Mum's Birthday Party: The PARTY!

The finished croquembouche. After all the day's dramas, I was so proud and relieved to have completed it! I may have even done a little happy dance once it was safely on the table.

See all the little caramel threads? They actually built themselves as I was building the 'bouche - as I transferred my tongs from the pot of caramel to the cone and back again, and rotated the plate, the little threads of caramel would follow the trail. Cool, huh? After the whole 'bouche was finished, I added a few extra caramel threads - using a teaspoon to drizzle the caramel over the cone.





The Dessert Buffet

From left - raspberry/blueberry frangipane tartlets, the croquembouche, madeleines.


Nibbles

Cheese 'stars'. I had a few bowls of these dotted about the place.
Union Square Cafe Bar Nuts. I had 3 bowls of these in various places around the house.

I had planned on buying olives, but we ran out of time that day. I don't think anyone missed them though.


The Table

Pumpkin and Bocconcini Skewers - I'd over-roasted the pumpkin and it was quite soft (whoops), but we managed to get a decent number of skewers. Phew. The chillies ranged from mild to very, very hot.


Beans wrapped in prosciutto

Bread rolls ready for sausages.

Quiches ready for anyone who was still hungry.

The cheese platter. Clockwise from left hand side: cornichons, muscatels, Brazilian guava paste, Bergader BlouBayou Cheese (it's German!), Double Brie, Cheddar.

The cheese platter and quiches stayed on the table, whilst the skewers and beans were passed around.

We had oysters as well, but I didn't manage to get a photo of them. As the menu had stated, we were supposed to have cooked prawns, but when my bro went to pick them up, they were raw! Whoops. I didn't have any time to cook them, so I stashed them in the freezer, and we'll have them for a treat sometime this week.


Hot Foods

Gruyère Cheese Choux Puffs - I reheated these in a 180C oven for about 10 minutes and then passed them around.

Flammkuchen - bacon flavour. I made 2 bacon and 2 chicken, and these were surprisingly very popular! My cousin Jacob did a super-job of passing this around. Thanks Cuz!!!


Su's Gyoza... a-freakin'-mazing!
She started frying/steaming the gyoza as I was onto the second round of flammkuchen. Man, it was smoky in the kitchen! And it was also very crowded in the kitchen, so it was a bit of a challenge co-ordinating the pans and knives and boards and food amongst all the guests. But still fun.


By this stage, all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and and sleep; my throat was killing from yelling to talk to everyone over the hubbub. And because I was sick, food just wasn't looking appealing to me. I cooked 1.5 kg of beef chipolatas on the stove, but I seriously couldn't imagine anyone wanting to eat more. But they did! It seems that everybody loves sausages! (All meat-eaters, that is). They were wolfed down ravenously.


People





At about 9, we moved into the lounge-room for dessert! I should mention now that over the course of the evening, a couple of balls had fallen off the cone - we'd had a few candles nearby which I think were slowly melting the caramel. But we moved the candles out of the way and the other balls remained firmly stuck onto the cone. Phew!

Sparklers on the 'bouche. Shh... don't tell anyone, but one of the polyester flowers caught on fire! I just picked it up and my mum and I blew it out, hee-hee!

After singing happy birthday, we passed the balls around on napkins. I was surprised that so many people really liked them. Did you know that profiteroles are a super-popular dessert? I should totally add them to my dinner-party-dessert repertoire.

Chocolate ball!!!


Cone halfway through...

Aftermath in the kitchen...




So, the party was a lot of fun. I've never seen my house this crowded before! We made only a bit too much food, and bought way too much alcohol. We've got heaps of drinks leftover! My parents had a great time, and people seemed to stick around quite late, which I assume means they were all having fun. I think a couple of people were having a bit too much fun... but that's all part of the party atmosphere. (Yelling out at me, "Chef! Where's your wine glass?!?! Drink more!! Meet my son!") I should add here, that I was beaten by my lovely cousin Catherine, who had TWO fathers interested in introducing her to their sons. I suppose it's a hazard of attending inter-generational parties.

My bro was awesome DJ for the night, mixing up a great selection of R&B and chill-out songs, and pulling out the Stevie Wonder for cake time. Stevie rules!

A big thank-you to my parents for letting me take control of the kitchen, to Dad for paying for everything and setting things up beautifully, to Su for her awesome gyoza and incredible help, and to Dan for DJ'ing and transportation! And the biggest thank-you to Mum, for being the best mum in the whole wide world and looking so lovely on her special day.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mum's Birthday Party: Food Preparations on the Day

The table at 6:25pm.

