Wedding Desserts Part 2 – Cupcakes

Wedding Desserts Part 1 was about the cake I made for my friend Joanne’s wedding.  This post is about the cupcakes that I made for her guests.  As the cake was chocolate and vanilla, so were the cupcakes.  Instead of doing the usual swirl frosting, I decided to hand pipe hydrangeas.  Thank goodness her bridesmaids helped me with the piping! I had baked the cupcakes a few weeks in advance, and froze them, so they just needed to be frosted.  We had a piping assembly line:  Charlene unwrapped the cupcakes (and was the motivation cheerleader), Gabbie and I piped the hydrangeas, and Tina piped the centers on the hydrangeas and placed them in the boxes.  It took 3 hours and ended in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, but we were happy to have contributed to our friend’s special day! We were then off to celebrate Joanne’s final night as a single girl – and what an interesting night that was!

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Cupcakes

The vanilla and chocolate cupcakes were made from the same recipe as the cake, posted here.  I ended up making 3 batches of the chocolate and 2 batches of the vanilla to make 150 cupcakes and the cake.

Buttercream frosting

The recipe for the buttercream frosting was the same as the cake, found here.  I doubled the recipe by 6 to cover the cupcakes and the cake.

I coloured a ½ cup of the frosting as a darker yellow, and 1/3 of the rest of the frosting as a yellow-ish green.

Hydrangea frosting

Fill 1/3 of the frosting bag with green frosting, and 2/3 of the bag with white.

Add a tip #104.

See this video for the frosting technique (starting from 6:09). Add yellow dots to the center of each flower using tip #3.

Piping hydrangeas

Piping the centers

Verdict: They turned out beautiful!  Very pretty when all the cupcakes were displayed together.  150 was the perfect amount for 140 guests, with a few left over to send them home with!

Wedding Desserts Part 1 - Cake

Tired. So tired.

I usually post once a week, but I have not been able to the last couple weeks because I have been busy planning and putting together the cake and cupcakes for my friend Joanne’s wedding.  This week was recuperation week, and I’ve finally rounded up enough energy to write a post. 

So, the plan is to break this up into 2 posts: the cake and the cupcakes.  First the cake…

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Hydrangea and Ivy Cake

My friend Joanne wanted hydrangeas and ivy on her wedding cake.  As we had planned on serving cupcakes, I made a small cake for her and her groom to cut into.  To see a post on the cake tasting process, go here. 

Vanilla and Chocolate cake

Vanilla cake recipe from here.

Chocolate cake recipe from here.

Baked separately in 8 inch pans.

Almond-Cocoa Filling

My friend Tina brought back a “Nutella” from Germany that is made of almonds rather than hazelnuts.  It is so tasty.  I used this as the filling for the cake.

Almond cocoa spread.

Buttercream frosting

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened

4 cups icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons milk

Directions

Add all ingredients into a large bowl and mix until smooth

Hydrangeas

1.       Roll out fondant and cut out hydrangeas using a flower cutter.

2.       Brush flowers with green petal dust.

3.       Thread a hooked wired through middle of the flower and fasten with royal icing.

4.       Hang upside down to dry.

Hydrangeas hanging to dry.

Ivy

1.       Add green gel colouring to fondant.

2.       Roll out fondant and cut out ivy using a cutter and embosser.

3.       Roll out edges with a ball tool.

4.       Thread wire into the ivy, and leave out to dry.

Tools (left to right): ball roller, cutter and embosser, wire.

Coloured fondant.

Rolled out fondant.

Cut and embossed ivy.

Rolling out edges with ball roller.

Threading wire into ivy.

Cake assembly

1.       Fasten chocolate cake layer onto cake board with a little bit of frosting.

2.       Spread filling onto cake.

3.       Put vanilla layer on top of filling.

4.       Add a crumb coat to the cake and freeze for 10 minutes.

5.       Add a thicker layer of frosting and smooth with a spatula dipped in water.

6.       Add hydrangea and ivy.

Filling.

Crumb coat.

Verdict: The bride and groom loved the cake, and the hydrangeas and ivy fit perfectly with the decor!  Upon cutting it, they opted not to smash the cake into each other’s faces.  They ended up eating it for 2 days after the wedding!

Cutting the cake.