The sTori

Well I'm back from LA. It took me a couple days to enter back into the world of reality after surviving 5 hours of sleep in a 3 day period. So instead of telling this story fifty billion times, I'm going to do my best to write it all here, a whirlwind 3 days, in a single blog post.

It started a few days before my birthday. My friend Kennedi was going to Tori's book signing in San Diego for her new book Uncharted TerriTori. Kennedi suggested I make cookies for Tori and she would bring them to the signing. I didn't think anything of it, except that Tori would probably never eat them and they'd likely go straight into the garbage. But I said I would, and when I say I will do something I usually go all out. How could I make cookies for just Tori? What about Dean, Liam and Stella? I ended up making each of them a jenny cookies can. Tori got cupcakes and make-up, Dean got motorcycles, and I made Liam and Stella what else but ladybugs and monkeys.

About five minutes after Kennedi met Tori, had her books signed and then called to tell us about meeting Tori, I get an email from twitter that someone has "mentioned" me.

Wow! Totally NOT expecting that.

Fast forward a few weeks. Tori tweeted about little maven's (her clothing line) first birthday. I replied to the tweet saying @jennycookies wants to help throw next year's little maven party...and sent a link to my jenny cookies website.

Four minutes later I get 2 emails, one that says Tori Spelling is now following you on Twitter and another that says you have a direct message from Tori Spelling. Woah. Here's the message..

torianddean: doing party Aug 28th.U'd B interested in doing cookies 4 it? It'll B featured in my party planning book & u'll get credit. Thoughts? T
3:17 PM Aug 17th

I stare at my computer screen in disbelief. Would I be interested? UM, let me think about it. YES! From there we messaged back and forth on twitter about the party theme, the date, the time, the size of the party, etc. She says it's an end of the summer/back to school theme and asks if I have any ideas. Instantly my mind is racing with ideas...school supplies, school buses, apples, pencils.... She loves it all.

The next day I make a sample batch of cookies and send her a pic.

To this she replies:
You are insanely talented! Can u do ALL parties w/ me??? You are amazing! And your cookies are delicious. T
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

It's like 10:30 at night, Dan and I are both sitting on the couch working on our laptops and I get this email. I'm dying. She ate my cookies!!

For the next two days I make a few more samples for her party.

Each picture I send gets a great OMG I LOVE IT response. She tells me to fly into Burbank...it's official, I'm making cookies for Tori's party.

Two days before I'm supposed to leave I get a phone call from her party/event planner, James McGowan. He confirms my trip, the desserts, and how the cake pops will be displayed. I offer my vintage soda crates but he's worried about the PEPSI logo showing through. So I paint them yellow. They love it.

He calls back the next day and asks if I can make a cake. AHHHHH. I'm not a huge fan of making cakes. But how can I say no. He says they're thinking a stacked book cake. Hmm, wonder where they got that idea...(carameled apple pic??). Of course I say yes and instantly start worrying about if I have enough time to pull it all off. Cakes take me awhile and I'm only in town a day and a half before the party.

Pull it together Jenny. If I can make a standing flamingo cake, I can surely make a stack of books. So I get as much done as possible before I leave. I baked all the cookies (times three, in case any break during travel), tie bows on all the pencils and lollipop sticks, and cut out all the letters for the book titles on the cake. I stuff as many supplies and tools into my luggage, a few outfits, my ugg slippers, two giant pepsi crates, and finally crawl into bed at 2:30 AM. I lay there for an hour and a half, my mind racing if I remembered everything I need. At 4 AM I get out of bed, take a shower and leave for the airport.

If only I could have taken a photo of myself hauling through Sea-Tac with two gigantic suitcases and a carry-on bag the size of, well, two carry-on bags. I make it through security and onto the plane without any cookies breaking. Hallelujah. My plane lands in Burbank at 11am, I get my rental car, and head to the place I'm staying. I found a great little vacation rental on VRBO.com. A one bedroom duplex in Studio City with a small, but newly remodeled kitchen. The little old lady who rents it meets me there and shows me the mixer she promised she had. Out of the cubbard comes a mixer surely from 1940. HMMMM. That's not going to work.

Great. I hop back into the big Tahoe rental car and search for the nearest Target and Michaels. Fifteen minutes later I'm loading my red shopping cart with everything I need...and then some.

I would have taken a photo of my Michaels cart but the Michaels didn't allow you to take the carts outside. Weird. Three trips to the car later, I have everything I need for jenny cookies success.

Back at the duplex around 3pm and I get to work. By 4 AM the cakes are dirty iced, the apple cake pops are molded and refrigerating, and the cookies are done. The place is small, so you can only imagine that there are cookies on every surface imagineable.

