Wedding Cupcakes - 160 Cupcakes Made From Scratch in My Home Kitchen

Bride and Groom 4.0 have traded wedding cupcakes for gelato.  They departed for Venice (in what I can only imagine was a dazed stupor) at 7:30 on the morning after their wedding - what a whirlwind!  As for me, I'm looking through photos from the big day (in addition to the photos here, Jonathan has posted a few sneak peaks on his Facebook page), reliving the joy, taking a few deep breaths, patting myself on the back for a job well done (it's important to do that periodically), and debating what cupcake I'm going to make next.

Wedding 3.0 - Why I Made Over 300 Cupcakes

(This photo doesn't show all of the cupcakes.
The staff replenished them as they were eaten.)

My husband and I have a tradition.  Every night On nights when we think of it and aren't too tired, we each say the highlight of our day and the accomplishment that we are most proud of that day.  Highlights are the hardest to do on really bad days, but I think those days are the most time important time to think about them.  The ritual forces the day to end on a positive note - and even really crappy days have their positive moments.

Well, you can guess what my highlight was yesterday after successfully baking and delivering the over 300 cupcakes for Wedding 3.0.  Obviously, it could have been finishing this monumental task. But, it wasn't.  My highlight of the day was remembering why I decided to bake the cupcakes in the first place.

Ready To Go

The over 300 cupcakes are all baked, frosted, topped, wrappered, and ready to go out the door.  Phew!! 

6 hours until showtime!


Speaking of Ready to Go

Tomorrow is the last day to enter the ice cream cupcake round up!  Is your ice cream cupcake ready? We've been super excited with the entries that we have already received!

Sweet Potato is Kinda Like Pumpkin, Right?

There is always a snafu.  I know it will happen.  With Couple 1.0, it was the frosting mix up.  I put the soda fountain frosting on the gingerbread latte cupcakes and vice versa.  Jonathan and I (mostly Jonathan) ended up wiping all the frosting off and and re-doing it (lesson learned - label all the boxes).  With Couple 2.0 it was the flimsy boxes and the cupcakes sliding all over the place (I bought some seriously thick boxes this year and I'm using shelf liner to keep the cupcakes from slipping - hope it works!).   Wedding 3.0's (which takes place on Sunday) snafu has already happened.  I guess it's good to get it out of the way so early.

See those cans right in front of the bag of flour - by the chocolate chips?  I'll tell you what those cans are not:  they are not pumpkin.  You see, it's hard to find pumpkin in the Spring because it's a seasonal item.  But this year, it's even harder.  Did you hear about the pumpkin shortage from flooding earlier this year?  There were no cans of pumpkin to be found to make the chocolate pumpkin cupcakes for Wedding 3.0.  Luckily, Whole Foods sells canned sweet potato.  Sweet potato is kinda like pumpkin, right? 

The chocolate pumpkin (sweet potato) cupcakes are all baked and I can attest to the fact that only the most astute squash snobs will know the difference.  Phew!

Thanks goes out as always to Jonathan for cleaning up after me and to my mother-in-law for babysitting Myles and taking over loading cupcakes in and out of the oven after he fell asleep. Everyone should be so lucky as to have such an awesome mother-in-law!

I'll be posting more Wedding 3.0 updates as they happen on the blog and on Twitter.  I sincerely hope that I have not jinxed myself by saying that the snafu has already happened. 

Third Time's a Charm

Regular readers already know the story of my blog. I started this blog because having never baked a cupcake in my life, I offered to bake cupcakes for my friends' wedding. The "project" part of Cupcake Project was mastering the cupcake in the nine months leading up to the big day. I loved doing it and got so hooked on cupcake baking that after Bride and Groom 1.0 got married, I offered to do the whole thing over again for another couple. Bride and Groom 2.0 got married on Oct. 12, 2008.

For the past year, Cupcake Project has been without a project. That's about to change.

