Singing the Out of Stock Blues

I'm happy to report that King Cakes are back in stock, but there's a bit of a hitch: We can only ship them on Thursday and Friday for the near future. Randazzo's Camelia City Bakery had a Mardi Gras demand far more successful than anything they--or we--anticipated. They spent a week in the bakery sleeping in two-hour shifts to keep up with the demand, so they're going to take it easy for a little while. I can't say I blame them.

Petits Fours Critters will be back by the week of March 20, and the Chocolate Petits Fours and Assorted Petits Fours will likely return by the end of the month. Once that happens, we'll have everything back in stock for the first time since last November. In case you're wondering, we sometimes need to discontinue a regular product for a while to make room for seasonal specialties, and none of our bakery partners are in the habit of baking a ton of stuff and freezing it just to have it around. We want what you order to be fresh, and that means certain products can be out of stock for a while.

So what's moving and shaking on 1-800-Bakery.com? Here's another peek at our Top 10 Products:

1. Chocolate Birthday Cake (Complete Party Kit)--last year it took this cake nine months to knock Stollen out of the top spot. This year, it reclaimed its title in three months. Interestingly, our birthday cake sales dropped dramatically in December, the same time that Stollen were selling as fast as we could bake them. I guess you December babies are getting cheated out of a cake.
   
2. Stollen--we'll be making these until Easter, in case you're wondering.
   
3. Vanilla Birthday Cake (Complete Party Kit)--this will never beat the chocolate cake unless there's a serious effort made by you vanilla fans out there.
   
4. Croissants: All Butter and Handmade--thanks, Oprah. Every time you mention croissants, our orders go up.
   
5. Baby Boston Coffee Cakes
   
6. King Cake--not bad for a product that went out of stock the Wednesday before Mardi Gras. Demand continues to be high, so these could break into the Top 5 soon.
   
7. Sugar Free Low Carb Flourless Chocolate Cake--so many things missing, yet still so yummy. It's cousin, the Sugar Free Marble Cake, is all the way down at #13.
   
8. Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake--coffee cake sales have been slow since the start of the year, which seems odd to me, since I assume people drink more coffee during the cold months.
   
9. Demitasse Party Petits Fours--they're small and delicious, and they're getting a boost by being in stock. We sell a lot of petits fours, but since we offer several varieties, the sales get spread out among them all. This assortment is my favorite of them all.
   
10. Gourmet Cookies Gift Assortment--there's been a recent surge in orders for these, and like the Croissants, they're one of our exclusives. I'm happy to see so many people discovering them, because they're outstanding cookies. They're running neck-and-neck with the Lemon Lulu Cake for the #10 position.

Finally today, since I'm already fielding questions about this, be sure to get your Irish Soda Bread orders in by this Friday. We'll be taking orders later than that, but I won't know how much later until the end of the week, when we have a chance to see how busy things are. Like the King Cakes, Soda Bread is baked fresh to order, so there's a limit to how much of it we can sell.

Not one of my more entertaining posts, but filled with information you can use as you make your online baked goods buying decisions. I'll be more entertaining tomorrow, I promise. I've actually got a couple of fun things to talk about this week