Pretty Cupcakes

Recently I was asked to put together a "sampler" of cupcakes for various events - Sweet 16s, weddings, bar/bat mizvahs, etc in order to show what I'm able to do. I used some designs I've already done and also came up with some new. This post is going to be mainly pictures (which I learned this weekend is all some people look at anyway!). Most of these pictures were taken around 4:00 in the morning when I finished baking, so the quality of the photography is a bit lacking.

The final 24 that made the cut

Cupcake Flags!

Cupcake for a Sweet 16

Modified Golf Cupcakes to include a sand trap and water hazard


That glitter is edible!!

This one was my favorite

The woman's name I was meeting with was Lori. Not sure how

this would work out for longer names.

There's a lot going on on this cupcake, but I think it's pretty

Wedding Anniversary Cupcakes - Completed!

Finished cupcake painted with gold luster dust with a fondant flower

Wednesday after working a full day and a two hour commute down to Toms River, I was finally ready to start these four dozen 50th wedding anniversary cupcakes that were being picked up the next morning. Just in time, my 100 cupcake boxes had arrived that afternoon. Unfortunately, I had left several things I needed at my apartment in Hoboken. Being as I'm not the most organized person, baking out of two separate locations is going to be a challenge for me, and I'll probably end up with 10 of everything at some point. After getting all the cupcakes baked, my mom and I ran to Michael's craft store to pick up the missing things I needed.

Engineering my new cupcake boxes - I love that they have the
holders to keep each cupcake in place

There's still a problem with my parents' oven...I brought home my oven thermometer, and saw that the oven is fluctuating in temperature from 330-400. This may not seem like a big difference, but when you're baking cakes and cupcakes, it's extremely important to have an even temperature. Otherwise you end up with cupcakes that either won't rise or overflow. I also need to just work on filling the cupcake liners with less, especially in Toms River where I know the baking temperature is going to be a problem.

Me, covered in corn starch. Apparently while rolling out the fondant, I have a tendency
to wipe my hands on my pants...I need to start wearing one of the aprons I have

When I first started rolling out the fondant, embossing, covering the cupcakes and painting, I thought it was going to take forever. This is a really time-consuming way to decorate a cupcake, and when you have 3 done and 45 left to go, it feels like you will never be finished. Fortunately I got into a nice rhythm and had a baking assistant (my mom), and was able to finish them so that I could get some sleep before having to be up at 6 am to get to my real job.

Cupcakes all ready to be picked up

I wasn't able to be there the next morning when these were picked up, so I had to rely on my mom for feedback. She said the woman who ordered them was extremely happy with them, which is great. This was only my second time baking larger orders under pressure , and I think it's going to get easier (or at least maybe I will get less nervous) every time.

I'm heading back down to Toms River today for Easter and am baking 3 different types of cupcakes (rainbow, lemon, and coconut), a cake (to practice my fondant abilities), and a cupcake bouquet. Assuming no major baking catastrophes, I'll have posts up of all of these next week.

Potential Wedding Anniversary Cupcakes

A friend of my mom's asked me about cupcakes for her parents' 50th wedding anniversary which is taking place in North Carolina in a couple weeks. Because I was already baking today for the baby shower, I told her that I would put together a few samples. She didn't really give me much to go with, but the 50th anniversary is a gold anniversary, so I started with that and tried out some things I've been wanting to. I had some fondant and luster dusts at home, so I covered the tops with embossed fondant and then painted on the luster dust. For two of them, I painted the whole top with iridescent white and the imprint with gold. I liked them, but they're definitely for someone who was looking for something ornate. And they were pretty time consuming. For the other two, I painted them with a pinkish champagne color and topped them with some dried fondant flowers I had painted gold. These were the winning pick for the actual anniversary party with some slight modifications.

The winning cupcake

I'm really loving fondant. You can do so much more with it than regular buttercream, and it's been way easier to work with than I thought it was going to be. I don't think I'm quite ready to bust out any Ace of Cake-style cakes just yet, but I'm definitely getting a feel for it, and I have a ton of ideas I want to try out. The taste is eh, but I don't think it detracts from the overall flavor and definitely adds to the overall appeal.

Embossed and hand-painted