Buried in Baking

I really need to do a better job of keeping this thing updated. I’ve been crazy busy, but that’s no excuse. I found myself buried in baking throughout the entire holiday season. I took part in another home boutique in the middle of November, tackled a huge baking job for 400 people for the Women’s Christmas Dessert at my church, fulfilled a few small orders- including baking for a friend’s baby shower- as well as doing another large order for a Christmas party for 150 people. Suffice it to say, our kitchen was full of whirlwind activity for about a month and a half straight. By the time Christmas was over I was ready to sit back, relax, and not touch the Kitchen Aid or the oven for a while.

When I first agreed to bake for the Women’s Christmas Dessert at my church, I really didn’t think it would be that big of a task. Sure it was for 400 people, and sure I had never baked for a crowd that large, ever… but hey, I’m not one to turn down a challenge. Well, you would think I would have kept it simple…you know, bake, say 400 regular size cupcakes..no big deal-totally doable…but no, I decided to do a trio of mini desserts-totaling 1200 desserts in all. Call me crazy, but I did it- with a HUGE amount of help from my mom. I ended up making mini pumpkin spice cupcakes topped with white chocolate buttercream frosting, red velvet cake balls dipped in dark chocolate, and vanilla bean shortbread cookies, shaped as Christmas trees, topped with white sugar sprinkles.

Everything turned out great, despite a near cause for freak out as my mom and I were on our way to the church the morning of the dessert to frost the cupcakes. When we went to turn down the street that leads to our church, we found that it was completely blocked off with cops keeping people from going down, all for some ceremony for a freeway bridge dedication..seriously?? We asked the cops if there was any way we could get to the church and they sent up completely around to try to get in from the other direction…but when we got down there, the cops at that end wouldn’t let us go through either. At that point, I was kinda starting to freak out a bit, because I had 400 cupcakes to frost, and no way to get to the church kitchen to do it. So we went back around to the other side, and I had to practically beg the cop to let us through, telling him all about the dessert that night and how I had to get through to finish making everything…he finally, though reluctantly, let us pass, and I was able to finish everything up on time..crisis averted.

After tackling that huge job, every other baking endeavor I’ve taken on since feels like a breeze. I baked mini cookies ‘n cream cupcakes topped with pink buttercream frosting and a mini Oreo for my friend Liana’s baby shower (baby Bailey is due the end of February :-)), which, I have to say, turned out super cute. Just for fun, I got a little creative and baked cookies ‘n cream cupcakes made with the red Christmas Oreos and topped them with red buttercream frosting. I also baked lots of chocolate peppermint cake balls (devil’s food cake mixed with peppermint buttercream frosting, dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with crushed peppermint), which were a HUGE hit with my family, my boyfriend :-) and clients alike (pictures coming). I did quite a few mini red velvet cupcakes, tons of red velvet cake balls, and made my first ever vanilla cake balls (homemade Christmas funfetti cake mixed with vanilla buttercream, dipped in white chocolate and topped with Christmas sprinkles). I was beyond surprised with how well my business did throughout Christmas…I would never have expected things to take off like they have..its crazy!

400 mini pumpkin spice cupcakes










Lots of red velvet cake balls












400 vanilla bean shortbread Christmas tree cookies












The trio of desserts: mini pumpkin spice cupcake with white chocolate buttercream frosting, red velvet cake ball, vanilla bean shortbread cookie

Mini Cookies 'n Cream cupcakes













Vanilla Cake Balls









Mini Christmas Cookies 'n Cream Cupcakes & Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes





I’ll do my best to keep this thing updated more often, instead of writing massive posts like this every couple months. I have lots of orders that I’m working on for the next couple weeks, so I’ll post more pictures soon!