Pièce de résistance - part 1

Hands down the most exciting cake I've done so far was for my friend L's bridal shower.  L is the now-wife of my husband's friend A, and sister-in-law of my friend J.  (I'm noticing now it seems like we only hang out with these few people, but I swear we have a lot more friends than this.)

In late July I was contacted by A's mom and L's mom, asking me if I would make the cake for L's bridal shower at the end of August.  I couldn't believe that someone would ask me to decorate a cake for such a big occasion.  I happily accepted and started to plan out what I would make.  As I browsed the internet I came across gorgeous gum paste flowers from a website called Shop Bakers Nook in red, yellow, and white that looked just like the flowers from L's bridal shower invitation, so I decided that I would make a marble cake decorated to mimic the invitation.  In addition I would make Funfetti cupcakes so that L would have both at her shower (her favorites!).  Because this was such a big job, I'm splitting this into two posts to cover cupcakes and then the cake.

I took off from work the day before the shower so I'd have time to bake.  The weekend before the shower, Hubby and I were in Philadelphia for a wedding.  The week of the shower I was in NYC a few days for work.  I made a few batches of cupcakes the night I got home from NYC, and then the day I took off from work I baked from 9:00 a.m. through 1:30 a.m.  It was epic!  It wasn't easy by any means, and I'm very lucky that I have such a helpful and supportive husband who is willing to sprinkle colored sugar and sugar pearls onto about 6 dozen cupcakes as I iced.  We got everything done and I was so happy with what we brought.

Here is a look at a portion of my cupcake count.  I made about 2 dozen regular-sized and 4 dozen minis.  I had great paper liners I was excited to use, but I have to admit these pups were everywhere - kitchen table, counter, coffee table, etc. 

Below is my finished cupcake product.  When frosting I used a basic Wilton 1M tip.  This is by far the easiest way to knock out a bunch of cupcakes quickly while still ending up with a pretty final product.  I decided to do vanilla and chocolate icing to stick with the bride and groom theme; the chocolate icing had pink sprinkles and the white icing had purple sprinkles.

The cupcake stand is from the Martha Stewart line, found at Macy's for $20.  I was really happy with this cupcake tree because it's versatile - white, pretty, simple, and doesn't take up too much room. 

Tune in to the next post to see the cake!