Here is the content from our most recent newsletter, in blog post form.  If you would like to receive our mostly-monthly newsletter, filled with cake specials, community news, holidays, and pretty pictures of cakes, then sign up here.  If you are already on our list, but have not been receiving the emails, check your spam filter and add the email address to your safe sender list. Cheers, thanks, and love!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Mother’s Day is this Sunday, May 12th. May we suggest that you bring the beloved mothers in your life a cake from Short Street Cakes?  Our 2013 Mother’s Day Special: order a heart-shaped 8″ single layer cake in any flavor ($18 simple, $20 classic, $22 deluxe) and we will add fresh edible flowers from Flora for free! Order by Thursday for Saturday pickup or Friday for Sunday pickup. We will also have a limited number of Mother’s Day cakes available without an order this weekend, so stop by and see us or give us a call at 828-505-4822.  (And a good thing to remember as we express our love and respect to all the mamas: Mother’s Day began as a call for an international congress of women for peace.)

Thank You, Hannah Dansie. 

After almost three years of bringing her trademark excellentness in everything she does to everything we do at the Cake Shop, Hannah Dansie is leaving Short Street Cakes to focus on continuing to create and sell her beautiful paintings (click here to see more).  We are so incredibly grateful to Hannah, for the time, love, and attention she has given to the Cake Shop.  Hannah has seen us through trials, tribulations, and triumphs with grace and skill, and I am so grateful to know her, and watch her grow into her next endeavors.  She is a gifted artist with a keen eye and a big heart.  We love you, Hannah!

Short Street Cakes Weddings!

Wedding cakes have always been a big part of our work here at Short Street Cakes, and this spring is no exception.  Thanks to the efforts of our exceedingly talented General Manager and Weddings Coordinator, Jessica Rosenkoetter, this spring has seen the blossoming of many new forms of design, color, and texture in our wedding cake offerings.  If you or someone you love is considering a wedding cake from Short Street Cakes, just click here, fill out the webform, and you will recieve an info sheet on our simple and painless wedding cake booking process.  Cheers to love.

Congratulations, Duggels!

I would like to also take this opportunity to congratulate Douglas Cooper, AKA Duggels, for completing his course of study in Baking and Pastry at AB Tech!  I am even more pleased to annouce that Duggels will be joining us as a full-time baker now that he has graduated.  Duggels came to us as an intern from AB Tech last summer, and since then he has worked at the Cake Shop every weekend while going to school full time, and has grown to be one of our most patient, reliable, and creative bakers.  Cheers and love to you, Duggels!

Cake Shop and Community

As always, our work at Short Street Cakes remains grounded in the people in our community, like Stacy Joseph (pictured, photo credit Mountain Xpress), who rents the Cake Shop kitchen in the off-hours to bake her delicious savory Caribbean patties to sell at the FBFC Tailgate Market, or the kids at our neighborhood school, Hall Fletcher Elementary, whose chess club was just featured on TV, and whose new, collaborative mural in progess is inspiring everyone who sees it.   I’ve written a bit about my past and recent experiences in community, especially as a parent at and community partner to Hall Fletcher on this blog, my life in cake.  Thank you, again and always, for allowing us to continue this simple and beautiful endeavor of making cakes.  We love you and we thank you.

Strawberry Season!

As a part of our mission to “support the local food and agriculture economy,” we are very excited about this year’s strawberry crop.  We are stocking up on fresh strawberries for use in our Strawberry Short Street and Hummingbird Cakes, and look forward to the growing season for more local produce to use in our cakes: sweet potatoes, blueberries, raspberries, apples, fresh flowers, and many more.  Thank you to the farmers of Western North Carolina for providing such bounty!  Happy Spring, y’all!

Best Of WNC 2013:

I know it seems like we just did this, but Mountain Xpress has changed their annual Best of WNC Poll from Fall to Spring. So be a good sport and go vote for Short Street Cakes as best bakery, wouldja?

