Wedding cupcakes

A couple of weeks ago I got a call from Myrtó. She and her sister Eirini, run an old fashioned-style barber's shop in Nafplio. They cut the hair of the men in our house. Myrtó was in the middle of planning her wedding and wanted to have some cupcakes for their intimate beach gathering after the wedding.

If you've ever been to Karathóna beach you'll know it is a beautiful bay with mountains all around. It's exciting to make the cupcakes for a beach wedding! I popped by the shop and we had a discussion about flavours and numbers. Myrtó is a very laid back person and liked every suggestion!


We decided on triple chocolate and strawberry filled vanilla.



So, last Saturday night we popped by the party. We were supposed to be there taking photos but we ended up staying a while. They had candles and oil lanterns all around and bougainvillea flowers. The weather was perfect, too. It was cool but not cold and after a little while the moon rose over the mountains behind us. It was a starry night, not a cloud in the sky.



I think this is really a wonderful way to have a wedding. It was a lovely place and atmosphere. You can make it as elaborate or as simple as you like. The kids thought it was totally cool having their flip flops on (or off, after about 5 minutes).



Congratulations, George and Myrtó!




Liz Cupcakes

Wedding photos

I shall henceforth be referring to my BIL as SZ and his new wife as EZ III.

My Parents in Law have three sons. Each one of them has married a girl with the initials EZ. In fact all of our names start with "El..."! It can be confusing at times. So anyway I am EZ I and my other SIL is EZ II and the newest SIL is EZ III!

Just so there's no confusion! :p

They got their official wedding pics!



Aren't they sweet? I haven't see any cupcakes in any of the pictures though! Admittedly, I haven't seen them all. I did dare my BIL to ask for a pic with a cupcake in, but he must have decided against it!

Wedding cupcakes―the recipe

I promised to post my recipes for the cakes I made for the wedding. The recipe is so basic that you will probably be disappointed.

It is taken from the recipe book I go to when I want to make a well tested, no fail recipe.


This book was first published by the Milk Marketing Board in 1968, it was revised to Metric in 1978 and then the new version for the '90s was published in 1992. The new version includes how to take shortcuts by using the microwave etc. You can still find it if you look on the net; for example here.

It has lots of useful information on ingredients, such as how to buy the right cut of meat...


descriptions of pulses...



and more. In the baking section you can find recipes for all kinds of pastry, cakes, breads and delicious recipes like this..


While I have many cupcake books and recipes, I chose this basic recipe for the wedding cupcakes because I know it works and I know that those who eat these cakes usually groan with delight when they bite into them. So I'll write the basic recipe and then I'll tell you different ways you can alter it.

Basic cupcake recipe:
Makes 12

100g Butter
100g Sugar
100g SR Flour
2 Eggs

Beat butter and sugar until very light colored and creamy.
Add eggs one at a time with about a spoonful of flour.
Fold in remaining flour.
Divide the cake between the 12 cupcake cases and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg for 14-18 minutes. The time will vary according to your cooker and whether or not you use a fan assisted oven.

Resist the urge to over cook. When you take a cake out of the oven it will continue to bake for another minute or so anyway.

For Lemon cake: Add one to two teaspoons of grated lemon rind to the mix

For Chocolate cake: Replace 25g of the flour with cocoa powder (For the wedding cakes I added 25g of grated dark chocolate to ads a bit of depth)

This recipe is so adaptable. You can make it into carrot cake, raisin cakes, chocolate chip cakes or anything that you feel like. You could even add coloring to the cake if you want them to be interesting for kids although I personally prefer to avoid adding colors and add sprinkles or something similar for decoration.


The basic buttercream icing recipe is from the same book.

100g Butter
225g Icing sugar, sifted
20 ml Milk
Couple of drops of vanilla extract

Beat the butter, milk and vanilla until very soft then beat in sugar.

For the wedding I added a couple of drops of red coloring (to match the wedding theme) per triple quantity of icing and I add the seeds from some Madagascan Vanilla Pods.


Vanilla pods are rather expensive to buy in the shops. I recently saw some at the supermarket for 5 Euro for one! Obviously it helps to have a Madagascan friend (Hi C) who just so happens to have returned recently with a supply for her crazy cupcake making friend!


