Cocktail Cupcakes

Cocktail cupcakes! What a discovery! And they are perfect mini-cakes for serving at a wedding shower or reception! After years of consuming plain cupcakes and finding some missing that 'something' I've discovered what it is! Alcohol! Not that nasty rubbing alcohol, but wonderful things like Kahlua, Bailey's, Rum, etc.

When you combine cupcakes with a cocktail all of a sudden you have a dessert that makes your taste buds go ZING! You'll find a variety of cupcake cocktails on the web, from some using Jamison's to cupcakes soaked with Kahlua or Bailey's. 

If you'd like a recipe for making your own Bailey's head to Signature Drinks For Your Wedding--it's easy to do and great to add to recipes.

For a recipe for Mudslide Cupcakes head over to Endless Summer.  But if you run searches you'll find recipes for Cosmo Cupcakes, Pina Colada Cupcakes, Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcakes, Mojito Cupcakes, the list is endless! Some of these recipes are posted at The Cupcake Club.  There's also a great recipe out there that makes great mini rum cakes.  Use a baby bundt pan for individual servings so you get 'cupcake size' with rum cake taste. Recipe for rum cakes here.  I originally found it in a Bacardi advertisement but it's the easiest rum cake recipe I've ever found. 

Get ready, get set and GO MAKE THOSE COCKTAIL CUPCAKES!  Let me know what your favorite recipe is and why.

Making Sugar Paste Orchids

This is a great tutorial on how to make your own sugar paste orchids. Originally posted on YouTube by The Food Court. They have dozens of others how to videos posted on YouTube and their own site. Would I want to do this for my own wedding? Nope! But it does give you an idea of just why your cake costs as much as it does. Thought it would be fun to try though, when things aren't quite as hectic as in the middle of bridal planning. If you're a whiz at crafting and cooking you might be able to pull this off, but I recommend practice, lots of practice!

Renting Your Wedding Cake?

Pre-designed Cake

OK, I understand renting the church, renting the reception venue, renting a tuxedo, even maybe renting a wedding gown, but renting your CAKE?  I have to admit it had never occurred to me to rent a cake. I mean, you EAT it, right?

Pre-designed Cake

Wrong.  Well not totally wrong.  You eat PART of it.  Most couples only need a slice for the cake cutting photo and possibly an anniversary cake top to freeze until their first anniversary.  Enter FunCakeRental.com!  They'll provide a great looking cake for minimal costs.  Fun Cakes don't just make a fake cake for your wedding they actually rent you a cake.  Cakes have Styrofoam bottoms that are iced and decorated and ready for your wedding.  Meanwhile a sheet cake in the kitchen is cut and served to your guests with some ice cream and fruit.  This saves you lots of money and your guests frankly don't care. 

More Fun Cakes

Better yet, Fun Cake Rental has rolled back their prices to help brides who have been hit by the recent recession.  Do you love them even more now?  You have your choice of a pre-designed cake or a custom cake.  A basic three tier cake is $125 plus shipping (4 tier $150), a custom design $225 plus shipping (each extra tier is $50).  All cakes require a $200 security deposit which is returned once they cake is received. 

Each layer is approximately 4" tall.  The overall height of a three tier cake is 12".  Cakes are delivered on a one inch plastic tray.  Height can be adjusted by discussing it with customer service when the order is placed. Each part Styrofoam cake is covered with fondant with gum paste decorations and due to it's sugar base cannot be exposed to direct heat or hot lights.

DIY Cupcakes Straight From Your Heart--And It Shows

This is a perfect cupcake for a wedding or wedding shower.  I know, it looks impossible to replicate.  Not sure I could do it in the numbers needed for a wedding, I lack the patience. But if  you're having a small wedding or am more than a so so cook (I admit, I'm not expert) this should be doable.  Just be sure you do some test runs first.  The recipe is here.  It has lots of tips to help your cupcakes show off the heart once they are cut in half.  The original recipe was posted on this site but it's down for now, but the comments are still posted, so again, it's worth reading before you start this project.  I suggest serving the cupcake precut in half to show off the heart, just be sure your caterer or servers know which way to cut the cupcakes, or you'll just have a cupcake with a pink center.  Happy baking!

DIY Individual Wedding Cakes For Your Guests

Individual tiny cakes are all the rage but the price for them is OUTRAGEOUSLY high.  How can you beat the high cost of providing each of your guests with their own indivdual tiny wedding cake?  Try making them yourself.  The equivalent of making tiny petit fours but often stacked up like a wedding cake, these can be time and labor intensive.  But Allison Silber at Engaged and Inspired (who provided the photos above) has an answer for you.  Use a circular cake cutter, a sheet cake and get ready to stack the cakes with your favorite fillings between them.  The most labor intensive part of these baby cakes is decorating the sides.  Allison's solution? Leave the sides uniced.  Let the fillings provide some pretty coloring and top them with a swirl of icing topped with a berry.  BTW, don't forget to head over to Engaged and Inspired's site to see what other great ideas they have to help you plan your wedding day.  Congrats to Allison for a great way to save money on wedding cakes!

Ombre Cakes at Weddings or Showers

Having a wedding shower and want a cake that shows off your talents (or just shows you know who to hire to make your cake?).  Try this cake shown on Glorious Treats blog.  Layers of beautiful pink--perfect for the bride to be who is a pink-a-holic!  The swirls invoke visions of roses, and the graduated color scheme inside the cake that reminds me of layers of chiffon on the skirt of a dress.  Show off your cake baking talents and your creativity by serving this gorgeous cake!

The recipe is on the Glorious Treats site, (along with other great photos of the cake--not to mention lots of other incredible sweet treats that you might like to have at your wedding. The rose like swirls on the cake make it a perfect centerpiece for a sweet table, helping you save on your floral costs.  Your other option, make cupcakes, and ice with the swirls of pink and have them surround this cake--this will let you feed more people if you're having a huge gathering. 

Lavendar Cake by Sweet Cakes by Rebecca (posted on Facebook by Calligraphy by Jennifer)

If you aren't up for the layers of pink icing, try this lavendar cake and top it with a fresh orchid--simple on the outside, with complex layers on the inside--perfect for a shower or wedding cake.