And now a word from Gwen, one of our best friend’s mother and hence one of our best friends.  She and Amy (yup, the same one from the About Us page) whip up cupcakes like it’s nobody’s business and we are so excited to share Gwen’s story.  And be sure to check out Miss Amy’s BabyCakes on facebook and order some of these custom beauties for yourself!

Our girl gang - four aging (fully ripe) crafty divas - have been catering each others’ lives for the past 30 years. We met when our children were preschoolers and our friendship has grown and blossomed with every passing year. We’ve supported each other through the ups and downs, the triumphs and tragedies, and generally it comes down to five key activities - eating, laughing, crying, listening and hugging, with a pronounced emphasis on the first two.

We mark the years with the happy occasions that bring us together - weddings, bar mitzvahs, christenings and graduations. Most recent was Nancy’s daughter’s wedding, a joyous back yard occasion surrounded by Nancy’s fabulous flower garden, topped by a huge, fluttering white tent, and filled with loving family, friends and girl-gang-catered delicacies. The bride wanted cupcakes and I felt like I’d won the lottery when that task fell to me. Oh joy! I knew I could depend on Crafty Bitch daughter Amy (when else, I ask you, does mom get to call her daughter “bitch”?), to be my partner in cupcake crime. Amy is a cupcake queen and she reassured me that making 100+ little beauties would be no challenge at all.  Famous last words?

Our strategy was to bake Saturday and decorate Sunday morning in plenty of time for the 4PM wedding ceremony. We decided we’d need four types of cupcakes to create our vision - transcendent beauty, heartbreaking flavor, and totally thrilled bride(s).  Piece o’ cupcake.

Here’s what we made::

Chocolate cupcake topped with rich chocolate butter cream

Another batch of chocolate topped with raspberry butter cream and fresh raspberries

Fresh lime cupcake topped with lime mint butter cream and a tiny basil leaf

Vanilla cupcake topped with a light vanilla butter cream and sprinkled with sweet white coconut

I KNOW!

The baking began bright and early Saturday with chocolate cupcakes. We used an Ina Garten recipe that was rich and totally delicious. On to batch two of chocolate. Feeling invincible after our early success we tried another chocolate cake recipe that seemed intriguing. What were we thinking? We had one totally successful batch and so we changed recipes for the second? What?? Hubris. Utter hubris. And we paid the price. This untested recipe yielded a complete failure batch and we had to throw away 24 cupcakes, bringing our baking target for the day up to almost 150 cupcakes. Did I mention hubris?

After the agony of chucking twenty four ugly chocolate cupcakes and baking another batch of the perfectly wonderful Ina Garten recipe, we moved on to the lime cupcake. Fresh lime juice, lots of lime zest. Divine! The last batch was a simple vanilla cake. Easy Peasy. Whew. With 125 cupcakes on board we tidied the kitchen and plotted the decoration phase as the cupcakes cooled.

Sunday morning we got right to work on the fun part of cupcakery - the swirling and twirling and piping and accessorizing. And who doesn’t like to accessorize?  We went for the mojito cupcake first. We had baked them in lovely little yellow and green paper petal liners and I had a rather huge star decorating tip and disposable pastry bags. We whipped up the lime butter cream, adding just two tiny drops of a heavenly organic mint extract that combines peppermint and spearmint. Just a hint of mint! I added just the tiniest bit of yellow and pale green color gel to bring up the color to a very pale lime. We topped the butter cream with fine lime zest and the tiniest of basil leaves which added a surprising and delicious contrast.  The results were yummy and beautiful.

With renewed  confidence to proceed with “vigah”, we piped chocolate butter cream and added cute candy hearts and daisies. We made a delightful raspberry butter cream with luscious seedless red raspberry jam and gilded the lily with fresh red raspberries. (Added just a bit of color to the raspberry butter cream as it was a bit pale).  

And finally, we made the beautifully delicate vanilla butter cream, piped it high and topped it with sweet white coconut flakes. These simple white cupcakes were striking and an asset to the final arrangement.  As we wrapped up the decorations we paused for photos and high fives, packed up the boxes, filled the car trunk and drove to Nancy’s unable to control our blissful grins.

The caterers took it from there, arranging the cupcakes on the pretty cake stands we all contributed from our cupboards, and placed them on the dessert table with a huge bowl of berries and a plate of big heart-shaped shortbread. And flowers. Endless beautiful flowers. Under the soft shade of the white tent, with Nancy’s lush garden as backdrop, we felt we’d achieved our goal - delighted brides and a cupcake disappearing act that filled our hearts with glee.

And what was the absolutely best part of this adventure? Spending two full days working closely on a hands-on creative project with daughter Amy. Priceless.