Sunday, June 19, 2011

Two Weddings. One Weekend. Crazy.

Prepare yourself for cupcake/cake photo overload!

I was honored to have two weddings to bake for yesterday.  They were both for awesome couples to work with.  Each with beautiful places to set up in.  A few snafus along the way, but in the end everything turned out just fine.

The first reception was held in an art gallery.  The historic brick + modern art and concrete floors = super chic!

Note the window to the left.  Passers by would stop and watch us as we set up.  You know, no pressure...
 
 I convinced a girlfriend to come along and help me place the cupcakes and take pics.  She took some "action" shots along the way.  She was a news reporter in her pre-mom days and kept telling me to smile.  Honestly, I wasn't very good at it.  So there.

Shout out to Sweet & Simple Jewelry for my antique bronze necklace and locket ring.  I love them!

Now back to those cupcakes...
 Love this shot!
 Pink Velvet Cake with Vanilla-Almond Buttercream Frosting
 Yummy Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting topped with Crystallized Ginger
 Kahlua Spiked Coffee-Chocolate Cake with Kahlua Spiked Frosting topped with Dark Chocolate Covered Espresso Bean.  That was a mouthful.

Yes please.  Thank you.  :)
Wedding number two was at a local country club.  The theme was black and white polka dots with hot pink accents.  Different style than the first wedding but modern and very elegant all the same!  I'll start with the before pictures from home.
 Lots of unfrosted pink velvet cupcakes.  228 to be exact.
 Now with fluffy clouds of cream cheese frosting.
 Some of the fondant decorations ready to be plopped on top.
This is always, always my favorite part of the process: the "crumb coat" on the triple layered cake tiers.  There's something so naturally pretty about them in this state instead of with the fondant cover.

On location:  All cake was Pink Velvet.  Half the cupcakes were frosted with Vanilla-Almond Buttercream, the other half with Cream Cheese frosting.  Most of the decorations were from homemade white and chocolate MMF.  Most.  Read on....
 Setting up...and trying to smile...again.

 White fondant covered pink velvet cake filled with cream cheese frosting. This was pre-made fondant.  I tried three times with my homemade MMF and it just wasn't working this time.  That cake was almost the end of me Friday night.

 Although I made 228 cupcakes for this wedding, they served most of them at the tables.  I placed as many as I could here and reluctantly handed over the boxes to the head server. <Insert pout y face here.>

 Here my friend got fancy and took black and whites that only showed the color pink.
 Peek-a-boo Polk-a-dots.
 
 Remember those snafus I referred to earlier?  Well, I decorated the small daisy cupcakes on Friday, but when I woke up Saturday morning, the black from the daisies had bled onto the icing. I've never had that happen before.  Maybe it was too humid???  Anyway, I had to redo 60 of them that morning.  I managed to salvage the cupcakes, but had to make new frosting and decorations for them!  Ahhh!  Originally each had three small daisies, but I only had enough black fondant for two each when I redid them.  If I have learned anything about doing cakes it's that there is always something that doesn't go as planned and you just have to be flexible!


And there you have it...almost 700 fondant cutouts, 372 cupcakes, 2-3 layered fondant covered tiers, 2 weddings, due on the same day.  I couldn't have done it without some help and to those people, you know who you are, THANK YOU!  Honestly.  I meant it.  I'll bake you a cake...just give me a week or two...  ;)

P.S. I also got my business cards this week. And my sweet father-in-law made those adorable birch card holders.  Love!

 

7 comments:

  1. SO very impressed Libby! It all looks just beautiful and of course, delicious! You are very talented, creative, and plain ol' hip.

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  2. I didn't know there as such a thing as "Pink Velvet." Is it like red velvet but milder? They look like Strawberry cupcakes - my favorite!

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  3. It is like red velvet, but with less cocoa and less food coloring. Not quite as rich, but still yummy! :)

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  4. Incredible, Libby. You are quite the talented lady!

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  5. ahh! LOVE LOVE LOVE all that you've got going on here! I love the card holder too.. could I buy one from him?

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  6. Thanks! I will send one down with A next time he's headed your way. (I told my father-in-law he should make a bunch and sell them but I know he's not the kind of person to care about selling his work. Lucky for you he made way more than I asked of him or need! :))

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  7. Wow Libby, you were one busy gal! Your cupcakes are gorgeous and I am sure just and tasteful to the tastebuds! Your cake is just beautiful surrounded by the lovely cupcakes! Nice presentation as well. Your card is just as lovely and what a beautiful cupcake on it (wink wink)! and how nice to have such a wonderful card holder! I will certainly be following your blog to get all these yummy recipes!! Nice post, thanks for sharing!

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