Happy Sunday! We are getting really close to those End of the School Year parties, summer picnics and BBq parties. Having friends and family over for an evening starts to sound like a really good idea when you can have it outside and enjoy the weather as each day cools off. This doesn't mean dessert has to be complicated...or boring.


Several times a year I get "Dinner Party Cupcake" orders. These are small orders of fancy cupcakes for a dinner, bbq or picnic party that I make for the client and make them just a bit more special that the typical swirl of frosting. This doesn't mean they are hard to do. It just means you take the time to add a bit more detail to the cupcake. 


The cupcakes this week are vanilla bean cupcakes topped with lemoncurd buttercream icing and then sprinkled with a bit of gold colored sugar. I just chose bright yellow liners, and there are LOTS of fun liners right in your grocery store these days, because of the lemon frosting, and then sprinkled the gold sugar on top. This I ordered online at shopbakersnook.com ...one of my favorite product distributors!

 Now these Mexican Hot Chocolate Caramel stuffed cupcakes were a bit more complicated but not by much. All I did was use a round cutter to cut out a ring of cake in the center of each cupcake, filled it with caramel and then topped it with the buttercream and drizzled it with caramel.  If you don't want the caramel to soak into the cake then mix it with a bit of buttercream first before filling up the hole. 

 These Dark Chocolate cupcakes are meant to look like chocolate starfish for a clients ocean themed party. I used the gold sugar on top of these as well to give the seastars a bit more texture!

 Of course I'm not saying they are all "easy". These Family Reunion BBq Picnic cupcakes took plenty of time and work making all the little pieces. So you CAN get very complicated with the cupcake for your event. These took several days moulding and hand painting of the small pieces that set on top. One thing to remember though...you will see some cupcakes with towering toppers. Most of that stuff will NOT be eaten. It will be cast aside and the rest eaten. At a picnic this is ok since most people will be dressed casually but with something more formal like a dinner party you really don't want your guests to have to make piles of food on their plates just to eat dessert. 

 One easy fun thing to do is to add candy to your cupcakes! These vanilla bean cupcakes are caramel filled, drizzled with chocolate and, for an extra treat, have a bit of Hersheys on top. Easy to pick off and eat for your guests.

Finally...if you like to play with piping tips, check online how to make easy piped on flowers. Make larger versions of these and you end up with a sunny little plate of flower cupcakes to serve at your BBq! What a cute way to say goodbye to Spring and hello to Summer!


This next week I have a wedding cake coming up...can't wait to share that with you next Sunday!

Cat