As y'all know, I woke up on Sunday at around 9:30am feeling sick and totally worse for wear. But there was no stopping! Guests were due to arrive at 6:30pm and we had to get the house into shape!

I started the day by chucking last night's pumpkin into the oven. Then we all ate yummy birthday noodles, and got straight into the preparation.


Preparation

I got to work on 2 batches of crème pâtissière. While this was going on, I put my brother and his girlfriend Su on canapé-assembling duty.

Mum sewed the table runner (as you can see in the first photo), and answered the dozens of phone calls from well-wishers.

Culinary disaster struck at around 2pm, when BOTH my batches of crème turned out too runny. Maybe I was being too cautious while cooking the crèmes, maybe I didn't whip the cream enough, maybe I was just fluey and totally out of it. Whatever the reason, after I folded the cream through the crème pâtissière, I ended up with 2 big bowls of runny custard mess.

The annoying thing about this (apart from the 8 wasted eggs), was that the crèmes still tasted so damn good! They just weren't suitable for ball-stuffing. Still, following in the footsteps of my party-planning-role-model Colin Cowie, I tried to keep my cool and when my bro went out to pick up the oysters and the 50 dinner rolls, I asked him to get more eggs, more cream and more milk.


Aah... my toastie. Dan brought back a sandwich for me with the bread rolls and oysters. I shared the sandwich with my mum, and it was pretty much the only substantial food I could stomach all day.


Aah.. that's the way the crème is supposed to look! Thick and gloopy. It goes to the exact right texture when you've folded the whipped cream in. (N.B. blue silicon whisk from Aldi Prahran, only $3!!) I was getting progressively more tense as time went on. You see, the crème takes some time to make, as it has to cool to room temperature before you can add the cream. All you can do is wait!

Well, with that stress out of the way, it was time to fill the balls.
New icing syringe from Cake Deco. If you're interested, the amount of crème that went in the syringe filled about 7 balls at one time.

With balls filled, I melted some plain dark chocolate, and made the caramel for dipping. (Unlike last time, I used plain melted chocolate instead of a ganache, to add extra contrasting crunch). The chocolate takes longer to set than the caramel, so I coated the chocolate balls first.
It was surprisingly speedy coating the balls in caramel. Must have been from all that practise and adrenaline. It was about 4:30pm by this stage, and pressure was mounting.
Luckily the caramel only takes about a nanosecond to harden.

Assembly time! 4:45pm... a lot later than I intended for it to be. As you can see, the supposed spirals weren't perfect, and there were quite a few little gaps, but I filled them with decorations. You'll be able to see them and the finished 'bouche in the next post!



Decorations and Setting Up

While I was covered in hot caramel, my family did an awesome job of setting up everything.


The bathroom, all daily items removed, clean, and adorned with candles and a few flowers from our garden. A very Colin touch, expertly done by my dad!

A beautiful bunch of tulips, a bowl of nuts, and a little plate of candles in the lounge room.

I ordered the tulips online from Roses Only as a birthday gift for mum. I love this company! I was lucky enough to receive a bunch of Roses Only roses for my birthday this year, and they were absolutely stunning - delivered to my front door, beautifully presented in a box with a little bottle of rose oil and some Lindor Chocolates, and some water-treatment to keep them fresh. They were perfect and lasted for over a week. Mum also loved the roses, so I thought she'd like her very own tulips for her birthday! (She does!)

I only finished assembling the entire 'bouche at 5:45 (cutting it very fine, seeing as guests were due to arrive at 6:30), and ran into the shower. On the way in I yelled out, "Can someone put the table runner on the bench????" And when I came out of the bathroom, the bench was cleaned of the day's debris and dramas, and covered in the very festive red table runner. As Colin would say, an instant drab to fab makeover!

A glass bowl, with floating tea-lights in Moroccan teacups and some potpourri petals floating about.


More coming up soon...

Good morning!

Good morning all...


Sorry for the late posting. I started a new accounting course today and was out of the house, and away from my computer. (I know, what great timing, huh?) Funnily enough, I felt disgustingly hungover even though I didn't have a single drop of alcohol last night! Must be this stupid cold.

I wanted to tell you all that the party was a big success!!! We all had a great time, there was heaps of food, and despite some huge dramas, the croquembouche managed to (just) hold together for the whole evening. My balls went down very well. (Ooh, cheeky!) I have never seen my house that crowded! Fun, fun fun.

