way more than cheesesteak

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Monday, August 2, 2010 @ 7:59 PM

Cupcake Craziness & Wedding Wonderfulness

25 hours. 175 cupcakes. 16 lbs of fondant. 8 lbs of buttercream. 2 lbs of gumpaste. 1 six inch layer cake. 1 crazy baker. 1 happy newly wedded couple. 1 labor of love.

Let me explain something. I'm an emotional baker. When my friend Beth got engaged, she asked me to bake her wedding cupcakes. I was delighted. I was honored. I was elated. I was googling wedding cupcakes until I was seeing double. I was bombarding her with cupcake liner designs and wedding pictures. For a week straight, I would fall asleep thinking about the pros and cons of buttercream and fondant. The thing is, when I bake for someone I care about, it's more than mixing ingredients and putting them in a greased and floured pan for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. I bake my feelings along with the butter, sugar, flour and eggs. Baking is my non-verbal way of saying "I couldn't be more excited for you!" or "I appreciate your friendship" or "I love you!" When I get worked up with emotion, I stumble over my words and they sound trite and inadequate, so I rely on cake and frosting to do all the talking. I pour my feelings into each wave of my spatula and every squeeze of my piping bag. And these cupcakes were no exception.

They started off simple enough...

...but as the cupcake pans kept coming out of the oven, I began to realize just what a big undertaking it was going to be. I mean, these were more than a few thank you cookies. These were more than a birthday cake. I couldn't just slap trick candles on top and have a waiter at TGIFriday's bring them out singing and hope the lighting was dark enough to cover any flaws. These cupcakes were for someone's wedding. One of the most memorable days of a person's life. This was serious business. I had originally intended on making poured fondant, but after giving it some thought, I decided to give rolled fondant a try.

some of the many, many cupcakes.

I had a lot of work ahead of me, but I had good company :)

well, for most of the time anyway...

Once the cupcakes were baked, it was time to make the fondant from scratch. [Get the recipe here from cakescanada.com. I played with the recipe a little bit. I found that it was much quicker to stir by hand than to try to use the dough hook. Plus, I was using my sister's Kitchenaid and didn't want to have to buy her another if I broke the motor on it.]

Melting the bloomed gelatin, corn syrup, vanilla extract and glycerin over a double boiler.

Incorporating the mixture with sugar.

Formed and ready to roll!

Then the cutting began. (I used an Ateco biscuit cutter which was the perfect size to cover a cupcake. If your cupcakes are a little big, the beauty of this fondant is that it can be gently stretched with your hands over the uncovered cupcake area).

One of several stacks of circles.

Fondant? I've got this covered.

Decorated! (I used the tiniest cutter from a Wilton circle cutter set to get the uniform circles. The smaller circles were cut from the same cutter, broken into two and then rolled and flattened to form smaller circles).

I used an Ateco tip #126 and two different shades of icing for these flowers (lavendar & white).

Boxed up and ready to go!

The final display!

Cutting the cake!

...and so, with every whirl of my Kitchenaid, every swirl of frosting, every tiny fondant circle and every crumb of cupcake, I say...
Congratulations, Mike & Beth!!

Labels: CT food, cupcakes, eating with friends, emotional baking, poured fondant, wedding cake, weddings

6 Comments:

wow kelly, i'm speechless by your all your hard work. love shreya

By Shreya, at August 3, 2010 at 12:57 AM

You're a genius and I love you. For all your cakes and all your heart, my beautiful friend!!! I, however, as the roommate of the bride, am left with an apartment full of delicious leftover cupcakes. I have you to blame. For as much as you're an emotional baker, I'm an emotional eater :)

By Anonymous, at August 3, 2010 at 2:27 AM

I gasped out loud multiple times over the beauty of your cupcakes. In the event that I'm not a spinster, can you make me a stunning array of wedding cupcakes too?! :D

By Jess, at August 3, 2010 at 3:13 PM

dearest kelly. your cupcakes were so SO incredibly amazing. i had 12 that night. i love seeing how you made them!! you are so ridiculously talented! i just love you.

annie

By Unknown, at August 3, 2010 at 5:01 PM

Annie really did have 12, by the way. She really did. :)

By Anonymous, at August 4, 2010 at 5:35 AM

aww thanks, gals!

Jess - You will not end up a spinster and I will make you cupcakes any day of the week (including your big day).

Annie - I am so proud of you. You are a champ, both for your cupcake eating skills and just generally. Love you.

Em - I can always count on you to verify such claims. For this I thank you. I hope you take the rest of the cupcakes and make yourself some friends!

By kelly, at August 4, 2010 at 10:14 AM

3 Comments:

I would totally eat the rejects, if there were any. The rest are too pretty to eat... but I think I would eat them eventually if offered. But they look awesome nonetheless.

By Anonymous, at June 11, 2010 at 9:15 PM

What's your recipe for homemade fondant? I want to try it, but I don't want it to be an expensive experiment...

By Unknown, at June 12, 2010 at 7:58 AM

If you click the link, there's both the recipe for the poured fondant (http://www.ochef.com/744.htm) and instructions on how to make it with a kitchenaid mixer. All you'll really need is sugar, water, corn syrup and whatever color/flavor you want to add to it. I'm not sure how the recipe works as pliable play-dough like fondant, but it works well as poured fondant for things like petit fours.

If you're looking for a cheap fondant recipe, you can also try making it with marshmallows (http://candy.about.com/od/fondantcandyrecipes/r/mm_fondant.htm). good luck!! Let me know how it turns out.

By kelly, at June 12, 2010 at 9:24 AM