So, here’s the run down: while the event is technically FREE, a suggested donation of $10.00 is asked upon entrance. Remember this is for charity and you’re lucky to get 3 cupcakes at some bakeries with $10.00. Already a win/win if you ask me. You’ll have access to cupcakes from lots of local bakeries as well as others participating who just love to bake! I have to tell you I was giddy with excitement when I found out Cupcake Camp would be happening in my backyard (not really in my backyard…..well, you know what I mean). I knew we had to participate and do it BIG!

We will be organizing a raffle where you could win BIG! I’m talking $1,000.00 BIG! 

The Two Parts Sugar GRAND PRIZE raffle will consist of the following:

100 decorated cupcakes

100 accent cupcakes (sprinkles/colored icing)

A 6″ decorate cake

A custom cupcake stand

-OR-

A cake valued at $1,000.00 

Not only will you be entered to win the GRAND PRIZE, but with every ticket purchase you will receive a coupon (coupon code if purchased on line) for 10% off you next order from Two Parts Sugar.

Tickets will be sold for $5.00 in the Two Parts Sugar booth the day of the event (please stop by and say hi even if you are not purchasing a ticket). You can also purchase tickets by contacting Monica via e-mail: monica@twopartssugar.com. We will then send you a confirmation and throw a ticket with your name on it in our raffle jar (to be drawn day of event). ALL proceeds go to EL POZO. Contest is open to all Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties. But wait, we didn’t stop there!

We will also be offering our signature “I bleed buttercream” T-Shirts (photo coming soon) at the event and on-line (until 7/31/10). Purchase a shirt for $20.00 and we’ll throw in a raffle ticket and a 10% off coupon! Again, ALL proceeds got to EL POZO.

Available in a variety of colors with white print.

Yes, there’s MORE….we will be debuting a NEW FLAVOR we have been wanting to do for over a year now(just waiting for the right occasion)! Not only that, but any cupcake we sell in that flavor from now until the end of the year, we will be donating a percentage of the proceeds to EL POZO!

So, let’s sum it up…$5.00 raffle ticket gets you a chance to win $1,000.00 worth of baked goods and a 10% off coupon towards a future purchase. Or buy a T-shirt for $20.00 and we’ll include the raffle ticket and coupon. You’ll be sampling a brand NEW FLAVOR and if you order some goodies in our new flavor, a percentage of proceeds goes to EL TOZO. You’ll meet lots of cupcake lovers and taste lots of yummy cupcakes. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, you will be helping great cause. 

Diabetic, don’t like sweets, on a diet, no worries, you can still participate. The organizers of Cupcake Camp OC are accepting donations! LOVE to bake? Don’t be shy, sign up and bring some cupcakes down to help raise awareness and money! 

Those of you not on a diet can enter the CUPCAKE EATING CONTEST!

Bottom line, a bunch of wonderful people are coming together to do something selfless and raise money for a good cause. Be a part of it and I’m living proof, karma will thank  you later.

*Grand Prize is valued at $1,000.00. Can be redeemed for one cake OR a 6″ cake, 100 decorated cupcakes, 100 accent cupcakes, and one decorated stand. Decorations subject to difficulty/time involved. Delivery/set up may or may not be included depending on circumstances. Open to Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and LA counties. Date of redemption dependant upon availability.

For questions feel free to contact us here or call Monica 714.651.9769.

From Sweat to sweet

Only a certain kind of woman is willing to mix it up and go head to head against guys in a wrestling match. You might not expect it to be the same woman who now bakes cupcakes for a living – but it turns out they require the same ingredients.

The tenacity to score on the mat is not all that different from the tenacity you need to make a business into a winner.

So call this a story about what happens when sweat meets sweet. To me, though, it’s that familiar tale of a young mother juggling family and work. Mothers who learn how to fit their dreams around their children know how to grapple with life.

Monica Serratos, 28, wrestled at Estancia High School in Costa Mesa. As one of two women on the team, she wrestled mostly guys in the 103 or 112 -pound weight class.

She didn’t win a single match in her first year, but that only made her work harder. By senior year she was team captain.

Monica met her future husband, Fernando, on the wrestling team at Golden West College — and that’s where three babies come in.

Monica is primed to tell me about all this, plus cupcakes and the Academy Awards, but 3-month-old Angelica announces – loudly — she’s ready to eat. There’s no arguing with that.

Monica fell into baking the way women fall in love: opportunity and attraction to something sweet. She was working weekends and nights at Macy’s, and wanted to start her own business. Then her sister took a culinary class and Monica sampled some recipes.

“I liked the cake on one and the icing on the other,” Monica recalls. “When we put them together, it was gold.”

