Cheat Day: Wedding Tasting: Various Truffles and Pops

I'm going to file this one under "it seemed like a good idea at the time."

I don't know how or why, but my friends and I always seem to sit around and talk about how freaking cool it would be to do this or that. Then we talk about it more and more, because really there isn't a lot more to do in Iowa other then sit around and shoot the shit and google pictures of cake. So slowly, but surely, without ever actually making a decision, whatever it was we were talking about becomes reality. It's not just baking, either- one minute I'm talking to my running buddies about how fun it would be to train for a marathon, and the next minute I'm on mile 19 of a training run that started at 3:30 am, climbing up a hill, in the rain, certain that my legs must be bleeding because no intact leg could possible emit this much pain. (This. Really. Happened.)

Well obviously this phenomenon happens with baking quite a bit. My friends and I dream up some sort of crazy and extravagant cake concoction, and all of a sudden I'm standing in my kitchen with second degree burns from pastry cream all up my arms, filling and ganaching cupcakes until 1:00 am.

Cut to my dear friend and coworker getting engaged and briefly mentioning that she'd like to do a dessert buffet instead of a traditional tiered cake. Well my eyes light up like a kid on Christmas morning and I think to myself "I COULD DO THAT" and I start dreaming with my friend about how cool it would be if we did it together. The next thing I know we are taking the bride to lunch to discuss her likes and dislikes and the schedule a tasting.

What have I gotten myself in to???

Honestly, at this point it's still fun and exciting, but I know after assembling 200 cake pops and monogramming a whole slew of butter cream sugar cookies, I might not be signing the same tune. But for now, I'm going to continue perusing blogs and recipes sites searching for inspiration while daydreaming about how freaking awesome this will be when done. I'll keep googling wedding websites galore to see how others have set their buffets up- complete with cupcake wrappers, color coordinated hand made accents and decorations, and elaborate food stands that I somehow have to con my engineer husband into making for me.

So first things first- we hosted a tasting in order for the bride to decide what she wanted to have. And here are just a few of the things that shall be taking over my kitchen in a few short months.

Oh, and I might have bought an extra fridge to support this event. Yup, that happened.