We're Famous!

Our lovely wedding photog, Allison, just launched a blog and a brand-new website. I love photography blogs! So many beautiful pictures of happy people. She did a post about wedding cakes, and our cake was featured!



I've, personally, always thought our wedding was feature-worthy, and I'm glad Allison agrees. We're famous!

My Cupcake Contribution

Since I was 12 years old, March 4th has always meant one thing - Meg's birthday.My friend loves her birthday and has spent her life making sure that everyone around her knows when it is. What can I say? She loves a party! In honor of her birthday, she collected her favorite cupcake recipes over on Musings from the the Front Porch. I decided to contribute my new favorite.

I have recently began flirting with veganism (more on that later). When I mentioned this to Meg, she was very concerned about losing the ability to bake since most cakes and cake-like things tend to require eggs. I was intrigued when I saw this recipe on Manifest Vegan and decided I had to try it out and report back to Meg. I am happy to report that they are SO GOOD and totally vegan! The cake is so light and fluffy. Make these. You will not be disappointed.

Chocolate Filled Vanilla Cupcakes (via Manifest Vegan)
makes about 18 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cake:

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup melted vegan margarine
• 2 cups almond milk (or your fave non-dairy milk)
• 2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups flour (either “all purpose” flour or a Gluten free flour mix… be sure to check and see if the mix needs to have xanthan gum added)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 tbsp vinegar

Frosting:

• 4 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 7 tbsp almond milk
• 2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance margarine

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cupcake pans with liners, or grease and flour pan.

In large mixing bowl, combine melted margarine and sugar until well mixed. Add vanilla extract and baking soda. Alternate adding almond milk with flour until all has been incorporated (if using gluten free flour, mix by hand about 50 strokes, or about 1 minute on medium speed with mixer). Gently stir in vinegar one tablespoon at a time. Mix well.

Using a measuring cup or something similar, fill cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for about 17- 20 minutes, or until knife inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack.

Now, make icing:

Combine confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder well. Mix in almond milk and vanilla. Mix in Earth Balance and then whip until light and fluffy.

Once cupcakes are cool, you are ready to fill. You can use that special tip on your piping bag, or if you don’t have one of those, that’s okay. It’s easy!

First, take your cooled cupcake:

Next, take a sharp or serrated knife and cut out a spot on the top, and set the top aside. I like to cut a cone shape out, so I don’t accidentally cut through to the bottom. Then I cut the very tip of the “cone” off to make extra room for the frosting. You can use the handle of a spoon to push the cake to make a slightly larger hole.

Now, take a small spoon and scoop a little bit of frosting up and fill the cupcake with frosting. Make sure to level it. It doesn’t have to be perfect, though.

And now, replace the top. It’s okay to push down slightly to get it to fit… this cake is super spongy.

See, easy, huh? Now just pipe or use a knife to spread on the rest of the chocolate frosting and your done!

Store in cool place in covered container. :)

Happy Birthday, Meg! Have a drink on me!

updates

it's getting close! 33 days until the party. can you believe it?! it's kind of strange. 52 confirmed guests so far. there has been lots of wedding to-do fun this past week to catch you up on.

cake! we met with stephanie of sugar baker's on wednesday to eat some cake and make some decisions. just as a reminder, you can see our inspiration cake here. she had lots of cake flavors and homemade buttercream and fruit fillings...yum! choosing what the layers would be was the first time in all of wedding planning that i have seen danny make a decision within seconds and feel strongly about the results, so i didn't argue...chocolate cake with cappaccinno chocolate buttercream icing, red velvet with a cream cheese/buttercream hybrid icing, and yellow cake with chocolate buttercream...and now my mouth is watering.

dress! friday evening i had a second fitting with allison at allison anne bridal alterations, and my mom was able to come! it was the first time she had seen me in the dress & it was the first time i had seen the dress actually fit (please ignore my face)...

it's not quite ready to be picked up, so i have another fitting next monday. if everything is perfect then, i can take it home with me...scary! (i am still without shoes though, so if anyone sees any fabulous shoes with a 1.5-2 inch heel, please let me know! i need earrings too, so be on the look out for some gorgeous chandelier earrings too...)