All you have to do is log on with your email address, and vote for at least 25 categories. Much obliged.  xo

Cake Ladies: Celebrating a Southern Tradition

You may be wondering, “what if I want to get my mother something from Short Street Cakes, but she doesn’t live here?” May we suggest that she would enjoy a copy of Short Street Cakes’ Owner Jodi Rhoden’s book, Cake Ladies: Celebrating a Southern Tradition? The book includes life stories of 19 women and 21 recipes of beloved Southern cakes, and lifts up the life experiences of all women who express their love through food and creativity.  Click here to order the book directly from an independent bookseller near you (or your mom), or swing by the Cake Shop for a personalized, signed copy.

Cake Shop Info:

A little bit of history:

At the time, we were living at the Haley House in Boston’s South End, a non-profit based in the philosophy of the Catholic Worker Movement.  Our work there was of the radical social-justice kind: serving daily meals to the homeless, protesting war, and teaching job skills through the non-profit bakery (incidentally, my first professional baking job, one that lit the fire in me to learn all about food, how it works, and how to bake it).  For years before that, I worked in urban community gardens, Quaker summer camps, and food justice movements. In 1997, Duncan and I traveled from Athens, Georgia, to Birmingham, Alabama to participate in an anti-racist action against a KKK rally there.  Working in our affinity groups, we encountered a group from Asheville.  There were seemingly dozens of them, and they had gotten a grant to rent a van to go to the protest.  We were impressed at the level at which the Asheville activists had organized, and we made a point to visit the Pinkhaus, a hub of radical organizing at the time.

Upon arriving in Asheville in late September of 2001, just weeks after September 11, after driving past the Pentagon and Lower Manhattan in flames, and seeing our own block in Boston on lockdown, we immediately linked up with communities that were continuing the work that we had participated in in other cities.  We saw the violence of war as being inexorably linked with the globalization of commerce, and we sought to change it.  We joined the collective at ACRC- Asheville Community Resource Center, which was once a thriving hub on Lexington Avenue housing Asheville Prison Books Program, Earth First!, the Asheville Doula Collective, Asheville Global Report, The Women and Transgender Health Collective, Tranzmission, The Asheville Bike Recylery, Bountiful Cities Project, a free reading room, and a show space and gallery.  (There are many other collectives that thrived at this time in Asheville, including Free Radio Asheville, Food Not Bombs, and the Asheville Free School, and many of them still thrive).

When the Iraq War began in 2003, months after my and Duncan’s wedding in Montreat, we took to the streets en masse.  I was arrested for standing with Women in Black in front of the Vance Monument, when the police said that we couldn’t exercise free speech in our commons.  I traveled with a group of activists from Asheville to Miami in November of 2003 to protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas, and experienced first-hand the brand-new “Miami Model” being exercised upon us: a new level of para-military violence against dissent that made me (and many others) fear for my life, and had the desired effect of dissuading us from attempting to protest the upcoming G8 summit on the remote island resort of Sea Island, Georgia.

And then, ACRC got evicted, in the same fell swoop that took out Vincent’s Ear and other community spaces on Lexington downtown.  We fought against the gentrification of our city, and we lost.  (side note: so when you meet someone who is especially bitter about the changes through the years in Asheville, please be kind and remember that there were very, very special things happening here which were sacrificed to make way for what you see now.  It’s a justifiably sore spot for many of us.)  The “Community” referenced in “Asheville Community Resource Center” splintered off into our separate endeavors.

And then, I got pregnant.  So I started baking cakes to make enough money to feed my child, and the rest of that story is chronicled in detail in these pages.

And then, the economy crashed in 2008, and I don’t have to tell you the rest of that story, either.

And so the face of what was radical community to me didn’t exist anymore, at least not in the same form.  And the communities that I have been a part of in other towns have changed, too.  So where do we go from here?

What I want to speak to is that search for community, especially in this town of Asheville that I have come to call home. Dorothy Day, one of the founders of the Catholic Worker movement, wrote: “We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”  I have been inspired, incited, ignited, and excited by all the forms of community that I have sought and found here, and before here.  Ultimately, community has been the purpose of all this striving–  for justice, for sustainability, or for solidarity.  Our work has been an attempt to reach out and connect with others- and to see each other’s suffering as our own and work to heal it. At least that’s where I’ve been coming from. And I have witnessed the very real fragmentation of community, locally, regionally, nationally, and otherwise, by the post-9/11 political environment.  And I have tried to figure out where to go from here.  Engaging in direct political action has felt disingenuous for me, as my focus has shifted to my own foundation, emotional healing, and empowerment in my family and in my work. Supporting others in their empowerment towards creative fulfillment and economic autonomy has proven more real and transformational to me now than fighting the juggernaut has.  I’ve sought community in new ways, ways that do not require me to go to meetings 5 nights a week, or drink heavily at shows to experience a connection with others. I started to rediscover that community in parents that help each other out with life tasks: bringing soup to a sick child or babysitting so somebody can go to a job.  And I’ve discovered community in work: at the Cake Shop where we support one another in our desire to make an honest living and be ourselves in the process.

Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement

And over the years, as my child has grown and my life has become more and more oriented towards the community that should (but often does not) surround children, families, and elders, I have found community and inspiration in a somewhat unlikely place: the public school that my son attends.

Statistically speaking, you could say that Hall Fletcher Elementary is the smallest of Asheville’s public schools, or that it is the one with the highest proportion of students in poverty (78%), or that it is the one with the highest number of special needs children.

You could also say that, as a public school, it is an institution, paid for by the government, that tracks students into stratified trajectories that will mark them for life, or that public schools feed children high-sugar, high-salt meals and expect them to sit still for hours on end to absorb information that will make them into better workers in the global economy.  You could say that institutional racism, sexism, and classism reinforce themselves daily in public schools.  You could say all of that, and you would probably be right. But what is also true is that the public elementary school where my son attends is a place where our family has experienced community of a kind we have never previously experienced: a community where children and families of color and of limited economic means are focal and normal; where human creativity and intelligence is dignified and recognized, and where people of many different ages and stages of life are working together towards a common goal. The goal we are seeking together is one that is not based in profit, or even survival, but in the uplifting of humans to their highest potential.  Let me emphasize this.  I have spent countless hours sitting across tables with other activists, board members, community members, and facilitators of various organizations that I have been a part of, all  wondering how we can “attract diversity” and “be inclusive.”  I have discovered, in my naivety, that apparently “diversity” was busy making a living while their children attended public school.  And I’ve come to realize, if you are a white person wanting to participate in inclusive, multi-racial community, perhaps you should go to where the community is, instead of waiting for the community to come to you.  And I’ve come to see that community take shape at Hall Fletcher.  Here’s a few examples of things that are happening at Hall Fletcher right now that are making me feel inspired and excited:

Chess Club:

Just this school year, one of the 3rd grade teachers, Brian Randall, has introduced and coached the Pawnstorm Chess Club.  In the 8 months since, the entire 3rd grade knows how to play the game, and most of the 4th grade does too.  Chess benefits children in many ways; one is that it is, in its essence, egalitarian.  As the international master and chess journalist Malcolm Pein says: “There is no other activity that costs so little to organise and that cuts across so many barriers.  Age, sex, race, religion … they mean nothing in chess.”  Chess provides a level playing field for children with others regardless of physicality, class status, or age; and studies have shown that one of the primary benefits of chess to children is in regards to self-esteem: it is one of the few arenas in life where a child is regarded as a peer by her or his opponent, adult or otherwise, and this has a measurably positive impact on the way that child thinks about herself.   Think about that for a minute, y’all.  There are more than 50 children at Hall Fletcher who now count themselves as members of the chess club with pride, and they and the adults in their lives (like me, in my Tuesday afternoons as a Pawnstorm volunteer) have seen a new dimension of their personalities and minds open up under the influence of chess.

The Mural:

Artists Ian Wilkenson and Alex Irvine (with the help of Ernie Mapp and others) have been collaborating on a multi-media mural on the front face of Hall Fletcher Elementary, the result of a 14-day residency with 4th graders at the school.  Ian was shocked to discover how similar his vision for the mural was to the plans created by the 4th graders- what has resulted is a still-in-progress dreamscape across the front of the school, consisting of images of actual HFE 4th graders running across the face of the school building towards a tree full of leaves made of numbers (reflecting the school’s role as a magnet for Math, Science and Technology).  As Ian says, “the energy at Hall Fletcher is palpable and contagious, and the mural is just a result of that.”

The Garden:

The garden at Hall Fletcher Elementary is engaging every single child in the school in the process of planting, growing, cooking, and eating fresh food.  Staff member Rachel Lubitz has coordinated curriculum-based garden activities for each of the five grades that engage children in growing and eating local, heirloom, and native vegetables and fruits.

