New Year's Eve Eve Wedding

A baker friend of mine called me up to ask if I would help with her first wedding.  The order was for 600 cupcakes and a small cutting cake!  Um, yeah.  I don't know how you would do that all by yourself...especially not with a newborn baby on your hands!  Amazingly though, she baked all 600 (it actually turned out to be 48 dozen or 576) by herself.  In two days.  !!!!!   So all I had to do was frost and decorate the cupcakes and help get them all set up.  I was a little nervous at times thinking "There is no way we can get all this done half a day."  But we did.  And I had a great time working with someone else (above the age of 5) for a change.

 A tower of Red Velvet and Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate frosting topped with a Red Velvet cutting cake was centered in front of the head table in the ballroom at Hilton Garden Inn in Fargo.

 

 

I thought the gold sugar "glitter" was perfect for a New Year's Eve Eve wedding!

Pretty table decorations in white, black, silver and gold.  There were 36 tables and a platter of 10 cupcakes at each table.  That'sa lotta cupcakes!

Huge kudos to L.S. for successfully completing your first wedding order!  Thanks for letting me tag along for the ride!

Paul Frank Birthday Cupcakes

They are one of the coolest families I know, so I wasn't surprised when Mom told me their soon-to-be 5 year old was having a Paul Frank Julius Monkey birthday party. 

Not surprised, but a little nervous as to how I would accomplish the task of making fondant Juilius Monkeys!  So I decided for the first time to try cutting them free hand.  I used the monkey on the invitation as a template.  I cut out the different parts (ears, mouth, shape of brown face and shape of black head), placed them on top of the rolled fondant, and traced/cut the pattern with a small, sharp knife.  An exacto would work great for this job.  After a little practice, it actually went pretty smoothly.   I'm sure I'll be using this skill again in the future.

The eyes on the monkeys and the shapes and letters on the other cupcakes were cut with cutters; not free hand!

And how could you have Paul Frank anything without a cherry???  Made out of fondant.

Happy Birthday Fi! :)