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.

I used to question whether I believed in the institution of marriage.  Could two people really be compatible for a lifetime?  Are human beings really meant to be monogamous?  Having found a life partner to share all of my joys, sorrows, triumphs, challenges, laughing fits, and cupcakes with, I understand what it means to have a soul mate and rejoice for others who through sheer luck are able to find theirs.

Groom 3.0's favorite cupcake was the peaches n' cream
and Bride 3.0's favorite was the chocolate pumpkin.
Mine was the pound cake (not that it mattered).

While more and more people are choosing to either elope, have destination weddings, or courthouse affairs, the power and energy of affirming and sharing love with family and friends is to me what makes a wedding magical.  I love weddings!  As an assistant photographer and editor at J. Pollack Photography, it's a good thing that I do.  I spend hours a day looking at photos of happy couples - weeding out photos of people with their mouths full of food or their eyes closed.

Bride and Groom 3.0's wedding was not just another wedding.  Attending the wedding of Bride and Groom 3.0 as a guest (and cupcake baker) felt like an honor and privilege.  As their Rabbi said, their love lit up the room. I thank them for letting me be a part of their day.


Now, About Those Cupcakes

When last I left you, I had a giant stack of boxes ready to go out the door.

Let's peek in those boxes.

Here's a box of peaches n' cream cupcakes.  You'll see that I decided to use shelf liner to keep the cupcakes from sliding around in the box.  It worked really well!  They were all intact when I arrived at Moulin, the wedding venue.

The peaches n' cream cupcake baking went very smoothly.  My only challenge was guessing how many cans of peaches I would need for the 100 cupcakes.  In case you are ever in this situation, you should know that there are about 20 peach slices in a 15 oz can of peaches.  But, about 20% of the peaches in the can are broken or misshapen.  You can do your own math.

Here's the chocolate pumpkin (sweet potato) cupcake.  Once I made it past the not having any pumpkin snafu, these cupcakes went swimmingly.  I hadn't planned on putting the chocolate chip on top, but the cupcake looked empty without it.

Lastly, here are the pound cake cupcakes with the Lamington chocolate frosting.  The frosting on these cupcakes frustrated me at first, but turned out to be my favorite in the end.  When I originally made the Lamington cupcakes, I frosted all sides of the cupcakes so I didn't worry about the frosting dripping.  On these pound cake cupcakes, I wanted the frosting to stay on top of the cupcake and it did not want to stay put.  No matter what I did, it dripped all over the place.  I was very worried about it and wasted an hour or two obsessing and trying to problem solve.  In the end, I just let the frosting drip.

Overnight, the drips hardened and ended up looking cute (also, you could barely see them once I put the wrappers on).  And - the hard frosting made for really easy transport.  One box of these got jostled a bit, but the toppled cupcakes looked completely flawless - like nothing had ever happened.  I would highly recommend Lamington chocolate frosting if you need to transport cupcakes and want to keep them looking nice.  It's so much easier than buttercream.

Here I am showing off a box of cupcakes heading out the door.  The t-shirt that I'm wearing has a Hip Hop Congress logo.  It's an organization founded by Groom 3.0.  Check it out!

I hadn't seen the stand before I arrived at Moulin with the cupcakes. When I first saw it, I was struck by two things:

1. This stand is incredibly beautiful.
2. This stand is incredibly small.

I wondered how I would possibly fit all of my cupcakes on it.  I thought that perhaps I could use some of the table space as well, but it turned out that the rest of the table was on reserve for fruit kabobs that were brought out at dessert time.

The stand ended up working like a charm (and doesn't it looked charmed - like something out of A Midsummer Night's Dream?).  While it only held about 100 cupcakes, the staff at Moulin did an outstanding job of keeping it full all night.  They even straightened it as they worked so it never started to look sloppy.  Their professionalism blew me away.

The longer I stared at the stand, the more impressed I was with its originality and beauty.  It was created by Couple 3.0's event florist, Frankie at Festive Atmospheres.  If you are looking for a florist in St. Louis, I would highly recommend him.  To get the true picture of how perfect the stand was, though, you have to understand how well it fit in with the theme of the entire wedding as coordinated by Couple 3.0's wedding planner, Simcha.  While it's not cupcake related, take a quick peek at the tables,

 the dance floor,

The balls over the dance floor were designed
by the amazing Exclusive Events.

and the chuppah (wedding canopy) and podium.

The chuppah was also designed
by the amazing Exclusive Events.

Even with the unforgettable stand, the cupcakes would not have been as striking without their coordinated wrappers.  The wrappers were custom-made for Bride and Groom 3.0 by Sugar Cat Studio.  Thank you so much to Sugar Cat for the wrappers!!

What will my next project be?  No idea!  I'll let you know when I know.

Thank Yous

In addition to all of the vendors that I mentioned above, I'd like to again thank Jonathan for everything, Nancy for helping with babysitting, baking, organizing, brainstorming, and transporting, Amie for bringing breakfast and wrapping cupcakes, Lori and Rob for watching Myles so we could go to the rehearsal dinner and cleaning the counters, and Bride and Groom 1.0 for watching Myles on the day of the wedding and filling my car up with gas.  I couldn't have done it without all of you!!