Anyway, while I'm going through the photos from last night, please enjoy this photo of my breakfast. It was quiet, the kitchen was clean, and I was totally relaxed. I had one leftover raspberry frangipane tartlet, one chocolate choux ball, and a madeleine with a cup of tea. Perfection.

Mum's Birthday Party Preparations: The night before...

Good morning everybody!

Today is the big day. And guess who's not having any alcohol at the party? ME! This morning I woke up with a headache and a wicked sore throat. No prizes for guessing why I'm run down. Although I will add that working in the semi-outdoors in what felt like gale-force winds didn't help. Anyway, I've started my day with honey, tea and panadol, and I will keep myself doped up throughout the day. Obviously, med + alcohol = not good for your health, so if I keep needing panadol throughout the day, there will be no alcohol tonight for me. BOOOO.

And I should quickly mention - we hired 2x18 champagne flutes, 2x18 wine glasses and 18 beer glasses. Dad's bought 12 bottles of champagne, 12 bottles of white, 6 bottles of red (plus extras from Dad's cellar), 1 of campari, 1 of plum wine, and lots of coke/OJ/soda water. I'm bringing out a bottle of Pimm's from my private collection, and I'll have to send my brother out to get cranberry juice to go with it.

Dad is polishing the glassware, we're about to have birthday noodles and I've got some pumpkin roasting in the oven now. Here are some photos from last night. My kitchen looks like an pastry kitchen. YAY!

Last night everything ran smoothly, except for a drama with the sewing machine. As you know, Mum's supposed to be sewing the table runner, and late last night we realised that we'd lent the sewing machine to my aunty months ago and hadn't gotten it back yet. ARGH!!!! Luckily though, our uncle managed to drop it off at our house.... but didn't realise that he hadn't brought the plug for the machine! (So important). So my aunty came around at 12:30am to drop it off. Phew. Crisis averted.

Ok, the cooking.

1 quiche with mushrooms and cheese, ready for the cream/egg mixture.
Kitchen at around 7pm...
Spice mix for pumpkin...

Sweet shortcrust pastry for raspberry/blueberry frangipane tartlets. A last-minute addition to the menu.
Easy to use, lovely to roll out.

Filling the tartlets... no blind baking required.

The kitchen at around 8pm...
Defrosted madeleines!
Risotto. Home delivered at around 8pm. I was not going to cook anything extra for myself. Let the good people at Benedetti's worry about that.
Baked raspberry frangipane tartlets, the first tray (of 3).

Baked quiches and some tartlets.

Inside a raspberry frangipane tartlet. This one was "tested" by my mum and dad!

Decorating supplies, plus the savoury gougeres.
Choux pastry for the croquembouche!!

Baked balls. I only got 70 out of the mixture, which is the perfect amount for 35 people. As you know, "we recommend 2 balls per person". Mum says "of course, lah, otherwise people walk lopsided!".
Anyway, I didn't think there would be enough balls to cover my cone, so I whipped up another 1/4 batch. The Roux Brothers' recipe says it makes 110 balls. I must have bigger balls than them.
Testing to see if they'll cover...


Leftover bit of Careme sweet shortcrust pastry. Cook's treat!

Pumpkin. Spiced, ready for roasting.

Excess pastry shells. Not enough frangipane to go around.

My kitchen at around midnight... (notice: boiled beans for a canape, gladwrapped madeleines, 3 quiches cooling, raspberry/blueberry frangipane tartlets cooling, choux balls + tower).

And now it begins again!

Mum's Birthday Party: More preparation....

I must be insane. It's 1am, I had work today and I'm still up cooking!!!!! At last the last batch of gruyère choux puffs is in the oven and I have a chance to blog.

After work, I hit the supermarket. Then, at home, I blind-baked 3 shortcrust pastry cases, cooked a lot of mushrooms (for quiche filling) chopped and prepped red onions, bacon, chicken and parsley, all stowed away in little Decor TellFresh containers.

Some photos....

One shelf of my freezer last night - madeleines, ricotta and chive puffs, shortcrust pastry in bags.

The croquembouche mould... fashioned from cardboard, foil, and stickytape. I'm MacGyver. (Made this one yesterday).

One (of 3) blind-baked shortcrust pastry cases.

Mushrooms cooked in butter with garlic, parsley and spring onions. Filling for the quiches.

