttercream

Decorated cutout cookies

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 gingerbread men, chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream, frosted sugar cookie bars, decorated cutouts, jam thumbprints, pecan snowballs, Scottish shortbread and rum bites.
During this season of kind gestures, think about giving a neighbor, a favorite teacher, a co-worker or anyone else who you appreciate – or simply want to reach out to – a holiday cookie box or a festively wrapped loaf of banana or pumpkin bread. 

Pumpkin and banana bread

Small and large holiday cookie boxes

Buche de Noel

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Orders!

We hope to accept Christmas orders through Mon 12/17, UNLESS WE REACH CAPACITY BEFORE THEN. I will post something at the top of our website if we close out orders before Mon 12/17.
Please pick up your order no later than 2pm on Mon 12/24.
The specific items available for Christmas orders are listed below.
We hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Jenny

 

Christmas cake

Poinsettia cake

Frosted sugar cookie bars

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 (if you like the Christmas Cake or Poinsettia Cake in photos above, order under All Classic Yellow or Chocolate and mention “Christmas Cake” or “Poinsettia Cake” under Special Instructions)
  • 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 Mon Dec 24 between 8am and 2pm. We will be fully stocked 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’ve done them the last few years. 
We hope to be able to accept Thanksgiving orders through Sat Nov 17. If we have to close out orders before then, I will post something at the top of the website.

Pumpkin pie

Pecan pie

Apple pie with streusel

 

 

 

 

 

All orders must be picked up no later than 7pm on Weds Nov 21.
Our schedule for the week of Thanksgiving, and the list of specific items available for Thanksgiving orders, are below.  
We hope you have a wonderful holiday! 
Jenny
 

JennyCakes schedule for week of Thanksgiving:

Mon 11/19      CLOSED

Tues 11/20     CLOSED (except for special order pick-ups) so we can prepare Thanksgiving orders

Weds 11/21    OPEN 8am to 7pm for special order pick-ups and walk-in traffic

THUR 11/22   CLOSED

FRI 11/23       CLOSED

SAT 11/24      OPEN 8am to 7pm for Small Business Saturday!

 

Thanksgiving Goodies!
Cakes, pies and smaller items in batches of 12

Caramel apple cake

Iced pumpkin cookies

Pumpkin roll

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baked goods available for Thanksgiving orders:

  • pumpkin pie  
  • pecan pie (with or without bourbon)
  • apple pie with streusel
  • dark chocolate cream pie
  • key lime pie
  • pumpkin roll (comes with cream cheese frosting on the inside and a thin layer of cream cheese frosting on the outside together with a sprinkling of pumpkin pie spice)
  • 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)

Cheddar cheese crackers

Spiced pumpkin muffins with mini chocolate chips

Pumpkin cheesecake bars

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several new yummy items available in that “smaller items” category:

  • cheddar cheese crackers – great as a Thanksgiving appetizer
  • pumpkin cheese cake bars – my current irresistible treat
  • Ingrid’s apple pie bars – my daughter Geneva’s current irresistible treat
  • spiced pumpkin muffins with mini chocolate chips – yummy and incredibly moist
For the smaller items, if you would like a wider variety, please consider stopping by the bakery on Weds Nov 21. 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! 
You probably aren’t aware of this but standing behind our big mixer Mon through Fri from 7am to noon is someone who is INCREDIBLY gifted as an FX makeup artist specializing in horror and haunt makeup. This past Sunday afternoon, Helen Snell invited 5 of our employees to a photo shoot for her portfolio. So, to get you in the Halloween spirit, below are the AMAZING results. Anyone who can guess which of our employees are in these five photos gets a free cupcake!

 

 

 

 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Here’s what we now have on hand for the fall season:

Caramel apple cake

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.  Always a crowd-pleaser in cupcake or cake form.
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. These took a while to take off but last year people FINALLY discovered them and we couldn’t keep up with the demand!