First, she experimented with recipes – a little more egg here, a bit less oil there. A good cake is moist, not over-baked, with icing that isn’t overly sweet. One result is her signature raspberry red velvet cake.

“This is my passion … when people pop a bite into their mouth and their reaction is ‘Wow!’ you’ve created this little bit of dessert heaven.”

For a year she explored the idea of a baking business. She took some classes in cake decorating and discovered she was good at it – very good.

Monica began selling her creations to friends and their friends and suddenly realized: “I guess I’m in business.”

Two Parts Sugar (www.twopartssugar.com) launched in December of 2008. Listening to Monica explain how she hustles to build her business is exhausting.

Less than a year after launching, a very pregnant Monica was competing (and losing) in the first episode of the Food Network reality show, “Cupcake Wars.” Yes, she admits, she spent one crazy evening with power tools building a display stand for her cupcakes.

Twice she’s accepted the annual LA Cupcake Challenge, passing out thousands of samples so the public can eat and vote. The first year Two Parts Sugar won a second place and bragging rights for its (suddenly) “award-winning” cupcakes. In February, she won a third place for her chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes.

She’s already diversified from cupcakes into other sweets and aprons. With marketing help from her brother, Monica tweets and blogs and looks for every advantage.

When the Academy Awards came calling, Monica didn’t hesitate. She pulled several all-nighters to bake mini-cupcakes for tasting and “swag” bags for stars visiting the gifting suite.

She’s tasted other cupcakes. With no modesty she says:

“Some of the cupcakes out there made me realize that what I have here is fantastic.”

An entrepreneur and mother, Monica knows all about juggling her time. Most mothers mentally barter with our kids, trading more favors than a backroom politico: If we accomplish one chore for me, later we will do one fun thing for you.

Monica trades a morning at the park for a run to buy ingredients or make a delivery. She packs Alicia, 3, Anabelle, 2, and the baby into the car and tells them it’s time to make a trip. She bakes; they bake with an Easy Bake Oven.

After the girls’ 8 p.m. bedtime, she heads to her Irvine-based kitchen to work. Her time is her own until 6 a.m. when the kids wake up.

“I tuck them into bed. They know Daddy is here and Mommy has to go to work.”

No problem – if you don’t require sleep.

And here’s where wrestling comes in. This is a grueling schedule. To meet it, Monica calls upon the same focus and drive she needed just to finish a practice.

“Some nights I’m baking and I’m dead tired and I tell myself: All right, it’s overtime. I need that extra bit you have to give.”

Endurance counts. She’s taken a self-taught, crash course in business: setting prices (too low), buying supplies (no longer at the grocery store), packaging and marketing.

So far, Two Parts Sugar is barely profitable. The deal with Fernando is that she needs to at least cover expenses and pay the family’s bill for health insurance.

Monica is selling cupcakes, but she’s buying herself time.

Right now, her business is the freedom to stay home days and weekends with her girls. But she has ambitions: maybe her own storefront bakery one day, maybe a little saved for the girls’ education. She would like them to finish college.

“I am setting an example. My girls can see it’s important to be independent and be able to support themselves and not have to rely on anybody else.”

She wants to build a successful business. She wants to be a successful mother. She wants more hours in the day.

All mothers wrestle with that.

We are thrilled to have been a part of this fundraiser…it’s kinda why we do what we do, after all they are just cupcakes. Don’t get me wrong, they are definitely not JUST cupcakes….I mean they are my passion, my livelihood, my life. But when you look at the big picture, there are so many other things that are more important. We can’t wait until we are able to help in bigger and better ways. Until then, we will continue to help out the community and other non-profit organizations as much as we can. Who knows, maybe one day we will be able to start our own charitable non-profit organization!

thin mint…chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache frosting topped with crushed thin mints samoas…coconut cupcake topped with chocolate frosting toasted coconut and samoa pieces tagalongs…chocolate cupcake topped with peanut butter icing and tagalong pieces lemonades…lemon cupcake topped with lemon cream frosting and lemonade pieces

Meet Jade! She is 6 years old  and her goal is to sell  100 boxes, she has sold 38 boxes so far…and she needs to turn in her orders by Friday February 5th! So, place your cupcake order and help her meet that goal! You can also order a good ‘ol box of cookies from her for $4.00 per box by contacting her mom Aracely.

If you have any questions, comments or would like to place an order you can reach us here.

