11th Annual Robison Christmas Dessert Party

The Robison Christmas Dessert Party started when I was still single, all the way back in the mid-90s.  Back then, I worked with a couple of friends to create a unique culinary experience for our friends.  We used to serve dinner for 40 of our closest friends ; ) It certainly helped that one of my best friends was at a “gourmet chef” level.  Quickly, I learned that the meal took away from the real star of the evening - the desserts.  When I moved to LA, I continued to do the party all by myself - another mistake...

Fast-forward a few years. When I met and married Macy, the Robison Christmas Dessert Party jumped to a whole new level!  I now had a true “partner-in-crime” who could actually make desserts ; )  We scoured the greater Boston area for the best Italian, Greek & Brazilian bakeries, as well as dessert shops and restaurants covering almost 50 miles of Massachusetts.  It was a labor of love, to be sure.

The idea of the party is "nothing but desserts."  Period.  That's what this event is all about...guests don't bring a thing (which causes a certain level of discomfort in the LDS culture).  We only ask for a hearty appetite and a desire for fun and good company.  We also caution guests not to eat for the entire day, before coming...

This year, we've revived the tradition in Texas.  We were going to do this last year, but two things stood in our way:  1) We had just moved to Austin and the house was still not up to party-specs, and 2) Macy was pregnant - really pregnant - with a child due only 4 weeks away.  We made the wise decision to postpone the debut by a year...which was a good choice.  It gave us time to make many more friendships that would add to the party.

This year we really had a blast.  Getting your house FULLY decorated by Dec. 1st is actually a great way to go.  It allows you to enjoy the Christmas spirit for the entire month.  In addition, we had NO problem searching out and auditioning several bakeries & restaurants for the experience.  Here are the results:

 Cheesecake Factory's 30th Anniversary cheesecake (almost too dark for the camera!)

Another view from the back of the room...

We had a lot of unique desserts.  Here's one of them.  It's an Austin Cream Pie.  Austin prides itself on keeping things "weird".  Sweet potato pudding, chocolate ganache, cinnamon whipped cream and a pistachio crust. Yup, weird.  However, it was one of the "hits" of the evening....for everyone but me ; )  Not a fan of sweet potatoes, no matter how you dress them up...

Cake Balls, or in some places called Cake Pops

This is a beauty called the the Cherry Lime-aid Cake.  It actually come from a cupcake shop, but they turned it into a full-blown layered cake:

Macarons - a French pastry-cookie

Orange Chiffon Cake...yum

These little treats are called Crimps. Crimps are bite-sized, fits-in-the-palm-of-your-hand crimped balls of pie, with a flaky crust on the outside and a savory or sweet filling on the inside.  Who doesn't love bite-sized pies?

There were more amazing desserts - the French Toast cake, the Root Beer Float cake, Dulce de Leche cheesecake...I could go on.

Part of the tradition is to bust out some videogames.  Most of the guests don't ever get a chance to play these kind of games.  So, without any kids around, we let folks embarrass themselves in front of other parents...

We also have a cookie-decorating area, when people can express their creativity through frosting ; )

That's Moses, by the way...

To finish in style, we invited everyone into Macy's studio for a portrait session - you know, like when you would go to the prom ; )  Some cute pictures of the couples helped to create more memories...

As you can tell...we didn't have any fun ; )  It was a great night - good friends, great stories, fantastic desserts - do we have to wait another year??