in my future

I think I definitely see this cake coming with me to Sunday supper at the farm tomorrow. I mean, honestly, here's the description: "Sweet cake below, thick cinnamon crumbs on top, light vanilla glaze overall -- heavenly!" Yep, consider all over this! Catch the recipe over here.

other people's weddings: Lauren & Desaray

While planning my own wedding I would often come back to A Practical Wedding, not so much for design tips or diys or visual inspiration, but for inspiration of a kind that is found it what it MEANS to get married, and be married. Especially since me and the hubs were together for eight lovely years, pre-engagement, I often felt silly and wasteful to be planning this "party" all about us... seriously, how conceited are weddings? But over and over I found the writers there found, through their own voices, those of other writers, or from bits and pieces of their faiths, way to inspire me to find in myself and my husband the truly special, wonderful, and significant reasons to go through with this time-honoured ritual... And the wedding here is no different. From the AWESOME idea of the buttons as favors (rock 'n roll, cute and kitschy all at once!), to the "buttoned" cake, to what I think are some of my fave pieces of wedding advice... well, see for yourselves! Images from here.

"We ordered buttons as wedding favors and I made sure to create special buttons for volunteers and guests of honor. I spent quite a bit of time “pinning” people during the reception, which was a wonderful and whimsical way to literally touch my loved ones, look them in the eye, smile and thank them."

"I think passing heavy appetizers also saved us some money. There’s the obvious difference in price compared to a seated meal or a buffet, but then there’s table, linen and dish rentals, centerpieces and escort cards that we just didn’t have to worry about – or make or buy." This is a GREAT idea/point. In our small wedding (and I'm assuming a lot like it) one of the biggest expenses was the linen, centrepieces, etc. Though I'm wondering what the cost, staff-wise would be? Or maybe you just set them out on pretty cocktail stations here and there? Or buffet-style?

And ok, this might seem cheezy, but this was probably my favorite piece of advice, if only because it's SO true. Definitely falls into the category of you won't understand until you're in the thick of it (and by that, I don't mean the making of a wedding, but rather the GETTING MARRIED part). "My biggest piece of advice about weddings is just to have one. So many people, especially gay people, are so deeply ambivalent about throwing a wedding and for a lot of good reasons. But, really, it’s hard to understand the power and the purpose of a wedding until you are planning your own."

cake #2

Well, lads and ladies, it's official: I'm a slacker. With a day and a week until the wedding I still have AT LEAST 7 cakes to bake... whoops. Meh, no worries. I'll pull it off! Y'day I polished off the rest of the cupkies (my signature deep-dish chocolate chip cookies, which I had to make more of because I ate a ridiculous amount of the first batch!), as well as whipping up a seriously tasty mocha cake that will just need to be glazed. Today I'm using that gorg pan pictured above (which I got as an AWESOME shower gift! Thanks Baba!) to do a test run of this recipe. The plan is to take the cake with me tomorrow to my buddy Eva's 10yr anniversary party (see how far behind we are!). Wish me luck because if it works out, we might have more than a few of our own pretty rose-shaped cakes at our wedding!

i. want. this.

This is gorg. Really, what else is there TO say? Image from Vintage Glam Blog by Oeil Photography.

other people's weddings: Jamie & Matthew

Ooooh, Mama likey! Love the texture and the peach, oh man, the peach! And I think this is one of the first "bridesmaids in boots" shots that didn't look quite so staged. Oh, and "Spread the Love"? SO cute! Images from Once Wed by Stephen Myers Photography.

other people's weddings: Melissa & Pete

This is freaktastically close to the EXACT look and feel that I've got in mind for my own wedding. I was so stoked to see how well all of the details ended up working out together! Loves it! Images from Project Wedding by Tec Pataja.

confessions and creations

I did it. I broke down... and accepted that the major problem with providing 400 cupcakes of various flavors to your guests is NOT the actual making of said cupcakes, but rather, how in the HELL do you get 400 iced cupcakes from your home to the hall????? Yeah, maybe there's some perfect system for this, but I sure couldn't figure it out.
So, onto plan B: 8-12 individual cakes. Now, I know, I know, crazy work, right? But I am not doing "wedding cakes". Just yummy, old fashioned cakes on the beautiful vintage stands I'd been collecting for the cupcakes. There's every chance I might not even ice the majority of them... This way they can be made ahead of time, wrapped in plastic wrap and easily transported and placed on the plates, maybe with a handful of fresh berries around the edges. Why didn't I think of this before??? Now, maybe if we had a bigger wedding this would present it's own nightmares ie. How do you serve all that cake?! But I think I've got it covered: I scored a dozen cake knives from the dollar store, which I plan on sinking into each cake and folks can simply slice off a hunk themselves, family-style. Again, the ONLY reason I'm considering this is because we have less than 75 people, 90% of whom ARE our family and will not for one second find this weird. Now to bake! First up is the "white" cake demo recipe that I'm working on for my buddies who I foolishly agreed to whip up a simple cake for their own wedding ONE WEEK AFTER MINE! I'm a putz. Thankfully, the cake seems to be pretty freaking delish! Yay! I think I'm just going to do two layers, with simple strawberry jam between, iced with buttercream, with fresh strawberries tucked along the edges. Then she was just wanting a bunch of pink silk hydrangeas tucked on top. Nice and simple, the whole thing'll sit on the white, ceramic, fluted-edge cake stand I'm lending her. Here's the recipe, if you're interested. Oh, and you know, the site it's from rules, so that's cool. *har* Image from Lottie + Doof.And actually, while looking for a delicious white cake recipe (surprisingly difficult to come by, but it's what girlfriend wanted so...) I came across this totally adorable image for little cupcake flags on toothpicks. I think this would be SUCH a cute little diy for my now-cake table, no?! I'll let you know how it goes! Image from FoodGawker.

