Last week I was incredibly busy baking. I baked Wednesday, I baked Thursday, I baked Friday . . . and then I didn’t bake again; until Sunday :). There was a reason I baked so much. I wasn't just going crazy in the kitchen, although that is something I might do. Last Friday my siblings and I hosted a retirement party for my dad. He retired from United Airlines, just shy of 30 years, so we wanted to create a special celebration of his career. YumYum Bakery was very happy to prepare all the desserts.
Since I know my dad quite well, I also know all of his favorite desserts, and I wanted to perfect them by the time of the party. On the menu were chocolate chip cookies, a classic, key lime tarts, basically a mini key lime pie, and a coffee eclair, which I tested out a few times. You can find that blog post here https://www.yumyumbakery21.com/post/coffee-eclair-s
Wednesday my sister and her family flew in from California, along with my parents who had been visiting her for the opening of her new storefront. She is the creative mind behind Indy Trading Collaborative. Check them out https://www.indytrading.co She is now renting a small storefront for all her creative needs, and it is adorable. I'm so proud of her. Anyway, I knew I would have to pick them up from the airport, and I needed to get some baking done that same day. I planned on two desserts per person since they were going to be small items.
The cookies were made WEDNESDAY. I planned to make 3 batches to get the amount I needed. I was making 100 cookies, a little bigger than what is "standard.” The recipe I use estimates one batch makes 5 dozen, so doing the math, I figured with a slightly bigger cookie, tripling the recipe should work. Five dozen is sixty, and sixty times 3 is 180, so that should have been enough with increasing the size. It was not. I ended up making two more batches. Apparently I made the cookies much bigger than I had planned. So here I am baking pan after pan of cookies only to realize I wouldn't have enough dough. I did ultimately make 100 chocolate chip cookies; they all were mostly uniform, and they tasted delicious. I also finished them with plenty of time to spare before picking up my family.
THURSDAY: keys lime tarts. They need to sit in the fridge for a few hours, up to overnight. I planned to make 50 tarts. They are so simple, THE best key lime pie recipe, complete with buttery graham cracker crust. To make the mini tarts, all I needed to do was put cupcake liners in cupcake tins, bake the crust for a few minutes, add the filling and bake that for a few minutes. Since I was making 50, I quadrupled this recipe because it stated it makes 16 mini pies. 16 times 4 is 64 so I figured I would have a few extra everyone could taste test before or have some extra after :). Well true to form for me this ended up being WAY too much! Wednesday not enough, Thursday too much. I ended up having enough crust and filling to make a whole pie. Which I won't complain about, but I must have some serious problems estimating here. Recipe for the tarts below.
FRIDAY: coffee eclairs. I felt comfortable about this recipe having made them a few times now. I planned to quadruple this recipe as I needed to make 50 and the recipe said it makes 12-15 depending on size. Now not being incredibly familiar with Choux and custard, despite feeling comfortable with the overall recipe, I was nervous how quadrupling it would work. So I decided to make it in batches and double it, thinking about my previous days; if I needed more, I would make more. Friday worked wonderfully. I only had 10 extra eclairs, which meant I could swap the imperfect eclairs for the better looking ones. The eclairs were the most time consuming since I had to wait for them to cool, then fill, then glaze, and I couldn't package them until the glaze had hardened. I did manage to get these done on schedule with time to spare before the big party.
My siblings came over on Friday to prep food, package it and bring it to the venue. Just a short 10 minute drive. We decorated, put the food and desserts out, and had a grand old time celebrating my dad's successful career and retirement. It was a fantastic night, and I was so happy for my dad. I'm proud of him for his career and happy he was able to celebrate with friends.
YumYum Bakery’s first event was a success!
Then Saturday came and went. Relaxing, time with family, and fun at my parent’s. Nothing crazy. Then SUNDAY came. We ordered pizza and everyone came to our house after church. Then my sweet, little niece said Uncle Andy would love a cake and proceeded to ask if we could make Uncle Andy a chocolate cake. I had some yellow cake in the freezer and gave her the option of making chocolate frosting, but she was adamant that Uncle Andy would want a cake. So my little niece and I made a chocolate chip pound cake. She helped through the entire process. Just me and my almost 4 year old niece making a cake. She thoroughly enjoyed it, and then we all ate it, and the consensus . . . it was delicious. I used a recipe from my "Taste of Home" cookbook.
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