What a night.
First of all, I was frosting some cupcakes in the kitchen at my desk job before I left for the PIT last night and one small, odd-looking one that was too mismatched to be sold ended up in my mouth. Oops. That makes three days in a row that I’ve had some kind of cupcake-related dessert. Which is a little embarrassing when you blog about your desserts every day. Luckily, it was a tiny little guy so I probably spent less than 150 calories on it. But still. It was almost shocking, the abandon with which I inhaled it and I did not, needless to say, get a photo. What can I tell you, they’re the newest item on our menu. It’s my job to become familiar.
I was really excited to share them with the PIT crowd, since everyone in the community has been so supportive, excited and eager to try our sweets. People love cupcakes, and we hadn’t done them at the PIT yet, so I knew this would be a welcome event. When I left work, a monsoon was attacking New York City and I couldn’t believe I found a cab, but I did. I got to the PIT relatively unscathed, set up my little booth as quickly as I could and began selling treats. I’d given Faryn the night off, so I was flying solo.
It was going well – I’d met a few new people, chatted up a few friends (Hi Paula!) and the cupcakes were selling like…hotcakes. Then, out of nowhere, the table went crashing to the ground. Just like that – no warning, no fanfare, it just fell right over of its own volition and slammed onto the floor. All my beautiful cupcakes were splattered on the ground, along with everything else (brownies and bars, but they were wrapped, so they survived), and the packed lobby which had seconds earlier been filled with a deafening din instantly fell completely silent as everyone whipped their heads around to find the source of the clatter, only to see me standing there blushing. Oof. It was pretty humiliating.
But the world is a place filled with nice and helpful people and a number of them jumped into action to help me clean up the mess. I was so grateful for the assitance. Everything was back to normal in just a few minutes, besides my feeling slightly shaken. Most of the cupcakes, however, were destroyed.
The funny thing is, that didn’t seem to deter anyone. I sold off all the ones that hadn’t fallen, and when the non-floor cupcakes were gone, people dove into the brownies and chewy chocolate graham bars. And some other people still came up to ask about the cupcakes. I said, I had a bit of an accident and a lot of them ended up on the floor, so they’re all gone. Almost every person said, “I don’t care! Where are they? I’ll eat a floor cupcake!” So I took out a tray of the few I’d salvaged from the floor and gave them away! Of the ones that had fallen, most of them had gone straight to the garbage but I saved these few that hadn’t hit face down and still looked edible. I didn’t have a plan for them, as they were too ugly to sell (and they’d been on the FLOOR!?!?!), but I couldn’t bare to toss all of them. People didn’t seem to mind the floor part – the free cupcake aspect seemed to outweigh everything.
And then, the best thing of all happened. My friend and former improv coach, Jess (Hi Jess!) came into the lobby, heard she’d missed the cupcakes, heard I’d thrown some away, and she marched right over to the trash, saw one on top that was housed in some aluminum foil, plucked it right out of the can and ate it. I was impressed to say the least. I may have done the very same thing. A cupcake is a cupcake and a FREE cupcake is still a cupcake, even if it’s spent some time near some trash. It was wrapped in aluminum foil. Perfectly edible.
Whew! It was a fun time and I had a lot of great conversations with people who were very complimentary of all the sweets and very excited about the idea that we’re opening a bakery. I could never have imagined that even people I’ve never met before would be supportive, impressed and inspired by all of this. A lot of people asked about our location and I told them all we’re still working toward a storefront. I cannot wait for the day when I can say, “We’re located on _________ right next to the flower shop.” Someday.
My improv team, The Baldwins, had a fun, silly show and it was great to play with them. (I hadn’t seen them all in a couple weeks because of some oddities on my Wednesday nights lately.) And then Kevin and I headed home to a pair of very hungry cats who were squawking their displeasure the moment we walked in the door.
Long story short: I settled onto the couch with this tiny bowl of Breyers All Natural Vanilla ice cream (about 1/4 cup), plus a couple dark chocolate covered pretzels sprinkled over top. Even though I’d already had my cupcake earlier in the evening, I needed another little something sweet to round out the interesting night. It was delicious and refreshing and tasted kinda like my favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor, Chubby Hubby. I think I’ll add a little swirl of peanut butter next time I have this combo. And then you’ll have to scrape me off the ceiling.
