Baby Shower Cupcakes

Top tier of the stand

This weekend was my first big order. I was hired to bake 5 dozen cupcakes for a baby shower. It was five different types - vanilla/strawberry, cookie dough, chocolate chip/chocolate, red velvet, and chocolate/peanut butter. To say this was a learning experience is definitely an understatement. Initially I was having a problem where some of the cupcakes were rising way over the pans and spilling over and some of them were not rising at all. I was tearing out my hair, about to cry, and ready to give up my dreams of being a professional cupcake baker, when I finally diagnosed the problem being with the oven. I suspect that the temperature was fluctuating, causing these problems. Sure enough, once I switched to the bottom oven (we have a double oven at my house), there were no more problems. Unfortunately, it took 4 batches of cupcakes that saw their way to the bottom of the trash can before I figured it out. All in all, I think they came out really well. I ate some of the "rejects" for breakfast (I had gotten up at 6 am to start baking), and even the mangled ones tasted great.

I made that cupcake stand!

I've been getting a lot more large orders coming up. It's really exciting, especially since all this started about a month ago. Although I've been baking basically since I can reach the stove (which contrary to popular was NOT last year...), but my first cupcakes I made not from a box were only last August. I'm really looking forward to taking more orders, trying more recipes and hopefully this all leads to my own cupcakery.