Taste of Plainview and Our Hometown Heroes

As a poor excuse for not blogging in weeks, I will tell you that you that I am graduating next Saturday and the blogging will get better... please be patient...

These last few weeks were intense. (It seems that there have been more and more intense weeks lately!)I have a lot to tell you but we will just start with several weeks ago and there will be more to come. So about “that” week - Jess and I tag-teamed the week, she took the first half and I took the last half. We had so many misc. orders: a dozen cupcakes here, a batch of cookies there… but the peak was definitely Thursday – good thing we teamed up together.

Thursday the 24th (MARCH - gees, where does the time go) was the annual Taste of Plainview competition where local restaurants compete for the Golden Fork Award in different categories. Obviously we were competing in the dessert category. But that is not all we were doing on that Thursday… oh no we were catering a career fair at Wayland that lasted from 9am-1pm. So, we got there EARLY (even earlier than normal – 5am)and we started on the 75 muffins that we had due at 8am for the career fair. 7:30am, muffins done. So now we will start the 400 cupcakes for the Taste of Plainview. You know, there was a time when that would have freaked me out – but now, it is manageable and also exciting. HOWEVER, do not for one second think that I did not make a plan – a very detailed plan, by the minute of course. (Jess is used to this “type-a” behavior).

Now the last time we made this many cupcakes it was a wedding celebration – we had six hours to make those… we had two hours to make these (please do not forget we have only two ovens). I know you are wondering why we only had two hours. Well, we had to be done by 10:00am so that the lunch girls could make sandwich platters for the career fair. It was game time. By 10:30am we had baked all of the cupcakes. I left to go to class, Jess left for lunch and a couple of hours later the career fair was completed and we met back up to load the Prius (BEST catering car ever)and get to the Ollie Liner Center to ice the cupcakes and set up our display.

As for the display, we trusted Stacey (our resident graphic design guru) completely. She came through with some great signs for each flavor in cute frames, some AWESOME cupcake brochures and some misc “stuff” donated from her wonderful mom, Cheryl. A couple of boxes, two sheets, and several mirrors later, the display was complete. I loved it.

Meanwhile, Jess was icing cupcakes in the back and Christina came in with Sonic slushes and all of the things that we forgot (of course it was SEVERAL things). She swept in and took pics as Jess and I iced and iced, and iced. One hour later, we were finished icing, Christina had taken many photos and topped cupcakes with coffee beans and peanuts, and Jess and I had destroyed the ENORMOUS and GLORIOUS kitchen at the center (do not worry, we left it spotless).

David and Stacey had mentioned that they had a surprise for us, but I never dreamed that they would get our very own hometown heroes to help us serve cupcakes! Three of our favorite officers helped us serve cupcakes for the entire event – we were honored!

About the actual event… turns out 420 cupcakes were not even close to being enough. We spread them out as much as possible – but in the end we ran out an hour before the event was over… well, live and learn. Next year, we are making 700!

At the end of the night, after everything was loaded and we waited anxiously for the results, Parker showed up with her “lil’ cupcake” apron. She is precious. (Jack was tuckered out from the festivities and slept despite the noisy room.) And then, the announcement: (drum roll please)OF COURSE they started with appetizer, and then main course, and then pizza, and then FINALLY dessert – WE WON!!! I was ecstatic! David made (okay, he did not have to nudge me very hard) me go to the front of the room and hold the beautiful Golden Fork Award; he followed with Stacey and Parker, who all made the picture for the paper. After the picture, they made me give back the award so they could engrave our name on the plaque… it took some convincing to give it up!

What an event! We were so tired and we learned so much – but mainly we learned that we have the best police department, the best supporters, and the best dessert in Plainview. So, thank you Plainview for your patronage and support – we really could not do it without you.