Latest news with #McIntyreJackson
Calgary Herald
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Sweet! Crave celebrates 20 years with a new cookbook
Time sure flies when you're eating cupcakes. Article content Article content Twenty years ago, when Sex and the City was still a taste-making show, a shot of Sarah Jessica Parker's character Carrie Bradshaw devouring a pink frosted cupcake in front of NYC's Magnolia Bakery launched thousands of cupcake shops around the world. This scene aired only a few years before Calgary got a cool cupcake bakery of our own in the form of the still-thriving Crave, but co-founders/sisters Carolyne McIntyre Jackson and Jodi Willoughby have always been more inspired by home baking in the country than big city trends. Article content Article content 'I always loved to bake. We grew up on a farm outside of High River, and I was always in the kitchen baking,' McIntyre Jackson says. 'We would always bake from scratch and never had a cake mix in our house.' Article content Article content That love of baking led to the sisters opening Crave in 2004, and they immediately garnered fanfare with their delectable cupcakes made with their mother's timeless buttercream frosting recipe. Since then, Crave has expanded to four bakeries within Calgary as well as one in Edmonton and another in Saskatoon (all selling much more than those signature cupcakes) and also sells bake-at-home products for customers who want something better than the typical grocery store brands. While the cake mixes and tubs of frosting can tide Crave fans over between trips to the bakeries, McIntyre Jackson and Willoughby wanted to share the recipes that form the backbone of their business with a cookbook. Article content Article content Article content Crave: Cupcakes, Cakes, Cookies, and More from an Iconic Bakery was released earlier this month, and the book not only stands as a document of the goods that have made it onto Crave's shelves over the years, but also as a history of the co-founders' family recipes. The sisters say every treat ever sold at Crave stems from a family recipe – either their own or one of their staff's. Those formulas were tweaked for larger production and to gussy them up a bit, but for the past 20 years, the bakery has focused on using wholesome ingredients and traditional baking techniques. Article content McIntyre Jackson and Willoughby promise that, unlike some famous restaurants and bakeshops, they haven't downgraded the recipes just a little to discourage home bakers from making exact replications instead of buying them at the shop (yes, this is a thing). Rather, the relative simplicity of the new Crave book showcases that the bakery doesn't just talk a good talk: the goods they sell really are based on good, old-fashioned home baking. While pastry decoration can be a more elusive skill, there are plenty of tips for those who want picture-perfect cupcakes.
Vancouver Sun
02-05-2025
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
Cook This: 3 dessert recipes from Crave, including vanilla sheet cake with strawberry buttercream frosting
Our cookbook of the week is Crave by Calgary-based sisters Carolyne McIntyre Jackson and Jodi Willoughby, who co-founded the Prairie bakery of the same name. Article content Article content Jump to the recipes: raspberry crumb loaf, oatmeal milk chocolate toffee cookies and vanilla sheet cake with strawberry buttercream frosting. Article content Carolyne McIntyre Jackson and Jodi Willoughby have worked together for 20 years, but they've been sisters and friends for 50. 'Everybody always says, 'I can't believe you can work with your sister.' And we always say, 'We grew up on a farm. If we weren't getting along, we had no one to play with,'' says Willoughby. 'We just have such a high respect and regard for one another that we make it work.' Article content Article content After graduating with degrees in food business management and community rehabilitation, respectively, McIntyre Jackson and Willoughby founded the first Crave bakery in Calgary in 2004. They now have four locations in Calgary, one each in Edmonton and Saskatoon, and a seventh opening in Kelowna in June — their first new store in 12 years. Article content Article content 'We like to say we had a purposeful pause while we raised three kids,' says McIntyre Jackson. (She has one and Willoughby has two.) Now that their children are grown, the sisters are moving into their 'non-active' parenting phase. 'We can let it fly a little bit.' Article content McIntyre Jackson and Willoughby started Crave with a cache of family recipes, including their grandmother's chocolate cake and their mother's buttercream icing and vanilla cake. In their cookbook debut of the same name, they share more than 70 recipes they've developed over Crave's 20 years, including the never-before-published buttercream frosting that's won them many devoted fans. Article content Article content There's been much speculation about a secret ingredient in their buttercream, also known as their 'superpower.' McIntyre Jackson stresses that there's nothing covert about their recipe. The foundational vanilla version calls for just four ingredients: icing sugar, whipping cream, butter and vanilla extract. (She thinks it's the salted Calgary-made Foothills Creamery butter they've used from the start that sets their frosting apart.) Article content Article content After kicking off the book with how-tos, including icing a two-layer cake and dipping cookies, and homemade pantry items, such as ganaches and custards, they launch into 12 of Crave's celebrated buttercream frostings, which readers can make their own by adjusting the amount of sugar, adding colour or using different extracts and mix-ins. Article content Amid the flawless buttercream swirls, candy-coloured sprinkles, cupcakes, cakes and cookies, one of the book's full-page photos shows a patchwork of their family's handwritten recipes filling the frame. McIntyre Jackson says it was important for them to capture. They grew up on a farm outside of High River in southern Alberta, where the baking of their grandmothers, aunts and mom was a constant.
