The Road to 135 Cupcakes

8:00 am- First thing's first. Making a list of ingredients so I only have to take one trip to the grocery store today.

9:51 am- Back from the grocery store and washing up the last few dishes, I've donned my apron and am ready to start the baking marathon. Also, saying a huge Thank You! to my husband who cleaned up the kitchen on Thursday before I came home. He did a mound of dishes in preparation for my day of baking.

10:54 am- The first two dozen cupcakes are in the oven- Chocolate Peanut Butter. I've got another 11 waiting for their turn (10 regular, and 1 extra large for the Groom). I started here because the Chocolate recipes don't call for butter. I'm also pulling out more eggs (for the next batch) so they can come to room temperature. I'm off to wash dishes so I can start making the next flavor.

11:40 am- Cupcakes have finished baking. Taking a lunch break.

1:30 pm- Starting up again with the Mint Chocolate Chip cupcakes. My break was a little on the long side, but I'm still fine for time.

2:10 pm- First two dozen Mint Chocolate Chip cupcakes are in the oven. There are 11 more waiting (again, 10 regular sized and 1 extra large for the Bride). I'm washing the dishes so I'm ready to start making the next batch. I also need to wash some of my cupcake containers (Cupcake Courier, Wilton 3-in-1, and my regular old Tupperware) so I can store these puppies.

3:45 pm- Margarita cupcakes in the oven- well 1/3 of them. And, with that I am 1/4 of the way done with the cupcakes.

4:09 pm- Live blogging saved my behind. I forgot to set a timer after I rotated the cupcakes. Thankfully, I was able to check the blog to see when I put them in originally and avoided overcooking. Sweet.

6:08 pm- The Margarita cupcakes have been done for a while now. While I was baking the last 10, my husband came home with dinner. So, I took a nice break to eat and catch up on The Office, 30 Rock, and Scrubs. Now, back to baking!

6:40 pm- Cookies & Cream cupcakes are in the oven. Whew- so close I can almost taste it.

7:30 pm- Having finished all four flavors, I'm off to the grocery store. Looking back at my first batch I'm unhappy, so I'm redoing them. Which requires more peanut butter chips.

8:30 pm- Back from the grocery store, about to pop the second try of the Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcakes in the oven. The nice part is that I can whip up the two frostings (Margarita & Cookies & Cream) without having to wait for pans to cool.

10:30 pm- Everything is done for the day.

All in all, I think today went pretty well. Sure, I could have budgeted my time a little better. For my first time making more than 4 dozen cupcakes (and it's a big jump from 4 dozen to 11 1/3 dozen) it went smoother than I'd anticipated.

Tomorrow I'll make the last two frostings, frost the cupcakes and transport them to the wedding. I promise to post photos of the set up early next week.

*The goal for today is to bake all 135 cupcakes, make 2 of the 4 frostings, and complete the cupcake tower/stands.*

Gold Medal Winner!

A few weeks ago I participated in a cook-off at a friend's BBQ. There were several categories, but it should be no surprise to anyone that I chose the dessert category.

When I think BBQ, summer, and outdoors- I think fruity drinks, of the alcoholic variety. I'd had my eye on the Margarita Cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for quite some time now, and thought this was the perfect occasion.

If you've ever cooked with a Vegan recipe or tried Vegan desserts before they can have a grainy texture that might turn off non-Vegans. I was a little worried about this, but the recipe (and the book for that matter) has great reviews all over the internet. So, I went for it.

Both the cupcakes and the frosting have lime and tequila in them. My frosting wasn't strictly vegan as I used butter (but you can definitely make it vegan frosting).

The cupcakes were a huge hit at the BBQ and as you can see- I won the dessert category. I don't have photographs of the cupcakes because they were a melty divided mess (having had to be cut into pieces to allow everyone to taste them). Just picture a light green frosting with a "rim" of green sugar sprinkles and a candy lime wedge (also not vegan) as a garnish. Mmmmm.

There were only five dessert entries, but given that the rest of them were chocolate, I'm pretty proud of myself for finishing first. My medal is hanging up in my kitchen as inspiration during all future baking sessions.