DIY Wedding Cupcakes for 300 people

After months and months of planning the wedding is finally over. I have been kinds of obsessing about this since my friend Leigh Ann asked me to make the cupcakes for her wedding. We did several rounds of tastings, built a Pinterest board , and spent several months deciding on the menu.

The wedding presented me with a few challenges. First of all, it was 6 hours away from my house, it was an outdoor wedding and there were going to be upwards of 300 guests. I was trying to design the dessert table on a budget. For my first wedding project, it was a big one. Staying organized and planning ahead was key.

Leigh Ann chose four cupcake favors, two flavors of truffles, and a small gluten free cake. I first started by making a very simple cost sheet in excel where I detailed out my ingredients to determine the cost of each cupcake and what I needed to charge her in order to cover miscellaneous expenses. I saved costs by designing cupcakes that shared ingredients I could buy in bulk. I did a lot of shopping around to compare prices and took advantage of sales on ingredients that wouldn’t spoil in advance. I wrote a very detailed shopping plan.  I needed a lot of cupcake boxes of this event. The best deal I found was from here. For the cupcake liners, I also purchased them in bulk from Baker’s Stock.

Piña Colada Cupcake Shake

Sometimes you need some booze in your cupcakes and sometimes you need some cupcakes in your milkshake. Nothing’s scream summer like a milkshake or ice cream cone. So last week I had some left over Piña Colada cupcakes and I thought I would make a cupcake shake. What’s awesome about the cupcake shakes is you can really design any flavor of milkshake around the extra cupcakes you have. Is there any less guilt in consuming a cupcake in milkshake form? I mean, if you were walking around with a cupcake shake, no one would know there was a cupcake in there, which means they won’t judge you for drinking a milkshake and consuming a cupcake at the same time. It’s a win in my book.

Tomorrow we are headed to Minnesota for my cousin’s wedding. I haven’t see a majority of my family since 2005 as we are spread out across the country. I am pretty excited to see my cousins, who all have kids now! We will be in Roseville, so if anyone reading this has some bakery recommendations, please let me know!

For the piña colada cupcake shake, you need some cupcakes, some vanilla bean ice cream, shredded coconut and fresh pineapple. You will also need a large blender and some chilled glasses. I like to put my glasses in the freezer when I am making homemade milkshakes because it helps keep them that much colder!

Piña Colada Cupcake Shake
Yields 2 large shakes

2 Piña Colada Cupcakes

6-7 large scoops vanilla bean ice cream

1/4 cup shredded coconut

3/4 C Chopped Pineapple

1/3 C Milk

The instructions for this aren’t too complicated. Combine all of your ingredients in a large blender and beat until well mixed. For a thicker shake, add additional ice cream. For a thinner shake, add more milk.

I am kind of excited for all the cupcake shakes that I could create. Surely there is a chocolate one coming your way.

Don’t forget the Pina Colada Cupcake!

Blueberry Pie Parfaits

If you are reading this post, that means I survived the wedding! I can’t wait to tell you guys about it, after I am done sleeping. Except that oh wait, I am heading to Minnesota on Thursday for my cousin’s wedding. It has been about eight years since the family was all together last. A few of my cousins have children now that I haven’t met so I am very excited to see everyone. Back to back weddings, only this time I just get to eat the desserts instead of making them!

With the 4^th of July approaching (I can’t even believe it), I have been on the hunt for easy to prepare recipes that are on the lighter side. The blueberry pie parfaits are layered with crushed piecrust, lemon infused blueberry cream cheese and fresh blueberries.

I love a good blueberry pie, but I wasn’t looking to spend half a day trying to make one. Instead, I baked just the crust by cutting them into small circles and letting them cool. While the piecrust was cooling, I made a blueberry cream cheese with a lemon zest. The layer of fresh blueberries in the parfaits is a great compliment to the cream cheese.  You can make your own piecrust, but since this post is about being easy, go ahead and buy a prepared piecrust.

No-Bake Chocolate Shortbread Mousse Parfaits

I like to think that a majority of the recipes I post on this blog are relatively easy for you to make. We don’t all have the time to spend hours in the kitchen preparing a fancy dessert. I think you can still make fancy desserts while enjoying the rest of your day.

Last week I received another shipment of Walkers shortbread cookies. This time, my shipment contained chocolate shortbreads! I knew I wanted to create something different for this post. Since 2012, Walkers has partnered with The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals® (ASPCA). This year, Walkers will donate a minimum of $50,000 to the ASPCA through the sales of their Scottie Dog shortbread cookies. For more information about Walkers partnership with the ASPCA, visit their website.

In today’s recipe, I used their new Chocolate Scottie Dog Shortbread cookies, which use genuine Belgian chocolate, butter, flour, sugar and a pinch of salt. The recipe below will make four parfaits. To serve a larger crowd, use two boxes of Chocolate Scottie Dog Shortbread cookies and double the ganache recipe. Because it is difficult to half the ingredients for the mousse, you will end up with a lot of extra mousse. May I suggest diving into the leftovers head first?

Patriotic Piña Colada Cupcakes

Summer time is here! On Friday, a friend of mine is getting married and I am catering the desserts for her wedding. I will be baking 300 cupcakes, a small layer cake and a few dozen truffles. Then I will probably sleep for three days. The wedding location is 6 hours away, so I am doing all the baking at my house and all the frosting on site in my hotel room. Wish me luck. I am sure I will have a follow up post for you.

I can’t believe July 4^th is just over two weeks away! Is it me or is June flying by? I am loving these new Piña Colada cupcakes. My favorite thing about these it the chunks of fresh pineapple mixed in. A few weeks ago, OXO sent me some of their new summer fruit tools to test out. One of them was pineapple slicer and let me tell you, I am absolutely in love. I love love love fresh pineapple, but it is expensive to buy pre-cut and let’s face it, it’s a pain in the butt to try and cut one yourself. The OXO Pineapple slicer takes all the frustration out of it. It is so easy to use, and creates the prefect pineapple circles in less than 5 minutes.

Here is a quick tutorial for you. Cut off the top of your pineapple down to the 1^st, second or third line on the pineapple slicer. Place the center of the slicer over the center of the pineapple. Slowly press down and twist the slicer clockwise. As long as the pineapple is ripe, it doesn’t take a lot of strength to do this. Continue to twist until you reach the bottom of the pineapple. Slowly lift straight up. You can remove the rings by removing the top of the slicer and turning it upside down. Thanks OXO for sending me all of the wonderful tools!

Ok, back to these cupcakes. They are topped with coconut Swiss meringue buttercream and decorated with coconut, which is dyed with food coloring. You can make these “virgin” cupcakes by omitting the rum. If you don’t have fresh pineapple, you can easily substitute it with a can of crushed pineapple but it’s best to drain the juices.