White Wedding

Hello my little cupcakes,

Can I start by saying that it's been an insane summer? My best friend got married, I spent a month back in Massachusetts, came back to Chicago and moved into a new apartment. Oh...and since July 6th, I have officially been enrolled in pastry school! Pretty amazing experience, if I do say so. I'll be posting some pictures of the tasty treats we've whipped up so far. But first, I'm sure some of you are wondering how that wedding turned out. The one where I was a bridesmaid and also catering over 150 cupcakes + mini cake + creating a cake tower?

I was a bit nervous as the day approached. I made the mistake of googling search threads such as "making your best friends wedding cake while being a bridesmaid at a remote location" and came up with a few very frightening/intense message boards telling my co-bridesmaid wedding cake caterers that it was the worst idea ever. Luckily, however, that was a whole lot of nonsense. And I mean, come on, I had a timeline printed up like a month in advance. How bad could it be?

I started by decorating the cupcake tree, which I got from www.cupcaketree.com. They get all of my love - this product worked wonders and was so much more cost efficient than the alternatives. It comes disassembled in white corrugated cardboard, so I started by painting the whole thing in two coats of black acrylic paint. I then used a hot glue gun to attach some super cute black/white polka dot ribbon to the edges which almost gave it the illusion of being made of wood. It was great, inexpensive, lightweight, and easy to transport to the venue.

Next, I got started on the cupcakes. After realizing just how much I would have to do in the days before the wedding (including the rehearsal dinner 2 hours away and a bridesmaid sleepover Friday night) I decided to start baking the cakes on Wednesday night. I had both layers of the 6" mini cake baked and ready to go on Wednesday night, and then baked all of the cupcakes and made half of the frosting on Thursday. On Thursday night, I frosted the mini cake and then cut out/assembled white and black polka dots to match the bride's dress. Friday morning, I frosted and refrigerated the mint chocolate cupcakes, picked up my rental car, filled and refrigerated the chocolate raspberry cupcakes, and then left for the rehearsal by noon. The rest of the frosting happened after the rehearsal dinner, then everything went into [someone's] fridge and I made it back to Nikkie's place for the bridesmaid sleepover party. Then the next morning we picked up the cuppers post hair appointments, drove to New Hampshire, and assembled everything. No biggie, right?

The cake was margarita flavored with lime swiss buttercream and fondant polka dots. The cupcakes were chocolate raspberry, mint chocolate, and cherry red velvet w/coconut cream cheese frosting. I transported them from my parents' place to the venue in plastic cupcake boxes that I ordered online. I cannot talk enough about these things. Without them, I never would have gotten the frosted cupcakes to the reception site in one place.

Once everything was set up by the other bridesmaids and I, I took a deep breath and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the night [er...weekend]. It was without a doubt the most fun wedding I've ever been to. Lots of great music, great food, cupcakes, and an open bar! Oh - and quality time in the mountains with the best friends a girl could have. What more could you ask for?

I have to say, for how nervous I was, everything went off without a hitch. My recommendations for anyone who plans on doing this:

• Start planning way in advance. Make sure that you've tested your recipes, especially in weather similar to the weather that you'll be expected to recreate your little pocket sized treats
• Make yourself a timeline. My timeline saved my sanity. I probably changed it about 15 times and didn't quite stick to it, but having everything laid out helped me keep myself in check
• Give yourself LOTS of extra time. You know that nothing is going to go according to plan. Make sure you have extra time. And trust me, when your best friend/bride wants to get a drink two days before the wedding, you're going to want to go. It will keep you from wanting to throw cupcakes at people. You don't want to turn down two hours of quality time because your baking schedule is too tight.
• Things are going to go wrong. Go with it. Some things you can fix, sometimes you need to get creative. These things happen. Hopefully your bride friend is cool enough to realize this and gives you a little creative license.
• If you expect your friend/bride to be a huge bridezilla - SAY THANKS, BUT NO THANKS. Luckily, Nikkie is one of the raddest people I know, so I didn't have to worry about this. She gave me a whole lot of creative freedom on these, which I am totally thankful for. Think hard about this - Is your friend's wedding going to be completely ruined if her cake doesn't look EXACTLY like the stack of Tiffany's boxes that she saw in Martha Stewart Living? Will there be tears? If so, you might want to politely decline.
• Is your friend's mom potentially insane? See above. No one wants to ruin someone's babygirl's wedding. Especially if it's your friend
• Research, research, research. What flavors are you making? Are there any food allergies to consider? How are you getting the cupcake to the venue? Will the venue allow desserts from an outside vendor (especially a non-licensed vendor)? When do you need to be there? Remember - your friend is going to have her hands full with ridiculous amounts of not-so-fun event planning formalities. There's a good chance that you'll have to ask/stalk her or the venue for details. Don't expect her to hunt you down.
• Do you love doing this? Being a bridesmaid can be stressful. It definitely has potential to take a financial and emotional toll on anyone. Adding a large dessert catering to this endeavor is not going to make your life any easier unless you really love it. Personally, I was more relaxed baking than I was sitting still, so this worked out great - but everyone's different.
• And on that note - have fun with it! Spend months testing, eating, and sharing recipes. Try new design techniques. Sign up at the knot and stare at cupcake tower pictures for hours. This has potential to be LOTS of fun, especially if you're doing it for someone you love. Make it the best gift you can give them. They're going to love it.

Here are some pics of the big event:

My poor mom's kitchen, invaded with cupcakes (and yes, that is a beer in the coozie there. it was a long day)


The finished mini cake - margarita cake w/lime swiss buttercream and fondant polka dots to match the bride's dress.


The bridesmaids! So relieved that the cupcakes are safely arranged on the tower.

The completed cupcake tower! You can't quite see, but the groom on top is wearing a ball & chain. Quelle mignon!?



Super rad bride & groom cutting the cake. Frosting fight ensues.



On that note, there's no way I could end this chapter without a little Billy Idol, so here he is with White Wedding. We're slowing it down for all the hopeless romantics out there. Enjoy, kids:





This post brought to you by: new england summers, dance parties, and anyone adventurous enough to bake wedding cupcakes for their best friend's wedding.