Cupcake Order

This Saturday I filled an order for 200 cupcakes for a woman who was having a birthday party for her father.  He LOVES desserts!!  I also made a cheesecake as well.  Now, I've made cupcakes for this woman before but just as a potluck feature.  Her family had some of my cupcakes as well so they knew what was in store!!

I wanted to share with you what happened to get these cupcakes completed and delivered by 2:00 p.m. Saturday.  First you need to understand that I work 3 hours from home from Monday thru Friday and go home after work on Fridays, return on Sunday to do it all over again.  I only bake on the weekends at my home.  I left work at 2:15 on Friday, had to get gas so I drove to Costco, then had to meet my real estate agent to sign some paperwork, that was at 3:00, I left his office at 3:15ish.  I hit traffic halfway home, it took me almost 3 hours to drive 10 miles!!  I didn't get home until 8:30. 

After eating dinner, changing and putting my stuff away I didn't really get started baking until 9:30 p.m.  Oy this is going to be tough.  And WHEN am I going to find time to make the cheesecake? 

I started with the easy ones, Salted Caramel - I had made the caramel ahead of time.  I also asked my husband to take everything out of the oven - eggs, butter, cream cheese, sour cream etc...  Next up - Chocolate Peanut Butter.  First SNAFU - I asked my husband to sift the flour, then I asked him to measure the flour in a separate bowl.  After that I asked him to measure the sugar and put it in the bowl with the measured flour.  Whoops!  He put 4 cups of sugar in the large bowl of sifted (not measured) flour.  Ummm, okay - toss that one.  Start over. 

Next up - Lemon Meringue and Lemon Coconut!  I asked my husband to help and make the lemon curd.  When I was ready for it, whoops, wasn't congealed properly.  I tried to save it but couldn't.  Had to start over.  Now, mind you - I'm tired.  I've been up since 5:30, worked an 8 hour day, drove for 6 hours and had been baking about 4.5 hours and boy I was cranky!!  I tried my hardest not to take it out on my husband, but finally had to say - I've got this, you can go to bed.  Thankfully (love you honey) he went to bed.  On top of all of these issues - I was running out of some ingredients - sugar, butter, eggs.  Great.  No stores are open now. 

I had enough for the cheesecake.  Perfect!  I get that in the oven, finish filling the lemon cakes, ice them, put them in the boxes.  Meanwhile, the cheesecake will bake and then I'll go to bed, it can sit in the oven for the required time.  BEDTIME!! 

I got in bed, but had so much on my mind - I couldn't get to sleep.  When I did finally sleep I could not sleep well and woke up around 8:00 and couldn't get back to sleep.  I got up and started to get dressed to run to the store, but by this time my husband was up and went to the store for me.  Back to baking.

Next up - Strawberry Lemonade.  I thought the perfect icing for this would be a cream cheese icing.  We mixed fresh strawberries into the batter and into the icing.  My husband cut the strawberries up for me and created the garnish.  The icing was too runny and I didn't want to add a lot of powdered sugar, it would ruin the taste.  But it was also too late to try something else.  I had to do the best I could with what I had. 

Last - Raspberry Chocolate.  Whew!  I'm cutting it close.  Final touch - drizzle of white chocolate.  Finished - 1:00 p.m.  I have GOT to get in the shower!!!  While I was doing that the boys were loading the truck.  Would you believe during all of this....9-10 hours of baking, not one picture?  UGH!!!!

We made it to Barbara's father's house by 2:06.  Not bad at all.  Last glitch of all this?  While we were loading up the cupcake trays on the table, my husband, sweet as he is, kept messing up the cupcakes then finally dropped one.  That's it - OUT!!  But Barbara and her sister got to try that one - a Lemon Meringue - and loved it!!