Tuesday, May 05, 2009

No TWD; Instead, Dessert Smorgasborg!

This past week has been a blur of packing, moving, unpacking, baking, missing sleep, skipping showers, making poor nutritional decisions, and manipulating my husband into giving me endless foot massages. In short, I didn't have time to make the TWD recipe. But considering the fact that I don't drink alcohol or coffee, and I need another slice of cake like I need a hole in the head, perhaps skipping the tiramisu cake was not a huge tragedy. Moving on!

Here's what I've been up to instead. The small-scale wholesale bakery I work at has relocated from a small rental kitchen that we shared with a ravioli company to a huge, beautiful, sparkling clean kitchen that we OWN. Upgrade!

We used to do all of our baking in two ovens that looked like this. (Yes, just 2 small ovens.) This particular oven is my arch-nemesis for LIFE, because the pilot light would consistently go out and refuse to re-light for hours at a time. I really feel like we need some sort of Medal of Valor for doing mad volume in the face of horrible baking conditions.
We now rock it out in this spacious baketopia. [Ignore the clutter, these are move-in pictures.]To celebrate our swell new digs, we had a big kitchen-warming party this past weekend...5 days after moving in. Good thing we're awesome, otherwise it might have been a bit stressful! Setting up the dessert table:Chocolate-dipped strawberries. The berries came from the business next door. They're a real estate office/produce supply company/crematorium. Yes, really. And yes, I will never get tired of telling this fact to everyone I meet. Expect to read about it in every blog post from now on.
Profiteroles.
Chocolate-peanut butter mousse cups.
Brownie mint sandwich cookies, my personal fave.
Army of miniature cupcakes.

Creme brulees. These are SUCH a pain but they're really popular so we always end up making them when we do petit four catering. Curse our creme brulee skills!
Cake pops, on their own Dr. Seussical cake pop trees. They were the most popular thing at the party. We did red velvet, german chocolate, and vanilla berry. They'd be a great item to sell if they weren't so time-intensive and small. It's hard to charge a lot for a two-bite item, even if they take ages to make.
And who ARE the masterminds behind this bakery? These jokers here:
Now that we're all settled, I hope to do some more posting and be back to regularly scheduled blogging and commenting soon!

20 comments:

  1. What a fun place to be and YUMMMM to all the goodies!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! What a great place to work?! And how are you soooo thin and be surrounded by so much sugar?! :) You must do a post about your secret! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, how exciting!! Everything looks so delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  4. How fun!! You are living my dream-I would do almost anything to work at something I love. The desserts look absolutely amazing- in particular the Brownie-Mint Sandwich cookies. Love that combination! Any chance of a recipe? Best of luck in the new kitchen!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow, I am sooo jealous, I want to work in a bakery. Looks like a great bunch of treats.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow what a kick butt new place!
    Congrats :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. OMW...what a fabulous looking lineup!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous11:24 AM

    Congrats on the big move! Everything looks delicious. I think I would like the mint brownie sandwiches too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I want to work THERE!!!! All those beautiful, wonderful, luscious, fabulous, decadent, desserts. I would add more, but my brain is tired.

    Congrats on your new digs. Baking will be fun. Can you bake a voodoo oven of your nemisis and set it on fire occasionally. Would make me feel better.....

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous4:42 PM

    That kitchen looks awesome!!

    The desserts look darn good too - yum!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Love the new baketopia! And your next door neighbor is a real head scratcher. All those goodies look amazing! Rest up and we'll see you next week for the lemon tart.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Christy in NC8:49 AM

    I'm drooling over those pics. And not the desserts either!(Though they looked awesome!) What I wouldn't give to be able to bake in a place like that!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Congrats on your great looking new space. I would have been hospitalized with sugar shock if I had been anywehere near that dessert smorgasbord..it look heavenly!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I am consumed with jealousy! What a spectacular place to work!

    ReplyDelete
  15. i like cake.please tell me how made the cake?
    Get Rid of Wrinkles

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous12:30 PM

    everything looks amazing

    ReplyDelete
  17. Congrats, Liz! This is so exciting. I want to come visit you. You know, I'm only in N.Cal. (Berkeley/San Fran, to be specific). I want to come check out this awesome baketopia. Man oh man, I'm soooo jealous. And what fabulous goodies. (I also want to meet your next door neighbors.)

    ReplyDelete
  18. By browsing your blog give me an idea on how and what to prepare for my next birthday celebration

    ReplyDelete
  19. This is really colorful.. tasty for my eyes

    ReplyDelete
  20. I thought it was an excellent blog, that information has been very helpful in my life, I am a desserts lover, so I really enjoyed this reading, this weekend I want to do one! Thanks for this great moment!

    ReplyDelete