I seem to have become somewhat of a celebrity... at least in the world of carrot cake connoisseurs. People are flocking to the coffee shop to get a slice of my carrot cake. Last Friday, I think it was, the "Scone Lady", who usually buys the blueberry scones, bought what was left of the carrot cake in the pastry case. Yesterday (Saturday), I made a fresh carrot cake in the morning, and by day's end there was but one slice left. When you calculate out the actual cost of the cake, it pays for itself after about 4 or 5 slices. At 8 slices per cake (which will become 10 or 12 slices per cake tomorrow -- the slices were too big), we're making a pretty good killing just on carrot cake.

My blueberry scones seem to be selling well too. Before I started making scones, we used to struggle to sell two a day. Now I make 8 every morning and they're pretty much sold out by the end of the day. Those probably pay for themselves after 4 or 5 scones.

And my chocolate chip cookies seem to be selling better than the ones we used to get, though they're not exactly flying off the display rack like the carrot cake or scones.

Those of you who have known me the longest, you get the distinction of being among the first to experience my now-famous carrot cake.

Funny story: I went to a boat party tonight with the coffee shop folks, at which I was being introduced to people as "the new chef at the coffee shop." This one woman, a little redhead with a happy little German accent, exclaims, "You're the chef!!" then proceeds to throw herself bodily on me and hug me as Germans do, I guess. Normally I'm OK with people hugging me. That's a pretty normal thing to do. Well, she didn't stop there. She then proceeds to jump into my lap, at which point my "face turned into a tomato," mostly from shock and surprise, and partly from embarrassment of suddenly being the center of attention and having this German woman sitting in my lap. Of course this was mere moments after I was relaying to a co-worker how I am an extreme introvert. Most people I've met just say, "Your carrot cake is amazing," or "I nearly cried when I tasted your carrot cake." No one had tried to sit in my lap, until tonight. I've even had women say to me that men who cook are very attractive, followed promptly by, "Are you single?" and usually accompanied by somewhat flirtatious eye contact.

I guess I'm going to have to get used to this....

¶ 11:23 PM