I’m in Training

Yep, cupcake training.

I’ve been asked to create a wedding “cake” out of cupcakes with a traditional cake topper for my cousin’s wedding in July.

Now, I’m no stranger to baking, but the logistics of creating 140 little cakes, plus a larger cake, and transporting the whole kit and kaboodle to the reception venue during the heat of July has me a bit freaked. I’ve got plenty of time to experiment though and the testing started this weekend. I figure that writing about it here will serve as a log of what worked and what didn’t work.

What didn’t work was the first cake recipe I tried. Usually Canadian Living recipes are fool proof, but neither the designated cupcake tester (that would be Paul) nor I liked the results of their white butter cake recipe. It tasted weirdly like cornbread, which isn’t really the texture I’m after. So 30 of these babies are now residing in my freezer just waiting for Paul to get the munchies. The first batch of icing I made separated so that went in the green bin, alas.

On Saturday, I tried out Martha Stewart’s white pound cake recipe pictured here with some lovely coloured petals. (Thank god the girls were over and managed to eat a few for me). Not bad. One batch made 35 cupcakes so I’d only need to quadruple it to get the required number. I also tested the idea of freezing (with icing) and it worked fine – took about 3 hours at the most to thaw. I didn’t love them though so I’m on the prowl for additional recipes to test. I also didn’t like the buttercream recipe that I tested out on them. My friend Carolyn (who knows all there is to know about buttercream) has recommended this one so I’ll be giving that a try when I bake another batch next weekend.

So, two cake recipes, two icing recipes and nothing to show for it yet except a freezer full of duds and some indigestion. Stay tuned.