The Christmas party in Salem has come and gone in a flurry of flour and powdered sugar. Months of planning and stress resulted in a near picture perfect event for my "catering debut". The menu consisted of nine different desserts presented in bite-sized servings for twenty-five people.
Menu
Cheesecake with Blueberry Compote & Pomegranate
Coffee Macarons
Marzipan Cupcakes with Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache
Salted Vanilla Cupcakes
Overall, a tremendous amount of organization prevented party preparation from being too strenuous. A's family had worried that I would spend our entire stay cooking. While I didn't leave the apartment for three days (whatever, it was cold and snowing), I still had enough time for Christmas dinner and a few rounds of Scrabble. The plan worked seamlessly and all of the cooking and preparation was actually finished hours before the party started. The guests ate until they could not eat anymore, and thankfully, nobody fell into a sugar coma.
Here is what my plan looked like. When pulling together the menu, I made sure to select a number of items that could be partially, if not completely, prepared ahead of time to prevent unnecessary baking on the day of the event.
One Month Before
Prepare crusts for tartlettes and freeze
Prepare hazelnut frangipane and freeze
One Week Before
Poach pears and refrigerate
Bake macaron shells, store in an air-tight container
3 Days Before
Prepare dough for cannoli shells; refrigerate
Prepare white chocolate ganache filling for coffee macarons
Prepare compote filling for apple tartlettes
2 Days Before
Fry cannoli shells
Prepare meyer lemon/cream cheese filling for citrus macarons
Fill all macarons; refrigerate
Prepare and bake flourless chocolate cakes; refrigerate
1 Day Before
Bake marzipan and vanilla cupcakes
Prepare bittersweet chocolate ganache and refrigerate
Prepare buttermilk pudding, refrigerate in serving glasses
Unmold and plate chocolate cakes
Bake cheesecakes
Day of
Assemble and bake apple tartlettes
Assemble and bake pear tartlettes
Cook strawberry sauce for puddings; assemble and garnish puddings
Prepare vanilla cream cheese frosting
Frost all cupcakes
Unmold and garnish cheesecakes
Prepare cannoli filling; assemble cannolis
Prepare fresh whipped cream
... and this is what everything looked like:
Off to Whistler for some New Year's skiing!
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