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cupcake tree

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Tonights dinner is salad and turkey burgers( frozen from last week) so I thought I'd dig into my photo archives and talk about the cupcake tree I made for our wedding. We married on June 19, 03 in our backyard. The same-sex marriage law had just passed only days prior and we thought we better hurry up and tie the knot in case the law was appealed. We had 8 ppl at our wedding and both Robin and I really felt ripped off. So, we planned a big shindig for our 1st anniversary which just happened to fall on a Saturday. We booked a hall and decided on a menu( the most important part to me, LOL). Our here, most people go with a church group to cater a big roast beef dinner. That wasnt even an option for us, since we dont eat red meat and because we wanted something different.

We chose a company that converted a train caboose into a smoker. We had them smoke chicken, corn and potatoes. We made a huge vat of baked beans( a fabulous recipe I got from Martha Stewart), my mother-in-law made her famous coleslaw and we ordered flaky dinner rolls from a local bakery. At the last minute my MIL thought we didnt have enough food, so she ordered a big salad from a local caterer. ( normally, Id object, but I was too stressed to worry about it). Everyone raved about the food, they said it was so different than anything they'd ever had.

For the dessert, I originally thought I'd make 5 different 2 layer cakes and just present them on a dessert table. That idea morphed into the cupcake idea. We looked online for a cupcake tree. We decided we'd make one ourselves( Robin actually made it) and then for 6 months I set about testing recipes. I finally decided on a coconut cupcake with a coconut pastry cream filling and a cream cheese frosting, a triple chocolate cake with a chocolate filling and a chocolate buttercream frosting, a fresh orange cake with an orange cream cheese frosting( no filling, although I wished I would have made an orange curd) and a white chocolate lemon with a lemon curd filling and a buttercream frosting. A carrot cake went on top for the wedding party.

I baked and froze the 300 cupcakes for a month prior to the wedding. I made all the fillings and frostings the day before and on the morning of the wedding, we( 6 of us, filled and frosted them). It was a lot of work, but I was very happy with the way it turned out. I recieved lots of compliments and I got a few cupcake tree jobs out of it.

Now, for my big secret!! Ready????
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I used "pre-measured" ingredients for the cucakes. That's right people, I used cake mixes. I wanted a consistent product and for cost-effectivness I wanted to use oil instead of butter( butter went into the frostings).

I frequented the cake mix doctor message board and those wonderful women helped me come up with my recipes. There were so many added ingredients that you couldnt even tell it was a cake mix. Believe me, I can tell.