Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We are open today until noon, so hurry on down and pick up some last minute cupcakes for your Thanksgiving feast!

PS- We need a day of rest too! We’ll be closed on Black Friday, Nov. 28th!

We’re trying something new here at Sweet Avenue. We just recently starting testing out some edible frosting printing on cupcakes and we’re pretty happy with the results so now we’re going to be offering them for sale.

As you can see, lots of stuff looks great like this. We can do pretty much anything from birthdays and baby showers to wedding monograms and corporate logos. And of course, we’re always willing to try to accommodate special requests, so let us know what you’re looking for and we’ll see if we can do it.

All custom printed cupcakes require a minimum order of one dozen (12) and we suggest ordering a week or more in advance. Custom printed cupcakes are available in chocolate, vanilla or red velvet cake with vanilla, cream cheese or coconut frosting. Pricing is $4.00 each.

We had our first taker on the Free-Cupcake-For-A-Cupcake-Tattoo offer today. Nicole made it all the way here from Connecticut, which is awesome. It was great to meet her, and we hope she enjoys her time in Jersey!

Anyone else wanna take us up on the offer?

Anthony from Quintano Media just got us the footage from our One-Year Anniversary show at Lincoln Park in Rutherford, NJ! Danielle’s spent the last few days and nights getting everything edited together nicely, and we’ll be posting the videos over the next few days. First up is Right As Rain [MySpace | Facebook] from Long Island, who opened our show. The video above is their cover of Paula Abdul’s enduring classic, “Straight Up.” You can see the rest of their set online [Vimeo | YouTube | Facebook]

This show was a ton of fun and we’ll have lots more videos of the other bands shortly. And, of course, we can’t wait for the weather to warm up again so we can put on some more shows. If you’re in a band who’s interested in playing an awesome outdoor show or two next year, get in touch with us.

Whats up blog readers?!?!?! It’s Kristina (aka Duchess of Frosting) debuting in my first post evar!!!! Check out the new tattoo I got. It’s chock full of yumminess and awesome sauce!! 

I recently visited Tattoos are Forever in North Arlington, NJ for their grand opening this past Saturday. I saw a lot of flash on the wall, and I noticed drawings of cupcakes. The artist who drew them, Nicole, said she would give me a good deal on one, and I couldn’t pass it up. She is really talented, as you can see, and if you want to check out the shop further you can visit their website (listed above). 

Cupcake tattoos are awesome, and if you have one too, come down to our shop and I’ll give you a free cupcake for being part of the uber exclusive cupcake tattoo club! SWEET xD

And now for something totally unrelated to cupcakes… We were just having a discussion here at Sweet Avenue about who the best TV dad is. Needless to say, we couldn’t come to an agreement, so we need your help.

Here are a few of our favorites:

First is Phillip Banks. He was technically Will Smith’s uncle, but he was Carlton’s dad. He was also a judge, which is pretty awesome.

Tim “The Toolman” Taylor. He probably shouldn’t even be on this list because he’s really pretty lame. Anytime your fake-tv-show co-host and your neighbor are both cooler than you, there are problems.

Okay, so Danny Tanner’s a neatfreak who lives with his dead wife’s brother and a weird guy who plays with woodchuck puppets, but he’s still pretty cool. I mean, he hosts a TV show, and… yeah…

Personally, I don’t see how you can get more awesome than Carl Winslow. I mean, really, the guy is a cop and carries a gun and he had the self-discipline to never use it on Steve Urkel. The guy’s practically a saint. He also busted up a drug ring that one time.

Homer Simpson’s a pretty terrible dad, and I’m almost certain Child Services have taken Bart and Lisa away at least once. Also, all three kids have run away from home a few times. Oh, and he did inadvertently assist in Maude’s death… Wait, where was this going?

A lot of you may not recognize this guy, but he’s Keith Mars, from the best show to ever get canceled by UPN/CW. Keith’s awesome because he’s a private eye who lost his job as Sheriff. He’s also constantly bailing out his daughter from legal trouble, and he shot a guy. A few guys, actually.

Noah Bennet is either an awesome dad or the worst dad ever. The writers haven’t really decided yet, but that’s okay. The guy had an invisible man as his partner and he spends his days tracking down villians. And lying to his daughter.

Danielle and Kristina insisted that I include Cliff Huxtable. Blahblahjellopuddingblahblahuglysweatersblahblah. I never liked this show. They did, though.

And if anyone votes for these two, you’re not allowed in our store again.

So quick, leave a comment! Who’s your favorite? One of these, or someone else entirely?