Meet Ron and Leslie (hereafter known as Bride and Groom 3.0)

Groom 3.0 is Jonathan's (my husband and live-in photographer) third cousin. I can't believe that he knows his third cousin. Not only does he know him, but they actually talk on a regular basis. We love Bride 3.0 and couldn't be happier with Groom 3.0's choice! Jonathan took photos of their proposal at the Lewis and Clark marathon. Check out the joy on their faces and you'll understand why I am so excited to make cupcakes for this wonderful couple.

They do not have a wedding date picked yet, but it will be this coming Spring or Summer. I'll let you know when I know!

As I've done for past couples, Bride and Groom 3.0 will be trying cupcakes each week and choosing two or three flavors that they would like me to bake for the wedding (for a total of 300 cupcakes!). I'll keep you up to date on their favorites and give you the play-by-play when the big day comes!

What Kind of Cupcakes Do Bride and Groom 3.0 Enjoy?

It's important for me to understand what types of flavors the couple likes so that I can start experimenting. Bride and Groom 3.0 left it WIDE open.

What they don't like:

• Like Bride and Groom 1.0, they don't want nuts.
  
• Bride 3.0 is not a big frosting fan. I'm not either, so I'm cool with that. It will be a fun challenge to find frosting that she likes.
  
• Groom 3.0 doesn't love chocolate (I can't imagine that!), coconut (that always seems to be a love it or hate it thing), or whipped cream.
  

Here's the list of things (in their own words) that they said they like. I've put my responses to them (and snarky comments) in orange. If I've made a flavor before, I've linked to it.

• Butterscotch
  
• PB (but I think you don't dig) - It's true. Sorry, peanut butter is off limits.
  
• Vanilla - Boring! But, I do really need to master a perfect plane-Jane vanilla cupcake, so I may experiment.
  
• Cinnamon
  
• Any berry - Berries look really pretty on cupcakes. That would be a nice wedding choice.
  
• Orange chocolate (Ron might not like as much) - I love those orange milano cookies, but I haven't made an orange chocolate cupcake. One of my very first cupcakes was a tangerine chocolate cupcake, but the frosting was a nasty, runny mess.
  
• Red velvet - I've never made it. I think it's too overdone and frankly I don't get the appeal. Sorry, but I'm probably not going to make this one unless you really beg.
  
• Bourbon - One of the cupcakes that I created for Paula Deen contains bourbon, but the recipe hasn't gone live yet. You'll see it soon!
  
• Margarita - You may recall that Bride and Groom 1.0 had margarita cupcakes at their wedding. I love these and they look super cute when I make them with little umbrellas. I'd be happy to make them again.
  
• Mango, exotic fruits - I was surprised (when searching through my archives) to find that I had made four recipes that involved mango. None of them were all that great, although the mango frosting was quite tasty and refreshing.
  
• Brown sugar - I love how you listed brown sugar as a flavor! Brown sugar rocks! I use it all the time! I think that you would really like my penuche frosting - make sure that I let you try it.
  
• Pumpkin - Pumpkin is the very first flavor that you will be taste testing.
  
• Most fruits, apples, peaches - It cracks me up how most fruits are listed separately from exotic fruits and berries. Clearly, you like fruit.
  
• Root beer - This was another flavor that Bride and Groom 1.0 chose. It's a winner.
  
• Chai - Chai cupcakes were the very first cupcakes that I made. I don't remember much about them, but I do recall that they were a hit, despite how ugly they looked.
  
• Flourless chocolate - I've got this recipe down. They are a crowd favorite!
  
• Honey - I use honey all of the time. However, I've never made a honey cupcake.
  
• Apple caramel - Oh look, another fruit! Look for this one soon on Paula Deen.
• Well I am sure we will like a lot of things you come up with. Please experiment as usual and come up with your own ideas too. I am sure we don't even realize the potential of flavors. - Excellent! I'm sure that you will enjoy the garlic cupcakes that I'll be making soon (I do not jest).

Wedding Cupcake Photos

Here are the promised wedding cupcake photos from Wedding 2.0, along with my commentary - things I liked, things that went wrong, and freak-out moments.

Bride and Groom 2.0 decided to use the same stand as Couple 1.0. However, if you look at the photos from Couple 1.0's wedding, you'll see that they had an extra tier at the top for a single cupcake. Couple 2.0 wanted more room at the top to put a small cake and cake topper.

