There are many perks that come with working at Schinkels.
Some are obvious, like the smells, the easy access to quality
and delicious food, the friendly co-workers.
But there are some extra perks that are known only to the staff themselves,
quietly engrained in tradition and custom that we tend to take them for granted.
Like birthdays.

Birthdays

Usually, birthdays are a time to celebrate the individual with the birthday.
Gifts, cakes, treats, cards, flowers and other tokens of appreciation are bestowed upon them.
They are made to feel special, cherished and valued.
At Schinkels’, most of that is true, but we’ve given the cake part a little twist.

Here at Schinkels’, the Birthday Celebrant is given the
privilege of bringing in treats for everyone else.

What? Where did this come from?
What twisted soul decided this was to become
“Normal Behaviour” for birthdays at the store?
For as long as I’ve been involved in the Schinkel family,
this has been the expectation.
Greg tells me that it has just always been the way.
Even when that staff member isn’t even actually scheduled
to work on their birthday,
they know they still are responsible to bring in
something decadent and delicious as soon as possible.

Jacquline’s Turn

Speaking of decadent, this past week was Jacqueline’s birthday.
She had been reminded repeatedly by Luke over the days prior
to be sure to remember something delicious,
almost to the point of objects being thrown in his direction.
Like she would forget.
She loves to bake, and she loves to share,
so I knew it was not only going to be good,
but probably something sweet and delicious as well.

She didn’t disappoint.

 

 

This is what welcomed staff in the staff room Thursday morning.

Yes, that is bacon on top.
Of course, it is.
What else makes the absolute perfect topper to a cake
being served up to the staff of a butcher shop?

Not only was there bacon involved,
but Jacqueline went over the top in choosing
this as an absolutely decadent birthday treat.

Bourbon Maple Bacon Chocolate Cake

Really. Not kidding.

Any one of those descriptors involved in a name
would have produced a good birthday treat. But all 4, combined?

I’m telling you, I think this will be served up in Heaven someday.

For anyone who is interested,
she sent me the recipe, as well as some pictures,
so I thought I’d treat you all to a piece if only a little vicariously.
Bourbon Maple Bacon Chocolate Cake is now in our recipe collection.

As to her process, which all happened,
by the way, on her birthday
(she is a saint to care enough about our staff to slave in the kitchen for hours to produce this for us),
I’ll do my best to narrate someone else’s creativity.

Jacqueline’s Creative Process

This is one of those artsy pictures that so many
bloggers and recipe guru’s manage to take before they start cooking.
I usually remember about halfway through a recipe that
I’m supposed to be blogging it and then have to pull
everything out again to take one of those supposedly “candid” pictures.
She, however, is a natural
and remembered to do it before her kitchen was flour covered and messy.

For this next picture, she lucked out and got Hayley to
snap a picture of her pouring that thick, creamy batter from
the mixing bowl into the lightly greased and cocoa-dusted bundt pan.
I’m pretty sure Hayley was also the one to lick the afore-mentioned
mixing bowl as payment for that picture.

Smart girl, that Hayley.

This is, apparently, what it looks like when it is ready
to be removed from the oven.
Might seem a little boring as far as pictures go,
but I’m actually quite glad she took this picture,
as, since I’ve never cooked a bundt cake before,
I might have been a little worried to see it cracking like that as it baked.
But, apparently, this is normal behaviour for bundt cakes.

Ok, here’s my happy place picture.
MMMMM…..

Schinkels’ Bacon.

Give me a moment, I’ll be fine….

Ok, here’s the final shot again,
which I did already show at the beginning of this post,
but, really,
can one ever have too many pictures of bacon?
or cake?

You’re welcome.

And, one last shot I took of the cake, in the staff room,
Thursday at noon, when I showed up for work.

This actually says a lot more than that the
staff appreciated Jacqueline’s cake, by the way.

I was the only staff coming in at noon on Thursday.
Everyone else was there that morning, and

they saved me cake!

Talk about your warm fuzzy moments!
I totally blew my macros
(see my previous blog here about my ongoing
Onyx Fitness journey so you know what I’m talking about)
by having a piece right then and there,
as well as another sliver at break time, but it was sooo worth it.
Truly the best chocolate cake I have ever had.

Yup, working at Schinkels’ definitely has it’s perks.