Long time, no blog! What’s MDC been up to?
It’s a bit shocking that we haven’t blogged since the end of February, but then again, we’ve been unbelievably busy since our victory at LA Cupcake Challenge (see previous post). Here’s what we’ve been up to:
THE OSCAR’S
Shortly after that celebration, we were honored to be asked to provide cupcakes for an Oscar’s gifting suite the last weekend of February.
You can check a glimpse of us on this video: Oscar’s Gifting Suite: Alive Expo Green Pavilion
IE HOTLIST
In April, we were thrilled to add “Best Bakery in the IE” to our list of achievements! Thank YOU for voting us #1 on the IE’s Hotlist! MANY of you came out on April 22nd to help us celebrate. It was awesome to have the top food trucks at our celebration: The Grilled Cheese Truck, Nom Nom truck & Buttermilk Truck, as well as our favorite DJ, Mike Styles, and the talented balloon twister, Paul Navarro from Balloon Monsoon CA. (We LOVE hosting BEATS+EATS+TREATS installments!)
EXPANDED KITCHEN
With the press we received from the Challenge & the Hotlist, business was booming. Keeping up with the daily demand became increasingly difficult due to the small kitchen were working with. (Think limited space for bakers, equipment, ingredient storage, boxes, etc.) It was at that time we made the tough decision to stop taking custom cake and cupcake orders. As a cupcakery, we felt it was our top priority to meet the daily demand for the general public instead of focusing our time and energy on individual orders. While considering our options for increasing production, the owner of our building approached us about taking over the vacant space next door. It was then that we made another tough decision: to halt the completion of our custom gourmet food truck and put all our available funds into the expansion of our kitchen. So that’s what we did! (The Daily Bulletin ran a story about it here).
After a few long weeks, construction was complete, new equipment in place, paint, floors, walls, shelving, and everything else was done and we have more than doubled our work space. Many wondered if we would expand our front-of-house area as well, but that was not something we wanted to do at this time and we actually have some plans for the space next door that doesn’t involve cupcakes. The bigger kitchen will give us the space we need to increase production; however, now we have the difficult task of finding talented, experienced, trustworthy, positive and energetic people to join our team so we can reach our potential.
Construction consumed a good chunk of our spring, and before we knew it, summer was upon us!
CHILI JUDGE:
On June 8th, co-owner & executive pastry chef Naomi Moreno was invited to be a judge for the “Police Vs. Fire Ultimate Chili Cook Off” at the Ontario Convention Center. It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it! ;)
(Congrats to Ontario PD, by the way, for taking 1st place!)
- Naomi next to Fox 11′s Rick Lozano, judging the chili cook off.
IE FOOD TRUCK FEST:
On June 18th, we brought our cupcakes to the IE Food Truck Fest at Citizen’s Bank Arena. As the first business to bring gourmet food trucks to the IE, It was a thrill for us to finally see an event like this happen in our community. Though, it would have been nice to be able to sell our cupcakes there, the rule was you needed to sell from a truck. Unfortunately, our truck was not 100% complete and we didn’t think it would be appropriate to bring it out until it was finished. Instead, we passed out thousands of samples, supported our trucker buddies, and were able to make many new customer-friends when the masses fell in love at first bite!
YELP EVENT
On June 22nd, we were invited to be part Yelp LA’s “High Rollers Sweet” at the “AtLAntic: Yelp’s Boardwalk Empire” event. This free event was open to all yelpers and it featured lots of complimentary samples from a variety of vendors (you can check out the list here). Our cupcakes were a crowd favorite, especially our beloved Breakfast cake. Check out the reviews here.
RECENT CHANGES:
Since then, we’ve been continuing to bake in the wee hours of morning, bringing up the summer sun!
Some recent changes we’ve made include expanding our Daily Flavor menu, changing limits, and adding special happenings for most days of the week:
1. We’ve added to our original 12 Daily Flavors to make it the Daily 16. This is a set menu, so you can count on us having these flavor each day (though some are not out right at 10am, and some sell out before closing. The best time for a full selection is between 11 & 2pm. We strongly encourage pre-orders and “call-aheads” if there are specific flavors/quantities you desire). The Daily 16 are Breakfast, Chocolate, Chocolate Vanilla, Vanilla, Vanilla Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Red Velvet Cherry Filled, Red Velvet, Dulce de Leche, Carrot, Key Lime, Coconut Lemon, Birthday, Strawberry, & Vegan Cookies N’ Cream.
2. With our expanded kitchen, we’re able to increase our walk-in purchase limit to 3 dozen total, not more than 8 of any one flavor. (Though increased, we maintain some limitations in an attempt to maintain a variety of options for customers who come later in the day. If we didn’t do this, we would have businesses come in the morning and swoop up large quantities & wipe out whole flavor options).
3. Another recent change is “Chicken N’ Waffles Wednesday.” After Late Night Breakfast swept the LA Cupcake Challenge, the popular demand for it grew to the point that we decided to add it in to our rotation on a regular basis. Now, the famed sweet & savory cupcake is available each Wednesday after 1pm.
4. Other special week-day happenings are Mini Monday’s (most Daily flavors are $1 all day. Exceptions are the “expensive ingredient cupcakes” including Breakfast, Peanut Butter, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Dulce de Leche, and FOTW). Tuesday Trivia (2-3 “trivia” questions are asked with free cupcakes going to the 1st to answer correctly). Cupcakes for Work Wednesdays (we do a business card drawing each Wed. and give free cupcakes to the lucky office). Twitter Thursday (our tweeps get a special discount or trivia, only offered via twitter). Foto Friday (fans upload personal pics of our cupcakes/merchandise to our Facebook wall. The picture with the most “likes” by 8pm that day wins a gift-card!). Every couple months we also do a “My Delight Royals” competition where fans post why they should be named the King or Queen of My Delight. The person with the most votes (likes) wins a month’s worth of cupcakes!
SOCIAL SUNDAYS
One thing missing as of late is our beloved Social Sundays. Unfortunately, the current county ban on food trucks has put a damper on our Beats+Eats+Treats events. But we are working with both our city & county officials to bring back this community fav! You can help by writing your local government officials. Dine 909 wrote, “If you know which district you live in, click here to go to the county Board of Supervisors website, click on your supervisor’s name, get their contact info and call or email them, letting them know that you want the ban to be lifted … If you’re unsure of which district you live in, you can click here to enter your address and find out.”
So that’s the haps! Onward and upward!
We can’t wait for you to see what’s coming up for MDC! Buckle up! ;)
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As an Event Planner for several City Agencies, you may have Food Trucks at a specific special event. For example, if you decide to have an event 1 a month, and the food trucks have appropriate health permits, they are allowed to attend such events. The trucks MUST have a food permit in the County of San Bernardino. Currently there has been a “Swirlz” Soft Serve ice cream truck seen around Fontana making weekly stops! Please feel free to contact me for details! We <3 MDC!!