Tip: After you have scraped the insides out of the pod, you can put it into a jar of sugar and you will get wonderful vanilla sugar which is great for all kinds of sweet baking or in your coffee if you take sugar. I always have a jar on the go.


OK... so you don't get the aroma through a photo.

For the chocolate cakes I added 25g of melted and cooled white chocolate to the icing. I use slightly less milk when I add melted chocolate.

Again you can do all sorts of variations with this recipe: You can make it citrus flavored with lemon or orange rind, you could add espresso powder, cocoa powder and many other things.

Enjoy experimenting! Remember not to over cook them!

Things I learned, aka We survived! (final part three)

After lunch the kids took a nap and we started on the chocolate cupcakes. We quickly fell into our routine that we got started in the morning. By 6 pm all the chocolate cakes were out of the oven.

I started on the frosting. Shortly after 7 I realized that it was going to be impractical to finish up and drive to Athens when the cakes were done. I hadn't packed a thing. We decided it would be more beneficial for the kids to get in their own beds for a relatively early night rather than have to face the trip. Olivia's fever was staying down for around 6 hours at a time and she had no other symptoms like coughing or ear ache. That way we would get up early and I would leave with the kids around 7 to arrive in Athens in time for my hair appointment. The cupcakes would go straight to the venue with Alex and Pappous. It proved to be the right thing to do.

At around 7.30 pm we had finished all the cupcakes and they were all packed in their boxes ready to go in the morning. I can't describe the sense of satisfaction I felt. That, and the sense of aching legs and shoulders!!!

We all took a break, tidied around the kitchen a little, snacked on whatever we could find in the fridge and, after the kids went to bed, I packed our things. Clothes for the wedding and other things we would need for the week-end.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early. Olivia had slept very well and her fever had not come up again at all during the night. She still appeared a little tired but I can only conclude that the fever was caused by exhaustion. We had been out for meals and ice-cream three nights in a row with our guests (forcing them to endure the tour of Nafplio by little train... not exactly the most exciting thing for adults...)



We didn't stay out too late, but I usually have the munchkins in bed early on school nights and I think the excitement and those few less hours of sleep must have been what did it.

I left with the kids for Athens leaving the boxes of cakes behind. My sense of satisfaction at having got them all done was only second to the sense of satisfaction I felt at hearing they had been delivered safely and had all travelled intact to the venue. The drive to Athens at that time of the morning was incredible. The sun was coming up and casting light patches on the mountains and leaving patches of shade where it hadn't risen quite enough yet. As the road rose and fell we could see the morning mist surrounding the ships along the coast and in valleys. Magical. Perhaps I found it even more enchanting because of the happiness I felt at managing to pull off the cake-making and for being able to give a gift that our family would treasure and remember? Who knows?



The rest is history... The wedding went exactly the way it was planned. The happy couple just came back from a romantic honeymoon week-end in Paris. All that remains is for me to tell you what I learned.


1. I tweeted about this one... Attending a wedding where you are a member of the family is much more tiring than making over 700 cupcakes for it!

2. Exterminating all flies from the confines of the house before work and during the day requires one person wholly devoted to the job! The joys of country living!

3. Happy helpers are extremely useful at times like this. My feet and back are especially grateful.

4. Having a professional kitchen and a larger oven would have made this job take a lot less time and been a lot easier. It is difficult when you have to pick something up in order to put something down!


5. My recipe worked just fine. It doesn't fail to impress. It's basic but can be altered in any amount of ways. I'll post it soon.

PS. My guests very very kindly did the remaining tidying and cleaning while we were away in Athens. Jens and Lone, thanks so much again! I promise that I won't make you work if you dare to come on vacation again!

We survived! (part two)

Like I said... Friday dawned. I was pretty calm and not too worried; even though I had hardly slept, I was feeling good and raring to go. I had everything organized in my head. I had made rough calculations as to how long it would take. I'd start when the kids got off to school at just after 8 and whenever we got finished (I estimated by about 7 or 8pm) we would pack up the cars and head to my in-laws' in Faliro to spend the night. Saturday morning the cakes would go with Alex to the venue and I would relax and spend the day getting my hair done and fixing my nails and playing around with Olivia's hair to make it look very sweet for the wedding. All this with a lovely sense of satisfaction that the cakes were done and were all ready and in their place!

At least, that was the plan.

