Jennifer and Justin

Congratulations to my dear friends Jennifer and Justin on their beautiful wedding!!  I've been waiting a whole year for this beautiful occasion and it has finally arrived!  It was a beautiful, simple ceremony outside near the bay in beautiful, sunny San Diego.  This wedding has been a year in the making...same as the cupcakes!  Jennifer had asked (and I had volunteered...perhaps even forced my way in) to do the sweets for her wedding.  She decided that instead of a cake, she would like to have cupcakes for her simple, intimate affair.  Throughout the year, I presented her with lots of tastings to develop the right recipe for her tastes.  In the end, she decided on three different flavors: vanilla with vanilla frosting, chocolate with vanilla frosting, and peanut butter with peanut butter frosting.  Since I had a whole year to figure out the kinks, by the time the wedding came by, I was beyond prepared and barely broke a sweat!  Last minute, I decided to hoist my sugar cookies upon Jennifer and she decided to use them as her wedding favors.  For events, I usually plan a very strict schedule to make sure that I have everything ready.  I started off with the wedding favors.  Of course there's the cookie itself, but I also had to figure out how to package it.

I decided that stamping the "thank you" purveyed a simple charm.  I had also finally gotten a Cricut cutter and really wanted to try it out...although I think it took waaay longer to peel the tags from the Cricut mat than just cutting the circles from a traditional cutter!  Ahh well, it was bonding time with my pink Cricut cutter!

I really love the simple, but elegant look of these wedding favors.  What made me even happier was the approval from the bride and to see that on the wedding day, everyone was munching on these cookies!  It totally made all the hard work worth it!

But wait, don't forget about the cupcakes!!  So, on top of the cookies, I also had 150 cupcakes to bake, transport, decorate, and set up!  I decided to frost the cupcakes on site, as it I didn't want any ruined cupcakes once I'm at the venue!  It was a great decision, although, I kind of forgot the distance between the parking lot and the hall.  I think I made a good couple trips back and forth to the car and up and down the stairs (the reception was held on the second floor!).  I certainly burned off enough calories to enjoy the yummy food later!  It wasn't until my last trip to the car that I saw a caterer catering another party, roll by with a cart, carrying a cupcake tower, that I realized that was what I needed!!  It certainly would've made my life a lot easier...that plus the fact that I should've yanked my cousin Christina out with me to be my little helper!  No worries though...I've put that on my list for the next gig of what not to forget!

I couldn't even start to describe what I was feeling that afternoon!  On top of it all, anxiety was a top contender!  I was concerned that it wasn't perfect enough, that the frosting might melt off by the time the guests arrive, that Jennifer and Justin won't like it, that I won't finish in time, that a cupcake will face plant onto the crisp, white linen, that I will get green frosting all over....and the list was endless.  Seriously.  I'm very happy to report that everything turned out ok!  Even the bride and groom cupcakes.  The couple had decided to forgo the traditional cake and went with cupcakes for their first taste.

I think I did a pretty good job at capturing how Jennifer and Justin looked!  Everything was hand-made: the cupcake wrapper, the veil, the top hat and the bow tie.  You can't see if from this view, but on the bride's veil, I also stuck a splatter of pearls all over.  It's all a labor of love for the ones I love!

It was perfect!  The whole day was perfect!  But even more so because the groom was enjoying two cupcakes at the same time!

Congrats again my dear friends!! May your marriage be as loving and beautiful as the two of you are!!

Limes, Champagne, Feathers and Zebras

Aaahhh...the weather is finally back to California coastal weather.  It's a nice cool, gloomy day....you know, one of those days that merit a lazy day in with a steaming cup of coffee :) Usually I'm all for the sunshine, but last week was a killer week...crazy sunshine combined with unusual humidity!  So, I'm super happy that the weather is back to normal!  Anywhoo, despite the crazy weather we had last week, I am happy to say that I was still able to pull off a two tiered cake for S' birthday bash.

