Meet Marion from Marion’s Vintage Bakeshop!

Nice to meet you!

Hi, I’m finally here in “blogland”! Woo hoo! I have wanted to be here for more than four years.  Somehow creative ideas always come easy, but in reality, bringing them to fruition is a WHOLE other story.  Case in point: “Marion’s Vintage Bakeshop”.

The name was conceived seven years ago, the logo was created six years ago, and my 1000 square foot pink, retro-vintage bakeshop was built four years ago; see a pattern? About every two years I come closer and closer to my dream.  I wasn’t always sure WHAT “Marion’s Vintage Bakeshop” would be, but the image and concept were there. Sometimes that’s how it goes down with creative people.  I compare it to a musician: “does the melody come before the lyrics, or is it the other way around?”  I learned that creative people can work in both directions and I often do both.  I knew I wanted to share and create in a space that made me happy and brought me joy (as opposed to an all stainless steel kitchen, both shockingly shiny and simultaneously vacant of expression-which I guess is the whole point of a commercial kitchen).  I knew it had to encompass many forms of creativity.  Although I graduated from Johnson and Wales University as a classically trained Pastry Chef, painting, sculpting, writing, repurposing “junk”-as my husband calls it, decoupaging,  paper crafting, photography and teaching classes are some of my other joys.  This space needed to house it all! WHEW! That’s no small task. So…I took my favorite color pink and ran with it!  I spent the better part of the last ten years collecting vintage “junk” retro “junk” and anything cupcake/cake/pastry related.  I called this collection my: “Bakeshop hope chest”.  My husband kept telling me: “WOW!  You need a warehouse for all of this “junk”. So that’s what I did…I made a creative warehouse; less of a warehouse however and more of a pink- candy- sweet, ice- cream- shop- cool, vintage- charm and retro- hip, fully functioning blow your mind bakeshop studio!

As with many female chefs, my big turning point was one Christmas morning in the early 1970’s, when I opened my harvest green, light bulb operated “Easy bake oven”.  I could not BELIEVE that someone had finally smartened up and made pans small enough to create miniature cakes from miniature mixes, mixed in miniature bowls….DUH! What took them so long? “Barbie’s” are great as were “Dawn dolls” and “Kittle dolls”, but pretending with dishes and bowls small enough to fall down the heat vent, or be mistaken by my cat for toys was beyond frustrating.  Not to mention that I could barely hold onto them with my pudgy little hands.  Pretending to bake was never really fulfilling.  The closest I came to real baking was baking with my Mom in our circa 1816 kitchen using Jiffy mixes.  She would let me mix the batter and then she would take a small amount out, and I would pour it into my mini sandbox muffin tins. It was satisfying, but also a bit inconvenient for my worldly six years. I wasn’t allowed to touch the oven (for obvious reasons), and baking only when Mom needed to bake wasn’t ideal. So… I went to my Dad. My Dad could make anything. Explaining my situation to him I asked:

“Dad, can you build me my own oven?  I explained my dilemma and he winked at me and said ‘I’ll see what I can do”.The next thing I knew, he brought me a box he had converted into a play oven, with burners meticulously drawn on top, a door that opened and a shelf to bake on. He even made knobs with some old radio dials he scrounged up.  I played with that A LOT! However, I still wasn’t satisfied…so when the ‘Easy bake Oven” came into my life, it was as if the world had finally shown itself to me.  I went through all of the mixes that came with the oven the first week and I am sure I burned out the light bulb in record time.

So it dawned on me as an adult that I STILL liked miniature treats and goodies. I decided to incorporate this into my love of all things pink, vintage and retro. This blog is about just that! There are 52 weeks in the year, so I am here to show you how to create 52

(Maybe more!) Miniature goodies that are totally edible, completely cute, and all inspired by the 1950’s-1970!   The best part is at the end of my journey, as a follow-up to the blog, I plan to publish my first cookbook, complete with the 52 recipes (maybe more) from “Marion’s Vintage Bakeshop”.  The book will include many of my drawings and sketches, vintage inspirations, and interactive baking craft pages- There has never been another book published like this!.  Part recipe book, part coffee table book, part journal, part family history and VERY retro-vintage.  This book will contain lots of “hidden treasures”…but I don’t want to spoil ALL of the surprises! At the end of the year, you will be able to purchase it right here! Just in time for the holidays! Give one

(Or several) as a very special gift for a friend, and keep one for yourself as a treasured family heirloom.

Sometimes I may do entries between the weekly recipes, but all of the recipes will be in the “recipe box” on my blog for whenever you need them. As if this wasn’t all WAY too much fun, I will also have “swaps” and giveaways frequently, so make sure to stop by…because I  MOST assuredly will be teaming up with some of your favorite bloggers and craftspeople to bring you fantastic “gifties”

I hope you enjoy this year as much as I hope to!

I can’t WAIT to meet other “blogsters”, and to share with all of you!

And by all means, drop me an e-mail and let me know what you think!

Happy baking and creating!

Marion

* the gal at the top of the page is my alter-ego and is a copyrighted piece of original artwork by Scott Pike, and owned by me. This cannot be reproduced or used in any fashion for ay reason.  The other drawings sketches and paintings on this blog are owned by me and cannot be reproduced or used in any fashion. If you would like to use my drawings of sketches, you must have written consent by me to do so.

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