whether it’s how many people to invite, or how many can actually make it, I get in over my head just even attempting to figure out how to feed that many people. Catering companies have quite the task. it is absolutely above my head (but slowly lowering itself) to allow me to understand how people eat, what they eat, and how much they expect to eat when they arrive at an event. I give a roundabout number for cake servings based upon size of slice. This is of course compromised by picky eaters, hungry people, and buttercream overloads.

It is also unbelievably expensive to cater anything. I guess there’s one idea, that a wedding doesn’t depend on the food or the spread or the cake. However, it is my strong belief that the morale of a wedding party will be seriously altered if there’s a party bag of chex mix and a two liter bottle of coke zero for 200 people sitting on a white paper lined table. You don’t have to have butlered appetizers, Beef Wellington, and potatoes au gratin served with white gloves on silver so fine even Neiman Marcus doesn’t carry it, but it won’t guarantee you a great food experience. there’s got to be love in it.

I see the ultimate wedding party as one where the food is plentiful but not fancy, easy to eat, and fun to share. Fruit kebabs are so much fun, who doesn’t like a kebab, and they’re delicious. Starting around May when the fruit becomes mildly nicer to the wallet, these can be a beautiful addition to a sweet buffet. Fresh pineapple may in fact be one of the best things known to this girl, and I highly recommend if you have never cut up a pineapple yourself, do it asap. Mmmmmm.

Anyway, back to the wedding party of my ultimate dreams.

No chocolate fountains for me. Open fire s’mores. I know, I know, it’s dirty and possibly messy, but how much fun? I would love to be making s’mores in a wedding dress. That would be so completely awesome.

By the way, if I haven’t made myself painfully clear by now, i LOVE doing WEDDING CUPCAKES. They are super duper fun, a greatly growing trend, and so easy to personalize. Any color liner, any color sugars or buttercreams, as well as arrangement or mini toppers. It is absolutely phenomenal what people are doing with cupcakes (cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com is an amazing site, check it out!) and I fully support continuing said success.

I seem to be lost in full frenzied wedding planner mode. I can’t even imagine what would happen if I ever had to actually be a bride.

Best wishes and easy buffets to all those reception planners out there!

tfc received a really amazing gift this week – the gift of an extern! Melanie comes to us from Yorktowne Business Institute’s Baking and Pastry program. She’s rockin at cookie doughs and getting stuff done quick but very well. Come say hi soon!

In other news,  there will be some delicious additions to the ever growing menu at the flour child. keep your eyes open and reading for yummies involving pretzels, eggs (in quiche form), and as always, funky new flavors of cupcakes to experiment with!

crumbs, cheers, and january!

delicious, tfc

i had a very sweet woman come in to tell me that one of my cakes was inedible. that was the first time that word has ever been used in conjuction to one of my orders. i was mortified. i thanked her for telling me and gave her a full refund ~ these things do happen. recipes go wrong, transport messes them up, whatever. i am just truly baffled at what could have occurred. everything that leaves this kitchen has been fully inspected by me. i’m just not quite sure how it escaped. needless to say i am so so so sorry, and i hope anyone else would tell me if something was not up to standard. i am horrified that it happened, but i have to understand (ALIXE THINGS HAPPEN) that there will be bad press. whether i rubbed someone the wrong way or maybe it just didn’t suit their needs.

have to learn from these things, and make sure every single recipe is scrutinized and done perfectly. had an off day i suppose. still very upsetting.

if you’re a business owner or have ever done something that you had no idea there was a problem, would you want someone to tell you? or keep you out of the know, in a ’slight ignorance is bliss’ situation?

for one thing, i have been nuts. this holiday season is going to be fabulous – Thanksgiving was insane. with the help of the wonderful Kerri and here and theres from Dean and Devon, I was able to crank out 23 regular sized pies, 4 mini pies, 13 cakes of various sizes, 7 dozen cookies, and 2 wheels of scones. and that was just orders! who knows what else flew out the door – sold out at 12:45 on the 25th! insanity. thanks for those who bought, thanks for those who ate, and thanks for those who keep coming back!

new for Christmas – EGGNOG COOKIES. holy cannoli they are delicioushhhhhh. the glaze itself is like the most dreamy nog soup – i made little trees this morning. there was a forest fire though and some ended up being extinguished in my mouth. mmmm.

i love regular customers. especially when they think they are the most seen, when theyve only been here once. it’s SO cool to know people when they walk in and i didn’t know them before the shop. it’s definitely a reality check when people come in and say that someone I don’t even know told them to come in. makes me tear up a little inside, just because.

I AM GOING AWAY IN JANUARY. i can’t believe it’s already december, but even more so I can’t wait to start a new year in the shop. 2010 means more opportunities, new recipes, an entire year of seasons to do different stuff. i am so so so excited.

little chocolate cake in the bain marie ready for pick up. sigh, we need an Ariel cake for tomorrow – I better start!

i’m coming back this time, I swear.

I have been open for three weeks today! That’s insane to me. Already I am falling into routines and making things work. Reordering things and rearranging eighty times to make sure that all is where I want it to be. I’ve been pulling almost 20 hour days, so I am truly exhausted, but it was just a mini check in. A picture from the first day!

until soon, bakerrrrfriends.