SO, how did limes, champagne, feathers and zebras end up together?  Well, they all played a part in S' birthday bash...well, at least the dessert parts!  I had tried several new ideas for her birthday.  Remember those champagne cupcakes?  Yep..those were trial cupcakes for S' birthday cake...I had to make sure that they were tasty enough to make!  Secondly, I decided to play around with fondant again...I was pretty  happy with how my birthday cake had turned out but had learned a few things about fondant at that time and decided to try it out again, knowing what I know now from doing it previously.  And lastly, I decided to do a two-tiered cake.  I haven't really dabbled with multiple layers, but since S was having a huge bash, I decided to make a bigger cake to feed her crowd!

I couldn't really do pretty flowers and lace (and the likes) because S isn't really a flower and lace kinda gal.  She is spicy and fun and chill and crazy...all in one! :) (that's a complement S ;) hehee..Anywhoo, for some reason, zebras popped up (not that S reminds me of a zebra...but the idea of zebras...again, S...it's a complement!) LOL...Zebras are fun, wild and crazy..perfect for S!  Good thing she loooves zebras too...see, it was meant to be ;)  And of course, I had to make it extravagantly over the top by adding feathers to the top! =D  For some reason, it was just sooo S!

Now, where does the lime come into the picture?  Well, I decided that a cake just isn't enough (oh yeah, I brought in some home-made baklava and those fabulous raspberry cheesecakes too!)...but yes, in my opinion, that just wasn't enough sweets!  So, I made some vanilla-lime cupcakes with whipped cream frosting garnished with candied lime zests!

I know, I know...I have problems...but hey, what can I say..I heart sweets!!  And the more the merrier!! :)  I had a lot of fun concocting all these goodies...especially for my family and friends!

 Ah HAH!!  THAT'S who did it!! ;)  We've got evidence now!  LOL....

Awww...isn't S cute?  :)  Thanks S for allowing me the opportunity to practice on ya!  Love ya much and hope you had a fantabulous birthday party!!

Champagne Cupcakes

Happy Tuesday readers!  I hope everyone had a fantabulous 4th of July weekend!  The fambam and I went on our annual camping trip up in the Sierras.  We had a great time...the water was high this year, we got a great camping site, cruised around in a little boat, and had a great unstinky bathroom!  The two old couple that managed and took care of the area did a fantastic job!  Get this, they came out twice (yes, twice!) a day to clean up the bathrooms!!   Overall, made for a very enjoyable weekend!  And the whole time out there, all I could think about was: if only there was a portable oven...solar powered, battery powered, or something!  I really wanted to try out a booze cake: champagne cake!  I thought it will be fun for a special occasion, but really wanted to test it out first to see how the taste of the champagne plays with the cake.  I had to wait until today to whip it up!  Amidst unpacking all our camping gears and stowing them away, washing and drying all the clothes and blankets we took into the wilderness, and bathing our once white dog, I finally got a chance at my booze cake!

I had also bought some very pretty cupcake liners that were clearanced out from Sur La Table.  I wanted to wait for a special occasion to use them, but they were sooo pretty and tempting that I used them on these champagne cupcakes.  Don't worry, I made C run out to SLT over the weekend and purchase more for me =D

These cupcakes were actually very tasty.  I was a bit worried about how the champagne would taste, seeing as most champagnes are kinda sour and bitter...Although, I cheated a bit and used a sweet sparkling wine that I usually like to drink instead of a traditional champagne brut.  I figured the sweetness of the sparkling wine would complement a cupcake :)

 The frosting also contains champagne, so this cupcake would be fantastic for an adult party.  There is a subtle hint of champagne...you can't get blatantly drunk, but what's nice is you can drink the rest of the bottle....and no, I did not drink the rest of the champagne this morning...I waited until lunch time to down it ;) LOL..but yeah, the frosting, after some tweaking around, was perfect consistency for piping onto cupcakes! 

Enjoy! :)