so the past few weeks have been busy and have not allowed me much time to bake. however, among the craziness that is the month of may i did complete my first "order" for the American Cancer Society's DetermiNation pre-event dinner. for those of you just tuning in, that is exciting!
i learned a lot of new things about myself and baking (see below for my list) but had a really great time through it all and look forward to taking on some new projects as they come.
this time i stayed to the classic favorites and made a french vanilla cupcake with vanilla icing and a double chocolate cupcake with a chocolate ganache. all in the ACS theme in red, white and blue and topped with candles to show appreciation for those who ran this year's mini marathon to help end cancer (and make more birthdays)
lesson(s) learned:
1. i have decided there is a difference between "made-from-scratch cupcakes that look pretty and wow the taste buds" and "cute and crafty cupcakes that steal the show". therefore, i learned that i am not at a level to attempt both versions and must pick one to be satisfied with my efforts (for this post, you can see i aimed for the tasty homemade and skipped the attempt to make the cupcakes look like running shoes...maybe next time)
2. making cake bites for a large amount of people takes a massive amount of patience and precision. be prepared to spend several hours on these if you want them to look perfect. after making 20 (half way there!) i realized they didn't look perfect and i wasn't prepared to give them strangers. check out the photo below on the 10 or so that did turn out how i wanted!
3. when baking for a large group of people during the work week, you need to stagger you steps - monday bake the cupcakes, tuesday ice them and deliver on wednesday. i think i also shouldve wrapped the cupcakes to keep their freshness and prevent them drying out. don't know if the box i bought to store them did the trick.
