Catering My First Wedding

My friend Mayuko gave me a great opportunity to do her cake for her wedding, which was this past weekend.  I felt honored that she asked me to do 80 cupcakes and a bride and groom cake for her ceremony and reception, which took place at the Ridley Creek State Park mansion.  It was a beautiful setting and a perfect day for her and Lloyce to get married.  I was also able to meet her parents and sister, who all traveled from Japan for the week.  Mayuko was a beautiful bride and all her hardwork in planning the wedding really paid off.

Fortunately, I was able to take a couple vacation days from work prior to catering Mayuko's wedding.  I hadn't baked such a large amount at home before, and if you've ever been in my apartment, you know how much I am lacking in counter space.  Nonetheless, I was able to maximize the space as much as I could.  Mayuko chose red velvet and lemon pound cake cupcakes, and a strawberry shortcake bride and groom cake.  I figured that the baking would be the easiest and fastest part of the entire process, but I was very wrong.  The first batch of red velvet came out burned badly on the bottom of the cupcakes.  I couldn't figure out what happened, except that it was a fairly new recipe and that I should have tried it out before that day.  I continued on with the lemon, and those burnt as well.  I eventually realized (after getting an oven thermometer and testing the temperature) that the oven was over-heating by 50 degrees.  Not a good time to be having oven problems!  After a lot of burned cupcakes and keeping an eye on the oven, I was able to regulate the temperature. 

The cupcakes were iced in a cream cheese icing in ivory, teal, and tan, piped on in a swirl pattern.  They also had an edible shimmer dust sprinkled on top.  The bride and groom cake was an American sponge cake also iced in cream cheese with strawberries layered in the middle.  Surprisingly, I was able to fit all the cupcakes in my refrigerator, which was quite a feat!  I was most nervous about transporting everything 40 minutes away on a hot and humid day.  After cranking up the air conditioning in the car, and with the help of Wilmina and her mom, we got everything there intact and in one piece!  I was so relieved.

This was quite the learning experience for me, and I definitely would change the way I did a few things the next time around.  I was pretty happy with the set-up and overall outcome of the presentation.  After all that work, I didn't even eat cake at the wedding!