Wedding Cupcake Testing!

One of the pleasures of being a pastry chef is that when your friends and family have special events, sometimes they ask you to whip up something tasty for it. Recently I was asked if I would make the cake/cupcakes for a friends’ wedding this summer, and I was more than happy to! We sat down in May to taste some flavors and go over some details. The wedding is being held outdoors at a nearby Nature Center, with a neutral color palette (greens, yellows, whites, maybe some light blues). Simple decorations and modest colors. With that in mind, I set out to whip up some flavors that looked and tasted like a summertime botanical wedding. Julia mentioned her fondness for lemon cake (which I share whole-heartedly), so I made sure to include lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting.

These babies are like little bites of sunshine. There will be both lemon cupcakes, and a small gluten-free lemon cake for the wedding. A definite crowd pleaser though is a simple, but moist and tender chocolate cupcake, with a lightly sweetened soft-as-clouds swiss meringue buttercream. I use this same cake & frosting for nearly every birthday cake I make and it’s never steered me wrong.

To stir things up a little bit I decided to create two speciality flavors inspired by summertime. First up, chosen as the third flavor for the wedding is the honey cupcake with green tea frosting. The honey cake recipe was adapted from THIS Martha recipe, while the green tea frosting was made from swiss meringue buttercream with matcha green tea powder. The honey sweetend cake and the comforting flavor of green tea I think make for an excellent combination, as long as it doesn’t attract too many bees to the dessert table.

Finally, the flavor that surprised and delighted me the most was the Pistachio-Rose cupcake with White Chocolate-Rose buttercream. This cupcake has a hefty amount of pistachio in proportion to flour which subsequently gives it a bit of a heavier texture. Nonetheless, it’s a moist cake packed with smooth pistachio flavor, and a finish of rose water. The white chocolate frosting is also tinted with rose water flavor for a floral aroma and a creamy mouthfeel. I can hardly wait to make these again for myself!

I’m so thrilled to be a part of Julia & Mike’s wedding celebration, with the added bonus of getting to attend the wedding and munch on a cupcake at the reception! There will of course be a part two to this sweet story…