DIY Wedding Cupcakes

If you recall, there was some recipe and taste testing going on in my kitchen to prepare for my biggest cupcake order ever - my very own wedding. I had a grading system and tried SO MANY recipes (many have yet to be posted but I promise they will be up soon). No matter what I tried, I always had the chocolate mayo cake in the back of my mind. I loved the simplicity of the recipe - could really see it as something easy to produce in mass quantities but I had never tried it as any flavor other than chocolate.

Lemon won out as my flavor of choice as it's hard to find someone who doesn't appreciate a good lemon cake. I chose to bake only one cupcake flavor instead of two as I was convinced that, if I did two, guests would want to try one of each and then I'd have to bake twice as many cupcakes. After many tries and fails to convert the chocolate mayo cake to a white cake, I settled with substituting the 3 Tbsp of coco powder with 1 Tbsp of vanilla instant pudding powder, and found the winner! This adds a bit of extra vanilla flavor to cover that blah mayo cake taste and added just enough extra moistness. Here is the winning recipe for the cupcakes:

Vanilla Mayo Cake

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp instant vanilla pudding powder
1 cup cold water

1 cup mayo

1 tsp vanilla

zest of 1 lemon

Sift together the dry ingredients. Add 1 cup cold water, 1 cup mayonnaise and 1 tsp vanilla. Beat until well combined. Stir in lemon zest. Bake at 350 for about 18 minutes, rotating pan half way through.

Makes about 12 cupcakes.

Lemon Buttercream Frosting

1 lb powdered sugar

1/4 cup lemon curd

juice from one lemon

2 sticks butter, room temp

Mix all ingredients together with an electric mixer. To thicken, use more powdered sugar. If too thick, add more lemon juice. Beat on high to reach whipped consistency.

For the frosting, I wanted a stronger lemon flavor than the lemon buttercream I'd made in the past. Usually zest is the way to go, but I didn't want the zest in the frosting for aesthetic reasons. I tried lemon curd and found that it accomplished everything I wanted.

The weekend prior to the wedding, I baked all 180 cupcakes and froze them over the week. I had practiced different freezing methods and found that the best (and most convenient way) was to package the cupcakes, fully frosted, in the carrying boxes and then wrap the entire box completely in plastic wrap. It was so simple. I didn't have to do anything the day of the wedding except unwrap, let thaw, and decorate with my previously made fondant flowers.

There was only one down-side to the entire experience. The hottest weekend we've seen all summer just so happens to be that weekend prior to the wedding when I did all my baking. It was in the 100s and I was running 2 ovens at once. It was not pretty. I was not pretty - note the shiny forehead in the pic below:

I had to wait until the next morning to frost because it was just too hot. Then, in order to transfer the cupcakes to my parent's house to store in their freezer, I had to park my car in the garage for about 20 minutes with the AC running just so they wouldn't melt on the way over. But it was a success. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for the use of your extra freezer. Couldn't have done it without you! Thanks to my sister Jill for all her help on the day of the bake off, couldn't have done it without you either. Thanks to my niece, Christina, for adding the flowers while I was having my hair and makeup done!

Soooo, if you'd like to attempt to do your own wedding cupcakes, make sure you have the following:

*a recipe you've previously taste-tested and freeze-tested (sometimes they taste different after freezing)

*a full day to bake and frost and package

*a freezer with enough space to store

*the ability to ask your friends and/or family for help when you need it