It’s safe to say in the lead up to Eat.Drink.Blog all of us had our task lists to tick off. I had to get a few things for the morning tea, make sure I had my business cards ready, and read through a few blogs to make sure I was up to speed on all our delegates. I’d already planned to take Friday off TAFE to make sure I had enough time to prepare and to make sure I could find an outfit for Saturday night’s dinner.
Then the phone call came.
Our afternoon tea supplier had to pull out at the last minute; for a completely legitimate reason, but still one that left us in a bit of a tight spot. With only one full day before the conference started we needed to find someone new, and thankfully that was where I could step in. So after an early TAFE finish on Thursday afternoon I packed up my trolly, had quick stop offs at the General Trader and Ecotel, and made my way down to Moana to start baking.
Thursday night & Friday are honestly just a blur of baking. I was doing 5 different cupcakes (which included a new addition of gluten free orange cupcakes), plus cake-pops and chocolate mousses. It’s not just about the cakes and the icing, but there’s all of the extra bits that seem to take so much time. Things like the candied carrot curls for the carrot cupcakes, the mini towers of caramel popcorn, homemade peanut butter cups, and chocolate moustaches. I also decided to experiment with some candied rose to go on top of the chocolate mousse; even if I’m not sure how strong the flavour of this ‘dust’ was in the end.
On top of this I had extra stuff to plan and print, like business cards for The Cupcake Table as well as for my blog, and little place cards for the cupcakes. Thankfully I had the graphics already, and just had to make a quick stop off at Officeworks to get them printed (Fruit Salad and Mixed Veg has a great post about getting last minute business cards printed).
None of it would have been possible without the help of Miss C, my fabulous niece (I’m not a mummy blogger, so I tend to forget the pseudonyms I have for my nieces. Miss C, Miss 12, Miss soon to be 13?). Working with her in the kitchen reminds me of this quote from Mario Batali:
My opinion is that yelling is the result of the dismay you feel when you realize you have not done your own job.
Miss C puts up with a lot when she joins me in the kitchen. I don’t really yell, but I get stressed, and I’m not good at dictating work to others. I like to do all the work myself, because when something goes wrong I’d rather blame myself than think it was all the fault of someone else. But she puts in a lot of hours, and a lot of hard work to help me out. Whether it’s baking the cakes for my cake pops, or just doing the dishes.
When I get frustrated with her, I have to keep reminding myself (and her) that it’s my fault something is running behind or not turning out, not hers. I should be the one teaching her. But she was amazing, and half the time I just love having her company, not only because she’s fun but because it’s easy to go crazy when you’re alone in a kitchen with sugar seeping into your pores and a clock that just keeps getting later and later.
But it happened. We finished. And amongst all the baking we also managed to pack the 90 goodie bags that the delegates took home, and cut up a bucketload of fruit for Sunday’s morning tea. Miss C stayed behind to clean up the kitchen, and I made my way along to the conference.
Then the longest day in existence happened.
I’ll write a detailed post about other aspects of the conference later, but for now I’d just like to focus on the cupcakes. Afternoon tea wasn’t until 2:45; I was tired and sore, and just really eager to get them out and prove that all this exhaustion was worth it. Finally 2pm rolled around and I started to set up. The chocolate mousses were delivered by my dad, because they wouldn’t have fared well sitting around unrefrigerated all day. Most of the cupcakes have to be ‘assembled’ just before their served, as toppings can go soggy or bleed. So piece by piece I placed my candied carrot curls, pressed on my popcorn towers, and sprinkled rose dust on the chocolate mousse.
Even before I could finish setting up bloggers were coming up and asking me about the cupcakes, what they were, who made them. I was buzzing with excitement, but trying not to show it too much.
Dennis Leslie (who I’ve raved about before, and who cooked our dinner on Saturday night) mentioned being a little daunted about cooking for food bloggers; I was feeling the same. I knew everyone was lovely because I’d already spent a day and a half getting to know them all, but I was just so scared of everything falling flat on it’s face.
I was especially nervous about having Adelaide blogger Rachel from The Little Cookbook try them. We met for the first time recently at one of the local Adelaide food blogger meet-ups. We had a great chat about cupcakes, avoiding fondant (or plastic icing as I feel I should be calling it, lest I get a rap on the hand from a TAFE chef), and having food that looks like food. So I was a little nervous that my cupcakes weren’t going to stand up to my ideals.
Watching food bloggers descend on food is an entertaining sight. Everyone piles around, with cameras and phones in hand, snapping away. It’s great being around other bloggers, because no one cares and everyone just has fun. There are no scornful looks, people just snap away until everyone’s had their photographic fill.
It was all a little bit overwhelming, and I’m pretty lucky I didn’t break down in tears. I was tired. exhausted. Achingly sore. And every one was so goddam lovely. I’ve never had so much time to talk to people when I’ve been supplying cupcakes. At the markets it’s always busy, and there are people to serve, but here I got a chance to chat to people about cupcakes, how to make cake pops, and just generally about my business.
For me the joy of baking doesn’t come from the baking itself (while it’s something that seems to calm most people I’m often quite highly strung in the kitchen), for me it’s when I get to see other’s enjoying the things I’ve made.
FUCK YEAH.
