Ethel and Brian's Wedding at Vine Hill House

Hello all!

It's been way too long since I've posted on the blog. Lots have changed since. First off, I got married, went on a very adventurous honeymoon to Australia and New Zealand, a lot of my friends got married, successfully launched an amazing product with my wonderful team at work, moved out of SF into a new house in Burlingame that has two ovens (woohoo!), and officially SCUBA certified. One thing that hasn't changes is that I still love baking.

So when my friends Ethel and Brian graciously presented me with an opportunity to bake desserts for their wedding, I couldn't resist. This year's been quite tough with the big move and frequent business trips to Asia, but I knew it was time for me to step up. 

Their requests were 120 cupcakes with 3 different themes -- NY Giants (Brian's a fan), Cats (Ethel loves cats), and mustache (Brian's an avid follower of Mr. Money Mustache blog) -- and whoopie pies. But because whoopie pies are essentially two cupcake tops put together with frosting in between, I wanted to do something different. After surfing the web and browsing lots of different cookbooks (my favorite at the moment is Dahlia Bakery Cookbook), I decided on Peanut Butter Caramel Thumbprint Cookies and Coconut Macaroons. 

With this ambitious endeavor of making 3 different types of cupcakes and 2 desserts, I had to meticulously plan out the various components throughout the week of the wedding to keep the work load more manageable. Thankfully, all the components except for the cupcakes themselves could be made ahead of time. 

The cupcake toppers were made with simple vanilla and chocolate sugar cookies and decorated with frosting. I'm ashamed to say that I briefly considered taking the easy way out by using plastic cupcake decorations for NY Giants logo, but stayed strong and kept everything homemade and edible. 

Making the rest of the desserts went smoothly. These Coconut Macaroons made with the recipe from Dhalia Bakery Cookbook were perfectly nutty crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside. 

The Peanut Butter Caramel Thumbprint cookies were not only pretty but absolutely delicious with wooey gooey peanut caramel at the center of a buttery cookie. (Thanks to my hubby who expertly whipped up the caramel!). 

As if I didn't have enough things to make, I decided to throw in a bonus dessert for them at the very last minute. I knew that they had decided against serving s'mores at the wedding due to logistics so I wanted to make a special treat that reminded them of it.

I whipped up two batches of s'more cereal treats similar to Rice Krispie treats but made with Golden Graham cereal with chocolate. I topped it with some mini marshmallows and threw it under a broiler for to give it that nice toasty color and flavor. These are officially my favorite dessert now. Easy to make and crunchy, gooey, chocolatey, and absolutely delicious. The best part of making these for Ethel and Brian was that I got to eat all the scrap pieces afterwards. Teehee. 

I made three different types of cupcakes. First, the NY Giants cupcakes are vanilla cupcakes with black cherry filling and dark chocolate flake buttercream. The cat cupcakes for the bride are spiced carrot cupcakes with brown butter cream cheese frosting. And lastly, the mustache cupcakes are decadent chocolate cupcake with raspberry buttercream. 

The day of the wedding, everything went perfectly. Stunning venue, beautiful weather, fabulous food, wonderful friends, and of course the adorable couple!

These stunning photographs of the couple are by Elle Jae Photography who also shot our wedding.  Aren't they the cutest?