My First Gig!

Today's post isn't going to be full of tasty pictures because I was so caught up and nervous about getting everything done in time!  One of Justin's co-workers asked me to bake for her boyfriend's surprise 40th birthday party, and I just could not refuse. A chance to see what "catering" is like? 50+ people seeing what I can do? It was the perfect opportunity to test the waters and I could not have been more excited. We decided on about 70 cookie sandwiches - 35 lemon/lemon, and 35 chocolate/peanut butter.

Friday afternoon, I took out all of my ingredients and placed them on the counter. I grabbed all of my whisks, spoons, measuring cups, and knives and I thumbed through my little, pink recipe book until I got to the right page. And then I walked over to the couch and sat down. Turns out, I was more nervous than I thought. This was my first attempt at sharing my baked goods with complete strangers. Were they going to like it? Was I going to be up until 2 a.m. baking cookies?? And then suddenly my nerves turned into excitement and I couldn't wait to get started!!

So I turned on the stove. And then I started creaming the butter and the sugar, and zesting the lemons, and sifting the cocoa powder. I started measuring the flour, and combining the dry ingredients. And then before I knew it, Justin was home and I had already baked over 70 cookies!

And thankfully, I have an incredible support system of friends and family who were cheering me on and helping me get everything together. Justin and some of our wonderful friends, Mike and Mary, came over to help me package the cookie sandwiches and put stickers on flyers with my contact information that I had made to hand out at the party. I was finished and the kitchen was clean as a whistle by 11 p.m.

Final product, all packaged up!

This is me around 10:45pm. Clean up crew!

The actual event flew by in the blink of an eye. I showed up, met some great people, made a few connections, and watched everyone enjoy my cookie sandwiches! It was really fun, and I'm looking forward to being able to do this more often!

If you haven't noticed, Littlest Love has gone into full swing! I've got a Facebook page, a new e-mail address, and there's more REALLY exciting news on the way! Stay tuned for the next post to hear all about it!

National Donut Day!

Oh happy day! It's National Donut Day today, and I began my celebration last night around 8pm with my first batch of donuts...EVER.  No no! Not my first batch to ingest.  I've eaten my fair share of donuts in my lifetime, so I'm sure I've reached "batches" by now.  I'm talking about my first ever attempt to MAKE donuts.  Another fun adventure in my quest to be the ultimate, all-knowing baker extraordinaire.

Lucky for me, I quickly learned that donuts can in fact be baked, not fried.  My wonderful boyfriend ran off to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy two mini donut pans while I began scouring my favorite food blogs for recipes for my first ever donut-making attempt. I went with a blueberry-lemon cake donut, and drizzled a lemon glaze all over.  And I mean ALL. OVER.  This was to ensure maximum caloric intake, which I think was only mildly successful.  Had I fried those bad boys up (truth be told, I thought about it!), maybe I'd be singing a different tune. But instead I went for enjoyable, not heart-stopping.

Lucky for me, I started with some beautiful raw materials.  The blueberries were fresh and sweet and the Meyer lemons were bright and smelled amazing!

I plated them to show you the great color - and so I could eat a few while I baked the donuts!

I halved the blueberries (so the juice would spread) and doubled up on the amount of them for some ultimate juicy blueberry flavor...

And had a lot of fun using my new donut pans!  I'm going to turn everything I bake into a donut shape now, just because I can!

Oh wow. Look at those juicy blueberries oozing sweetness all over the the cakey dough!

They sat in the pan for a while to cool and turn a perfect golden brown, which prepped them for the lemon glaze to be poured all over them. And I triple taste tested the lemon glaze to make sure I did it right. Tough job!

And there you have it folks! Gooey hands? Check. Happy mouth? Double check!

Oh - and below you can see one of the beautiful strawberry donuts I made as well! The recipe suggested to fill the donut pan half way, but I ended up filling the donut pan a little more for the batch of strawberry donuts to see if I could get them a little bigger.  In fact, I'd say I nearly filled it to the top.  This made them super fluffy and helped them take on a more donut-like shape, which I preferred.

Yum is right!  Did you do anything fun to celebrate National Donut Day? Hopefully each of you grabbed something deliciously wonderful from one of the many donut shops offering promotions for this patriotic and tasty holiday. And if not, it's not too late! You've still got a few hours left to channel your inner-glutton and grab a few glazed nom noms! 

Check back early next week for more baking attempts from me, and possibly some business news. 

Until then, do-nut worry & be happy!