As many of you following our Blog may already know, one thing we love just as much as cupcakes is our community. We love to help out where we can in giving back to help others in need. My husband has a wonderful wrestling program where he coaches wrestlers and trains them to become elite wrestlers at the high school level. He coaches kids from many different schools, including Trabuco Hills and Rancho Santa Margarita High Schools. A few of the parents who are involved with the schools contacted us about some fundraising events. We were happy to lend a hand. We were able to donate cupcakes and gift certificates to the Trabuco Hills High School Wrestling Team for fundraising events. Also, we participated in the Rancho Santa Margarita Senior Fashion Show with a donation of cupcakes and gift certificate.

While these were smaller fundraisers that were for organizations we were familiar with, we were later informed about another cause that we could help with…..The Arthritis Walk. We learned about a girl named Faith who suffered from Juvenile Arthritis. She quickly became an inspiration to us all. We attended The Arthritis Walk 1,000 cupcakes in hand and enjoyed the day with many other volunteers and Arthritis survivors. We believe in helping others when we can. We all feel truly blessed to be able to do something we LOVE and will continue to share it with as many people as we can. Zen Cupcake calls it Cupcake Karma and we couldn’t believe in anything less. 

Yesterday, we attended the 2009 Arthritis Walk and it was AMAZING! A little while back I found out about a little girl named Faith who was 9 years old and suffered from Juvenille Arthritis. Her story was so inspirational I decided we had to get involved. We started team “one part Faith, two parts sugar” and we committed to donating cupcakes to the Arthritis kick off dinner as well as the Walk itself. Well, the walk has come and gone and we could be happier with the outcome.

I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing this event was. I was flying solo on this event (one sister had to work, the other is pregnant and on bed rest), but knew I could handle it. I arrived at the Irvine Great Park at about 6:00 am, 1,000 cupcakes in hand! As I walked through the event grounds I was just amazed. There were all kinds of booths and fun activities being set up. I had no idea how big this event was. I made my way to my booth and began to set up. I was done early (my display was nothing elaborate), so I went to see where I could help. I found Isella and she gave me the job of posting pictures onto this GIANT folding picture board. First, we had to stand this thing up….wish someone could have taken pictures of us doing so, cause it was a riot. Picture 2 little women lifting a giant folding contraption that was a good 8′ x8′ and weighed at least ….well I don’t know how much it weighed, but it was HEAVY!  I asked her who the pictures were of and she told me they were all people who suffer from arthritis. After she told me that, as I pinned each picture on to the board (especially the ones of the children) my heart sank a little more. I pulled myself together and completed my task. I was really starting to feel pretty good about joining this great cause. 

After posting hundreds of pictures, I headed off to my booth to display the cupcakes we had made for the day. Before I knew it, people were piling in through the gates! There were SO MANY teams and smiling faces. 

Along with the actual walk (3 mile and also a 1 mile for those who suffered from Arthritis and couldn’t do the full 3) then were tons of festivities. The morning started off with made to order omelets, doughnuts, bagels, fresh fruit, breakfast bars, coffee, juice, and water…..all complimentary! There was a stage for daily announcements and a live band, who played music all day long!  

There was a kids zone with bouncers, hockey, crafts, tattoos (temporary of course), face painting, clowns, balloon animals, bubbles, raffles, cotton candy, popcorn, candy, ice cream, and a fire truck…again, all complimentary! 

Walmart and Coca-Cola were sponsors for the event….so, there were hot dogs, chips, and soda for lunch! There were also tables with all kinds of goodies! Snacks, candy, popsicles,  banners to sign, crafts, raffles, and CUPCAKES….all FREE!

There really was something for  EVERYONE…

…it was a great event for family, friends and lots of FUN! Here are a few of the attendies enjoying some of our cupcakes:

It was so great to see such a huge turnout and everyone coming together for such a good cause. We will definitely be participating again next year and will have a huge team joining us!

 With the Arthritis Walk just days ahead of us, we were preparing and nailing down every last detail. About a week leading up to the event, we were contacted by Faith’s mother to see if we wanted to combine teams. I explained to her that we had failed miserably at getting a team together, but that we’d still be there cupcakes in hand. She asked if we had any extra t-shirts that we could give to her team (Faith signed up 30 people!!!). I told her we hadn’t ordered any, but that I would see if I could get some ordered in time. She didn’t want me to have to order any, she just thought if I had some extras lying around they could use them. So, I made the call to my t-shirt guy. I gave him the date, May 16, and explained I need them by that evening because the Walk was early Sunday morning. We talked business and came up with a fair price and I placed the order for 35 team t-shirts. I contacted Faith’s mom and let her know it was a done deal!

