Bite-size Desserts!
Soon after I announced my launch of my blog, I received a phone call from Sunil’s Uncle to create dessert delights for his daughter’s wedding party of 200 guests! I was awe-struck!!! With the bride on board, I was thrilled to have this opportunity and couldn’t believe she was trusting me to provide treats on her special day! It was the first time that I would be baking on such a big scale in my teeny-tiny kitchen…..I was up for the challenge! š
As they were already bringing in the main wedding cake and other fruit desserts, I decided to complement the selection by creating mainly chocolate items! I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to make one item, two, or many! After brainstorming, a discussion with my husband and much contemplation (as we wanted to do it all!!), we opted for five different varieties; each with its own distinct flavour, texture, and wow factor! At first, I thought it was not possible to do it all on my own, but with the support of my husband, no mission is ‘mission impossible’ š
Planning Stage:
To keep myself organized and to be sure IĀ had accounted for everything I needed on the day of baking, I created a spreadsheet! Surprise, Surprise…those who know me really me, know how much I love my spreadsheets and for everything I do, I have a spreadsheet! I can’t help it!! š I cannot say enough how organized they keep you and they are a great medium to get ALL your thoughts down together: including ingredients to buy, any advance preparation, timings, storage and transport considerations. It was the one single thing that cleverly restricted me from being lost at any point during this process!
Execution:
So you are probably still wondering what the five selections were: chocolate-mocha hazelnut macaroons, chocolate brownie bites, lemon-ginger meringue mini cupcakes, chocolate-oreo truffles, and chocolate tuxedo strawberries.
Our biggest limitation was the size of our oven, come micro come grill! With only small oven shelf, we had to make sure there was not any idle time. Thus, I started with the items that required the oven and in between each oven change, I prepared the mix and made sure the next batch was ready to go. I would be lying if I said everything went smoothly: there was a batch of italian meringue that flopped, a reject batch of macaroons and brownie bite crumbling from over-handling! In the end, we made close to 400 pieces of intense pleasure.Ā Overall it was a great learning curve for me across all aspects of this gastronomic project!
At the event:
When it was time for the desserts to come out, we displayed them all on a perfectly decorated table. It was the moment of truth…did it live up to the expectations in terms of presentation and taste? After speaking with many, many of the guests, the hard work had paid off!! It was rewarding to see all those great smiles and people really enjoying the sweet delights! I couldn’t have asked for more!! I was glad to see those empty trays š It was my first big event and I hope to spread more smiles with more opportunities!
Chocolate-Oreo Truffles
Chocolate-covered Tuxedo Strawberries
These are the same lemon meringue cupcakes made using a recipe by Eric Lanlard, whom I met at the “Taste of London”. The bit that we changed was that we used stem ginger instead of candied lemon.
The beautiful batch of hazelnut macaroons….mmmmm! You can find this delicious here.Ā In the ganache filling, I added cinnamon powder (one of my favourite spice) to give it another dimention.
VegDelights 