I sleep 4 hours and wake up to call my old Wilton cake instructor for advice. I'm nervous about the cake being so heavy that it sinks into the next layer. I run my cake ideas by her and she confirms it will work out. LOTs and LOTs of dowels she advises, and gum tex mixed into my fondant so it will harden quicker. CRAP. I forgot to buy gum tex at Michaels. So back I go to Michaels. Grab the gum tex and head home. On my way back I notice a hole in the wall office liquidation store on the side of the road. There's some bright yellow and red shiny metal desks, file cabinets and lockers. I think to myself those are cute and keep driving. Twenty seconds later the thought hits me, how cute would one of those desks be as the dessert table??? I get back to the rental and email Tori. She loves the idea, asks where the desk was, and says they are only about 15 minutes away. I email back saying I can backtrack where I was driving and find it. She says to email when I get there.

OMG. I'm going to meet her.

Thinking I was going to be baking all day in a town where I know NO ONE, I'm wearing an old pair of green AE cargo shorts (for the second day in a row), a white JCrew tank, $2.50 Target flip flops (I bought the day before because my boots were giving me blisters), a pony tail, and no make up except a swipe of mascara, some blush and a little lip gloss. Not exactly the outfit I had planned for when I met Tori Spelling for the first time. I scramble to put on a little more make up and hurry out the door. Back to the office furniture store I go, and email Tori I found it and to call me. My phone rings a few seconds later. SO WIERD! She's like hey, this is Tori... Twenty minutes later Tori and James pull up next to me in a Toyota Prius.

We get out of the car and introduce ourselves. Tori says "Funny, James and I were just talking in the car about whether you'd be cute or not. See James, she's cute AND skinny. James thought you'd be cute, but fat."

Thanks James.
I guess that's LA for you.

I show her the desks, the lockers and file cabinets, and we shop through this huge office store. She tells me about the party, it's for Sony who's promoting a new camera. I ask what other desserts she is going to have besides mine and she says Crumbs cupcakes. They are a sponsor so she has to use them. (NO wonder she didn't want cupcakes). I tell her I made cupcakes with little chalkboards made out of fondant and that she doesn't have to use them since she has Crumbs coming. Her eyes light up and she says she will put out and take pictures of whatever I bring. Yay!
We shop around for about a half hour. We found a yellow desk for the bar, little red chairs for the children's table, a few huge chalkboards for behind the dessert and favor table, and some odds and ends things to use for decor. While they're discussing the rental rate with the manager, I tell them I'm going to take off, that I have a lot to get done. I ask what time they would like everything delivered the next day. They say 11 and Tori says she'll email me her address later.

Back I go to the duplex. My phone rings, it's Abby. I answer and say "You get to hear this first...I JUST MET TORI!!!" I tell her the whole story, then Naomi (and Dan since he is on speaker with Naomi), and then my mom. Ok back to work. I start rolling fondant for the cakes. Let me tell you, this is a chore. If only I had that fondant machine Buddy the Cake Boss has. It would make my life so much easier. By 7pm I'm still covering cakes. My friend Naomi calls and says her plane has landed and she's in Orange County. Two hours later, she and her sister Kennedi show up at my door with Coffee Bean and dinner. Revival!! They stay for a couple hours while I finish the cake and leave at 11. By 11pm my fingers have blisters from cutting at least 100 wooden dowels with kitchen shears. I'm exhausted and I still have apple cake pops to finish and carameled apples to dip. I can do it. The cake pops turn out perfect (which doesn't always happen) and I get started on the carameled apples. It takes me almost an hour to open 12 bags of caramels. Thank goodness my mom called and is keeping me alive with pointless conversation until the wee hours of the morning. On speaker, she talks to me for a few hours and then hangs up. At this point I'm thinking I'm pulling an all nighter. It's 4am and I still have carameled apples to finish, cookies to package, and everything else needs to be packaged and boxed up. I check my email. Tori emails her address, directions, and says "Would love for you to stay for the party if you want..xoxo Tori".

I'm a new woman for the next three hours.

At 7am I finish. The cookie and cupcake boxes look darling with red polka dot ribbon and jenny cookies stickers. The cake pops are in the soda crates, the cakes are boxed up, my bag is packed, and I lay down for an hour. 8am arrives within seconds and I wake up with that yucky stomach ache you get when you're up way too early without any sleep. I ask myself if I'm going to make it. I start thinking I may get sick. I get ready, pack up the car, finish a few last details and get on the road. I drive like I'm leaving the hospital for the first time with a newborn baby. It's LA and I'm driving 50 mph, hoping no car comes near me and the roads are smooth. So much for luck, the highway is a piece of junk, it's bump after bump, corner after corner, and feels like I'm surrounded by drunk drivers.

