Cupcake Impossible Wedding Edition

Last weekend I had the honor of being a part of my cousin Addie's beautiful Destination Wedding in Orlando Florida.

First off it is important to mention that Addie is my crafting better half.  She is a crafting genius and when we get together on a project it is nothing but spectacular

Just kidding, but seriously she did her wedding up DIY style and did a phenomenal job. She really out did herself with this one.  To check out her DIY visit her on Instagram @mymintwedding and #werethetaylors

Since she was on an budget I offered to do her cake, Duh.  I love a challenge. When I opened my mouth to offer her my services I didn't realize how big of a challenge this was really going to be.  Months went by and I was optimistic about everything.  Then back in October I decided to throw in the towel on my little cake endeavors.  Well I had one more job to do and as the weeks flew by I began to get REALLY nervous.

Here were my challenges:

Challenge 1-
I had to fly any tools I needed to use across the country in a single suit case that also held my clothes and SHOES for 4 whole days...the shoes alone could have taken up an entire suitcase, and don't get me started on the make up and hair care products.

Challenge 2-
I had to bake 150 cupcakes and 1-tier of a cake (for cutting)...in a "hotel room", well to be fair it was a condo, so there was a full size stove and oven.

Challenge 3-
I had to complete it all in one day, pausing for a nail appointment and I had to make it to a bachelorette dinner and party that night.

Challenge 4-
**This was probably the biggest of all the challenges:
Storing them for 2 days and making sure none of the bridal party ate them at 2 am after hours of drunken shenanigans.

How did I do?

I think I did alright.

We used a few tools I flew across the country. I couldn't find the frosting tips my cousin wanted for the cupcakes (for less than $15 a piece after shipping) so my handy hubby custom cut me a couple round tips.  Thank God, he saved the day.  Of course I forgot a whole lot of things that I wanted to bring but what I forgot we bought at a dollar store that was conveniently place just a 5 minute walk from the resort. Hooray.

Batch #1 of 3 before they went into the oven, notice the disposable cupcake tins

We had disposable cupcake tins to cut back on the amount of dishes that needed to be washed and we even scored three hand mixers from "The 3rd Busiest Walmart In the WORLD".

Yup you read that right, we accidentally went to the 3rd Busiest Walmart in the World.

Picture this, I fly into Orlando, I arrive at Addie's resort condo 2 hours after landing, exhausted from 13 hours of traveling my type-A personality kicks in and I decide that I must bake the 1-tier cake before I go to sleep.  Addie, Sam and I jump in my rental car and hit the streets of Orlando just past Midnight.  After a short drive we spot the familiar glow of a Walmart sign.  Oddly the parking lot is PACKED, like Saturday afternoon packed.  There are people congregating in the parking lot, in front of the doors, near the McDonald's.  A pack of  (what we assume are high school boys) are roaming the aisles asking everyone "where da party at".  It really seemed like we had arrived at the Walmart during some kind of special event.  Little did we know we were standing in the middle of THE 3RD BUSIEST WALMART IN THE WORLD!!!!

That was the most touristy thing I did the whole weekend...Wait that's a lie, we went bar hoping in a party bus, but that is a story for a different blog entirely.

Where was I, Oh yes, we scored 3 hand mixers from Walmart for $6 each!  NICE!!

They really were worth only $6 too because I completely broke one of them half way through my marathon baking session.

By Sunday I was sweating bullets that the cupcakes were dry and the cake was sweating.  But NOPE! everything was perfect.  I got all good reviews and even had a few job offers, and business partner offers.  Not sure if I'm ready to fully go into business but it was good to know that I still got it!

Addie hand made these toppers

They cut the cake

Then assaulted each other with it

This guy liked them so much, he ate 4!

Happy Baking!