Let's see where do I begin. First, Gabby's dad was kind enough to let us use the kitchen he manages as our baking kitchen, which was wonderful.
Friday before the party, I was on schedule to do SO much stuff. And then guess what? Thursday I start feeling like I'm coming down with something. Something like the flu or strep throat. Sounds fun right? Not so much. Rich had antibiotics that I popped, I did what little stuff I could and then took a long nap on the couch. When I woke up that night, I felt 1000 times better and was able to get the orders for Saturday done, and pack up some of the containers that needed to go with us for baking and pack up the other decoration boxes. Then it was time for sleep...I knew if I didn't sleep the rest of the weekend would be bad.
Bright and early on Saturday morning, we loaded up the truck and headed right to Sam's to get the supplies for the huge baking task ahead of us. Once that was finished, Steph, Gabby and I sat down and started to mix up the dry ingredients. A genius idea I might add. We took freezer bags, took a Sharpie wrote the dry ingredient list on there, added the baking instructions, then added the list of what wet ingredients need to be added to finish off the cupcakes. This my dears, was a lifesaver!
Once all that was done, Silka and I headed off to drop off the cupcake orders. While we were doing that, Steph and Gabby packed up the house and went to pick up Andrew to meet us at the place.
Let the insanity begin. Start time: 6:30 PM.
While Silka and I stopped to pick up food for everyone (hey we needed to power with some nom nom's), the little bakers set everything up. I really wish I would have had a better counts of things, but here is what I remember:
- 50 lbs of flour
- 50 lbs of sugar
- 15 dozen eggs
- 68 lbs of butter
- 32 oz Vanilla
- 2 gallons of milk
- 36 blocks of cream cheese
- 64 ounces of sour cream
- 2 containers of Crisco
- 2 1/2 gallons of buttermilk
- 1 half gallon of heavy cream
- 1 bottle of white vinegar (didn't use the whole thing)
- 8 fl ounces of red food coloring
- 2 econo size boxes of large Reese's
- 2 econo size boxes of mini Reese's
- 2 econo size boxes of Oreo's
- 1 econo size box of Oreo's minis
- 84 pounds of powdered sugar
- 5 lbs of carrots
- 2 containers of Hershey's Chocolate
- 1000 mini cupcake wrappers
- 1000 regular cupcake wrappers
Holy wow.
Best red food coloring I've found. I need to find this stuff in bulk instead of buying Walmart out of it everytime ;) (Random: why is 1 box always like $4.69 in stores?!!?)
That's a lot of eggs.
Oh hello delicious candy.
Moooooooooooooooooooove over, we have lots of ingredients!
Smile! Happy baker, not so happy assistant. Just kidding :) We love gabby.
And just when we think things are going great...BAM. The mixer decides to be tempermental and not want to work. We tried everything, unplug, reset, turn off everything and restart. Reset all the parts, take the bowl off, put the bowl on...then we had to call the baker and ask him what to do!
I think we used every spatula, scooper, cupcake pan, bowl, whisk, measuring cup and measuring spoon I owned.
All in all - I couldn't ask for better people to help me that night. It wouldnt have gotten done without all the dedication and cooperation from everyone.
Steph: Words cannot even describe the thank you that I owe you. You were amazingly fantastic, wonderfully ass kicker and red velvet mixer. Lord knows I wouldn't have be able to have half of the things I do without your thrifting, spray painting, kindly telling me what I 'need' to do, and just all around being amazing. Thank you for always being my partner in crime and the other half of my business mind. Now strap in, cause we goin to the top baby!
Gabby: Yo Gabba Gabba!!! Thank you for being that extra organization that I need. You were awesome in finding everything, scooping, mixing, putting the cupcakes away and labeling. Good thing beause there was no way I was going to be able to figure it out on my own!
Silka: Wifey dearest. Thank you for helping to keep me sane and all of our heart to hearts. Words cannot describe how happy I was that you were there with me. Best friend isn't enough.
Andrew:Thank you for sticking it out til the very end. I hope you had a great time and we entertained you. You were awesome at scooping and arranging the cupcakes. You'll have a job kid, as soon as I get my own bakery!
Ralph and Elyse: Thank you so much for the use of your awesome kitchen and for providing us entertainment all night! May I have some of your delicious milk and cupcakes?
It was one hell of a night, filled with more cupcakes than I could even count, laughs and random dances, looking like we got into a fight with flour (or maybe just me?), sore feet, tons of curses. It felt like the longest episode of cupcake wars ever.
After a ride home, 3 batches of icing made at home, showers all around, and people sleeping everywhere, we were finally done.
Stop time: 2:30 AM.
Stay tuned for Part 3!