Couple 2.0 wanted to decorate the cupcake stand with silk leaves. This activity somehow ended up happening the morning of the wedding. At first, we tried to rubber cement them on, but as it turns out, silk doesn't stick to rubber cement. We ended up using puffy double-stick tape.

Another nice touch that Couple 2.0 had was to label each tier of the tower. It was a great idea! As you can see, these are the chocolate bourbon pecan cupcakes. This was the easiest frosting to pipe, so I opted for a classic frosting swirl.

I toyed with all kinds of decorating ideas for the apple cinnamon cupcakes. I even went to so far as to buy 7 bags of apple chips to put on top, but they just didn't look right. But, never fear, the apple chips are so good that they will definitely not go to waste! In the end, I decorated the cupcakes with some gold sugar and a little bit of gold leaf.

I also went back and forth about how to decorate the oatmeal raisin cupcakes. I decided on piping a simple flower (basically I just put on a star tip and squeezed). Then, I scattered some powdered sugar on top along with a little bit of brown sugar and some edible gold glitter.

As I mentioned before, Bride and Groom 2.0 wanted a cake on top of the cupcakes. I did not make the cake, but I loved the way it looked up there! Sure, my cupcakes might have felt a bit second tier, but taste wise, they stole the show!

I absolutely LOVED the cake topper. Couple 2.0 had it custom-made by Etsy seller Sophia's Workshop to look like them. The best part, though, was what was behind Groom Topper 2.0's back.

Groom 2.0 is a huge Muppets fan. He had always talked about having a Kermit and Miss Piggy cake topper, but understandably, Bride 2.0 did not want to be represented by a pig. This cake topper was the perfect compromise. It couldn't have suited them better.

Again, if you refer back to the photos from Wedding 1.0, you'll see that the cupcakes were on a huge table. Obviously, this display did not hold all 300 cupcakes. The event staff promised to refill the stand as the cupcakes were eaten. This method worked quite well, but it was more than a bit stressful for me.

This woman was just doing her job, and I tried my best not to give her the smack down. However, after taking so much care in transporting the cupcakes (making sure they stayed level the entire time and didn't slide around into each other), watching her throwing cupcakes up onto the stand and just barely keeping the box from slipping off the table scared me tremendously.

It all worked out, though, and the cupcakes were devoured.

They were even grandmother-approved. While I was a huge fan of the chocolate bourbon pecan, I actually got the most compliments on the apple cinnamon cupcakes. People loved them.

No, that's not a peace sign. That's a guy pointing out that he is having two cupcakes. There were enough cupcakes for almost every guest to have two.

Some guests could have even had three cupcakes. I don't think people realized this. Because of the small size of the cake table, I believe that guests thought that they should limit themselves to one cupcake. We ended up with close to 100 cupcakes left over. The really good news is that the catering hall has an arrangement with the Salvation Army, so all of the extra cupcakes went to charity.

After baking all of these cupcakes, am I sick of cupcakes yet?

Nope. :)

Wedding 2.0 is Over!

Me with a caricature by my favorite

artist, Cbabi Bayoc, who was hired for Wedding 2.0.

I promised regular updates, but I just couldn't do it. I barely had time to breathe this weekend. Thanks for all of your comments, e-mails, and tweets. You guys are the best!

For those, like Ivy, who have asked what it takes to bake that many cupcakes, the answer is that it took me two full days (Saturday and Sunday).

To review, this was my week, starting on Thursday:

• Thursday, I fasted for Yom Kippur.
• Friday, I baked the entire day. Then, I wrote a quick post and headed out to the bachelorette party - which I and Bride 1.0 were running (so I couldn't be too late).
  
• Saturday, I baked and frosted cupcakes the entire day. Then, I wrote a toast and headed to the rehearsal dinner. After dinner (around 10 PM) I obsessed about the decoration for the apple cinnamon cupcakes and stopped at two stores to buy some colored sugar.
  
• Sunday, I had to be at the wedding at 8 AM to help set up. I worked from 8 AM until the time the wedding started on both cupcake and non-cupcake wedding set up tasks. Then, I worked the whole wedding as assistant photographer and female usher - taking a few breaks to eat, dance, and have my caricature done.
  
