Thursday, September 15, 2011

Diamond Anniversary Cupcakes




On this day 60 years ago, my grandparents Ewen & Betty were celebrated their wedding day. Today we celebrated their Diamond Wedding Anniversary with a party at their church hall with 60 friends and relatives.

Betty & Ewen 15th September 1951


We had a great day and I think Nan & Pa are exhausted tonight, but thrilled that they have been able to enjoy such a fantastic milestone. 


Pa, Anna, Nan & Lucinda


For those of you familiar with my blog - yes that is the Back to the Future dress you can see being worn by Anna!


My contribution to the party was the cake, or should I say cakes - I made 60 cupcakes and one small cake to sit on top of the tower to be cut by the 'Bride & Groom'.


I went for simple vanilla cupcakes today. When catering for large numbers you need a recipe that is quick and easy so I use this one - just throw all the ingredients in your electric mixer and turn it on. Cake batter done.


Vanilla Cupcakes (makes 24)
250g (9oz) softened unsalted butter 
2 cups caster sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
2 1/2 cups plain flour
5 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla essence


Put all ingredents in your electric mixer and mix at a medium speed for 8 minutes or until thick and pale.


When dividing the batter into the cupcake tin, I find using a snap lock bag the simplest and quickest way. Here's how I do it:



Place a large snap lock bag in a tall cup or glass. Use you spatula and fill with cake mixture. Snip off one corner of the bag and use like a piping bag to fill each cupcake paper.

Bake the cakes at 180C (350F) for 15-20 minutes or golden brown and the cakes spring back when touched.


For today's cakes I went for a simple colour scheme of white and silver. I decorated the cupcakes in two ways. The first, I piped a simple swirl on top and decorated with small silver cachous and a fondant butterfly I made using a butterfly shaped punch. Here's how they came out:


Pretty huh?

The second one was the icing spread over the cupcake evenly, then edged with the silver cachous and finished with a topper made with some diamond patterned card punched using a craft punch.



They call came together on a pretty perspex stand that I hired from my local cake decorating store.


The top cake was a dense chocolate cake  - a dense cake works better when using fondant (ready to roll) icing. I made a topper using Nan & Pa's wedding photo and edged the cake with the diamond print paper I found in the scrap booking section of my local craft store.

I called in a favour from the school I teach at (although I am currently on mat leave) and the textiles department kindly lent me a dress makers mannequin and we were able to display Nan's wedding dress - still in fantastic condition after 60 years.


Congratulations Nan & Pa, I hope you had a great day!

7 comments:

  1. WOW!!! I love your Nan's wedding dress. What a fabulous idea to display on the mannequin.

    ReplyDelete
  2. How darling! Your Nan & Pa are so cute. And the cupcakes you made look fabulous!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the sprinkles you added to these cupcakes. They look so elegant. Perfect for an anniversary.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amazing! The cupcakes are beautiful as is the cake, and the dress displayed is stunning. Happy anniversary to them!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful!! I can't believe you used a punch for your butterflies!! So great! Oh and her dress...I love it and that's something I would so do for an anniversary party!! Great, great, great!!
    Thanks for linking up to Southern Lovely's Show & Share! Hope to see you tomorrow!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beautiful! Their Wedding Picture. The cup cakes everything...love it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Just wanted to let you know these will be featured at this weekend's link party. Thanks so much for sharing them! They turned out beautifully. You did a fantastic job.

    Krista @ While He Was Napping

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for your comments - I adore hearing from you! I love to reply personally via email so if your email isn't visible in your profile feel free to leave it in your message so I can get in touch!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...