Gruyère puffs = choux pastry + grated gruyère cheese. The recipe was emailed to me by a friend. When I piped them out, they were disappointingly flat and liquid, but they baked up good! In fact, when the first tray was in the oven, I was convinced they'd stay flat, and I nearly threw out all the mixture. However, they did puff up after about the 15th minute. Thank goodness I didn't chuck out the mixture!

Wet dough...
Decently puffed up dough.
My dough only made 36 puffs (not enough), so I whipped up another half-batch of choux pastry, but used the Roux Brother's choux recipe, which is a lot stiffer (heheheh) and easier to pipe. It held its shape better. They will be kept in an airtight container, and will be re-heated in the oven on the night.

Next: pre-prepped stuff in the fridge. From my various kitchen and cafe and hospitality jobs, I've learnt that pre-prep is the key to fast service.

From top left hand side: chopped parsley, chopped bacon, chopped red onion, chopped cooked chicken, cooked mushrooms (in the blue container), defrosting sweet shortcrust pastry (in the pink box).
1.5kg of beef chipolata sausages and some prosciutto.
1.8L of cream (for the croquembouche), butter, almond meal, stuff for the cheese platter.

I am absolutely fucking knackered. But with all this pre-prep, the actual night should be a breeze, right? Right...?

Goodnight everybody!

Mum's Birthday Party: The Menu

Just realised, that despite all my long and detailed posts about Mum's birthday party, (on Sunday night) I haven't posted up the menu!!


Nibblies
Cheese Stars
The Union Square Cafe's Bar Nuts
Chilli Olives (store-bought)

Food to be Passed Around
Beans & Prosciutto
Natural Oysters & Prawns
Gruyère Choux Puffs
Chicken Gyoza
Flammkuchen
Pumpkin and Bocconcini Skewers

Bigger Food for the Hungry Hordes
Mushroom and Tomato Quiche (whole, not mini)
Beef Chipolatas with Bread Rolls and Mustard


Dessert
Cheese Platter (Brie, Cheddar, Blue, Muscatels, Guava Paste, Apple/Pear slices, Cornichons)
Croquembouche
Madeleines

Including the family, there will be 35 guests. As you can see, the menu is a bit of a mixed bag. My original (loose) idea for the theme was French, but after the trials I've adapted it a bit to suit our tastes. And I figure that with such a big group of diverse guests, people will just choose what they like to eat and leave the rest. I've previously written that I wanted a stew and salads, but I've scrapped that idea because I just could not cope with 35 plates and sets of cutlery.

2 more sleeps to go!

Mum's Birthday: More preparations

Flammkuchen

Small change of plans. I've scrapped the pissaladière as a canapé, and replaced it on the birthday menu with flammkuchen. I received the recipe via email this week (danke schoen!), and having loved it in Germany, had to try my hand at it. The dough is so easy to work with. I let my KitchenAid do the heavy kneading, and I was able to leave the dough overnight in the fridge before rolling it out, without it coming to harm. I topped them with sour cream, thyme and red onions. I added bacon pieces to half the flammkuchens, and diced cooked chicken to the others. It worked! It more than worked. It was amazing. Sour cream + onions = happy times. The whole flammkuchen was like a giant crunchy Arnott's shape. Hell yeah!

Although we loved the pissaladière, we loved the flammkuchen more. It's also a safer option, because lots of people, unfathomably, don't like anchovies.

So, with the flammkuchen decision made, let's go back to the party planning. If you're organising an event, it helps to be organised. Here's a small pic of this week's page in my Kikki.K Weekly Planner Pad.


Yesterday, I made a triple batch of shortcrust pastry (Nigella's recipe from How to Eat, naturally) and popped it in the freezer...

... baked those cheese stars I'd frozen... (The instruction: "DO NOT EAT!!" is more for me than for my family... they're so addictive!).


... and made more flammkuchen dough, letting it rise slowly overnight in the fridge.


Today, I kneaded and rolled out the flammkuchen dough. (I say "I kneaded", but in reality the KitchenAid dough hook kneaded, while I sat down and had a cup of tea and biscuit). It's really easy to roll the dough out very thinly. I think the buttermilk in the dough makes it extra pliable. I got 6 pieces out of the dough, and layered them between baking paper to stash in the freezer.


I also started preparing my paper cone mould for the croquembouche, following these instructions...

... and whipped up a triple batch of The Union Square Cafe's Bar Nuts (recipe from Nigella Bites).


I've just gotta buy some chilli olives from my fave Italian supermarket, and nibbles are sorted!