• Post wedding, I collapsed!
  

Mid-day on Saturday, I started to get nervous. I wasn't sure if I would be able to get it all done and I hadn't had a second to write the toast (never mind that I could have written that well in advance). I don't like to ask for help, but when I need to, I do it.

HUGE thanks goes out to:

• Kathi, for doing apple peeling, powdered sugar sifting, clean-up work, and piping when my arm was about to fall off.
• Amie, for straightening my work area and for handing me a steady flow of cupcakes to frost and then moving them to boxes for transport. It's amazing what a little bit of organization and some good company can do to help you stay sane.
• Nancy, for bringing Amie and me lunch and then sticking around to take over where Amie left off.
• Jonathan, who helped in countless ways. If it weren't for him, there is no way that the cupcakes would have safely made it to the wedding.
  

Thanks also goes out to Michael, Elliot, and Brian who also helped out - every little bit counts. I truly appreciate everyone's support!

Jonathan and I (as his assistant photographer) took over 2900 photos at the wedding. That's about 40 GB of high-res photos! He's working on getting them together, and I'll be getting some up soon. I was reluctant to post without photos, but I figured that an update was definitely in order.

Aside from a couple of people, the wedding party was made up of some of my closest friends - several of whom were in our wedding party as well. I feel blessed to have some amazing friends who are always there for each other. We worked as a team all morning Sunday to get everything ready so the wedding could start on time. Even though it wasn't my wedding, seeing everyone come together to make Bride and Groom 2.0's wedding day happen (not just the cupcakes) reminded me of just how lucky I am.

To Bride and Groom 2.0 - your wedding was beautiful and I hope that your married life is as sweet as the cupcakes! Mazel Tov!

Wedding 2.0 Update

For those who don't know, this weekend I am baking about 300 cupcakes for Bride and Groom 2.0's wedding.

This morning, I went shopping. I ended up buying $302 of groceries for cupcake baking - about $1/cupcake. It would have been cheaper if I shopped at Costco, but I've been a Whole Foods girl all along and I wasn't about to change now.

I started off with the oatmeal raisin cupcakes. They went really smoothly. The only small snafu was that I had originally made the cupcakes with honey vinegar that was given to me as a gift. I had no idea how hard it was to find honey vinegar. I ended up baking with half honey vinegar and half champagne vinegar - which turned out just fine.

Next up were the chocolate bourbon pecan cupcakes. With those, the issue was that I was short on corn syrup for the gooey filling part (I bought the very last bottle at the store). It ended up working just fine with the amount I had, and the cupcakes tasted even better than I remembered. I like the oatmeal raisin, but I LOVE these. I wish everyone could have them hot out of the oven like I did.

Tomorrow: Bake the apple cinnamon cupcakes and frost all of the cupcakes.

For now, though, I need to get ready and head out to the bachelorette party!

The Wedding Cupcakes

A small selection of the wedding cupcake possibilities Couple 2.o chose from

After over a year of sampling Cupcake Project cupcakes, Bride and Groom 2.0 have selected their wedding cupcakes.

The three wedding cupcakes will be:

1. Apple cinnamon cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting
2. Chocolate cupcakes with bourbon and pecan with pecan butter frosting with chocolate and bourbon
3. Oatmeal raisin cupcakes with maple buttercream frosting*

I'm really excited about all of their picks! Their wedding is one week from tomorrow!! I will begin baking the almost 300 cupcakes on Thursday night - assuming I'm up for baking after fasting all day. Thursday is the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, and we don't eat or drink from Wednesday night to sundown on Thursday. Baking cupcakes after fasting sounds like a recipe for lots and lots of cupcake batter eating.

I'll be posting regularly on Twitter about my baking progress and will be sure to update the blog periodically as well.

*A Note About the Maple Buttercream Frosting

Despite the many, many frostings I've made, the maple buttercream frosting is actually one that Couple 2.0 has never tried. It's hard to believe. It's a frosting recipe I got from a cupcake class I took at Kitchen Conservatory. I took the class because I am going to be teaching my first cupcake class ever there next month (there are still some slots left if you are interested and promise to be easy on me) and I wanted to see how things there worked. The frosting was super yummy and the couple agreed that a maple buttercream would go well with the oatmeal raisin cupcakes.

