All the Orders I Have Neglected to Write About

As I was uploading pictures to my computer, I realized how many orders I have not posted about since Thanksgiving. I'm going to try to be better about that going forward, but things have been busy (more about that later). So, without further ado..

1.  Brown Sugar-Glazed Crumble Apple Pie (early November): A friend Ben had approached me about baking him an apple pie (his favorite) just because, but never followed up. His girlfriend Jenny took matters into her own hands and ordered it for their anniversary.

2.  Thanksgiving: Oh my. I think I have not posted about this because it was such an enormous undertaking that I just wanted to forget it for awhile afterward. I think I felt that way at the time as well, because I didn't really take any pictures. But, the count was the following:

• 2 Carrot Cakes
• 1 Gluten-free Carrot Cake
• 1 Flourless Chocolate Cake
• 1 Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
• 1 Brown Sugar Glazed Crumble Apple Pie
• 1 Gluten-free Pumpkin Roll
• 1 Loaf Pumpkin Bread

Table of goodies: carrot cakes, flourless chocolate, and pumpkin bread.

I also baked a Maple Cream Cheese-Glazed Pumpkin Carrot Cake and a Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie for my family as well. Oh, and made our entire Thanksgiving dinner.... So yeah, make sense now why I haven't posted? Even typing this now makes me slightly stressed.

3.  Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd Filling, Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting and Berries (early January): My coworker Jackie ordered this for her boyfriend Justin's birthday. I was really pleased with how this turned out. The cake was really dense, almost like a pound cake. The curd was tart and refreshing. The whipped cream cheese gave a little bit of sweetness, along with the natural sugar in the berries. And it was pretty to boot. The exposed sides added a bit of elegance, so I may be trying that out more in the future. It works especially well with really moist, dense cakes that don't necessarily need frosting with every bite.

4. Red Velvet Cupcakes (mid-January): A "second-degree" order, if you will - a high school friend of my college friend Colleen asked me to make a dozen red velvet cupcakes for her and another friend's birthday. I totally forgot to take pictures, but they looked like ones I have made in the past.

5. Baby's First Birthday Chocolate Chip Cookies (late January): This one I was pretty pumped about, as it showed earlier marketing attempts had paid off. You may recall back in August I voluntarily catered the Irish Entrepreneur's Breakfast, and that a woman, Jennifer, emailed me after about making cookies for a baby shower, which I unfortunately had to decline. Well, she followed up in January about making those same chocolate chip cookies from the breakfast as favors for her daughter's first birthday party. I packaged them three to a goodie bag and wrapped them up with a pink bow and a Dolce + Decadence label. Jennifer loved them and said the cookies were a hit. 

6.  Carrot Cake Balls (mid-February): This may be a "fourth-degree" order. Because I was really busy back in September, I did not have time to make my friend Erin a birthday cake, and I promised her I would make one eventually. Well, eventually was early December. Erin loves cream cheese frosting, so I was thinking carrot cake, but at that point I was so tired of making carrot cake that I tried to think of ways to mix it up somehow. We discussed carrot cake balls, but Erin was concerned she wouldn't get her cream cheese frosting fix from this. I decided to try something different - rather than dipping the balls in chocolate as is normally done, what if I dipped them in frosting? I melted the frosting slightly until it was thin enough to dip and coat the ball, then rolled the ball in chopped pistachios and pecans. They turned out really great, and Erin loved them. She shared them with her boyfriend, who brought them into work and shared with his coworker, which led to this order...

Erin's boyfriend's coworker thought these were the best things he had ever eaten, and asked what was the minimum order he could place for himself. I figured I could make 15, so we did that. And thus he got his own plate of carrot cake balls.

So those are the orders from the past couple months. Look for my next post about some personal baking that I did in that time frame as well. Also, check back in the near future for a post about one of the most ridiculous cakes I have ever made. It will be pretty epic...