And what a birth it was! The labour was long, and though not terribly difficult, it was a finicky process involving much cutting, folding and taping. Oh and of course baking, we can't forget all that baking. I'm fairly happy with the outcome but would definitely change a couple things the next time around (oh yes there WILL be a next time!).
First off, I decided that I was going to make everything from scratch. Good idea for the quality of the product. Bad idea for someone with time constraints, who happens to be baking late on a Friday evening in a very small kitchen. The brownies, which I made from a recipe out of a church cookbook my Grandmother gave to me, turned out great. The cupcakes, some of which rose too much due to my over filling the cups, also managed to turn out nicely (if not as perfect as I would've hoped). Alas in my rushing I forgot to take pictures of both of these.
And then there were the sugar cookie french fries...
The recipe I went with (although tasty) was much too soft and difficult to work with. After a couple maddening attempts to cut the dough (which were accompanied by a few frustrated sighs and more then one expletive) , I gave up late Friday night and shoved it into the fridge in hopes of hardening the dough enough to work with in the morning.
Saturday morning arrived and I resumed my hectic race to get everything, myself included, ready in time. I fought with the dough some more, and by rotating in intervals the cutting, baking and placing of dough in the fridge/freezer, managed to produce a finished product.
I mixed the icing, with only one mishap involving the knocking over of my red food colouring resulting in a red stained foot. I then placed the icing into bags, packed up all the various components into containers and set off, red foot and all, to the party.
Now, a few days before I had also downloaded the ingenious, and super cute, templates posted on the site so I could make cardboard baskets and fry sleeves.
I slightly underestemated the amount of time it was going to take to cut out said baskets and sleeves (and how stiff and lacking in feeling my fingers would become). In fact, even though I had started cutting a couple days earlier, I ended up a little bit rushed the day of and had to finish cutting and taping them together during the car ride with the generous help of my Mother.
One thing, in addition to timing things out better, that I wish I had done was cutting the food a bit neater. Since I was rushing through most of the process the fries weren't quite the shapes I wanted and the cupcakes were a bit sloppy and not always evenly cut. Next time I will for sure cut more carefully and take the time to tidy and even things out before I begin to build.
In the end, with the labour pains behind me, we all got to sit down, watch my cousin open presents, hang out and eat a ton of food, my creations included. All in all they were received very well and tasted delicious despite the fact that they weren't as pretty as the ones at Bakerella. But they were still mine and I loved them regardless...as any good mother would.
