Company Cupcakes

Sometime last week my husband sent me a text saying that his company was having a picnic on Saturday and asked if I would make cupcakes. Of course I went into an immediate panic. And, of course, I immediately started planning and designing the cupcakes. I had envisioned twenty-four white swirly cupcakes with his company's logo done in either chocolate or royal icing on top.


I settled on royal icing, ignoring the fact that I had never worked with royal icing before. The colors in the logo are black and a darkish green, which, if you've ever tried to mix icing colors before, you know those are two very hard colors to get right. I didn't get them right. I decided to just go with it. Who knows? Maybe they'd darken up before the picnic....um, yeah.

No matter how hard I tried, L and J looked like lumpy socks. Not exactly the look I was going for. I quickly decided to change the plan. Instead of white frosting, chocolate. Instead of the logos, lavender drop flowers with yellow centers and yellow-green leaves. Now time to start mixing!

Chocolate butter cream is now my favorite thing!

My palette.

The cupcakes were made using HERSHEY'S "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" Chocolate Cake recipe. I've used this one several times and it always comes out wonderful. It's a very moist cake and always a huge hit.

Mmm! Chocolatey!

I love how the chocolate swirls kind of look like roses.

Of course you need a close-up!

So many pretty little flowery cakes.

Boxed up and ready to party.

Some stragglers that wouldn't fit in the box. Yummy for me!

These took me a grand total of five hours (including the royal icing fiasco) and I didn't get to bed until sometime after 2 a.m., but it was totally worth it. They were pure bliss in a paper liner. They were very popular at the picnic.

And speaking of the picnic, it was wonderful. The weather couldn't have been better, the children all enjoyed the inflatables and the swing set, Zara so didn't want to leave, and the hosts had even made a pot of vegetarian chili just for me. It was a great day (cue the Fresh Beat Band).