Janesville Farmers' Market, Music in the Park end their season

The year’s final Janesville Farmers Market took place at the Veterans Memorial Park on Thursday, Aug. 18. There were four vendors, alongside Infinity Catering by Kendra Hoehn serving hot food and the band Family Tradition serving up the tunes, both modern and classic for the final installment of the Songs in the Park series.

 

The threat of rain and overcast skies did nothing to deter Kaitlyn Quast, owner of Sugar & Bloom Cake Bakery out of Janesville from being there, accompanied by her husband Allen and three of her four children. What started out as a cake baking favor request to Kaitlyn from a family member lit a fire underneath her to try going pro: “My sister-in-law asked me to make a birthday cake a while back and that’s how all this started, I definitely would not be here without her.” This summer at the Janesville’s Farmers Market was Quast’s first time selling her baked goods, she started out with custom cakes, then added mini cakes in June and now cake pops. She especially likes it when the farmers market gets busy, “The Janesville Night Out, or Night to Remember, that was our busiest night ever. Having the market alongside the Songs in the Park series is also a really good idea to get more people to the park as well.”

 

She has many different design choices and is always taking suggestions, from religious cakes to Minnie Mouse, to cowboy themes, Mother’s Day, Bluey characters. Some of her cakes have looked like makeup kits, notebooks or school supplies, and more.  The choices may seem like a strange mixture but it simply shows the spectrum of decoration choices available from Sugar & Bloom. Flavors include Reeses, strawberry crunch, pumpkin, blueberry zucchini, classic vanilla, vanilla with strawberry filling. Quast expresses a willingness to other flavors as well.

 

A woman and her two children approached the stand and placed their order. While the adults were talking the kids partook in the samples. Both children nodded their approval of the cakes as they ate. As she spoke, the band Family Tradition was unloading musical instruments and setting up underneath the bandstand. The musicians were checking the skies and the radar on their phones to see if the rain was likely to get worse. A light drizzle had started and the clouds moving in overhead were pretty dark.

 

The rain ended up not happening, so nothing was canceled, said Kaitlyn, “The band played till 7:30 p.m. and it only sprinkled one more time for maybe five minutes. Thursday ended up being a beautiful fall evening.” Anyone interested in more information about Sugar & Bloom can check Instagram, @sugar.and.bloom.by.kaitlyn. Sugar & Bloom plans to stay in operation as the weather changes, and will be sharing information about a sale in October when plans are complete.