I followed up with our t-shirt guy throughout the week, updating sizes and confirming pick up location. Well, Saturday afternoon rolled around before I knew it ( I had worked on a wedding cake and Strawberry Shortcake cake and cupcakes all morning) it was about 4:30. I asked my husband if he had picked up the shirts for me yet. He said he hadn’t heard back from our t-shirt guy. So, he called him and asked when he could pick up the shirts. The t-shirt guy sounded confused and asked when we needed them…my husband told him tonight…t-shirt guy  thought they were for next weekend. This is where my heart sinks into my stomach and my jaw drops to the floor! And, go figure, t-shirt guy is on vacation and can’t get a hold of his partner to do them last minute for us!

Now, I am totally one of those people who, when experiencing poor customer service or receives a less than satisfactory product bypasses any employee at the store level and goes straight to the top with my complaints. So, I discussed things over with my husband and confirmed I had e-mailed our t-shirt guy the date (which I clearly had). I was so upset, no, SO DISAPPOINTED and I had no idea how I was going to tell Faith and her team of 30+ that I didn’t have the t-shirts they were all promised. I thought I am going to call this person, and send a letter to that person, and I’m going to post a blog about this company…I thought, what if someone ordered a wedding cake from me and I got the dates mixed up. What if one of my customers ended up having a wedding with no cake because I thought it was “next weekend”!

Then, I calmed down. I realized that one, people make mistakes. Although I was in contact with our t-shirt guy daily, maybe I should have set a specific time on Saturday and specifically clarified (twice, maybe 3 times even) the date. Two, I know he felt bad about the situation and I know he will make it up to us at a later date (wink, wink). Finally, it’s not about the t-shirts (but it would’ve been pretty cool). While yes, it would have been nice to have everyone coordinating and see the excitement on Faith’s face as she watched everyone change into HER teams shirts, we were there for something bigger. 

Check back with us soon to find out how the Arthritis Walk of 2009 went down!

YES, FREE!

Ok, so here’s the scoop…

…You’ve probably seen our blog posts, tweets, or myspace posts (if not, keep reading), right? Well, here’s the latest on “one part Faith, Two Parts Sugar:  

As you know we’ve started a team and are recruiting people to join.  It’s free to join (although we welcome donations) and anyone who signs up on our team will receive a FREE CUPCAKE and limited edition “one part Faith, Two Parts Sugar” t-shirt (with any donation)!  So, all you have to do is join, make a donation, then show up the day of the race to collect your goodies!  Again, donations are not only welcome, but encouraged. We are also getting our local Macy’s involved, which we hope will help.  There are a few other avenues we are approaching as far as incentives for joining our team. If you are new to this blog post, here’s a little bit about why we are getting involved with the Arthritis Foundation…

…I just recently learned a little bit about Juvenile arthritis. In learning about this disease, unfortunately there was a face to go along with it.  There is a little girl I met who was diagnosed at a very young age with Juvenile arthritis.  Her name is Faith, appropriately.

In honor of Faith, Two Parts Sugar is on a quest to raise money for children just like her.  We have started a team and are trying to recruit members to walk with us on May 17, 2009. You can join our team and find out more here.   Here’s a little more informatiton about the event and our little hero Faith…

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this disease, as I was, it is basically this:  Juvenile arthritis (JA) refers to any form of arthritis or an arthritis-related condition that develops in children or teenagers who are less than 18 years of age. Common Symptoms of Juvenile Arthritis include pain, swelling, tenderness and stiffness of joints, causing limited range of motion.  It can also cause joint contracture, which results from holding a painful joint in a flexed position for an extended period. More so,it can cause damage to joint cartilage and bone leading to joint deformity and impaired use of the joint. As well as altered growth of bone and joints leading to short stature.

So, Faith.  She just turned 9 and has been suffering from Juvenile arthritis for years now.  She can’t participate in many sports because her movements are limited due to severe pain caused by this disease.  She loves to swim and ride horses, which is easier on her joints.  Faith is currently undergoing a new treatment which is very expensive and includes an at home shot every weekend that is administered by her parents.  While this treatment does have some side affects, the good outweigh the not so good.  Her father told me that this shot now gives her the ability to crawl. Yes, crawl. She is perfectly able to walk and move about somewhat like you and I, but crawl, not recently.  She has a one year old little brother who she has not been able to crawl around with.  After getting the first dose of this treatment, she got down on her hands and knees and looked up at her father and said…

…Look daddy, now I can crawl with Aaron.

Ok, I have two children of my own, so I’m a bit emotional when it comes to this stuff.  Hearing his story brought me to tears.  I decided I had to help.

After discussing it with the Two Parts Sugar crew, we decided to take the first step.  We contacted our local chapter of the Arthritis Foundation to see what we could do to help.   We are hoping to use our cupcakes to raise money for the foundation and for our dear little Faith. Please wish us luck in our quest to do so.