This Week: A Taste Test and an Open House

I met with a lovely new couple this week so they could taste a couple of cupcakes for their upcoming nuptials.  I made carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting which they loved (who doesn't?)

and Kahlua cupcakes which didn't make the final cut.  Their colors will be gold and brown, (perfect for a fall wedding) so I bought some pearlized gold sugar and went crazy.  Although none of these designs will be used at their reception, I had fun experimenting.

Later in the week I baked for an open house for a couple whose wedding I did in June.  They chose a combination of minis and standard size cupcakes, a brilliant idea if you have multiple flavors so guests can try one of each if they'd  like, or for events with kids.  They did the carrot cake again with cream cheese frosting and crystallized ginger on top.  White chocolate cake with raspberry frosting was the second flavor.

 More carrot cupcakes.  Yum yum!

More minis, half with fresh raspberries and the other half with white chocolate morsels.

I tried for the first time filling the white chocolate cupcakes with raspberry filling before I baked them.  (You know, a Tbs of cake batter + a tsp of the good stuff + another Tbs of the batter.)  But when I bit into a test cake I found that all the jam had fallen to the bottom.  Bummer.  It was tasty but I wasn't happy with how it looked so I redid them without the filling for the clients. Of course we don't let anything go to waste around here so I frosted the rejects with some left over cream cheese frosting and when I had it later that evening, I got this....

My little cupcake monster was smiling at me!  :)  And boy was it ever good with that cream cheese frosting!  I think I found a new favorite combo!