Maple Buttercream Frosting Recipe from Kitchen Conservatory

• 1/2 C butter, room temperature
• 1/4 C pure maple syrup
• 1 T whole milk or heavy cream
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1/8 t salt
• 1 1/2 C powdered sugar

1. Beat the butter, maple syrup, milk,vanilla, and salt for 1 minute.
2. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until smooth.

Another Wedding: It's Nuts!

A Story From the Past

Seven years ago, there was an event in St. Louis called Drink Exchange. The Drink Exchange concept was that by buying drinks for random strangers you would make new friends and business contacts. I don't drink, but back then, I needed some new friends so I went as a way to meet some people. It ended up being a blast! I met a ton of people including the the guy who would seven years later get injured by a margarita cupcake.

A few weeks after Drink Exchange, I ran into him at a different event. Afterwards, he asked a girlfriend of mine out. She said, "No." He then asked me out. I first had to grill him about why I was second. Answer: I wasn't being as flirty as my friend. This was true. I then said a tentative, "Why the the heck not?" We went on a few dates but it didn't work out. To be more direct about it, I dumped him. That is, if it even counts as dumping after just a few dates.

The Happy Ending

To his testament, we ended up becoming friends and over time he has come to feel like family.

The Even Happier Ending

He recently got engaged to someone who I 100% approve of (and we all know, that's what matters). She too, has become a great friend. Margarita friend has tried almost every cupcake flavor I have made and his fiancée has tried a great many as well.

And Yes, I'm Officially Crazy

At their engagement celebration, I offered my cupcake services. Margarita friend said for both their and my sakes we should wait until after the NYE wedding before making anything final. We all wanted to see if I could pull it off and if I would ever want to see a cupcake again when I was done. Since I was successful (yippee!!) and I still like cupcakes, I'm now on for doing their wedding.

Their date is not final yet. I'll update this post when it is. However, it is tentatively set for Oct. 12th.

The Blog Will Continue

From now until then, I will refer to them as Bride 2.0 and Groom 2.0 (Margarita friend will be glad to be rid of the blog name that constantly reminded him of his traumatic injury). I will continue to regularly make cupcakes and blog about them so that they can select. They, however, have some different requirements.

The New Requirements

1. Fall Themed. Bride 2.0 likes cupcakes that are fall themed. Her favorite so far is the Apple and Honey cupcakes. This also happens to be one of my favorites. She also thinks pumpkin would be great. I like this requirement. I LOVE fall flavors. It will be fun playing around with different combinations.
2. Something Basic. Groom 2.0 likes his cupcakes to be pretty basic. He knows this is not typically my style, but I may need to try to master a simple chocolate or vanilla cupcake.
3. Nuts are Good. Groom 2.0 REALLY REALLY wants peanut butter. I do not like peanut butter and will not be using it. However, we compromised that I would play around with using other types of nut butters like cashew and almond. I'm really excited to get to bake with nuts since they were banned at the last wedding.
4. No Coconut. Neither Bride 2.0 nor Groom 2.0 like coconut so that is a banned ingredient.
5. No Coffee. I like coffee, they don't. Oh well.
6. No Mint. Per my original rules, mint will stay on the banned flavor list.

I'm surprisingly ready to get back to my typical smaller-scale baking. I'm excited to have another event to work up to and also really glad that it isn't until October.

Sweet Success

At dinner one night in early 2006, some good friends mentioned that they were trying to decide where to buy cupcakes for their wedding. I surprised myself and others at the table by offering to bake for them (I had never baked a cupcake before - ever!). My friends surprised me by accepting. Their wedding was Dec 31, 2007, and I had exactly nine months to learn to bake wedding-worthy cupcakes.  I baked a new cupcake for them every week and let them choose their three favorites for the big day.  My friends were the reason that I started this blog and I am forever grateful to them for letting me me bake their cupcakes.  I wrote the post below after the big day was over.