We sat down for breakfast at the table and while we were munching on our cereal, Olivia started saying her head was hurting. Actually, at first she said it was itchy so I didn't take too much notice. It was probably one of her elaborate reasons as to why she would like me to spoon feed her or not to eat breakfast at all, which she does from time to time. As the rest of us finished our cereal and she was still lagging behind I noticed that she was rubbing her head quite a lot and her eyes were a bit dull. Usually they are bright and sparkly not to mention cheeky. I touched her forehead and it felt just a little warm. Trying to be optimistic I thought that she was just warm because of getting out of bed. In the back of my mind I was thinking it could not be possible for her to get ill today of all days. Neither of the kids have caught anything at all for months and months.

As time for leaving for school approached it became apparent that she wasn't just a little warm from the bed covers. I went to the medicine cabinet to retrieve the not recently used thermometer to see what we were dealing with. Nearly 38! Oh dear. No school for Olivia.


For the first time I started to get concerned. It was 8 am. Not a cake baked and a child with a fever who is clingy at the best of times but really really needs cuddles when she isn't well. The only thing we could do was administer Depon and for me to hand her over to the capable hands of Pappous (Grandad). We spent the next half an hour or so trying to persuade her to drink her medicine by herself. We failed. We used other medicine which I won't go into on a blog about cupcakes.

Having Pappous here saved the day. Thank goodness he had decided to come the night before, or goodness knows how many hours we would have lost. Hours we didn't have! Pappous offered plenty of distraction and nice warm arms to cuddle into. We noticed that the fever stayed down for around 6 hours at a time and since Olivia didn't seem to have other symptoms, was eating and drinking well, we decided to just keep observing her. I made a mental list of persons who might be able to babysit for us the night of the wedding, should she be not well enough to attend.

I finally got the oven switched on shortly before 9.

I had decided the night before that I was just going to use my hand mixer since I didn't have time to really get to know the stand mixer and didn't want to lose more time, even if that meant I would arrive at the wedding with one arm more muscular than the other!


We started on the lemon cakes. We soon got a little production line going. With one of my happy helpers, breaking 6 eggs at a time into a bowl, grating the rind off the lemons, measuring flour and sugar. Another happy helper was lining the muffin trays with the paper cases and then transferring the warm cakes to the cooling racks and filling them up again. Even though we were baking 36 cakes at a time and they only needed about 15-17 minutes to cook, we soon found we were getting ahead of the oven and we managed to sit down here and there to give our feet a break.

Shortly before noon we had completed almost all of the 30 batches of lemon cakes. I started piping the frosting which I had made the night before. One happy helper added the sugar flowers and the other placed them carefully into the little pink cups and into the boxes. All the time keeping count. My other happy helpers, Alex and my Father in Law, had their own assignments.

Pappous volunteered to go to pick up Fin from school and together they went in search of food. By the time they returned we had switched off the oven. Half the cakes baked and quite a few of them frosted.

We took a much needed break for lunch...

We survived! (part one)

Well that was an adventure!


I am pleased to say that everything went perfectly with regard to making the cupcakes. My biggest concern was the transportation but I didn't need to worry, since they all arrived at the venue safe and sound.

Yes, you can fit 725 cupcakes in a VW Passat!


Where to start? We had decided to make two flavours and the previous week we had a practice run to see how we wanted them to look. The flavours we decided on were:

Lemon sponge with Madagascan vanilla frosting (in pink) topped with a handmade sugar flower; and

Dark chocolate sponge with white chocolate frosting and a milk chocolate drop.








I decided to start Thursday evening by preparing the pink frosting for the lemon cakes, since I was going to be baking them first. I had one of my capable assistants (our poor guests) measuring out icing sugar and butter ready for me to get working on. It took a couple of hours to get the 3 kilos of butter and more than 6 kilos of icing sugar whipped up into a delicious frosting. We tried out an old Kenwood free standing mixer belonging to my MIL but I was not used to using it and I felt like I could get things done faster with my ordinary hand mixer. The bride had told me that her dress was pale pink but I hadn't actually seen the color and when I saw the color of the dress and the color of the frosting I couldn't have been more pleased! They looked a perfect match.

After the kids went to bed, we put together the boxes and set out the first of the ingredients for the lemon cakes. Scrubbed the lemons from the trees in the garden at Palaio Faliro.

