We hope you'll visit The Solvang Bakery's new website and blog!

Visit our new website and blog at:

www.SolvangBakery.com

The Solvang Bakery has re-opened in its new location!

We are delighted to announce that we've opened in our new location: 

438 Alisal Road, Solvang, CA. 

And we LOVE it...bright, fresh, airy, and filled with the color of myriad sweet things!

Look for us just before the big windmill on Alisal Road...

Come visit!

Get patriotic with our 4th of July cookies!  Put some tasty red, white, and blue into your Independence Day celebrations...  Order here: Patriotic Cookie Assortment

Baking Product Review: Buddeez Flour and Sugar Storage Containers

Remember back in March when we asked on our Facebook Page if anybody had tried these?  We had thought that they might be really handy for the home kitchen, so we ordered a pair to see for ourselves.  Please note that for the most accurate measuring of flour, one should use a scale.  But like many busy moms, we typically use the quick scoop-and-scrape method for simple home baking.

We dove into making some simple chocolate chip cookies using the Buddeez Flour and Sugar Containers as our storage vessels. Here's what we observed:

For storing flour: Thumbs Down

Why: 

One-cup measuring cup overpowers the opening

• You can't pour from the small spout without the flour clogging the opening.
• If you use the large flip-top opening, the flour 'pours' in clots...making a mess when it rushes into your measuring cup.
• The large flip-top opening is too small for a one-cup measuring cup to fit inside to scoop out a cup of flour. 
• The great seal on the container (overall we like that it's a good seal) is too strong to open and close to scoop your flour every time you bake and the width of the container is also too narrow to scoop quickly and easily.
• If you do manage to somehow pour the flour into your measuring cup, you still have to scrape off the excess...but into what?  The small and larger openings of the container are too small to easily scrape off the excess flour without making a mess (and therefore wasting some of the flour).  You could pull off the lid and scrape back into the container, but that means you have to first carefully set down your brimming cup of flour and then use both hands to remove the nicely sealed lid...adding another step to your baking and more time...

For storing sugar: mostly Thumbs Up

Why:

Sugar poured smoothly

• It easily handled a five pound bag of sugar.
• The size of the container is just right for single-handed pouring (not too heavy).
• Sugar poured smoothly and easily through both the small spout and the large flip-top opening.
• Here's the mostly part: after you've poured your sugar, you still have to scrape off the excess for accurate measuring.  As with the flour above, the small spout and larger flip-top openings of the container are too small to easily scrape off the excess sugar without making a mess (and therefore wasting some of the sugar).  That said, for many recipes, you'll be using measuring cups that are smaller than one-cup, in which case this issue will not come in to play.

Overall: These are nicely sized, sturdy containers with strong seals, but we think they are probably better suited for things like big Costco cereal buys, than for home baking.  If you frequently take sugar in your coffee or tea, they would also be useful as a well-sealed sugar storage container with a pourable spout.

What do you use for storing your flour and sugar at home?

And the Winners Are...

People shared some touching, heartfelt memories with us when they entered our Sweet Mama Baking Memory Contest.  Baking and baked goods affect all of our senses: touch, smell, taste, sight, and even hearing.  Marcel Proust put it so very eloquently in his novel In Search of Lost Time.  As he bit into a French Madeleine, he realized that it bore, "... in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection."  In other words, as he bit into the tea-soaked confection, as the flavors and textures pervaded his senses, he was transported in time back to his childhood home and greeting his aunt on Sunday mornings.

"The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it...." but "....as soon as I had recognized the taste of the piece of madeleine soaked in her decoction of lime-blossom which my aunt used to give me .... immediately the old grey house upon the street, where her room was, rose up like a stage set to attach itself to the little pavilion opening on to the garden which had been built out behind it for my parents."


We are delighted to announce our Grand Prize Winner and Runner-Up...our modern day Prousts:

Grand Prize Winner: Sylwia Baran from Ridgewood, New York.  Sylwia's mother, Wanda, will receive our Mother's Day Cookies for Mother's Day, plus our Cookies for All Seasons.

Sylwia Baran with her mother Wanda

Sylwia's Entry:

Ever since I was a little girl of about 5, I have always been intrigued with the kitchen. I used to sit at the kitchen counter and watch my mom for hours, the way she made baking look so easy and whimsical was intriguing to me, even at 5 years old. We grew up in Poland so my mom always baked very traditional pastries. Jam filled doughnuts, coconut cookies, angel wings. I couldn’t wait until the day that I could do what my mom did. That’s why this one day is so special to me, the day my mom bought me my own rolling pin. It was a miniature version of hers, wooden and the length of a pen, but I loved that rolling pin and from that day on I was my mother’s little helper in the kitchen, with my tiny rolling pin in hand!

Runner Up: Liz Tyng from Santa Ynez, California (mom lives in Michigan).  Liz's mom, Jan Rinke, will receive our Mother's Day Cookies for Mother's Day.

Passing a love of baking to the next generation

Liz's Entry:

Some of my earliest and fondest memories of my mom involve baking with her. Way before Pinterest and Martha Stewart, my mom always came up with creative and thrifty ways to make our birthday cakes extra special. She saw baking as her personal creative outlet as well as a way to share her love. At Christmas we’d make flavored hard candies, dozens upon dozens of Belgian cookies and bear shaped raisin breads to give to family and friends. At every holiday she’d bake at least six different pies from scratch, typically using berries that we’d picked and frozen ourselves. But perhaps the most indelible memory of baking with my mom is the weekly treats we’d bake together that could be found in the corner of our kitchen counter. Peanut butter, oatmeal or chocolate chip cookies. Rice crispy treats. Brownies. Texas sheet cake. Chocolate pudding cake. There was always a special treat to be found in the corner. Now as a grandma of six, she continues to delight in sharing baking with her grandchildren. Allowing them to taste their first batter covered beater, sending them special sprinkles and cupcake liners in the mail and cutting out recipes and ideas for their birthday cakes. I find myself trying to do her legacy justice by getting my daughter in the kitchen as much as possible to share with her the magic and love of baking that her grandma instilled in me.

Whether it's the act of baking with loved ones, or simply eating baked goods with them, we hope that you and yours are creating delicious memories together.  Many thanks to all who entered or voted!

Mother's Day is just around the corner!  Here are our "I 'heart' Mom" cookies.  We package them on a festive gold board wrapped in cellophane and tied with a ribbon...a sweet way to let Mom know you're thinking of her.  Here's the link: I Heart Mom Cookies

Win a great prize for your mom! Enter our Sweet Mama Baking Memory Contest!

Does food evoke memories for you? In Proust's In Search of Lost Time, when biting into a Madeleine, he realizes that it bore, "...in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection." Share a baking memory with us and win a great gift for your mom!  


If you're the winner, we'll send your mom (or a designee) I 'heart' Mom cookies for Mother's Day, plus our new Cookies for All Seasons assortment throughout the year (a $240 value).  That means she'll receive a yummy reminder that you love her five (5) times in the next year!

Cookies for All Seasons

You may enter by clicking on this link: Sweet Mama Baking Memory Contest - Good luck!  Hurry - entries close on April 26, 2012!

Stars, Flags and USA Cookies for Memorial Day

Celebrate Memorial Day by ordering your Stars, Flags and USA Cookies on our web site by clicking here.

Historic Acequia Madre House in Santa Fe made out of Gingerbread

Holiday Cookie and Candy Wreaths from The Solvang Bakery