Lambey Pie

Of Cupcakes and Dancing

My first blog! What to write? What to write! How about the last big event and project I worked on, my sisters wedding. That'll do.
Meet Bill and Gwyn. My sister and her new hubby hail from Colorado. The whole family flew in from afar to make the wedding magic happen. And what magic it was! My job was the Cupcake "Cake", "the mother figure" did all the flowers, Brother Chef "cheff-ed", Mr. Bojangles wrote and sang a song and hitched these two together and little sister kept us laughing. Oh what I wouldn't do for a video snippet of the dance she did hiking in the Rocky Mountains! "Thank you Mama for making me gold pants." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCCtlQynXwY You can't make stuff like this up. But I digress... many other family and friends rounded out the happy wedding work party.

There was a wee amount of shenanigans... white water river rafting was squeezed in somewhere, hiking in the mountains with snow, stalking large beasties in the Rocky Mountains, shopping with starving people (you get what you deserve, people, when you put the finikiest restaurant picker in charge of scoping out a lunch destination) and the "man of honor"(?) and food (Enchiladas and the works!) arriving with plenty of time to spare. Isn't four minutes before official start time considered on time?

Take a look at the cupcakes AND something else I forgot to mention, the Altered Wedding Book I made for my sister. I'm just showing the front cover of the book, more of this will have to come later.


















The Altered Wedding Book idea came to me while perusing the special publication, Somerset in Love, http://www.stampington.com/html/somerset_in_love_w09.html Having never done an altered book I just had to try it. I used lots of different vintage paper, ephemera, lace, buttons, sewing, etc. and painting and collaging techniques. Lots of happy accidents happened along the way and I learned from those too. I'll be submitting it to one of Stampington's open calls for artwork. We'll see what happens.

The cupcakes were a fun little challenge... all 168 of them! I found the edible butterflies at http://www.fancyflours.com/. The butterflies are printed on edible wafer paper. They kinda taste like chicken! Not really. But the kids will have fun eating them. Here's how I made the cupcakes: First, the butterflies were cut out (by the bride, Natch!) and lightly dry brush dusted with Wilton silver colored luster. Then, I piped a thin line of Wiltons clear piping gel (comes in a small tub) down the body of the butterflies to soften the body so that the wings could be slightly bent in to look realistic.





The butterflies were then placed in empty egg cartons to dry the gel and help them maintain their shape. Fancy Flours offers help tips with all of this.





Now for the cupcakes: I used the large tip, 2D (or was it the 1M? - Yikes!) The 16 inch Wilton bag was great for holding loads of icing. I piped a nice big mound of frosting in the middle of the cupcakes to give the swirls support. Then, I started the swirls on the outside edge and went round and round like a Dairy Queen ice cream cone. The height of the frosting gave the cupcakes that "over the top" look that lets a simple, little cupcake be the star of the show. All those Hollywood types pay big money for this - I work for enchiladas! Edible, blue, sparkle glitter was lightly dusted on and the butterflies gently applied onto the frosting. Viola! You now have little dead butterflies all over your cupcakes. I mean, you now have beautiful Butterfly cupcakes! Yay!
I should mention we purchased all those crazy cupcakes prebaked and ready to decorate from Sam's and they gave us lovely boxes to transport them all. The cupcake/cake tiers were purchased there as well.

Can you believe that I brought 6 of those little, dead butterfly cupcakes back to Texas with me? Oh, yes indeedy. The chillies and Lovey felt all left out. Airport security was at level orange (a bright, cheery color, I think) and they tried to keep my cupcakes. But I used my Jedi magic stuff and convinced them that these were indeedy real little cupcakes and nothing they should be concerned with and drooling over.



So, now my tale is told. And with my first blog entry, I go... "Out of the strain of the Doing, Into the peace of the Done." -Julia Louise Matilda Woodruff

Next blog: Muffins that taste like donuts!