Cakes and Cupcakes

This was my second attempt at a cake topper.
The first attempt was atrocious, but I was pleased with this one.

The cupcakes and cake topper.
I think they look very pretty.

Each flavor of cupcake had a different color flower ... all painted by hand. I could have colored the fondant and saved a lot of work, but once you color fondant, you can't uncolor it, and I didn't want to run out of fondant in the middle of the project. Painting them by hand gave the flowers more depth, too, so even though it was a lot of work, I think it was worth it!

The bride and groom, eating one of the snickerdoodle cupcakes.

Me, posing by the cake and cupcakes.
I think everything turned out quite lovely.

I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, and am hypercritical of myself and my efforts, I probably did a lot of unnecessary stressing, but I wanted everything to be perfect, and it was pretty close! My kids rolled their eyes at all my spreadsheets and diagrams and obsessive labeling of boxes, but I think the results speak for themselves ... and prove that being a nerd pays off :)

What Do Sandpaper and Fondant Have in Common?

Several years ago I purchased a coffee table for the family room. I thought it was the exact same color as my existing side tables, but it wasn't ... so I sanded it down and stained it the same shade. It looked so good that I decided to sand a few other pieces of furniture, and they all turned out really nice, too. I was on a roll when I walked into the kitchen and decided to sand my kitchen table down to bare wood and stain it. The tabletop wasn't so bad, but sanding the carved legs was torturous. Not far into this project, I realized I was really sick sanding and staining ... but I was too far into it to stop. I told the kids to have me committed if they ever saw me with sandpaper in my hand ever again!

After spending the past two days making several hundred cupcake toppers and a 3-layer cake for the top tier of my daughter's cupcake display at the reception ... I realized today that I feel the same way about fondant! I'm not quite done with the cake, but I'm close. I'll finish tomorrow ...and I hope I don't see fondant again for a really, really, really long time!