Woot.com has this shirt today for $10. I think common sense would dictate that this particular shirt is worth at least three times that amount, purely because it has a dinosaur AND a cupcake on the same shirt. This shirt tells the world: “You can call me ‘Dinocake’, if that’s easier than ‘Cupcakeosaur’.”

Of course, we bought one for each of us!

Shirt Design: Annette Lauder

We are now completely booked for all Thanksgiving orders on both Wednesday and Thursday. You are welcome to stop by our shop to pick up a maximum of one dozen cupcakes on either day; however, we cannot guarantee that we will have all of the flavors listed below.

The following flavors will be available for pre-orders as well as walk-ins on Wednesday, November 26th (the day before Thanksgiving). We will also be open on Thursday, November 27th – Thanksgiving Day! The same menu will be available for both days.

1. Pumpkin Spice (pumpkin cake with spiced cream cheese frosting)
2. Orange Cranberry (vanilla cake with orange frosting – filled with cranberry)
3. Sexy Sadie (our most popular flavor! red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting)
4. White Room (vanilla cake with vanilla bean frosting)
5. Black and White (chocolate cake with vanilla bean frosting)
6. Snowball (chocolate or vanilla cake with coconut frosting)
7. Dark Side of the Moon (vanilla cake with chocolate frosting)
8. Jet Black (chocolate cake with chocolate frosting)
9. Apple Pie (apple cake with cream cheese frosting – filled with apple)
10. Fluffernutter (vanilla cake with peanut butter frosting – filled with marshmallow)
11. Strawberry Fields (vanilla cake with strawberry frosting – filled with strawberry preserves)
12. Chocolate Sundae (chocolate cake with vanilla bean frosting & chocolate ganache – filled with chocolate cream)
13. Cookies ‘n Cream (chocolate cake with oreo cookie frosting)
14. Little Cutie (chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting – filled with chocolate cream)

*** We definitely recommend placing an order in advance to either pick up on Wednesday or Thursday. We cannot guarantee availability of all flavors without a pre-order, because Thanksgiving is one of our biggest holidays!

*** Hours:
Wednesday, November 26th (open normal hours: 11am-8pm)
Thanksgiving: Thursday, November 27th (special hours: 8am-12pm)

We just got the new issue of (201) Magazine the other day that includes a feature about us in a story about various non-traditional bakeries. We were really excited to be featured, and we think the article is great. If you’re in (201)’s coverage area (most of North Jersey), you should pick up a copy and take a look!

  

The story is also available online. Text of the story is below.

A Taste of Counterculture

Sweet Avenue Bake Shop in Rutherford is riding the wave of cupcakes’ newfound popularity, but with a very important twist – the cakes are completely vegan (dairy and egg-free). Customers who don’t know that are often very surprised that the specialty cupcakes still taste as delicious as Grandma used to make.

Danielle and Jake Vance opened the shop in August 2007, and are assisted by Danielle’s sister, Kristina. The three pride themselves on making everything from scratch; they also serve as the creative development team.

“Someone has to taste the new flavors,” explains Jake, who admits a fondness for the red velvet cupcakes. “I was raised in Texas, and that is everyone’s favorite cake there.”

The boutique-style bakery is decorated in bright pastel colors that go well with the colorful cupcakes, which boast names like Sexy Sadie (red velvet cake) and Strawberry Fields (vanilla cake with fresh strawberry frosting filled with strawberry preserves), and are artistically displayed in glass cases. Both Danielle and Jake are graphic artists by training. “We really have an eye for what looks appealing,” says Jake, pointing to a tiered wedding cake made out of individual cupcakes that is displayed in the front window.

The couple had been vegetarians for several years when, in 2006, they decided to become vegans. At first, it seemed as though giving up dairy and eggs would mean an end to their favorite baked goods, but Danielle began to experiment with her mother’s family recipes. While growing up in Weehawken, she used to help her mother bake hundreds of trays of cookies for the neighborhood each Christmas. “She was famous for her 100 percent-authentic Italian cookies,” Danielle remembers.

Those recipes have inspired a successful line of cupcakes. “Each month since we opened, our business has grown,” notes Jake, who attributes that success to the trio’s unique product line. Since the Vances can’t buy any prepackaged mixes, everything is done right in the shop. For their raspberry lavender lemon cupcakes, for example, they use fresh fruit, and boil the lavender buds themselves to extract the flavoring.

For the upcoming holidays, pumpkin spice, apple pie, lemon gingerbread, and eggnog cupcakes will be featured – to the amazement of tasters who might not believe that they really are egg and dairy-free.

…and his name is Barack Obama. Congratulations America, you did a good thing today.

P.S. – Good luck, Al.