I can't believe it's over! I've been baking a cupcake flavor each week for the past nine months in preparation for one day.

Nine Months on a Cupcake Project as Compared to a Nine Month Pregnancy

Pregnancy	Cupcake Project
Weight is always gained.	You may gain weight. I managed to only gain a few pounds.
Husbands sometimes gain sympathy weight.	Everyone you know has the opportunity to gain weight.
You think about foods such as pickles.	You only think about cupcakes.
People you encounter always ask how the pregnancy is coming along. They sometimes want to touch your belly.	People you encounter always ask how the cupcakes are coming along. They always want to touch your cupcakes.
Your friends don't get to choose the sex of the baby.	Your friends get to choose the flavors of the cupcakes.
The big day is hard. There isn't much your friends and family can do other than sit there and try to keep you calm.	The big day is hard, but you can put your friends and family to work.
When everyone sees the baby for the first time there are lots of oohs and aahs.	When everyone sees the cupcakes there are lots of oohs and aahs.
You do not eat the baby.	You eat the cupcakes.
You feel relieved to be done with the labor and have a happy healthy baby, but nervous about what's ahead.	You feel relieved to be done with the labor and now you can relax and party!!

Let's Back Up a Bit

Last I left you, I had all the cupcakes baked and one flavor (the margarita) frosted. I had left the frosting of the gingerbread latte and the soda fountain cupcakes for the wedding day itself. I expected it to be easy peasy.

I woke up early the day of the wedding and got right to making and applying the cream soda frosting. I was about 1/3 of the way done with frosting the cupcakes when I suddenly caught a huge whiff of gingerbread. Panic struck! Had I frosted the gingerbread cupcakes with the cream soda frosting instead of the gingerbread latte frosting? I called my husband down to the kitchen to put his nose to use. It turns out that, yes, in fact, I had.

Lesson Learned: If two cupcakes are being made at the same time and are roughly the same color, always label the boxes.

There weren't enough extra cupcakes to just throw them out, and while I thought the combination tasted good, it wasn't what the bride and groom had requested. I moved on to frosting the correct cupcakes while my husband tackled the task of removing the cream soda frosting from the gingerbread cupcakes. His method:

1. Scrape frosting off.

2. Use small amounts of water to wipe off the residue.

3. Leave them out to dry. (We tried drying some on low heat in the oven, but it dried out the entire cupcake.)

The method seemed to work just fine and no one knew the difference, until now that is.

The rest of the frosting process went smoothly. There was a need for a last minute (a few hours before we needed to arrive for setup) run to the store for more icing ingredients, but overall it went without incident.

The closer it got to wedding time, however, the more nervous I became. My biggest fear was that something was going to go wrong in transport. What if they all turned upside down? Should I have brought extra frosting to the reception site in case I need to re-frost all the cupcakes?

My husband and my friend from Texas ended up devising a system that worked perfectly. They loaded all the bakery boxes into moving boxes and padded the extra spaces in the big box so the boxes couldn't slide.

My husband was extraordinarily careful on the drive there, taking turns at a snail's pace. The cupcakes arrived almost flawlessly. They did end up touching each other a bit in transit since I did not have anything separating them. This left little frosting marks in places they shouldn't have been, like when Grandma gives you a big kiss hello and you've got that little splotch of lipstick on your cheek.

The other item that needed transport was the top cupcake. I gave the top cupcake an extra high swirl to make it special. It also made it impossible to fit in the normal-sized box. As the most visible cupcake, I was most nervous about its arrival in one piece. I did take some extra precautions there and made three of them. This, too, ended up working out fine.

The Stand

The cupcake stand was created by the bride's dad. Using the stand and the entire table, we were able to display all of the 250ish cupcakes I had made. Since the bride and groom had no further use for the stand, my husband and I are now proud owners of a large cupcake stand. If anyone in the St. Louis area has need to borrow such an item, that could be arranged - just drop me an email.