There are many other examples.  This winter, the third grade wrote and performed a play called “Jackie’s 9,” based on the life of baseball player Jackie Robinson.  You can see excerpts here.

There is  a school-wide effort to embrace the seven attributes of personal (read: emotional and relational, not just economic) success: Self-Control, Zest, Curiosity, Social Intelligence, Grit, Optimism and Gratitude. One of the things I love most about being a parent is that many of the things that are good for children, are good for us, and the world, as well.  Plenty of sleep, fun, good food, connection, touch, love, relaxation– all these things that we try to create for our children (hopefully) force us, sometimes gently, sometimes kicking and screaming, into being better to ourselves and each other than we would be otherwise.

I believe these things are important because they reflect the underpinnings of why (to my mind) we were ever running from the cops in the street in Miami in the first place: because we care about people, we feel that all people deserve opportunities for spiritual, social, economic, and physical well-being, and we want to stop the systems that routinely deny those rights to some people and not others. To see and participate in a community that affords these rights to a diverse group of children and their families gives me hope.

In short, in this post-modern era, in a “fragmented” community, I have been humbled to discover one of the most welcoming, engaging, diverse, inclusive, communities I have ever been a part of, in an unlikely place: a small, quiet public elementary school a few blocks from the Cake Shop.  I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be actively opposing on a large scale the powers of war, patriarchy, and oppression in our times, or that these things aren’t alive and well and among us, especially at public school; quite the opposite.  I am saying that the best defense against a hateful world is love, and that love comes with community, and that I have felt that sense of community, and an immense amount of love, at Hall Fletcher.  I have connected with parents and children whom I would never had met had we not had the common thread of school between us.  I’m saying that we should recognize that opportunities for connection and community exist right under our noses, hiding in plain sight, as we go about our lonely business.  And that if we can ground ourselves in the love found in community, we can be more resilient and more healthy together, and better able to be more self-responsible in our actions regarding other communities and cultures.  And that perhaps, from that place of community, together with our friends, our families, and our children, we can create heretofore unimagined forms of resistance to fear and loneliness.

Here’s hoping.

This is the same recipe used by Alton Brown AND Paula Deen so you know you are in good company.

You Will Need:

A stand mixer with whisk attachment
3 packages unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup ice cold water
1 ½ cup sugar
½ cup ice cold water
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
Nonstick spray

Directions
dissolve the gelatin into 1/2 cup of the water in the bowl of the stand mixer.

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and bring to a boil.  Cook to firm ball stage if you are using the ice water bath method. (or 240 degrees, if using a candy thermometer) Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat.

Turn the mixer on low speed and pour sugar syrup in a slow, thin stream into the bowl.  Whip until fluffy white and soft peaks form. (this can take a while, be patient)

Combine the powdered sugar and cornstarch. Line sheet pans with parchment paper, spray the paper with nonstick cooking spray and dust with the confectioners’ sugar mixture.

Transfer marshmallows to a piping bag, and pipe into thin strips.  Coat with the powdered sugar mixture, and let sit, 4 hours or overnight. 

Cut into 1/2 inch pieces using a pizza wheel or scissors dusted with the confectioners’ sugar mixture. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining sugar mixture and store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Or, you can color some sugar, put beet powder in your marshmallow, and pipe them into baby chick shapes for Easter!  (this one’s sort of a special Easter Gonzo…)

Enjoy!

Hello Friends!  With wedding season just around the corner, and crocus and daffodils promising spring, (even though we’re still having winter weather) we’re getting so excited about participating in The Big Day!  The Big Day Indie Wedding and Celebrations Fair is a new project of our long-time friends The Big Crafty and Asheville Indie Weddings.  We could not be more excited to see the growth of these projects into a showcase of the best handmade, homestyle, and heartfelt wedding vendors (caterers, letterpressers, dress designers, florists, and, ahem, cake bakers) in Western North Carolina.  There will be fashion shows, performances, demos, and giveaways.

The first annual ticketed event takes place March 30th at Pack Place from 1-6pm.  Tickets are available on the website at www.bigdayfest.com and are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. The first 100 couples at the fair will receive SWAG bags full of goodies from local businesses.  Of course, Short Street Cakes will represent, as we enter our EIGHTH season of providing all-natural, Southern-style, scratch-made wedding cakes in the hills and hollers of the Southern Appalachians.

