Overloaded

Wow, what a Saturday! While I recount today's tales I want you all to know I am eating this:

A slice of flourless chocolate oblivion cake (3 ingredients: Belgian bittersweet chocolate, European style butter & farm fresh eggs) with a pool of vanilla bean creme anglaise at the side & edible organic tulip petals. The tulips came from a very cool couple that frequents our shoppe. They have a gigantic totally organic garden & the flavour of anything they grow is stellar! The petals taste like a sweet delicate melting ribbon of pure joy! ***jin loses herself in that moment of bliss for way more than a moment***

We opened at 7:00AM to a very slow start. That's ok, I thought, I've so much to do! Then the pastry clock struck 7:30 & what a crowd! They kept bombarding us all morning, until I realized that it was 10:45AM & I needed to deliver a $350.00 gift basket full of sweets for 11-11:30AM. The assortment was purchased by an individual who was donating it to an auction to raise money for the local museum. The auction was paired with a fashion show. I also had to cater small sandwiches & cookies for the models.

It's hard to tell the scale from this photo, but the 'hat box' was actually about 2-1/2 feet wide by 2-1/2 feet tall.

It contained:
50 Petit Fours
48 Mini Scones
2-9" pans of Pull-Apart Caramel Pecan Rolls
24 Cream Cheese Frosted Molasses Cookies
24 Nutty Chocolate Chunk Cookies
24 Death by Chocolate Cookies
12 Frosted Orange Cookies (made w/ blood oranges, YUM!)
4 Jumbo Hand-Decorated Cut-Out Cookies (2 Skirts & 2 hats)
A $50.00 Gift Certificate

Here's a close-up of the hat jumbo cookie:

they measured approximately 8" x 5" each.

When I got back from this delivery I had to finish decorating a 5 tier wedding cake that needed to be delivered before 4:00PM. I had hoped to leave at 2:30. Talk about efficient, I left at 2:15PM! WOOHOO!!!

In the photos that follow, you can actually go on the delivery with me & watch me set up the cake. NO FINGERS IN THE BUTTERCREAM!!! I MEAN IT!!!

Here I am carrying the tiers into the reception hall. I'm not even winded & it's up two flights of stairs! Did I mention I had to make 5 trips?

Assembling the tiers in the "Garden Stand".

Setting up the royal icing topper, which I piped out the evening before.

Adding royal icing hearts here & there.

Voila! Me & my creation!

As of now I still haven't heard what they got for the auction item. People can be pathetically cheap here. Maybe I should have told you all about it sooner? I'll bet it didn't go for more than a hundred bucks. That's like saving $250.00 at Uniquely Yours on pastry. One of you could buy a plane ticket for that!!!