I am attempting not to hyperventilate.
trying not to give up hope
because there has to be some fabulous discount restaurant seating establishment that can tell me how to do this the right way and not breaking my entire budget on freaking seating!
i’m already huffing and puffing on these ovens that have yet to catch my eye with a price or function.
that’s aggravating in itself.

I did find some awesome plates that go with my colors for the shop… which is highly exciting.

and i don’t know about you – but this would be amazing for bridal showers, baby showers, and really anything slighty flower oriented. i see lots of really adorable set ups with flower cups. that, and it’s another one of those ‘could go anywhere’ ideas. i am now frantically planning how to hold a garden party just to use them. a great idea for an entire line of infused flavors too – i’m not looking to become magnolia or anything of the sort, but i think a lavender essence lemon cupcake would go just perfectly in one of these little guys.
game on.

okay and these i just want to have sitting around my room and mostly in my personal space at all times. they are like small canvases that i would almost feel bad dripping batter on the edge of one of them. how amazing would a little boston cream pie be in one of those? now that would be awesome. hmm.

many thanks to Bake it Pretty
, my new favorite etsy site..
check out the above as well as a ton of other adorable and “can’t-pass-up” baking supplies

as for cupcake recipes – im not completely sold on the ones i have so far. the carrot cake recipe i have, while very moist and delicious, is not exactly the best rising cake i’ve made.
any recommendations for recipes? i might have to ransack the BH&G Baking book – all of their recipes are absolutely supposed to work, which is a cool thing. although, it requires at times reading the recipe eighty times to make sure you don’t miss a “wait four days until you bake this” note. sigh.
there just aren’t any baking cookbooks that throw themselves out to me to make me want to throw down $25 for 50 glossy pages. any recommendations for the best baking book you own / have had the pleasure of baking something from?
any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

This is the most boring entry ever. I need pictures – STAT.
//edit… HERE!

congrats to cakewrecks, cute overload, and i can has cheezburger!!

when i made those grilled cheese sandwiches, my head hurt, a lot. i was rushing around in order to make sure that things were still hot when i took them to the set.
i burned myself with the oily pot lid, cut myself by reaching into a sink that was definitely not left by me.
(note to anyone who SHARES a kitchen with ANYONE – never EVER leave a knife in a dirty sink, or even in a basin of drying dishes. it will usually result in a painful reach.)
anyway.
those sandwiches were, while a bit dark, melted perfectly. browned by not charred, with a nice browning taste – not oily or too greasy. it is ‘grilled’ cheese, after all, so you have to expect a little bit of grease.
the tomato soup was spicy, but not burned. it didn’t splash everywhere or have weird chunks floating in it because i didn’t take the time to chop the tomatoes fine or have the soups meld together.
it came together. all of it.

wednesday night, as i was making delectable pretzel roll sandwiches, i was not in a rush. i felt decent – it was gorgeous outside and i didn’t really have to be anywhere until 2:30. i guess it was the comfort – the NON deadline, i suppose – and things got sloppy. i forgot to count lettuce leaves so we were short on lettuce. the cookies were okay – but not the softness i usually bake my dough to. the pretzels were lopsided… still good but weird to look at.
this was from a happy girl? weird.

cakes are almost impossible to track. wedding cakes i am a bloody wreck – especially when i think they will be simple cakes.
for instance.
this cake – hexagonal, with ‘PLEATS’ on the second layer.
i was also doing an entire wedding as well as a double wedding cake for the next day, so i planned on spending the necessary time but no more on this cake.
in the end.. i was horrified. especially when i took it to the venue and the florist had neglected to leave the promised flowers for the top.
the top tier, which had a huge blerb in the middle because i was planning on plopping a beautiful hydrangea on it.
instead, i had to whip out my trusty offset that i carry with me everywhere and hope to the cake gods that the cake would smooth.
the result, after the freakout and a random rose?

not too bad.

i think the ultimate scary was this grass cake. as i was carrying it out to the car, the entire top tier BOUNCED off center. that’s right.
bounced.
introduce the worst two hours of my life, making grass out of fondant that should have dried all night and attempting to fix buttercream that was so beautiful until my feet hit the concrete floor. also introduce the night i almost gave up baking.

it was based upon a magazine article, and we mirrored it basically down to the petrified wood base. the groom heat lasered their names and anniversary in the edge – it was incredible. i was very happy by the end, but let me tell you – it was terrifying.

to be honest, i’m not sure if there is one cake i was totally good with from the beginning. in fact, i’m usually pretty pessimistic when i begin a cake – yet somehow i get this breath of happy halfway through and im willing to carry on and believe that something good will come out of it.
it sounds lame, but it’s just the way i work.

i hold my breath daily to make sure i haven’t made it onto cakewrecks. i love that site so much, and i might actually be okay if i do in fact make it on there one day just to be on it. however, it would be one end of the spectrum or the other… either my item was horrific enough to be reported for ultimate damage control, or i made it into the sunday sweets post… one thing i aspire to, actually.

we shall see. *gulp*

PS. today i’m making sauteed mushroom pockets, as well as garlicky sloppy joe pockets. they smell fabulous. thanks again to my girl sandra. plus a few tfc adjustments, as per usual.

(all of these pictures aren’t copyrighted, but they are MINE. as in, cakes I have done…. just for the record.)