help a girl out, wouldya?

I think my partner-in-crime, Tracy, should take inspiration from these RIDICULOUSLY cute treats from The Jewels of New York. Aren't they just SO cute!? Such a great alternative to the standard cupcakes! Oh, and don't even get me started on the adorable packaging...

this made my life.

Honestly. The picture above is of a DONUT CUPCAKE! This is the best thing. in the history. of the world. Get the recipe at Lottie + Doof where I will be wasting time instead of working this evening. ***Ok, fine. Technically they're muffins. But calling them "muffins" somehow implies these are LESS THAN cupcakes, which, clearly, is not true.

this is my kind of stampin'

Now, I'm not gonna lie, I just haven't been able to get into the whole scrapbooking, stamping, cardmaking craze... but stamped cupcakes??? heck yeah! And actually, I'm thinking this could be super doable to be honest. Though maybe softened white chocolate would be tastier as a topping than the fondant that I think this is. Ok, that's it. I seriously need to get my act in gear in get my baking supplies. Luster dust, here I come. Image from City Sweets & Confections found at Oh Joy!

great ressource XI

Oh. My. Goodness. I think I may have a little inspiration crush on Sarah Magid of Sarah Magid Organic Cakes. Just came across her blog which is ridiculously chock full of fun, sweet, and creative ideas which can SO easily be brought over to weddings. But I have to admit, though I LOVE the cakes, the recipes, and the writing, I knew I was in full crush mode when mommy Sarah posted about making April Fool's "poo" cookies. I think is was the "From: the Toilet" that got me to the point of laughing tears out. Yeah. Good times. Organic cakes, beautiful weddings, and *poo cookies.
*OK, I know. It's seems weird, but you'll just have to trust me and go there. Awesomeness.

holy muffin cups

Awwwww! I LOVE this! I am now seriously considering strewing (is that a word?) my smaller muffin and cupcake pans amongst my dozen or so collected cake plates, filled with flowers... It might not work, but if it did it would RULE! Image from Country Home.

if i had more money and/or cared

Enough to get a wedding cake, that is, I would be ALL OVER this lil' wonder from K.Rose Cakes (via Ritzy Bee Blog). See, feminine, classic, and still modern, and yet not pink! No hydrangeas! It's like a miracle!

inspired by booze

And it's not even me doing the tippling (this time!) Remember this post??? Yeah, I didn't think so... But how funny is it that Polka Dot Bride just created a whole board around my fave wobbly pop! HAHA! Loves it! Nicely done!

let em eat wedding cake

So, I don't think it's any real big secret that there's is no love lost between myself and wedding cake. It doesn't help that I'm crazy picky about cake, and I generally hate most icing... But if I WAS going to do a cake, or was going to suggest a style to, oh say, some lovely blog-readers *wink* it would totally be like one of these from cakegirls! I love how clean and yet still feminine they feel. And I especially love the taupe (grey?) on the first cake. Nicely done, girls!Seriously? I'm just a sucker for the colour. Also, huge fan of a SUBTLE (though I guess caps aren't so subtle, are they?!) theme like the ocean theme here.

I love the texture and simplicity of this cake. This actually looks like something I'd want to eat!

Sigh. Soooo elegant.

kitsch and cake

Love it. Awesome.

What a Beautiful Day for a Dark Wedding

So one of my oldest friends is getting married (WOOT!) which is so exciting and better yet? On Halloween, yo! Now normally I might think this was corny but knowing her as I do I can't think of a better day, and I know she'll do it up right! Go Megatron! Anyways... now that it's official she totally has me noticing some of the cool Halloween/Wedding details that are out there... and not a tacky note in sight... who knew? So, since I'm trying not to go all creeper on her FB page, I'm posting the cuteness I found here. Not my bag but nifty nonetheless... courtesy of Manolo for Brides

Cake Plate @ the VV Boutique!

Yippee! Clearly scored another two cake plates at the VV Boutique! For a whopping grand total of $7.99 for BOTH! Yep, that's right, recognize. So one's just a two tier embossed tin one, but it'll be cute in that it'll add some much needed difference in height. But the other one was a total score in that it was totally gungy and dirt cheap but after some clean up it's TOTALLY silver, yo! So I'm thinking I'm still on the lookout for another three plates or so, plus the "special" one for our "cutting cake". How deadly happy would I be if it could look remotely like this... awesome, right?