Fun Wedding Cupcakes: Beach-Themed Shower Treats

While searching the internet for wedding-y things, I came across these adorable beach-themed wedding shower cupcakes. We've been trying to figure out the best way to make and decorate our own cupcakes for my sister's wedding, so we definitely have cupcakes on the brain.

The cupcakes pictured are by user clevercupcakes on Flickr. Unfortunately, the bakery is a little far away to provide cupcakes for the wedding that I'm helping to plan, being in Montreal and all - a little more than a hop, skip and a jump from Maryland. But if you're in the vicinity it definitely looks like it would be a cool place to check out.

After our recent experiments with trying to make cupcakes look fancy, I have a great appreciation for all the work that went into these. I hope we'll be able to discover some sort of a frosting recipe that will be able to hold that kind of a shape, although I don't think we're going to go so far as to try and create decorations out of fondant or modeling chocolate or whatever it is that went into those too-cute sunglasses and palm trees.

Backyard Wedding Cake: The First Attempt

I've been super excited to try out cake frosting ever since we went to Joann's and got some Wilton cake frosting decorating tips (although, in retrospect, it might have been better getting a cake decorating kit with instructions and piping bags from Amazon). So I was thrilled when my mom made some cupcakes, and decided to ice them with homemade butter-lemon frosting (made with butter, lemon zest, and powdered sugar).

Here's what the tip looks after we've screwed it onto the plastic bag using some handy accessories that I later learned were called "couplers"...

Backyard Wedding Cake: Cupcakes For the Wedding

A great way to save on wedding costs is to make your own cake. And a great way to minimize the amount of damage you can do in the process is by making cupcakes. It's a lot easier to make individual cupcakes look good than to make a full-size cake look good, and if you mess up a batch, you can always make more. Plus it provides you with the opportunity to make several different flavors of cake and icing.

Here are some things to think about if you decide to go the route of making your own cupcakes for a wedding:

• Practice, practice, practice. Baking is an art. You need to perfect the recipes you'll use long before the actual day of the wedding. This is not the time for experimentation. As a bonus, you get plenty of cupcakes to taste-test along the way.
• Leave plenty of time. No one wants to be squirting frosting when the guests start to arrive. Cupcakes will stay good in the fridge for at least a day, so make them as early as you dare. Your practice sessions will help you determine how much time is needed.
• Keep it simple. Save your dreams of appearing on Cupcake Wars for the next birthday party. Your goal here is for your creations to be simple, elegant, and delicious. Anything else is just icing on the cake!