Homecoming, Homecoming, Homecoming…

In case you didn’t know, this past weekend was Homecoming at MUW (my last homecoming as a student, ah!) and all I have done all weekend is help out with homecoming events. I LOVE meeting and alums and hearing about all of their stories and memories from when they were here at the W.

It’s also CRAZY to think that I am leaving in May. Four years have gown by so quickly, and in no time I’ll be a “Golden Girl” coming back for my 50th class reunion meeting young students.

I am digressing. This is a FOOD blog, not a feelings blog. SO in advanced baking Friday, we prepped for and worked a Dessert Homecoming Event.

I arrived in class a little after 7:30 AM to get a bit of a head start on my task for the day. I was immediately assigned to making little Carrot Cakes with Cream Cheese Icing that looked pretty much like this:

Holly and I set to work whipping up the Carrot Cake using an old, tried, and true recipe that I unfortunately won’t be posting here because it is a secret family recipe. (Sorry folks, it really is delicious!)

Instead, enjoy this picture of Holly Olive cracking some eggs into a bowl…

After mixing up several (7 to be exact) batches of carrot cake, we then poured it into seven greased, parchment lined, and re-greased baking sheets.

I popped these into the oven for about 15 – 20 minutes (or until they looked like this):

I waited on these to cool and once they had, I used the parchment to pull the cakes out of the pans. And this is when I realized that we had a little bit of a problem…

These cakes had turned out WAY thinner than the red velvets we had used to make the mini cakes before. For whatever reason, this carrot cake recipe had not risen very much at all, which would not give the proportions that we originally wanted. So I came up with a “Plan B” – a miniature version of the cake – and presented this idea to Chef MH.

In the end, we went with my idea to do a miniature version, so I started off my cutting about 200 little circles out of the cake. I placed 100 of these on tiny disposable plates that Chef had purchased for the event.

I then piped a swirl of cream cheese frosting on top of these cake circles. The recipe can be found in a couple previous blog posts!

Then I topped these off with the other 100 cake circles, wrapped them up with plastic wrap (to keep them from drying out in the air), and stored them on a speed rack to be completed closer to service time.

After finishing my carrot cakes and cleaning my station, Chef MH allowed me to finish putting together my Food Styling “Down the Rabbit Hole” display for the night!

It turned out pretty well! Check out my previous post for more details.

After finishing up my display, we all took a two and a half hour break, and a few of us went to Twisted Burger!

After we returned at 5:00 pm, I got to work finishing up my carrot cakes. I unwrapped all of the sheet pans, piped on a swirl of cream cheese frosting, and  added a walnut garnish on the top with the help of Betsy and Brooke.

Betsy helped me arrange them on the table for the reception beside a place card that Brooke had handwritten.

After finishing up my carrot cakes, I helped a few of my classmates finish their projects.

 

The event went pretty well! Holly and I stood behind the Food Styling display table to make sure that no one tried to eat our inedible displays! That would have been unfortunate (and maybe a little funny)!

I had a really nice time chatting with some alums about the displays and about their experiences at the W! After the event was over, we all took at least three to go boxes home packed with all of our yummy deserts!

Next Friday, we are learning how to make gum paste flowers!

ABC.