last minute "business cards"
Carly Yu hired me to bake a birthday cake + some cupcakes for her sister's birthday. It's exciting to get paid for something you enjoy doing. Unfortunately, I have a nagging suspicion that the red velvet cake was not as good as it could have been. Let me explain. I don't like the idea of baking cakes too far in advance. I like to bake things the morning of the day it will be served. In this case, this meant staying up all night baking. Seriously, I didn't touch my bed that night. I don't know if my mind was fuzzy from lack of sleep but when I unmolded the red velvet layers they felt a little stiffer than they usually do. And obviously I couldn't sample a bit to confirm my suspicions so now I feel all anxious about how the cake was. I'm scared that I didn't measure something correctly, that maybe in my sleepy delirium I put an extra 1/2 cup of flour or left out a few ounces of butter. What if it was horrible? What if it was stiff as a board? To be honest this is really bothering me. It felt really important that my first catering job went well, like it was supposed to be good omen of things to come. Oh (!!) I'm almost positive it wasn't my best red velvet. I'm sad and disappointed in myself.
I also made strawberry pink lady cupcakes, which were adorable. I bought these great tulip baking cups that were just perfect. I thought they tasted pretty good and I made a double batch so that I could take some to Felipe's 27th birthday party. But Thomas later told me that they weren't my best cupcakes, that they weren't as moist as they could have been.
....................
I am a failure!
Oh, I am very unhappy with this. Maybe I just wasn't meant to exchange my baking for money.
6 comments:
First of all congrats on your first gig! You're not a failure. I think you will be great at it. It's all about fine tuning.
Second, the cupcakes were yummy. A little dense but still great. I ate two and had to pry the first one off my husband's hands b/c it was my cupcake. Loved the cupcake liners. Very pretty and made them look like flowers.
Third, the red velvet was a bit dry and heavy. I couldn't figure it out either. The color of the red velvet was spot on. The cream cheese frosting was fantastic which made the red velvet less dry. I wanted to lick off the frosting.
One thing I learned from the food network is that you can bake the cake a day ahead of time, wrap it in saran wrap tightly and then assemble the cake the day of. Make sure the cake is room temperature before frosting.
If I knew about you earlier, I would have hired you to bake me cupcakes and cookies for my shower.
I wish you the best of luck on your catering business.
thank you so much for letting me know how the cake turned out! I was anguishing terribly. At least my worries were confirmed and now i know. I've used this recipe before with successful results so I must have measured something incorrectly.
and thank you for the advice! I will try the saran wrap method next time.
your kind comments are greatly appreciated. please contact me for any future events that need catering. I will bake a dozen free cupcakes (better than the ones you were given) for you, just for relieving my mental anxiety.
thanks, again.
hi! your cupcakes and cake look deeeeeeeeeelishious! :) and the color is amazing!!! i made pink cupcakes before but could never get it to look like that! my friend referred me to this site. i enjoy baking too and am going to try out this chiffon cake recipe for my friend's bday this friday: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/06/skyscraper-cakes/
btw--
do you sift your flour? i never do that, but i hear its always recommended! so i might try it for the chiffon cake. lets talk!
i love smitten kitchen!
and i do sift my flour but i'm not really sure if it makes that big of a difference. i just feel really cool and professional with a flour sifter in my hands. i'd imagine it could be important for something as delicate as a chiffon cake though. let me know how it turns out!
Saehee! Don't be so hard on yourself! You did a good first job, in fact, I'm having a pink lady cupcake with jasmine tea right now :)
i thought the cupackes were delicious! i was glad you brought them to the picnic, because i managed to overcook every single batch of my cupcakes. :]
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