One of the reasons I started this blog was because I wanted to hear more stories about people just starting out. I’m not saying they’re not already out there, but I felt like things were just a bit too polished for my liking. I wanted to see people’s Pinterest fails and then learn about how they picked themselves back up. So I thought I’d dedicate this week’s posts to my first order.
First, a little background… I live in a dorm. And as you might remember, I’m 27. My neighbors are a bunch of 19-22-year-old college students. A little odd right? My official title is “Resident Tutor” and its most similar to a traditional resident assistant role, but for folks who are in graduate school or a working professional. I’m lucky enough to be both… at the same time… and an aspiring blogger… Yay!
Anyways, one of my colleagues knows I love to bake and asked if I’d be interested in baking for her twins’ first birthday. She wanted Thing 1 and Thing 2 themed cupcakes. I take my work very seriously and as someone who would like to bake professionally at some point, I wanted to make sure that I got this right. I told her I wanted to do a test run before committing to the party. So I got to work and used my 24 young neighbors as my test subjects. After rave reviews from the students and a bunch of likes on Facebook, I told her I would do it. I even dropped her off a sample and she was happy with the result.
Fast forward a month, I told Rakim that I could NOT travel with him to Virginia for his college’s homecoming because I had my first “big girl baking gig”. Since he’s actually a saint, he totally understood. Part of me thinks he was just glad he wouldn’t have to clean up the kitchen afterwards. I’d planned my baking schedule out weeks in advance. I only needed to bake 36 cupcakes which would I figured would be about 1.5 times my go-to Red Velvet Cake recipe from Divas Can Cook (go check out this woman’s website. It’s Uh-Mazing!). I planned to bake on Saturday and frost on Sunday. As with the first time for ANYTHING, there was some good, some bad, and some downright ugly. I am Alysha and this is my story:
The Good:
At the end of the day, these were some of the best tasting cupcakes I’d ever made. The cake was moist, flavorful, and delicious. The cream cheese frosting was divine. The flavor was elevated by the addition of Mexican vanilla. I don’t think I’ll ever use another kind AGAIN. They were also really cute. I pride myself on being crafty and the laminated “Thing 1” and “Thing 2” cut outs were precious. They really took the presentation to the next level. Seeing that these cupcakes were for a pair of one year olds and their older sister’s five-year-old friends, I felt that taste was definitely the most important key to making this a successful birthday treat.
The Bad:
Even though I thought I planned everything out in advance, including triple checking my ingredient lists, because of unknown factors, some of my cupcakes pulled away from the liner making them look kind of (read: extremely) terrible. I had exactly enough buttermilk to make the recipe if I made no mistakes. And of course, I made lots of mistakes. As such, I had to make an 11:30pm run to Star Market for buttermilk and cream cheese. My second batch turned out well and after cooling, I put them in a clamshell container until I was ready to frost the next morning.
The Ugly:
One thing to know about me is that I love to sleep in and I am a perpetual alarm snoozer. I set my alarm for 10:45am, knowing I’d really wake up at my second alarm at 11:45am. Well, in reality, that turned into 12:45pm. I get up to look at the cupcakes and a few more had shrunk away from their wrappers! After a frantic post on one of my many Facebook groups, someone commented and said that they were under filled. Another said it might be the amount of oil in the recipe. A third suggested using foil liners. While informative, none of these suggestions meant anything to me seeing that I had 3 hours to go to the store (again), frost the cupcakes, and get to the party venue.
I was an anxious mess and what should have been a $5 expenditure at Michael’s turned into a $60 affair. I shop when I’m nervous, or happy, or sad, or excited… okay maybe I didn’t overspend because of nerves, I just like to shop!
I also felt like the clamshell design wasn’t very practical for tall frosted cupcakes. I had to dig them out of the clamshell with a butter knife to transfer them to the display set up. However, this was the SECOND transport method that I tested. I was originally going to use a box with cupcake inserts, but I couldn’t get the cupcakes out without smashing them.
In the end, I made it to the party on time, got the cupcakes out of the clamshells with only one casualty, and had a lovely time celebrating the cutest Thing 1 and Thing 2 in all of Massachusetts!
What I’d Do Differently?
While there are definitely some things I would do differently, nothing could have prepared me for my first order. It was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. As a perfectionist, I was so worried that something catastrophic would happen and my worrying marred the beauty of the process. After all, someone thought that my skill set was desirable enough to seek me out and pay me to do something I love. That in itself is an amazing thing. No one should ever take away the feeling, not even yourself. Now that I have one order under my belt, I can’t wait for the next one!
Have you ever baked for someone else’s event? What was it like for you? What advice would you give to an aspiring baker before their first order? Let me know in the comments!
Happy Baking!
Alysha
Wow great story glad it worked out for you too and hopefully it will be smooth sailing from here!
Thanks so much, marcusj64x!! It was a rollercoaster of emotions, but it was so exciting! Let me know if you have any suggestions for what I should try next!
Great read! I never knew baking could be so stress inducing. Way to be extra prepared. And, the cupcakes look delicious!
Hi Jazzy J! Thanks so much for the comment. It was super stressful, but super rewarding! Stay tuned for the next recipe!