I find their house and pull into the driveway. All of the sudden it feels like I've hopped into the Tori and Dean show. Dean and his son Jack are out in the driveway with two saw horses, cutting and painting wood, making chalkboard signs for the party. I roll the window down and ask Dean if it's ok if I park there. He says "yes pull up to the bushes". I get out and he walks over to see all the goodies that are covering every seat, floor mat, and trunk of the Tahoe. He goes crazy, can't believe all the stuff I made, loves the book titles, and can't wait to have a cupcake because he says he's "a cupcake connoisseur".

Wait until he tries mine, I think boastfully to myself.

I walk into the house, Tori and James are in the kitchen, along with a goat, six dogs, two housekeepers, two nannys, two guinea pigs, 2 chickens, 2 bunnies, and Dana, Tori's assistant. They say hello and come to look at everything I've made. Liam strolls in wearing Carter's monkey jammies and asks for his mommy to put on his orange crocs. He notices the apple cake pops and asks what they are. He's so adorable and talks so well that I could just eat him up. I give him a cake pop and he says, "Is this a real stick?" referring to the pretzel in the apple. OMG could he be any more darling. The nanny whisks him way for play time and I finish unloading. The next few hours feel like a blur. Tori and I dig through her garage looking for white platters and cake stands to display my stuff. Dean's outside still working on the chalkboards and Jack goes back and forth inside eating cake pop after cake pop. Their garage is filled with left over decorations from the Guncles baby shower the Sunday before, and tons of free stuff that companies have sent her she tells me.

Stella and Liam sit at the kitchen table in their high chairs eating mac & cheese and cut up avocado. They are perfect little angels amongst the 20 people running fifteen different ways in their kitchen. Dean comes inside and asks about the cake pops. He eats one and goes crazy. Two cake pops followed by a cupcake, in which I instruct him to use the Nate Hartman technique (my cousin Jill's new husband) for eating a cupcake. Break off the bottom, put it on the top of the cupcake creating a cupcake sandwich. Dean loves it. He tells me he would weigh a million lbs and may go into a sugar coma with me around. He asks where I made it all, I tell him about my little rental and he says, "why didn't you just make it all here?"

Next time Dean...Next time.

Two hours later my desserts are ready, placed on cake stands, platters, and set up on the old school desk dessert table. The crumbs cupcakes arrive and they're beyond ugly. Mini cupcakes covered in M&M's and real cherries on top. Tori doesn't like them and takes them off the table. We decide to move them to the bar, maybe after enough drinks someone might want a cupcake that looks as if Liam decorated it???

I write on the chalkboards that are all over the party for backdrops and signs. Tori and James are running around getting everything finished, very very last minute might I add. There are two photographers taking photos for her new book and soon thereafter Sony arrives with three more photographers and a videographer. It's surreal. The party is almost started and James realizes the floaties haven't been blown up for the pool. He yells "Everyone grab a floatie and blow it up!". In seconds, ten of us are blowing up beach balls, pool floaties and water wings. We change the dessert table cookie arrangement fifteen more times, as Tori is eating the cookies as we are placing them on platters. Yes, she does eat.

Ten minutes before the party I go change my clothes in Liam and Stella's playroom. Unreal. In the playroom I find a snake and a pet bearded dragon, along with just about every toy you could ever imagine. The playroom looks out at the pool and backyard, has huge bookshelves/cases for toys/books, a walk in closet filled with even more toys/diapers/clothes, and a bathroom. I change and go back to the party. I snapped a few quick pictures of the yard and the party without making a scene.

Guests start arriving. She invited all the parents and children from the kids' preschool, along with her friends. The Guncles Bill and Scout were there with their new baby girl Simone and Scout's mom "Nana J", Mehran and his boyfriend, Amy and her finance, Jenny, her husband and children, Tori's ABC producer, Tori's Tori & Dean producer, and a few other people that I didn't get introduced to. Everyone was so friendly and sweet. Tori introduced me to whoever was standing nearby and told them all that I had made everything on the dessert table. They all raved about my desserts, cookies, cupcakes, cake, all of it.

Could I be any more humble?

It was so great. The food was amazing. The caterers served mini pulled pork sandwiches, kids pb&j, sliders, french fries in snow cone cups, asian chicken salad, and the drinks were phenomenal. Lemonade, Sangria, cocktails made with cucumber, wine, beer, champagne, you name it.

The party lasted from 2-6. Everyone appeared to be having a fantastic time and by six people were trailing off. I started packing up the dessert table, boxed it all up, helped clean up their kitchen a little and told Tori I was going to take off. She was so grateful for everything. Dean and the kids got out of the pool and said goodbye, and Tori and James told me thank you ten more times and said it was the best they had ever had....AND...that I would be hearing from them soon....

OH boy.

Backing out of their driveway I take one last photo on my iphone, and head back to my mess of a rental. I take a wrong turn and instantly burst into tears, out of pure exhaustion. Dan's talking to me on the phone and I'm telling him not to worry, everything went amazing but I'm just so tired!