2 Dozen Cupcakes Stat!

On Thursday, April 17 I get a call from Alec at 2:30pm saying "I have an emergency cupcake order!" The head of HR at his company is having a birthday the following day. "Do you want to do it?" I had been sending off many cupcake "experiments" with Alec to work and finally it pays off. One of the HR women heard of my cupcakes but was always too late in getting a sample, but she heard others rave about them.
Of course I wanted to do it! But I only had one night to produce two dozen cupcakes of whatever I wanted.
I decided to do one dozen strawberry cupcakes, which everyone seems to like and one dozen chocolate cupcakes with a smooth, silky poured ganache - who doesn't like chocolate?.
I was able to fit in one hour of MEP (measuring) while Laura played in the kitchen cupboards. Then after Alec got home and we had dinner, I worked from 8:30pm-12:30am. And yet again, around 10:30pm, I get tired because it's my bedtime and I wonder "why am I doing this?" At that hour, the creative juices run to a trickle. In the end, I have to say the presentation had room for improvement. However, the cupcakes were good enough or better because by the afternoon I receive an email from Alec from saying that the cupcakes were a "BIG hit!"

Luna's Cupcake: My First Order!

On March 7th, one of the mothers in my playgroup, LeAndra asks me in an email to do cupcakes for her daughter, Luna who was turning one year old. I am ecstatic - my first order! And it's perfect because it's someone I know and with whom I have shared personal mommy experiences.

This cupcake had to be perfect! It would set the tone for the rest of my cupcakes. It was a test of my design and organizational skills. I had one week to do three dozen cupcakes - to test cupcake and frosting recipes, produce all the components, design the decoration, and put it all together. Could I do it? I had to do it!

Every night, after Laura was down at 7pm, I tied back my hair, put on my chef jacket, rolled up my sleeves, and went to work. The good and the bad thing was that LeAndra gave me a couple requirements: lemon or vanilla cake and frosting and decoration has to have moon and stars - "Luna" is moon in Spanish.

After three different cupcake recipes and three different frosting recipes and after Alec and I tasting all of them in different combinations, we finally settled on the right pair. I found a recipe online for lemon cupcakes, except I substituted all-purpose flour for cake flour, which gave the cupcake a softer texture. For the frosting, I made up my own vanilla frosting, the whole milk I infused with some Tahitian vanilla bean, which my father and mother in law gave me when they vacationed in Tahiti, resulting in vanilla bean frosting. All those little specks of vanilla bean made the frosting look authentically vanilla and classy.

The design took a couple days. I tried to mimic a picture I found on the internet - cupcake decorated with a puffy cloud of frosting. I was able to make the cloud, but it was more frosting than was needed for the amount of cupcake. With absolute disappointment in myself, I presented the cupcake prototype to Alec. I think his comment was "I like it!" But I wasn't convinced. Two days left and I was not satisfied with the current product. I went to bed dejected.

That night I dreamt of a design. I woke up the next morning, scrounging for Alec's colored pencils, scribbled out a few designs. I totally ditched the previous design and went with a Tina original design. My problem was that I was trying to copy someone else's design and it just wasn't working.

That day, I broke out the sugar sparkles and the rolled fondant. Within a couple hours, I had another prototype. This one I was happy with - the colors had good contrast, it was cheerful, it was girly, and the "Luna" moon stood out. It was something I was proud of.

April 10th Playgroup Cupcake Tasting

Thanks Mommies for your positive feedback and support. This event featured Strawberry Cupcake, Mint Chocolate Cupcake, Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcake, and Blueberry-Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcake.

Cupcake Order Form

1.Date of Event:

2.Occasion:

3.Number of cupcakes:

4.Cupcake size: standard OR mini

5.Décor Theme (if any):

6.Cake Flavors:
vanilla, chocolate, lemon, vegan chocolate, OR custom:______

7.Frostings:
vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, vegan vanilla, cream-cheese, mint, chocolate ganache, white chocolate ganache, lemon, orange, cookies 'n cream, OR other:________

8.Fillings (optional):
frosting, jam, whipped cream, pastry cream, chocolate, OR other:________

9.Sprinkles: sugar crystals, jimmies, dots, OR other: __________

10.Cut-Outs: cookie, fondant, OR other: ____________

11.Details for one special cupcake (ie, for the birthday boy)

12. Your contact info: name, phone, email

13.Other notes:

Please submit order form to buttercupkit@yahoo.com

Why Cupcakes?

I never thought I would be doing cupcakes as a career. After getting my Pastry and Baking Arts Certificate at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, I thought my first job would be at a small neighborhood bakery making tarts, cakes, muffins. I also didn't expect to get pregnant while going to culinary school either. But our sweet little Laura, now 10 months is the absolute best thing that's happened to our family.

I was six months pregnant when I finished culinary school and in no shape to be lifting 50 pound bags of flour. Initially I was disappointed that I didn't get to enter the baking industry along with my other colleagues, that I was somehow missing out and would lose my newly acquired baking skills.

Fast forward one year later....it all worked out! I love being with Laura every day. During her naps and after she's down for the night, I do my baking experiments in the kitchen. I'm a food geek at heart and love tweaking recipes ensuring the taste, texture, and presentation is just right. Who wants to work at someone else's bakery, doing the same things, day in and day out? Sure, I'd quickly learn to crank out pastries with precision and efficiency, but how would that be fulfilling?

So how did I decide to do cupcakes? I was already a member of the San Rafael Mothers' Club with 200+ members. I thought it would be an easy place to start. Doing something for kids' parties would be fun and not a high pressure job, as doing wedding cakes. Plus, I'd feel I would be helping other mommies like me.

I have to give props to my cousin, Terry, who is a journalist at the AP in Phoenix, Arizona. She's a cupcake baker in her spare time. She's always trying new cupcake recipes and sharing her experiences with me. She introduced me to a blog called Cupcakes Take the Cake
She pointed me to this blog when I told her I was thinking of doing cupcakes as a business. Once I read and saw all the cupcakes on that blog, I was immediately hooked - it opened my eyes up to all the creative possibilities in making cupcakes.

Who can resist a cupcake? Cupcakes are cute and remind people of home. Each cupcake is a new adventure - another opportunity to make a new flavor, a new look, a special little cake for a special occasion.