If you bake it, they will come...

My Cupcake Stall was held about a week and a half ago on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th February. It was a tiring two days, with extreme wild weather on Saturday with temperatures rising to 46 degrees celcius. It was forcasted to be such an extremely hot day even Victoria's Premier John Brumby advised people to stay home if they had no need to go outside. Nevertheless, I stayed up until 3am the night before baking hundreds of cupcakes for the stall lucky for me I had my nifty red Breville Wizz Mix Pro. I didn't want to bake them too early as cupcakes should be eaten nice and freshly baked. I woke up early to frost the cupcakes because at 3am my eyes started drooping and couldn't stay awake to finish frosting..I wanted them to look perfect. By 10am I could already feel the force of the heat, it was going to be the hottest day our state has ever experienced and yet I was excited to hold my stall. Well that didn't last long...

As soon as I stepped outside to transport the cupcakes to the Stall, which thankfully was under shelter, the sun rays were so strong and the wind was so hot..it was like standing in front of a huge furnace except I had no where to escape to for cold AC comfort. Literally within minutes of stepping outside of the car and holding my cupcakes in huge boxes I was worried the heat would melt the cupcakes... and melt they did. Well the high swirly pink vanilla buttercream cupcakes did...I had to quickly transport them all to a huge coolroom. Yes I had to refrigerate them... one of the biggest no-noes for cupcakes but I had no choice. It was either - melt in furnace heat or stay cool in coolroom. After 6 hours of hard work, I did not want them to spoil. The next 6 hours were exhausting, hot, windy and Mr.Brumby was right, everyone should've stayed home that day. This also meant that no one came to the festival and we lost half a day of sales. Luckily that night and Sunday late afternoon, there were huge crowds of people coming to the festival. I had so many compliments about my cupcakes and some people even bought 6 to take away. Some came back the next day to buy some more and told me they were really great. And it felt awesome. It's such a great feeling to be able to create something that other people appreciate and I am so grateful. And even though I was iffy about selling cupcakes that weren't the complete total best they could be since I had to keep them in the cool room which sucked out the moisture and made them a lot drier that they should be.. to still get compliments made me happy.

It's different from getting compliments from friends & colleagues that your cupcakes are great because these customers had to actually pay hard earned money for something of quality and to be happy with it, is a great feeling. But I am still determined to be able to bake an absolutely great tasting cupcake. I am not looking to bake the "best" cupcake ever because I feel that it is not achievable, I mean how do you ever know that you are the best at something? It's a huge claim to make since we live in a big world and what if the guy half way around the world does it better than you? Then you would be lying and selling a lie. And yes it kinda pisses me off when I see restaurants or bakeries stating they have "the best parma" or "the No.1 Vanilla Slice" because if it really was the best, you don't need to tell the world. Everyone would know already through personal experience or word of mouth. So back to my point, I'm constantly improving my recipes and learning new ways to bake a yummy cupcake. I am not a professional baker or have had training as a pastry chef. I'm just a normal person that isn't too great at cooking but loves to bake. Well let me rephrase, loves to bake cupcakes only. So I know I have a long road ahead of me in learning how to bake well on a consistent level...that's the hard bit!

During the two days, I had no time to watch the news or listen to it on the radio. So on Monday morning the devastating disaster of the bushfires and what they called Black Saturday finally reached me. Watching the horrible events on TV and listening and seeing the heartache of those affected was just heart-breaking. I constantly felt a lump in my throat and can feel their pain. And to see what a great lengths and effort Victoria and our Country are going to help these people rebuild their lives is just amazing, it makes me feel truly lucky to be living in such a giving, caring, responsive country.

So although we may not have made a profit on our stall, I did get to sell out my cupcakes and I did learn a lot through lots of hard work and a few tears. Thanks to everyone that came along to support, love you guys! Here are some pics I managed to snap up before I had to rush them to the stall. Notice how I used the egg tray to keep the mini cupcakes in? Ingenius eh? lol

xx
Shez