Currently, I am sitting down with my poor abused aching feet up pondering on my dwindling youthfulness. I really can’t remember the last time I’ve felt my feet and back with every slightest movement….I’m going to blame this on being 30 now and not being in my youthful indestructible 20s. 

I started prepping for my cupcake marathon Thursday morning at around 10:00 a.m. I finished baking all the cupcakes and the wedding cake around 11:00 p.m that evening. I put in the leaf for my kitchen table to give me as big of a workspace as possible and gathered all the baking supplies and cupcake carriers.

(Organized chaos is the name of the game!)

Once all the baking was done, I was the only one still up in my family. To be fair, it was close to midnight. At that point I cleaned up the kitchen, started the dishwasher, put away all the baking ingredients and pulled out all the necessary ingredients and pieces to do the frosting and accents in the morning. It was very satisfying to see the table covered in cupcake carriers full of cupcakes just ready to be frosted!

At this point there were roughly 225 regular cupcakes, 75ish mini cupcakes and six 8-inch cake layers all carefully balanced and stored on my table. Sweet satisfaction made up for the aching back and sore feet! Why six layers when the wedding cake is only three layers? I’m so glad you asked! Because I panicked over the thought of something going wrong and not having a spare layer…or three. Accidents do happen!!

Friday morning the alarm went off way too early, in my personal opinion. Brian brought me coffee in bed (bless that man!) and gently suggested I get my rear in gear. Reluctantly, I dragged myself out to the kitchen (mornings really aren’t my thing, obviously!)

I was genuinely surprised by how much butter I used! I am currently living in a butter-less home….a strange thing to experience. You know the frosting will be delicious when it takes all the butter in the home! For all you curious minds out there, I used just shy of 10 pounds of butter and almost 14 pounds of powdered sugar!

My Kitchenaid and I are besties, it’s true!

The desire to own multiple bowls for my Kitchenaid mixer has never been stronger! Washing the bowl and beater after every frosting batch was getting annoying haha. Beware Brian, there are some cute bowls on Amazon that I just might “need” to possess….

Cupcakes ready to transport to the venue!

Friday cupcake frosting and decorating took around 6 hours, give or take a few. I had to be at the wedding venue around 3-4pm for rehearsal and decorating,  and I wanted to have all the cupcakes and the wedding cake with me to drop off. I was also blessed to be asked to coordinate the wedding.

If you want cupcakes, I’m pretty confident in making and decorating them. Cupcakes are something that I don’t stress over, usually. I know my limits and where my abilities are best used. Cake decorating is something that isn’t in my toolbox of talents (artistic, I am not!). However, I have a close friend that is a genius with cakes and very artistic. When I begged Amanda for her help and asked her to decorate the wedding cake, she immediately was game. That is the type of friend that you want in your life! One that sees your insanity and joins you in it! Anything that I do with Amanda ends up being so fun and relaxing. When I attempt something and bite off more than I can chew, she’s always so sweet to come rescue me and whatever project I’m butchering in the name of “crafting.” The wedding cake was stunning!  How she turned a plain white cake into a gorgeous three tiered artistic masterpiece I’m still in awe over.

Look at that cake!!!!!

Saturday morning it took a little less than 2 hours (I think? It’s a bit of a blur to me, to be honest) for Amanda and I to get all the cupcakes set up, the cake arranged and everything perfect. We had a lovely young lady innocently ask if there was anything she could do–we conscripted her to help for the next hour… haha! It takes a true friend to get up early on a Saturday to tackle such a project! 

We hit a slight hiccup with putting the wedding cake on the tier, but we fixed it with sheer panic, careful thought, some geometry calculations and our secret weapon–clear packing tape! It’s best not to ask too many questions about how exactly we secured the cake. Really all that is important is that it was secure and it looked planned!

See?! So cute! Totally looks planned and professional.

Here is the finished set-up! The bride picked great colors and it came together picture perfect. She kept it simple and elegant–triple chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting and French vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. The frosting was three different colors–white, lilac and a darker purple. The accents on the cupcakes were small white swiss dots, white pearls, purple pearls, edible purple glitter (so addicting and fun to play with!!!), and edible purple rose petals. Side note: The flower on the wedding cake, Amanda crafted out of the edible rose petals (mind blown!). 

I love baking and I especially love baking with friends. I never thought that I would do an entire wedding, but it was a total honor to play a part in the couple’s special day. Thank you for trusting me with the cupcakes, and thank you Amanda for rescuing the wedding cake from me and designing such a beautiful masterpiece.  I’m so thankful this event went so smoothly because I have another wedding to do in three short weeks! Do you think my feet will recover by then?? (Don’t answer that…let me cling to my delusion in peace)