What on earth does "all natural" mean, anyway?

Positioning: it's an art.

Presently, the term "all-natural" is giving me a pain in the tushie. But how else can I convey the notion of the quality ingredients and fresh nature of our product, as compared to what else is available in the marketplace?

I wish there was another way to communicate that Marneycakes are all-natural. Somehow, the words "all natural" seem to evoke something dry, oaty, grainy, and health-food oriented. And I find people constantly infer that my cakes are organic. That's not what we make in our standard line. (I can certainly do organic, as a special request, just like I can also do vegan, gluten-free, lactose-free and nut-free. But those cakes aren't our standard Marneycakes.)

Now you know what Marneycakes aren't.

What Marneycakes are is made from scratch, made from the best ingredients, made without cutting corners to save time or expense, and made fresh to order.

We don't use ingredients like low-cost artificial flavorings, commercial cake mixes & vegetable oil, and pre-packaged tubs of icing made from vegetable shortening. We don't use ingredients such as corn syrup in our cake or icings (unless we're talking about handmade fondant, which is in a category all its own). We don't bake ahead in big batches and freeze, to be able to get a cake ready for a customer in half an hour on a moment's notice.

Now you understand what we don't do... and that's what makes us different.

On the flipside, what we do is make butter cakes from scratch, real buttercream from butter and cream and foods like raspberries, blackberries, apricots, cherries, strawberries, real almond extract, real coconut extract, lemon oil, orange oil, Madagascar vanilla extract, genuine key lime juice, and real vanilla beans for flavor and color. In our cakes, we use such things as Saigon cinnamon, Hershey's cocoa powder and Ghiradelli chocolates, nutmeg ground by hand (who else does that these days?), certified organic pecans (http://www.wfpecan.com/) from my cousin's family pecan farm (they're soooo tender and moist,it's unbelieveable)...you get the picture: the best of the best of everything. And NO artificial color! Artificial color (especially red) always leaves a tell-tale taste, and since that doesn't appeal to us, we don't use it. There are other ways to get color on a cake -- it just takes some creativity to make it happen! Anyway, we make our products one at a time -- made to order -- so they're the freshest and most delicious cakes, cupcakes, Babycakes, cheesecakes and coffee cakes you've ever had.

Hopefully that clears up the misconception about the term "all-natural".

Hmmmm....I'm looking for a mountaintop from which I can shout this news, but Long Island's way too flat to accomodate my wish! :D That's the first thing I noticed about Long Island upon my initial 1987 visit. Other than a few "demi-hills" (sorry, they're not full-fledged hills, you guys) on the North Shore, it's flat as a pancake.

Here's my digression for the day: as a former native Californian (I spent the first 34 years of my life there), I do miss the mountains, I must admit. But, nothing could drag me away from New York. It's such a beautiful state with so much variety in things to do and places to go...and I love the weather. Having seasons is really nice (yes, in spite of having to drive in snow.) San Diego, San Jose, Malibu and Los Angeles didn't have seasons, and I got tired of three kinds of weather all year: warm, hot, and damn hot. And as a Long Islander, I've got better easy-acceess kayaking right outside my door than any other place I've been in CA. Even living in Malibu, there would have been a drive to the beach and serious parking hassles before I could put in. Here, I'm a 7-minute drive from the nearest boat launch! Too cool.


"There is always room for dessert!" www.marneycakes.com