For Josh's birthday this past Saturday, he and I took on a huge task - we decided to prepare a dessert tasting, or eating rather, for about 60 people. This idea actually originated as a proposed Valetine's Day party - all sweets for Valentine's Day! But being that Josh is such a chocolate fiend, and his birthday is shortly after the 14th, we decided to reappropriate the theme for a more appropriate event.
180 eggs, 3 gallons of cream, 14lbs of chocolate, 16lbs of butter, 8lbs of sugar and 6 cookbooks later:
See more pictures on DessertBuzz.
It was a pretty decadent party with a menu consisting of 26 different desserts:
-Chocolate Marquis
-Flourless Chocolate Cake (2)
-Pear Trifle (thanks to Ruthie for the recipe)
-Dulce de Leche Crepe Cake
-Caramel Tart
-Carrot Cake (an AMAZING recipe, courtesy of Josh's mom, Matti)
-Pear Cake (also Matti's recipe)
-Tart Tatin (2)
-2 Kinds of Chocolate Mousse
-Chocolate Chip Cookies
-Raspberry Tart
-Blackberry/Blueberry Tart
-Blueberry Lemon Tart
-Chocolate Ganache Tart
-4 Varieties of Chocolate Truffle
-Grapefruit Curd Tart
-Lemon Tart
-Chiffon Cake (Aaron's recipe!)
-Rice Pudding
-Chocolate Bread Pudding
-Homemade Creme Fraiche
-Homemade Chantilly Cream
And now, super exclusive behind-the-scenes photos of the making of JOSH'S SUGAR COATED BIRTHDAY 2010!!!
Making the rice pudding
It's so pretty!
Special thanks to:
James and Caroline for letting us store all of our crap at your house!
Christopher and Carlos for helping make the table look like it came from Martha Stewart Living
Matti for your fabulous recipes (I still never got that damn glaze right, though)
Aaron for kick-saving the damn glaze, and basting the apples (that Tart Tatin was PERFECT)
Thanks to you all, I think Josh had a FABULOUS birthday!
Wow, that is some stat line on the desserts! You would think that with 26 desserts there would be at least one or two miss-fires, but that was not the case. This was a fully pro bake-fest with every single dessert pretty damn close to the standard for that category. If you consider that neither of you are professional pastry chefs it's even more impressive. My only question is when is the next one? How about a pot luck style redux? You have to bake to gain entry?
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that idea........As a kid, I went to tons of pot lucks and bake sales for church events, and I still have a soft spot for them. It feels so communal. And since that would me I'm not stressing out cooking everything, I'm definitely in.
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