suits! saturday we went back to mens warehouse to shop for suits for my dad and brother. the same salesman who helped us with the groomsmen's suits was there, so i felt like we should work with him again, right? he didn't remember us! i said, "yeah, we were in a few weeks ago & bought suits." nothing. then he thought he remembered us & he had us confused with someone else! oh well. he did help us find a suit for my dad, a suit for kevin, and a tie for dad. then mom and i found a tie for kevin and danny's dad at stein mart. success! i'm loving how they all go together without being matchy-matchy. here are the ties so you can see:

left to right: groomsmen, danny's dad, danny, dad, and kevin

hair! saturday afternoon i had a hair trial with marnie at perfections, a salon in madison. someone on theknot messageboards recommended her, so i gave her a call. she sounded super nice on the phone & i was not disappointed when i met her in person. she has a great personality. the purpose of this appointment was for us to meet each other & for her to get used to working with my hair, so the hair itself isn't finished & wouldn't look exactly like this on the wedding day.




as it is, i want to change a few things. i want to do fewer loops & i'm trying to decide whether it should be lower or not? like mrs. toucan's hair below. thoughts?


i decided that i definitely want something in my hair. i found this one from brasspaperclip (same shop where i bought the flower girl basket) that i love & will look perfect with my dress, don't you think?

cake for your face

(retitled by danny)

we booked a cake! woohoo!

after the first two cake ladies i called were booked for our day, i turned to the huntsville wedding guide website which isn't my favorite resource, but it does have a directory. there i found a number for a place called sugar baker's. i totally fell for the name (think designing women meets a bakery) & scheduled an appointment for friday.

so, on friday, after running a block in the rain, we found the place. its location is great. it's on the square in downtown huntsville in an amazing old building that was built in the 1800s. it had been turned into a law office at some point & made to look very officey. thankfully, the officey look is all gone & exposed brick has taken it's place. i am a sucker for exposed brick. below is a picture of it on the outside; i wish i could find a picture of the interior.


stephanie, who operates sugar baker's, showed us around & told us a bit about the history of the building. she was so nice & seemed very easy to work with which is my #1 requirement of wedding vendors. she said that if there was a family cake recipe that we really wanted, she could do that. interesting bit of trivia - her daughter recently got married at the lodge. her pricing was also great - cheaper than publix. she will also deliver the cake & stay to cut it (one less thing to worry about). danny and i decided to book her on the spot. we're going to schedule a cake tasting soon although danny has already decided that there will be at least one chocolate layer.

below is the cake (pic from theknot.com) that danny and i both really like.


so another check off the wedding to-do list!

you + mii = wii

check out these cake toppers. they are so awesome that we might just have to get one.

for all you video game geeks out there

from miss hummingbird who is a self-proclaimed geek...

a wedding cake


& place settings

mmm....cake...

here are a few cakes i like (all from theknot.com):





this is actually from publix. i was surprised b/c you don't really think of publix as a wedding cake baker, do ya? got ballpark quote from them. i also heard back from lucy, the cake lady. her estimate was actually pretty close to publix. she's getting back to me with her availability and then we might set up an appointment with her to get a more exact estimate.



i think this one is my favorite. :) and below is a cake for danny...

bridal gala

caso, the bridal fair was kind of a bust although i did get to have a few snacks of ruth chris steak appetizers (yum!). it didn't have as many vendors as i was expecting. pretty much only one caterer; i emailed them when i got home. yam and i looked through a few invitations books, tried some cake, looked at some dresses, and registered for prizes (didn't win anything, of course).

there was one invitation style that i thought was cool. it's called seal and send. i hadn't seen it before. it's everything in one. the invitation folds up, so no envelope required & the bottom tears off to be the response card. neat idea. below is an example.



cake was pretty good. it was by lucy the cake lady. i sent her an email to get more info.

i went by the artist market at lowe mill after the fair this afternoon and remembered that tina's cantina does catering. i've never eaten there, but everything i've seen or heard about sounds really good. tina's does all kinds of homecooking & it's organic. they also do vegetarian and vegan dishes & everything comes from local meat and vegetable vendors which i like. i sent an email to get more info about their catering menu, prices, etc. we'd be buying local which is great. i think it's a good option. we'll see what they say.

so, i guess i might go to the bridal fair that's going on tomorrow. there's also another one next saturday. bridal fairs everywhere! maybe if i go to the one tomorrow, i'll actually win a prize. that'd be nice.