Punk Rock Flea Market

My very first large public sale story!

91 Cookies
60 Rice Krispie Treats
15 Muffins
1 Crumbcake and
102 Cupcakes later
it's finally over!


Friday morning our alarm went off, at the ungodly time of 4:45, and somehow I convinced my boyfriend to stay home from work. We eventually got up and I decided to make us cinnamon roll pancakes before I had to be in work. Mid baking I get a text saying that my work is closed, turns out a crane fell on the roof. Seriously, a crane...fell..on the roof. The store was back open that night and since no one got hurt I was allowed to say HELL YEAH! NO WORK. Turned out great that we were both off since it very rarely happens. We made the smart call to work on stuff for the market since I knew I would have so much to do for Sunday. Well....we kinda ended up at the movies...and then to dinner. All we actually ended up making on Friday was 5 trays of Peeps Rice Krispie Treats. I wasn't very worried because I took off work Saturday and I knew we would bang it all out then.


Saturday comes and we sleep through our alarm. Late start already. Plus my boyfriend's band got a very last minute call to play the O.A.R after party at Hard Rock Cafe Saturday night. So again, more baking time gone. We got started on cupcakes first. I did four kinds. Cinnamon Toast, Kit Kat Mocha, Blue Velvet and Bacon Chocolate Chip.

There are some of the super redic cards Greg made up. The cupcakes themselves took a long time, mostly because of the bacon I had to bake in the oven to make the bacon chocolate chips that went inside the cupcake. I could have, and should have, made them the day before. By the time allllll the cupcakes were done I attacked the chai crumbcake which took much more time to bake than planned. Greg had to leave to play the gig and I decided I needed a break. I made the very unwise move of turning off the oven and heading out with him. Had a few drinks, enjoyed some music and next thing you know its 1 am and I still have a lot to do! The drummer and singer of Greg's band plus both of their girlfriends all came back to our place to help. They stayed until 4 am helping me bang out cookie after cookie after cookie and packaging everything together. Greg and I stayed up until 5 and then just had to call it quits.

We woke up around 7:30 to make all the frosting for the cupcakes. Literally ran around the house getting ready and finally headed out to the city! We brought fans and spray bottles and food and water. You would think we were staying over night. Doors opened at 10 and we were set up around 1030. We had a perfect spot right next to the open door so we got some breeze and caught all the people coming in and out. Also the staffers who had to stand by the door to check people coming in had to stare at my food all day and eventually ended up buying things, enjoying it and buying more.

It was pretty steady from 1030-330 then it started to die. The rain came, which felt great coming in through the door but I think it kept people from coming out. Around 430 a guy we met at another booth made an announcement on a mic he had that he was giving all this stuff away for free. I asked him if he would make one for me saying that all my remaining stuff was going for cheap. It caught everyones attention and I got rid of  some remaining things. The event ended at 5 but we stuck around til about 530 still selling to all the other vendors who were packing up. At the end of the day I only went home with 4 muffins!! I never though I would have sold so much or made so much money. We both felt so proud that we accomplished so much. I got an amazing response from people and it just reminded me of why I do this in the first place. Seeing people take the first bite and then just smile meant a lot to me.  Having people come back later for seconds meant even more. We met a nice photographer who was dying over the look of my bacon chocolate cupcakes and asked if he could take a picture. Of course I said yes and asked if he would e-mail me the picture he seemed excited about it and offered to take more pictures. I am dying to get them back! As for now my crappy pictures will have to do. I was just so busy baking I never had a minute to really take pictures the whole time.

