Blacklock - The Prairie Girl cupcake cookbook: living life one cupcake at a time

COPYRIGHT 2016 JEAN BLACKLOCK

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisheror in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agencyis an infringement of the copyright law.

Appetite by Random House and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House of Canada Limited.

Library and Archives of Canada Cataloguing in Publication is available upon request.

ISBN: 978-0-14-752985-5
eBook ISBN: 978-0-14-752986-2

Photographs by Christina Varro unless otherwise noted.
(, chocolate) Imagestore;
(, cinnamon) Baibaz;
(, bowls) Petarneychev;
(, baking equipment) Inga Nielsen;
(, melted chocolate)
Igor Zakharevich; (, Food processor) Brad Calkins,
(.

Published in Canada by Appetite by Random House ,
A division of Random House of Canada Limited,
A Penguin Random House Company

www.penguinrandomhouse.ca

v3.1

To Andrew

INTRODUCTION

You might look at my early childhoodborn and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the youngest of five childrenand say that I was destined to open a bakery. Some of my earliest memories are of standing beside my mother and making cinnamon rolls (or something that slightly resembled them) from her leftover scraps of dough. Even though Mom and Dad were running several businesses by the time I was born, they had endless energy and a love of entertaining, so our home was often filled with friends and relatives coming and going, talking and laughing, and, of course, eating. In the midst of the hubbub, whatever I bakedbutter tarts, Hello Dolly bars, or even whole wheat breadwas greeted with enthusiasm and devoured with gusto. Its not surprising that I cant imagine life without baking, as it is inextricably entwined for me with making people smile.

The praise I received for my baking efforts soon led me to enter baking contests, starting with the cookie contest for the 1971 Canada Winter Games, which were held in Saskatoon. Although Saskatchewan is not known for its mountainous terrain, in its determination to host these games, Saskatoon built its very own Mount Blackstrap. The contest that followed was to make a cookie with blackstrap molasses that looked like a mountain. I didnt win (Dad assured me that it was because the rules were unclear), but over the years I continued to enterand sometimes winbaking contests. One contest that my family will never let me forget is the All-Bran Recipe Contest in which my recipe for All-Bran Pizza won me a microwave convection oven. I dont remember what it tasted like; I can only assume it was nutritious.

Even with my parents encouragement of my hobby, I decided to pursue a different professional path, and at seventeen, I started my studies at the University of Saskatchewan, where I earned degrees in business and law. After university, I moved to Calgary to article and then practice law. Before too long, I was married with two young sons and a busy estate planning practice, and later an executive opportunity at an international bank.

Life was full and busy and included, as it always had, many family gatherings and dinners with friends. Baking remained a favorite way to express myself, and even as a partner in a law firm, I enjoyed taking homemade bread to partners meetings and watching as my colleagues would cut themselves thick slices of bread while arguing over accounts receivable. Although baking had long been second nature for me, I noticed that making fairly simple recipes never failed to dazzle people, most of whom considered baking to be tricky or tedious.

My banking career eventually took me to Toronto, and in the fall of 2008, as I was happily engaged to be remarried, I decided to leave the banking world behind. My fianc, Andrew Auerbach, and I worked in the same department, and our upcoming summer wedding in 2009 was an opportunity for me to create a new and separate path. But after almost twenty-five years in corporate life, it felt surreal to sit on my apartment balcony with my cat, just weeks before our wedding, contemplating the next chapter.

Once the excitement of the wedding was over, I decided to consider three possible paths: estate mediation, writing and speaking about estate planning, and opening a bakery. So I attended the Harvard Mediation Program that fall and filled my notebook margins with ideas for a bakery menu. I wrote an estate planning book and took a break each afternoon to spend an hour on bakery plans. When I should have been doing other things, I day-dreamed about a bakery, eventually choosing its name, hiring a website designer, designing a logo, testing the recipes, and recruiting a head baker. What began as the dark horse in the what-next game became the front-runner.

Im often asked, Why, of all things, would you open a bakery? and Ive struggled with a logical answer. I realize now that I didnt ever really decide to open a bakery. Prairie Girl just got in my head and never let me go.

In encouraging me to become a lawyer, my parents said that I could pursue my love of baking as a career later. Mom died in 2009 and Dad in 2011, without knowing about Prairie Girl Bakery, but I like to think that they always knew Id find a way to make baking a central part of my career. A couple of times when Ive been working behind the counter, Ive imagined my parents coming through the door, exclaiming about what Jeannie was up to now.

The first Prairie Girl Bakery opened in downtown Toronto in April 2011, and I was very fortunate that business boomed from the first day. My hunch was right that old-fashioned home baking would seem amazing and new to many people. So many commercial bakeries use shortening, mixes, and frozen or otherwise stabilized products. Unless people bake at home, they dont know how fantastic it tastes to use real butter, fresh eggs, milk, cream, 70% chocolate, and other delicious ingredients. People ask us what our special secrets are, but as you will see, there really arent any secretswe just take care to make sure the ingredients are all top-notch and that our recipes are followed carefully every day.

I have tried to keep our vision really simple: exceptionally consistent, superior baking and friendly, sincere customer service. Obviously we work hard at maintaining those standards, but with high standards come perksthe Prairie Girl team members are tons of fun and highly collaborative. They are people who dive into whatever challenges are set in front of them. We have a lot of laughs, we talk endlessly about food and restaurants, andespecially on Fridays and Valentines Daywe work super hard.