the stephanotis affair

Back in March, Mark and I spent close to 9 hours on a Friday night working on 4 dozen cupcakes for a bridal shower. Even though this was well over two months ago, I still think the hard work we put into what I like to call "the stephanotis affair" (after the stephanotis flowers we hand-shaped out of rolled white fondant) deserves to be featured.

So here's a play by play. We start with 4 dozen white Magnolia cupcakes in silver Wilton wrappers. *Note that while I like Reynolds cupcake wrappers for their ability to keep shape and the little convenient containers in which they are packaged, I don't use the foil wrappers, as they have a tendency to stick and overcook the batter.)



While I worked on prepping the cooked frosting (a whipped buttercream that incorporates a cooked milk and flour paste), Mark cut stephanotis flowers from fondant. A debate raged as to whether or not the flowers needed texture, and if so, what could be done so as to not make them look like starfish. We settled on a compromise.
Using Wilton gel food coloring, we got the icing as close to the requested "sea glass" color as possible.

After filling a piping bag with a large star tip, I piped icing, added texture and silver dragees to Mark's stephanotis flowers, and plopped them back in the trays where they would stay until the next morning.

We had a bit of extra batter, so I decided to make us some jumbo cupcakes which were, to give you a comparison, about the size of my head. Delicious, nonetheless.

And finally, the finished product on display at the shower. Probably the fanciest cupcakes I had made to that point.

Verdict? Rave reviews from shower attendees, so I am going to file that under "cupcake success."