This past week, I got to make two more cake towers for Thanksgiving. They were both recipes from Historias Del Ciervo. One was chocolate cake, which I'd made before on the fourth of July. This time I decorated it with peanut brittle, which my uncle hand-makes every holiday season. The other cake I made was a white cake. It used superfine sugar, which I had never used before, and vanilla bean paste, which was also a new purchase for me. The videos of each are super fun and really short. Enjoy!
Here's the vids and pics of each, and the links to recipes below.
lots of love,
charlie

Chocolate Cake
(recipe)

White Cake
(recipe)

As I mentioned in this post, I wrote some notes to one of my friends who just got engaged. I know the upcoming months are going to be tough, and I wanted her to have some encouragement at her fingertips whenever she needed it. I'm posting one of them—maybe it'll inspire you write a note to someone else. That's always why I post my letters—so it encourages you, or so it encourages you to write.
Here's a pic of where I hung them on her wall above her bedl:

Hey—

Just wanted to write a quick note and send some love your way! You have a lot going on . . . I mean yes you’re a fiance, but you’re also a student, director, friend, sister, and so much more. Please please know that I have full confidence in your ability to plan formal and a wedding, study history and econ, work and play . . . you’re competent, organized, fun, and persevering. But even more than skills, whether things are working out how you want or not, regardless of details, despite slip-ups, you are more than a conquerer in all things. Please don’t fret about anything—“I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears”—because it’s all beautiful. You have an eye for beauty—you create beuaty in so many ways—so choose to look through that lens. Because I know you. And when you look through beauty, it’s big magic. 

All the love,

maddieperkie 

Here's a few bits of advice for coffee entrepreneurs, with love from someone who spends lots of time in lots of coffee shops.

1. Variance in table size. But mostly, big tables.
If I've crammed my whole dorm room into a backpack to move out for the day, I'm going to need a huge table, please.


2. Good dishes. Aka, if your coffee shop doesn't have the minimalist aesthetic, you should not have plain white mugs. Why? Because if your coffee shop is cozy, a plain mug is just a dish, when it could be so much more—an indicator of your aesthetic, a benefit to the vibes, a boon to your insta game.


3. Don't sell homely art.
I was going to say don't sell any art, but Three Bros. Coffee in Nashville sells art and makes it work. But most of the time, selling art means selling the ability to build your own aesthetic. Someone else's canvas paintings of apples or pastures or cheese boards hung with little price tags does not count as your own aesthetic.
Coffee shops are all about vibes. Choose yours carefully; cultivate what you put on your walls as carefully as you cultivate all those fancy places you get your coffee from. I can say almost without reservation: no canvas art. Please.
But this doesn't mean you can't support local artists through your shop. Sell their items by your register, or in one specific area. Or, like Three Bros., make the design of your whole shop a canvas for the artists you feature, and be picky. Make sure the art says what you want your coffee shop to communicate to people who come in.

4. Have something for everyone. Yes, you are a coffee shop, so you'd better have good coffee. But you'd also better have sugar coffee (mochas, caramel lattes, etc.), because that's all I drink (and it's all about me). But honestly, you will have a more well-rounded clientele if you have well-rounded options to choose from. So have some food, snacks, treats, drinks for kids, etc.

5. Yummy cookies.
This is a elaboration on the previous point, and it really is more of a personal note than the other ideas. But please, make sure you have yummy cookies. That's a selling factor. That's what I think about as I'm leaving campus: what cookie do I want?

There's much more to running a successful coffee shop, but those are a few plebeian thoughts on the issue. What would you add to the list?

Charlie