It's been a few weeks since I've posted, and the main reason why is that I've spent most of my spare time baking.
It started with my friend Paige's wedding in early September. I was charged with making her wedding cake and cupcakes, and there's always a lot of prep work involved with large-scale baking. First, I had to test recipes. Paige is a coconut fanatic, so I tested a few recipes to make sure they didn't implode when I substituted in some coconut milk. Then I also tested an icing pattern for the cake-- which I didn't end up liking. So I had to do some brainstorming for a new cake design.
Mallary, myself, lovely bride Paige, Jasmine and Jill.
On the day before the wedding, Mallary, Jill and I spent about five hours baking up a storm. Jill took charge of making the vanilla cake batter, and Mallary deftly juggled her four-month-old, Alyssa, while scooping cupcake batter. 75 cupcakes and one three-layered 8" cake later, the girls headed out, and I started cake decorating.
I made the roses for this cake over a three days. It took a while for me to get the hang of a technique so that my flowers actually started looking consistent (thanks to
this YouTube video). I developed a bit of a claw (or... carpal tunnel syndrome?) from the repetitive motion of squeezing out each individual rose-- but I could not have been happier with how the cake turned out. Voila!
Paige's wedding cake!
And, you know. The cupcakes didn't turn out too shabby either! Tom even helped me put in the bird toothpicks.
Wedding cupcakes.
Admittedly, making cakes are not my favorite thing in the world. There's something about a wedding cake that is a little too do-or-die for me. If you mess up a cupcake, you just scrape the icing off, and start again. Or, worst case scenario, you chuck the cupcake and move on to the next. But if you mess up a cake... You're screwed. So much pressure! I'll tell you, the drive to the venue with the cake and cupcakes was one of those most stressful 30 minutes of my life! I was white-knuckling the cake saver for ever turn, stop and start.
Fast forward a few weeks, and we're past my birthday, and my nephew's birthday. This weekend I made some vanilla Ninja Turtle cupcakes for Dylan's 6th birthday. And then I made some chocolate peanut butter cupcakes for myself.
Ninja Turtle cupcakes.
Dylan was pretty excited for the cupcakes-- although he'd just received a Star Wars light sabre, which was infinitely more fun for him!
And I was pretty excited for my cupcakes. I'm glad I grabbed one when I did, because they were snatched up and scarfed down by all of our guests.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting.
It's been a great September, but I plan to take a break from baking for a while now.
