Diner en Blanc was started by a handful of friends in Paris 24 years ago. It is a diner by invite, where guests dress in white and meet for a mass "chic picnic" in a public space. The one catch is that this public space isn't announced until the last minute. Due to this, this has enabled the Diner en Blanc to take place in some of the most prestigious sites within the French capital. For more information please check out the official site of Diner en Blanc
The second dozen of cupcakes were inspired by a video I found that utilized this brush embroidery on cookies. SweetAmbsCookies videos on YouTube are so amazingly beautiful and inspirational. Check them out if you have time.
I've never made cookies with royal icing . . but this is definitely something I want to try after watching these videos.
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.
I love Pinterest and you can find so many amazing ideas from it. One day I came across this photo on pinterst and just fell in love with it. So of course, I wanted to recreate it.
My good friend's birthday was coming up so I thought these would be perfect for her. Below is my rendition of the Pinterest post.
The Cupcakes:
Strawberry Cupcakes with a Strawberry Buttercream frosting from the book
Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
The cupcakes are delicious as they come out light and fluffy. The recipe calls for fresh strawberries in both the cake and frosting which adds to the amazing flavor. I've made these cupcakes twice, but for this occasion my friend Nicole actually did most of the mixing, I just helped prep by cutting the strawberries and measuring some of the ingredients. If anyone is interested in the recipe let me know and i'll email it to you as i'm not sure if I can just post it . .
The Decorations:
We only decorated a dozen cupcakes. The rest of the cupcakes we had were miniature cupcakes and all we did was pipe frosting on the tops.
Materials:
- gum paste
- fondant
- gold paint
- white luster dust
- pearlized sprinkles
1. Covering the Cupcakes
I used Wilton's pre made and pre colored fondant to keep the process simple. Using a biscuit cutter I cut 6x blue and 6 pink rounds. Adding a little frosting I technically "dirty iced" the cupcakes and then added the fondant. (Note depending on the design, you may want to cover the cupcake last.)
2.Adding Designs
I added three designs to the fondant
Chandelier - This was by no means drawn by hand. I used a stamp, made an impression into the fondant and then filled it in with gold paint. This is one of the designs you want to do before putting the fondant onto the cupcake to ensure you get a nice impression.
Gold Leaves - The gold leaves were done free hand, however i'm sure if you didn't feel as confident there are available stamps/patterns.
Quilt - Sorry I don't have a larger picture of the quilt pattern. Essentially, this is just a grid drawn out on the fondant as dotted lines. Pearlized sprinkles are added where horizontal and vertical lines cross.
3. Dimensional Art
Roses, blossom and pearls were the main focal points.
Roses - The roses were done by hand with no cutters. Using gum paste pre-made by Wilton I started with a flat oval piece and rolled it loosely to form the center of the flower. Additional ovals were made to form the individual pedals. As you can see, I did modify the pinks to add color depth.
Blossoms - I used the blossom cutters from the Wilton Gum Paste Flower Cutter Set which has three different sizes. The pearlized sprinkles were then used for the centers for white blossoms. These cutters made the process to make these super quick.
Pearls - Even easier than the blossoms, these are just fondant rolled into balls with enchanted with luster dust. The hardest thing about this might just be breaking off consist pieces to make the pearls all the same size.
Though this is a brief overview hopefully it was helpful in deconstructing the process behind these beautiful and elegant cupcakes.
Nicole I had a blast making these with you. Celeste we're so happy that you loved these cupcakes.