The Favorite of the Favorites

The groom gave a mini thank-you speech at the wedding and announced the three flavors of cupcakes that would be served. He mentioned that the soda fountain cupcakes were his favorite. As a side note, I didn't quite make equal numbers of each cupcake flavor. I actually made fewer of the soda fountain cupcakes. They were taller cupcakes so the batter didn't go as far. Because of the numbers and the groom's assertion, the soda fountain cupcakes went like hotcakes (or should we say cupcakes?). The other flavors were also enjoyed, however, I did get several comments that I went a bit too heavy on the salt part of the sugar/salt rim of the margarita cupcakes.

The wedding was one of the best I've been to, but even if it had sucked, I would have had a great time. I was so relieved and excited to have pulled it off successfully.

Happy 2008 to everyone! Thanks for all of your support and advice throughout this entire project!

9 Hours = 250 Unfrosted Cupcakes

For the Statisticians:
It takes 0.46296296296296296296296296296296 minutes to bake an unfrosted cupcake.

My mom, who teaches math, is cringing as she reads this.

My Florida math minor friend is also cringing. That isn't a guess though, she is sitting next to me. "Math doesn't work that way."

Reality Check:
Even if you choose to accept my flawed statistics, you should be warned. This is me and well, it was 9ish hours and 250ish cupcakes. I did have someone do an official count, which I appreciated greatly. He gave an exact number and I heard 250ish.

Status Update
With the exception of a few gingerbread latte cupcakes that exploded and had to become taste test cupcakes for my Florida friend, all turned out quite well.

Also today, we (yes, I enlisted some help on this part) assembly-line frosted the margarita cupcakes. I spread the frosting, my LA friend sugared/salted the rim, and my husband drink umbrella-ed them (can I made that a verb?).

Tomorrow, all that's left is frosting the gingerbread latte and the soda fountain cupcakes. Easy peasy! I hope.

The Shopping is Done, Today I Bake

The big day is Monday! I can't believe it will be here so soon. I took a stab at how much of everything I would need and headed to Whole Foods to shop. Others might have actually calculated this all out, but that just seemed like way too much work. I had things on my shopping list like:

• Powdered Sugar - A ginormous amount.

Then, of course, powdered sugar is the one thing I forgot to buy.

I won't need that until tomorrow though, since I plan to bake all the cupcakes first and then frost.

I borrowed a second Kitchen Aid so I'll have two going at once and I also purchased 14 bakery boxes for storing and transporting the cupcakes (again a rough estimate of what I might need).

Did I mention I am going to bake today? I should start. I'll check in periodically with updates.

Some Notes on Vegan Sugar

I don't typically buy vegan sugar. I just bought one bag of it to use for the salt/sugar combo on the margarita cupcakes because it was white. The organic sugar is more of a brown.

Why would sugar not be vegan? According to Vegan Outreach, "It depends on how you define 'vegan.' Refined sugars do not contain any animal products, and so by an ingredients-based definition of vegan, refined sugar is vegan. However, some refined sugar is processed with animal bone char. The charcoal is used to remove color, impurities, and minerals from sugar. The charcoal is not 'in' the sugar, but is used in the process as as a filter. Thus by a process-based definition of vegan, refined sugar may not be considered vegan."

The Chosen Ones

With less than a month remaining before the big day, the Bride and Groom have chosen!
They carefully evaluated each and every cupcake and they have selected their three favorites.

I will be making eight dozen of each cupcake variety to serve at their wedding on New Year's Eve. This will be the most I have ever attempted to bake at one time. I'm nervous, but also excited about it. Will my hands get sore from piping frosting? Will I get sick from licking so much cupcake dough off the mixers? I'll be sure to let everyone know as the saga progresses.

Despite our differences of opinion along the way, I am very happy with their selections.

They decided to go with a cupcake drink theme.

They selected:

Soda Fountain Cupcakes
The Groom loved these at first whiff. They want them exactly as I made them.

Margarita Cupcakes

The Bride's family demanded these make an appearance.

Gingerbread Latte Cupcakes

This one was by request of the Bride. It was a combination of the gingerbread cupcakes that she loved and her desire to have coffee in a cupcake. I plan to make these without the simple syrup and possibly with only latte frosting as opposed to a gingerbread and latte swirl. However, that is still open for discussion.