Full list of things I baked-

Strawberry Lemon Streusel Muffin
Banana Nut Crunch Muffin
Heath Cookies
Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Peeps Rice Krispie Treats
Chai Crumbcake
Blue Velvet, Cinnamon Toast, Kit Kat Mocha and Bacon Chocolate Cupcakes

Espresso Cream Cheese Rice Krispie Treats

I have been baking more lately for different occasions that have come up. My new problem is finding the time to take pictures that actually look good and getting stuff up on the blog. Punk Rock Flea Market is coming up soon and of course I am starting to freak out. For about a week I have been calm, cool and collected but that is gone and now I am confused, stressed and panicky. This was a recipe I tried out and assuming I liked it I would have it be something to sell that day. Sadly I won't be making these again. Greg liked it, as did my friend who happened to come over right after I made them. I personally didn't like it and no matter what I just can't get myself to sell something I don't like even if others seem to. I am not really a coffee/espresso/whatever person so maybe this was a silly idea in the first place.

Espresso Cream Cheese Rice Krispie Treats

3 TB salted butter
4 oz. cream cheese, room temp
2 Starbuck Via (the recipe called for the medium one, i used the strong one by mistake oops)
A good size pinch of sea salt
10 or 11 ounce bag of mini marshmallows
8 ounce bag of chopped toffee bits (1 cup used in bars, and remainder used for sprinkling on top)
6 and 1/2 cups rice krispies

Spray a 13 x 9-inch pan with non-stick cooking spray.
In a very large 6 or 8 qt. pan, melt the butter and cream cheese over low heat (low heat, do not let the cream cheese burn or cook!). 

For these next steps, work fast. 

Once melted add in both the starbuck via’s, then a good sized pinch of sea salt, stir. Using a rubber spatula immediately add in the marshmallows—all the while keep an eye on the bottom of the pan, don’t let it burn. Once marshmallows are added just keep stirring until melted.

After its melted take off the heat, add in the 1 cup of toffee bits, stir, and then add in the Rice Krispies until well combined. 

Stir Stir Stir. Mix. Mix. Mix

Once all mixed then transfer mix to your prepared pan and push down into pan with spatula or water-wet hands. 

After it’s all smoothed over this is when I like to add a small sprinkling of sea salt to the top, then the rest of the toffee bits.

Place in fridge to set and cool. They need to cool completely before cutting. 

Strawberry Crumble

Fourth of July came and went and of course I baked for Greg's family party. It was a sorta 4th party but mainly it was a joint graduation party for his brother and sister. I ended up making strawberry jello poke cupcakes with cool whip on top and blueberries. I also made 3 trays of cookies. All fudge brownie type cookies. One tray had M&M's in the cookies, one had coconut M&M's and one had York peppermint patty bites in it. Everything I made was gone in no time. I couldn't believe how fast it all went! Sadly I have no pictures since I literally baked and brought hot items to the party. (I was icing and topping the cupcakes at the party because I was so short on time) I will make the brownie cookies again for the purpose of putting them on the blog....or just so I have an excuse to make them and eat them again.

Yesterday Greg's friend invited a few of us for dinner and of course I offered to bring dessert. I had work that morning and had barely any time to bake something up. I opted to try something I had never done, which always makes me nervous since I like to try everything before giving it to others. I did a strawberry crumble with custard sauce topping. More like a strawberry-blueberry crumble. I had a handful of left over blueberries from the cupcakes so I threw them in too.

Again, I brought this over hot and barely had time for pictures so don't mind the super rushed job.

Strawberry Crumble

Ingredients
1 quart strawberries
1/4 cup honey

For the topping:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup butter
 
1. Heat the oven to 350° F.
2. Prepare filling: Mix the halved strawberries and the honey in an 8×8 ungreased pan,
3. Prepare topping: Mix all the ingredients with your fingers until crumbly, sprinkle over fruit mixture and bake at 350° for about 35 to 40  minutes, until golden brown and the fruit is bubbling out everywhere.


I doubled this recipe and used slightly more than the called more fruit, more fruit surely doesn't hurt the recipe. This dessert really surprised me. Mixing the fruit with so much honey had me nervous, for I am not a huge fan of honey. I put it in the fridge once we got there to let it set and we actually ate it cold and everyone loved it. I personally didn't care for the sauce but thats' just me. For breakfast this morning I tried it warm with some cool whip and it was fantastic. I would love to make this again with different kinds of fruits I wouldn't normally eat.