Iced pumpkin cookies

Iced pumpkin cookies – a pumpkin cookie frosted with a big dollop of vanilla frosting. A perennial favorite. As you can guess, we don’t skimp on the frosting!
Pumpkin mini-loaves – from the recipe I discovered last year.  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.
Spiced pumpkin muffins — NEW THIS YEAR. We think we’ve finally found a recipe that is tasty but also results in big fluffy muffins. Stop by and try one!

Pecan pie bars

Pecan Pie Bars – our ooey gooey pecan pie filling on top of a buttery shortbread crust.  
Ingrid’s Apple Pie Bars — my personal favorite, especially as in the way we now servie them.  Because they were so messy as bars, we now cut them into pieces and place them in a plastic cup. Then we cover them with whipped cream and add a pinch of nutmeg.  Heaven!
And of ourse Halloween is coming up!  Love this holiday! We’ve started making Halloween decorated cookies and hope to have some always on-hand at the bakery through Halloween. Don’t forget our Halloween decorated cakes. My decorators, especially Don, 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 the fall!
Jenny

A reminder that we’ll be closed from Sun July 22 through Mon Aug 6. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

JENNYCAKES NEWS:

After a fun and very busy spring, we’ve finally gotten organized enough to switch over from our spring goodies to our summer goodies.  
So, we’re back to making blueberry crumb bars, lemon ricotta cookies, key lime mango cupcakes, glazed lemon cupcakes and lemon bars.    

Blueberry crumb bars

Key lime mango cupcakes

Chilled lemon ricotta cookies

Glazed lemon cupcake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We will also continue to offer our recently-introduced and instantly popular raspberry squares, a recipe that was developed by manager Mary 🙂 , as well as our summertime ice cream cookie sandwiches.

Mary’s raspberry squares

Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

And we’re having a LOT of fun experimenting with a new cupcake that I’m really excited about. It’s a yellow cupcake flavored with orange zest that is frosted AND filled (yes, a first for us!) with an orange flavored whipped cream cheese frosting (like our regular cream cheese frosting except lighter because we fold whipped cream into it). Thinking about adding a little slice of orange on top like on the cupcake shown to the right, a yummy-looking one from My Baking Addiction. Keep an eye out for this new cupcake coming soon!

 

Stuff that is coming up!
Labor Day (Monday, Sept 3) when we hand out free chocolate chip cookies after the parade!

 

 

 
Savor this wonderful and usually way too short season!
Jenny

We are already in the midst of spring at JennyCakes! Such a lively time of year with so many things to celebrate — moms, dads, teachers, confirmations, first communions, graduations, the end of a fun sports season, and of course BIRTHDAYS! We’ve been busy, busy, busy so be sure to place your orders well in advance so we can be sure we can do them for you. We recommend a week ahead of time but we can sometimes do a cake with less notice — it just depends on how busy we are that particular week. Here’s what’s new and returning at JennyCakes.

Strawberries! 

They’re finally tasty and reasonably priced. So we’re back to making these strawberry items:

Strawberry shortcake

Strawberry bread

Strawberry icebox pie

Cassata cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lemon bars

 

 

Lemon stuff! 

We’re bringing back our lemon bars now and the lemon cupcakes and lemon ricotta cookies will be back in mid to late June.  

 

Brown sugar pecan cookies

An old favorite!

Brown sugar pecan cookies (Ingrid’s favorites) are back! They’re a melt in your mouth brown sugar shortbread with a brown sugar frosting with a few toasted pecans sprinkled on top.

 

Our first raspberry flavored item!

Mary’s raspberry squares

Mary’s raspberry squares are literally FLYING off the plate we’ve been placing them on at the bakery. My new favorites, these have a yummy moist crust on the bottom and streusel on the top, both oatmeal in them, and then a combination of raspberry jam and fresh raspberries in the middle. The fresh raspberries give them a nice strong raspberry flavor while the raspberry jam gives them this really great tang. We can’t seem to bake them fast enough. Thanks to my manager, Mary Williams, for creating the recipe for them!

 

A new crazy, decadent cake!