AND… we’re giving away two tickets!  Between now and noon on Monday, March 11th, we will be collecting names of guests who comment on our post about the Big Day over at our  facebook page (you will have to “like” the Short Street Cakes page to comment). At noon on Monday one winner will be drawn at random, and will receive two free tickets to the event!

PS: The Big Day believes in marriage equality and joyfully welcomes all couples joining together in love and family!

(very special thanks to the inimitable Peter Parpan for designing this awesome flyer)

We at Short Street Cakes are incredibly grateful to be able to make beautiful cakes for our community’s celebrations.  And now, it’s our turn to celebrate: Mardi Gras, February 12th, 2013 marks four years since we opened our doors at 225 Haywood Road! Naturally, we are having a party, and, naturally, you are invited.  Here are some details (and check out the Mountain Xpress article about our party!):

When: Tuesday, February 12, Mardi Gras from 5-8pm

Where: Short Street Cakes, 225 Haywood Road, Asheville, NC 28806

What:

Miss Glo will be mixing up a Cake Shop signature cocktail with Troy and Sons Moonshine!  Very special thanks to Troy and Sons for sponsoring this event.

We’ll have beer and wine, juice for the kids, Mardi Gras beads and throws, birthday cake for everyone!  We’ll have live music, and we will be launching our brand new 2013 menu (with more than 10 new flavors!)

(click here to see pictures from last year’s celebration!)

But the highlight of the evening, truly, will be the Raffle.  Prepare to be amazed at all the awesome stuff that has been donated so far, and they keep coming.  Raffle Tickets are $5, and are available at Short Street Cakes, Harvest Records, and Hall Fletcher Elementary, and you don’t have to be present to win.  All Raffle Proceeds will benefit the school garden at Hall Fletcher Elementary School.  Hall Fletcher Elementary is East-West Asheville’s neighborhood public elementary school, and it’s garden engages students in hands-on learning about math, science, nutrition, and life skills.

(kids harvesting veggies at Hall Fletcher’s School Garden) Here’s more from Rachel Lubitz, HFE’s garden coordinator:

The Hall Fletcher Elementary School Garden is a space where students thrive and grow. Through scientific, mathematic and language art experiential education, our garden fosters a passion for local food, fosters excitement towards preserving the natural beauty of the Southern Appalachian area, and encourages a healthy and vibrant community. The funds you provide through the Short Street Cakes Annual Fundraiser will support our newly themed garden beds, such as Native American Crops, Plants Native to Western North Carolina, Plant a Row for the Hungry, and the Featured International Crop. Your generosity will allow our students the opportunity to better connect the both their curriculum and their community, so please, come out and support Hall Fletcher and Short Street Cakes on February 12!

So about this raffle.  The following is only a partial list of all the amazing and generous gifts from the East-West Asheville neighborhood:

$125 gift certificate to Asheville Bookworks!
$55 haircut from Bari Salon
$25 gift certificate to the Admiral
$25 gift certificate to the West Asheville Lounge and Kitchen
$20 gift certificate to Harvest Records
TWO $25 gift certificates and two pint glasses from Second Gear
a gift certificate to Hot Stuff Tattoo
A T-Shirt from the Gas Up
a Gift from B&B Pharmacy
a gift from Point Health Collective
$20 gift certificate and travel mug to Battlecat Coffee
A little sumthn special from the Double Crown
A beautiful floral arrangement from Flora
A copy of Cake Ladies by Jodi Rhoden
A fresh-baked giant King Cake from Short Street Cakes
A Tarot Reading gift certificate from Asheville’s Villlage Witch, Byron Ballard
…and more!

These are some amazing prizes, and we are so grateful to the East-West Asheville neighborhood for showing up big and strong for the kids at Hall Fletcher!

We can’t wait to celebrate with you, and begin our FIFTH year in East West Asheville with tremendous love and gratitude for our community.

See you there!

Oh, and PS: it’s two days before Valentine’s!  We’ll make sure to have plenty of last-minute Valentine’s Day Cakes on hand…

we thank you and we love you.

Heart,

Short Street Cakes