Hello, friends and family. I have a serious baking addiction. I’m on step one, admitting I have a problem. I have a problem, and it is a delicious one! Today completes another wedding event, and it went so well! The wedding colors were all different shades of blues with an exception of royal blue (this is an important detail for later). There were accents of burlap and pearls with the main blue being a navy blue. The bride chose the flavors, looked at pictures on Pinterest, (told me what she liked and what she didn’t),  and said to do “whatever makes me happy.” That right there made me extremely happy and excited to play with frostings in all shades of blue!

Two weeks before the wedding I tried some piping ideas and styles and started on my quest for navy blue buttercream. I’ve discovered that navy blue frosting is almost impossible to achieve IF you want it to still taste like buttercream and also desire it to NOT stain teeth blue (picky, I know). I discovered that royal blue frosting is very easy to make though! That was useless to know because that was the only shade of blue NOT used in the wedding.  As entertaining as it would have been to stain teeth blue, I did wish to avoid blue teeth for everyone’s sake.  After a lot of trial and error (mostly error), I finally did come up with a small container of *almost* navy blue that was passible. It tasted buttery and didn’t stain teeth…just tongues. I counted it a win and guarded the precious navy blue frosting carefully. 

Thursday morning I was able to bake almost all 200ish cupcakes. French vanilla, mocha, and triple chocolate cupcakes filled my table all neatly placed in their carriers ready to be frosted. The bride dropped off two lovely young ladies around noon for the afternoon. One (Emily) to practice piano songs for the wedding and one (Maria) to bake the wedding cake.  The house smelled delicious and listening to live music fill our home was a pure pleasure. It was a very relaxed day of baking, making new friends and ended with everything cleaned and put away ready for the next day. I chose to stay up late on Thursday to make the espresso frosting and frost the mocha cupcakes. This ensured that the coffee flavor really infused the buttercream and was strong. There is nothing worse than weak coffee flavored things, ew.  I also spent time gluing tiny twine bows I made onto the navy blue tulip style cupcake liners. Worth every minute that took!

Friday morning was the day I had been waiting for. There is nothing more relaxing than being able to play with frosting!! I frosted the triple chocolate cupcakes with a fudge buttercream and they looked gorgeous! Maria arrived to assemble and frost the wedding cake. That afternoon my friend Amanda came to play with frosting with me. Friends don’t let friends miss out on an opportunity to play with frosting! It was so fun to make all the different blues and brainstorm styles to try. We settled on a few ideas and started to make what we had planned a reality. Cupcakes were all done and the kitchen (mostly) put back to order in time to deliver all the cupcakes to the church for rehearsal. 

An important part of this cupcake adventure was my very talented husband making some cupcake displays for me. I showed him a picture of what I wanted and he nailed it! 

After returning home I did attempt to relax, I truly did! However, I couldn’t stand the thought of sticky floors and powdered sugar everywhere so I took a small break from my break to sweep, mop, and wipe down the kitchen. So much better!

Saturday morning Brian helped me put all of them out and stage them. I waited to put all the garnishes on the cupcakes until Saturday to ensure no color bleeding and everything was fresh. Chocolate covered espresso beans went on the mocha with espresso cupcakes. Blueberries went on the French vanilla simple cupcakes. Fresh blackberries with mint leaves went on the triple chocolate with fudge frosting. Some of the cupcakes were popped into lace wraps to tie in the lace accents. Everything came together beautifully and all the different colors and flavors really popped.

I get asked a lot how stressful I find this hobby or what do I find to be the most stressful part of doing a big event. To be honest, getting the cupcakes out of the silly carriers is what stresses me out the most. Baking is fun, frosting is so relaxing and enjoyable, transport is a little sketchy with bumps and curvy Montana roads, and then taking the lids off the containers without hitting frosting is…tense. Staging the cupcakes is where what I envision in my head comes to be, and that is extremely satisfying!

After the reception was over, we had a few dozen cupcakes left over. My default option was to leave the cupcakes in the church kitchen or take them home so that eventually someone would eat the rest of them. There were enough leftover cupcakes though that I doubt anybody will miss a few dozen and I DO NOT want them in my home. I called the local police department to see if they were interested in four dozen cupcakes. They said Yes! As the welcoming officer led me down the hallway at the station to hand them over, I accumulated several uniforms along the way. It was fun to be a blessing to our local law enforcement! I was assured they would be very open to anymore of my baking extras in the future.

I get a lot of questions about selling my cupcakes or opening a business. I do sell them, mainly by word of mouth currently. It’s something I love to do and I find it enjoyable. What’s next for me, you ask? My daughter’s third birthday is Friday and she has a small party on Saturday that is themed with bumble bees. The next weekend I will be preparing more cupcakes for a bridal shower.