Melissa's Bee Themed Baby Shower

I helped to co-host a baby shower for my cousin Russell and his wife Melissa.  Honey Bee is Melissa's nick name so I thought she would like a bee themed shower.  Congratulations Russell and Melissa for having Joseph this past July!

Honey Flavored Cupcakes:
Again, a Martha Stewart's recipe was used from her cupcake book - Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.

My favorite thing about these cupcakes is that the recipe asks for coarse salt to be used.  So when you are eating these cupcakes you will get a nice combination of salty and sweet flavors.  I'm not sure but I think the honey also caramelizes a bit when baked adding a nice glaze like consistency.  The coarse salt really compliments the sweetness of the honey.

I had planned to make these cupcakes if I had time, but didn't feel it was necessary.  Since I had went to a concert the night before (The Black Keys . . who are so talented) I decided to not make them as I had already made mini raspberry cheesecakes.  I want to say that I also got asked to make these at like 9am for a party that started at 1pm.  So when it came to filling the liners, I was in cheesecake mode and just filled them to the top instead of 2/3 full!

As a result I had some serious muffin topping.  I had 2 dozen crazy muffin topped cupcakes and one good dozen.  I would have just remade these cupcakes, but I did not have enough flour!  So i panicked like crazy and felt bad because I didn't want to disappoint  AND I didn't want people to think I was dumb overfilling the cupcake liners!  I mean who does that?

Finally, my friend Anne calmed me down and told me to just cut the excess tops off.  Can you imagine based on this picture how bad it was?  I'm still embarrassed that I overfilled the cupcake liners.  You can be sure it will never happen again . .  at least I hope not.

The Bees:
I originally was going to make a bee for each cupcake, but after making a few . . it got a little tedious . .  and I wasn't 100% sure I was going to even bake these cupcakes.  So I made about 12 bees.  I found a great tutorial via YouTube.  Just note that you can also use gum paste for the wings so that they hold their shape instantaneously!

I made a total of 36 cupcakes and randomly placed the bees on the cupcakes.  If i had more time i would have made some daisy's to go with the bees.  However, I think that the scattered bees gave these cupcakes a little charm.

Melissa, Joseph and Myself.  Isn't he so adorable?

    

Above are some of the other bee-themed items made for the baby shower.  The bee clips were made for the "Don't Say Baby Game" and the little jar of honey was the party favor.