A very kind man hoping to make his Ferrero Rocher-loving wife happy on her birthday asked us to make one of these and I couldn’t turn him down despite how busy we were. 🙂  So after a few shopping trips to various stores for ingredients and some experimenting, we came up with the Ferrero Rocher cake. It’s four thin layers of our chocolate cake frosted with smooth and fluffy hazelnut buttercream in between the layers and on the outside, with some slightly softened hazelnut wafers in the middle (to give it the touch of crunch that the Ferrero Rocher candies have), topped with dollops of hazelnut buttercream and Ferrero Rocher candies, then cover the sides with chopped hazelnuts. So beautiful and so yummy!

Ferrero rocher cake

 

Enjoy the rest of your spring!

Jenny

 

 

 

 

Passover!

During Passover, JennyCakes will offer again this year our flourless chocolate cake. It’s a single-layer, rich, moist cake made with our best dark chocolate, then covered with a not so thin layer of ganache flavored with a bit of coffee liqueur. It does have dairy ingredients, and it is not kosher, but it’s my understanding that it can be eaten at a Passover meal where no meat is served.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Easter!

Our usual crazy amount of experimenting went into these hot cross buns. Really happy with them now — they’re not too dense and nice and browned on top, and they have lots of dried fruit (cranberries, cherries, golden raisins, currants, depending on the batch), spices that you can taste in each bite, and enough orange zest to give them just a little zing. Available through Easter.

Hot cross buns

 

And don’t forget our Easter cakes. We can make any design you’d like so long as it can be done with buttercream. Below are a few bunny and Easter themed ones we made last year. If you like any of these, when you order your cake, be sure to reference the image number under the Special Instructions.

G15       

G18     

A113

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Spring!

Jenny

Hamantaschen!

We’re heading into spring at last!  Here’s what’s up at JennyCakes!

JennyCakes is selling hamantaschen with apricot, poppy seed, nutella and raspberry filling through and including Saturday March 3. Price is $1.50 each. Click on photo to place an order!

Our Annual Cupcake Sale will be Thurs March 1 through Sat March 17 — Buy 10 cupcakes, get 2 free! Buy 5 cupcakes, get 1 free!

Irish kickers

Just in time for the sale and St. Patrick’s Day, we’re bringing back our Irish kickers – a chocolate cupcake flavored with Guinness beer and frosted with buttercream spiked with Baileys Irish Cream and Jameson Irish Whiskey.

In anticipation of the coming warmer months (we’re SO ready for them), our JennyCakes t-shirts will also be on sale from Thurs March 1 to Sat March 17.

Usually $12 each. Now $8 each.

And the following goodies are doing their swan song until next year so if you’re going to miss them, order some now!

Champagne Cake / Cupcake with Raspberry Buttercream

Tiramisu

Boston Cream Cake / Cupcake

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a wonderful end of winter. Here’s to a fun spring and summer!

Jenny

One quick thing before I start in with the fun stuff. All of a sudden we’ve been having trouble with our emails and order confirmations landing in our customers’ spam folders. So, if you emailed me and didn’t hear back, or you placed an order and didn’t receive a confirmation, please check your spam folder and “whitelist” jennycakesbakery.net. Thanks! Jenny

Fun holidays are coming up and we’re getting ready to celebrate!

King Cake

FAT TUESDAY – Tues Feb 13!

Don’t forget to order your King Cake in advance!

VALENTINE’S DAY – Weds Feb 14!

Place your orders soon so you can be sure we’ll be able to complete them. We’ll also aim to have lots of goodies on hand for walk-in customers.

 

We’ll have lots of color…

Champagne Cake with Raspberry Buttercream

Tiramisu for 2

Sweetheart cake

Heart cookies

 

 

 

 

 

 

and LOTS of chocolate!

Mint brownies

Triple threat cookies

Dark chocolate cream pie

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soft sugar cookies with buttercream frosting

We’ll also be baking heart-shaped cakes and soft sugar cookies with pink buttercream frosting.

Place your order soon at jennycakesbakery.net!

Jenny