Sara Sara Cupcakes? Yes, please
Helen Ford Wallace taped her upcoming Parties Extra video today in the studio. Her guests included Toni Hoffman from Sara Sara Cupcakes near downtown Oklahoma City.
Toni Hoffman is opening Sara Sara Cupcakes next Tuesday, fulfilling a promise to her niece. Read an excerpt from Steve Lackmeyer’s reporting back on Sept. 3, 2008.
It was Easter 2007 and Toni Hoffman was doing what she always did with her niece Sara when the family gathered together — making cupcakes.
This is, after all, not just any family — but the descendants of legendary judge Joe Cannon.
“My family is very gregarious and loud,” Hoffman said. “But my niece was the shy one. And for years, we baked cupcakes — it was our own special thing.”
Just as Hoffman was showing Sara Brinson how to create a carrot design atop a cupcake, the 18-year-old made a vow to her aunt: “You and I are going to run a cupcake shop together someday.” Hoffman was puzzled — she repeated what Brinson said to make sure she heard her correctly.
“Yeah,” Brinson said, “that’s all you and I know how to do.”
‘I made a promise’
The next day, Brinson died from sudden cardiac arrest. Three months later, Hoffman was watching “Jimmy Kimmel Live” when she heard the host discuss the reason he loved Los Angeles — the city’s cupcake bakeries. Hoffman called her sister Dana, Sara’s mother, after the late-night show was over and pitched Sara Brinson’s idea. Dana Brinson reminded Hoffman they didn’t know how to operate a bakery.
“I don’t care,” Hoffman said, “I made a promise — we’ll figure it out.”
And that, Hoffman said, is the start of the story of how she decided to open Sara Sara Cupcakes. The location for this new venture, a dilapidated 102-year-old house at 7 NW 9, is yet another story. The property is part of a stretch of properties being redeveloped by Steve Mason, owner of the Iguana Mexican Grill, Earl’s Rib Palace and Cardinal Engineering.
The cupcakes are quite tasty, check out the menu for more. They brought a few crimson and cream examples, which disappeared quickly from the Studios’ green room.
The video will be posted this weekend on NewsOK.com.
Meet the Food Dude
Dave Cathey is The Oklahoman’s new food editor, succeeding Sharon Dowell who worked as the newspaper’s main food reporter for decades.
Cathey is bringing a new approach and is launching a video series. I shot his intro in our Studio B last week. He dropped off a tape of his chili making prowess. I combined about 13 minutes of b-roll/kitchen action/complete with barking dogs in the background into a roughly five minute video, using fast motion in FCP at about 450 percent.
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Buy 4 Less: Salad – behind the scenes
Goofy title, but hey, it’s a halfway goofy shoot too. But, thanks to the energy and friendliness of Sean and Cathy Cummings, it’s one of my favorite shoots. Last week, the Buy 4 Less – Bread video ranked highly in NewsOK.tv traffic. This week, we turn to the salads.
This one looks so easy even I could probably pull it off.
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Buy 4 Less: Bread
I mentioned last week that Todd Fraser and I shot four Buy 4 Less commercials, or advertorials. Here’s the first. And it ranks in the top five of most videos watched on NewsOK today.
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Behind the scenes of a Buy 4 Less commercial
Todd Fraser and I loaded up the gear and met the always cheerful Sean and Cathy Cummings at Buy 4 Less at 3501 NW Expressway this morning.
Along with OPUBCO account execs Alan Hicks and Chris Carpenter, we were there to shoot four, two minute advertorials. Buy 4 Less sponsors the Gourmet Grille bi-weekly segments with Sean and Cathy. In two minutes, they prepare quick and easy dishes, often using nothing more than a George Foreman grill. And some Italian dressing.
The commercials are produced for NewsOK’s food page and for the Buy 4 Less web site.
Cathy is owner of Vito’s Ristorante, a great Italian restaurant at 7521 N May. If nothing else, enjoy a glass of wine and try the house bread. It’s amazing. She also claims to have invented the panini, along with her brother while growing up.
Like Cathy, Sean has many ventures in progress. Last month, he opened Sean Cummings’ Irish Restaurant and Pub just up the street at 9610 N May. I haven’t been there yet, nor did I ever visit Boca Boca, the restaurant it replaced. Sean says last weekend the place was packed, which is good news to me. I’m all for the locally owned establishments. Nothing against the chains, I spend my share of coin there too. But the local places have a certain charm and often feature tremendous items on their menus.
So, for this shoot, we used two cameras, basically side by side. The shot is set up in the food court area of Buy 4 Less. We used an elevated table to showcase the ingredients and the actual mixing or grilling, depending on the segment. Sean and Cathy have the ingredients prepared ahead of time and in convenient little dishes for the tapings. It’s your basic three light set: two light boxes from either side with a key light for back fill. One camera remains static on the two-shot as Sean and Cathy explain what ingredients they are using and why.
Todd used the other camera to get cutaway shots of the ingredients in use. For example, a close up of the vegetables being mixed into the egg sandwich.
We shot four commercials in 90 minutes this morning, including set up and tear down. The editing process now begins, with the videos online beginning next week. Since the video editing format has been templated from our earlier shoots, edit time for each of the new commercials will be reduced.
