What an eventful year this has been! Exhilarating. Terrifying. Joyful. A heck of a time to start a new business, Dolce Paradiso Bakery, and to try to grow a 15 year old Lone Cone Toffee. I took on a new partner that I never even met till March. So, you might be thinking, how’s it going? First off, amazingly, the partner situation is working out beautifully. We are very compatible and as with some arranged marriages, we have grown very fond of each other. We could certainly be busier but it is so wonderful to be in our own space producing wonderful toffee and gorgeous pastries every day. People come by regularly who have been told by their friends that Dolce Paradiso Bakery and Lone Cone Toffee is something special that should not be missed. My children are all healthy and employed. And my son will soon be providing me with my fourth granddaughter. All things considered, at the end on 2011, I feel the scales are tipping in my favor and I am feeling very thankful.

There is still time to send Lone Cone Toffee for the holidays. Why not make it easy on yourself and send the best toffee they will ever taste to those you would like to appreciate and/or impress? You can mail your order form to the address listed on it or fax it to 888-235-9863 or shop online at  www.loneconetoffee.com. Order by December 20th, use coupon code XMAS11 and save 10% on your order. I get calls all the time from people who have received a gift from Lone Cone Toffee and love it. It is often times the only gift they remember. Make someone’s holiday a little sweeter, give Lone Cone Toffee.

Today is the anniversary of the day I got locked in a walk in freezer for an hour and half of very interesting reflection. If you’d like to learn about that exciting adventure you can click here.

I wish you a happy and sweet holiday season. Please let me know if I can help you with that.

This month I write to you with great joy in my heart. I have just cooked my first 47 lb. batch of holiday toffee in the kitchen of which I have been dreaming for 16 years. The kitchen of Dolce Paradiso Bakery was set up based on the premise that its foremost function was to produce Lone Cone Toffee in an efficient fashion. I am more than happy to report that the functionality of my new kitchen has exceeded my expectations. And how often does that happen? The resulting toffee is, if you can imagine it, even more delicious than before. For the first time ever, in its 16 year history, Lone Cone Toffee, was made stress free. It actually makes a difference. Who knew?

This year, we’re offering Black Friday savings all this week on your purchases of Lone Cone Toffee for the holidays. Order your toffee before midnight on Friday, November 25th and save 10% on your purchase. Just go to www.loneconetoffee.com , and use Coupon Code BF2011. Or you can fax your gift list to 888 235-9863; tell us what to put on your gift card and the date you want your Lone Cone Toffee to be sent. Then relax knowing that everyone on your list is going to be very happy with their gift from you this year; the best Lone Cone Toffee ever produced.

In addition to offering our four flavors of toffee: Original Butter Almond, Coffee, Peanut and Peppermint, Lone Cone Toffee and Dolce Paradiso Bakery have joined forces to create gift baskets that contain both toffee and pastries made using toffee tailings. Toffee Oatmeal Craisin Cookies and Lone Cone Toffee Brownies make our gift baskets even more special and welcome than before. You can check out all of our products by visiting www.loneconetoffee.com.

I would really appreciate it if you would do both me and your friends a favor and email this newsletter to them with a recommendation. I bet they’d appreciate the opportunity to send their friends and clients Lone Cone Toffee too.

On the bakery front, Dolce Paradiso Bakery will have been open for five months already on the 23rd of November. We’re not yet where we need to be but we’re getting there. We have lots of regular customers now and we get people in here all the time that were told about us by their friends in very glowing terms. It’s very gratifying. We do a lot of special orders of decorated cakes and our menu is constantly evolving. It’s fun and I’m having a great time.

I want to thank you all for your continued support of Lone Cone Toffee and Dolce Paradiso Bakery and to wish you all a blessed, safe and most of all, sweet holiday season.

Does it seem like months since you’ve heard from me?  Well it has been.

I have, at long last, wonderful news to share.  Our new space is complete and gorgeous.  And open for business. I have a new partner in my bakery enterprise, Azeb Kidane, from Tigray, Ethiopia and she specializes in Italian pastry which she learned in Milan, Italy.  To honor her special skills, we have renamed the bakery, Dolce Paradiso Bakery.  She makes the best Tiramisu and Cannolis I have ever had.  She actually just popped into the office and fed me a special treat that we are calling Chocolate Surprise.  It is a chocolate cup filled with rum soaked cake and topped with her wonderful pastry cream and a fresh blueberry.  Just what I needed for a late afternoon pick me up.  Who needs dinner?  I’ve always been a dessert first kind of gal and that was just perfection.

Of course, Lone Cone Toffee, will be made here.  This is my first permanent location since leaving Colorado 8 ½ years ago and I could not be more thrilled.  I have everything I need here, lots of space and no need to get my product out of the building within hours of its preparation.  I hardly know how to act with this richness of space and location.

You can find us at 4409 Old Monroe Rd. in the Indian Trail shopping center.  If you are in or near the Charlotte area, please drop by and see what we have to offer.  I promise you will be glad you made the trip.  We are giving a free Ooh Ooh Cookie, a Broderick family favorite for 4 generations, with all purchases over $5 through July 4^th.  We look forward to meeting you and sharing with you some of the finest pastries you will ever taste.

I was in my car yesterday listening to the radio and they were bemoaning the fact that there are so few bakeries in Charlotte. All I could think was, “Boy do I have a great surprise for you!”

Our Store

Lone Cone Toffee & Grancy’s Bakery is at 1st and 10 on the 5 yard line. The shop is almost complete and we are hoping to be in there soon providing Charlotte with delicious pastries and four flavors of Lone Cone Toffee. What we need is for all our friends, which includes you, to give Lone Cone Toffee this Valentine’s Day to all those who are on you gift list. Show us some love while you are showing love to those who are close to you. This will aid immeasurably in getting us over the goal line and into our nearly completed shop. Not only will you be helping me but you will be doing a great service to the poor folks of Charlotte who are obviously in need of wonderful pastries.

First of all:  the name of the store is going to be Lone Cone Toffee & Grancy’s Bakery. The Sweet Spot was taken. Multiple times. Do I love the name? Let’s just say I love each of the names and they rather succinctly say what’s happening in the store.

The space is coming along nicely.  It’s been slow to this point what with getting architectural plans and permits and such but now everything is ready to move quickly. My contractor tells me that we should be ready to open by November 1st.