the great cupcake event

my friend meg and i thought it (and ourselves) brilliant to offer to make our teacherfriend allie's wedding cake, namely in the form of many, many cupcakes. meg was in charge of all things coconut and chocolate, while i was the boss of all things vanilla and guava, in step with the wedding's california-mex cuisine theme.

here is our story.

we sourced local and organic ingredients when possible,
in deference to the bride's food politics.


much local ingredient.

much beating and blending.
i bow to the majesty of professional stand mixers.


samuel really wanted a piece of the action.
yes, that is me clamping his arm down with my armpit.


i have made this recipe many times, but when i needed magnolia to be clutch ... holey, misshapen failures, you mock me!


more sunken fail! look, the camera can't even focus on it, it's so ugly.


i threw up a hail mary to the frosting gods to cover my foodgressions. i forgot to buy piping bags, so i used a gallon ziplock and taped the tip to the edge. ghetto fab, woot.

vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and clear sanding crystals.
i should've consulted with meghan to see how close to the edge she was going to pipe, but because i was terrified of multiple cupcake pileups during transport, they were more like centered blobs of icing.


guava cupcakes with guava whipped cream frosting
they are a lot pinker than they appear here. strauss makes an incredibly rich heavy cream. sierra nevada (no relation to the beer) makes a local cream cheese that gives the frosting some definition. no, the guava was not local. thank you, brazil.


holy blurry. this is how you know it was late at night -- crappy home lighting. this is the power of multiplication at work. one of meg's student's parents is a professional caterer. she hooked us up (thank gigi!) with real bakery boxes. they were absurdly heavy to carry.


coconut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and coconut flakes.
meg found organic, fair trade stuff that was actually good.
this is ina garten's recipe from barefoot contessa.


chocolate cupcakes with chocolate meringue frosting.
i think meghan found the cake recipe is from the cake bible. her cupcakes were like the julia robertses to my eric robertses. i wish i had taken a picture of her first attempts at piping, because believe me when i tell you she's come a looooooong way. but her final product was tha BUSINESS, so shoutouts to her.


and finally, heartiest congratulations to friend allie and new hubs danielamador:
and no, of course i didn't remember to take pictures of the bride and groom. could it be because we actually missed her walking down the aisle in a mad rush to get the cupcakes plated and displayed? ah well. a case of all's well that ends well, i suppose.


the end.