We went to bed fairly late and I for one didn't sleep well. Every time I dropped off, I had dreams of hundreds of cupcakes!

Friday morning dawned and my plan was to get the kids their breakfast, send them off merrily to school and start work. Things of course didn't turn out exactly as planned!

To be continued...

Wedding cupcakes preparation

Things are working out well so far. Liz is half-way through the second flavor of cupcakes, and our guests are having the out-of-body experience of their life in a working vacation!

Here is a shot of the Army of lemon cakes with Madagascan vanilla.


Some are waiting to be frosted, while their little comrades are ready to ship.


What we are carefully not showing is the mess in the house, and the ways we are working around each other and keeping our daughter (who after a stretch of many months decided to have a high temperature today) happy and occupied. But you can imagine all that, can't you?

Olivia happily sat with her grandad for ages playing and watching TV. A real mission saver!



At 6pm all the baking was done.


Time now for the final frosting session.


And now, after a full 12 hours, the whole lot is ready and packed. Tomorrow morning they will have to be loaded in the car and taken to the wedding venue. Hopefully they will look equally as nice as they do now.

Goes without saying that photos will be posted.

Alex.

Progress report

Thanks again everyone for showing such interest. My BIL was very touched at the kind thoughts you all wrote when he read the blog earlier on!

I wanted to mention that they had in fact asked me very early on about cupcakes for the wedding but at first it seemed like the venue would not allow home made things for the treat ("kerasma"). The couple were disappointed and spent some time looking into other things but kept feeling sad that they couldn't have cupcakes. Anyway, it turned out that we misunderstood the guidelines that the Ktima has, and that is why we ended up so close to the date before we knew that we had the OK for the cupcakes. As it happens, it wouldn't make any difference with regard to the time frame for making them: the cakes have to be done at the last minute to be fresh and tasty.

The edible gold dust can be found at this cake craft store or this one. They both deliver to Greece.

If anyone has any more questions or is wondering about anything, leave a comment and I will do my best to answer after the event (and after all the pain-relieving drugs have worn off and am lucid once again)!

So far everything is going according to plan. But I won't be posting again until Monday! The work really begins this evening with measuring out ingredients and preparing the boxes to transport them.

I have my happy helpers. Well, I don't know how happy they will be afterwards. They are Alex, children, guests and even my father in law, who thinks he is merely coming to drive us to Athens (our car will be full of cakes): little does he know what he is driving into!

The children's assignment is to keep quiet and out of the way :) one of the other adults may be assigned to assist them to do that!

Yours,

Just starting to get anxious!

Lots and lots of sugar flowers

Thanks for all the kind words and wishes for the couple! Hopefully we will get some nice photos of both the bride and groom and the cupcakes to share with you next week!


Yesterday morning I started on the sugar flowers for the wedding cupcakes. They are small sugar paste flowers and I dusted them with edible gold dust just to take away the stark white color.

It didn't take too long to make them with the little tool you see in the picture. Cutters like this are available from most cake craft supply stores on the internet. It is best to get the kind with a plunger so that you just cut and pop them out in one move. Then use the ball tool to make them a little more three dimensional.


Only 350 of the wedding cupcakes will have sugar flowers on. My shoulders are only aching slightly! Actually, it was quite a pleasant job since I had peace and quiet with the munchkins at school. My favorite time of day.


Later on I will be going shopping for the rest of the ingredients. This morning I nearly bought twice as much butter as needed. Oops!

I spoke with the wedding planner a little while ago and we discussed how they will be displayed and whether or not to keep a stash of cupcakes for the dinner guests to enjoy later on too. Sounds like a good plan :P

Sorted out what we will all wear.

Liz

A challenge

So here's the thing. My Brother in Law is getting married in on Saturday. My future SIL asked me just over a week ago if it might be possible for me to make cupcakes for a treat (kerasma) for the guests. 700 of them!

It is rather a large number to turn out from my kitchen. It is rather a long way from our house to the venue. It's a bit scary. Still I am confident I can do it. This is when a spare freezer, a kitchen aid and a van might be useful! We'll think of something! (If the follow up to this story requires that I use the tag 'disaster' I will retire from making cupcakes forever.)

They won't be too large, and probably just two flavors. I am not going to be giving anything else away for now.

I have a more pressing concern: what to wear!

That, and I have guests this week.