how to make flower cake for an intimate wedding of 320 people!

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three months out: practice buttercream flowers. watch how-to videos. embrace the bedtime instagram session and search #buttercreamrose often. order all of the tips from wilton and all of the color gels from americolor. try swiss buttercream, screw up italian buttercream, settle on american. test the almond cake, the hazelnut cake, and the coconut rose cake six or eight times. make a folder with all of the recipes. order a pan rack! call him jim. make a schedule. acquire a large white board to make some lists. get cake boards, cake boxes, piping bags, parchment circles, and gold pearls. make a sam’s club list and a grocery store list. separate them into perishables and non-perishables. buy all of the non-perishables. think about cake stands, come close to buying this blue one, but decide against it since it doesn’t fit with the overall aesthetic (and since you bought all of the wilton tips when you really only needed some of these and some of these) and this cake situation is about eggsibs, not your personal cake stand desires.

consult with eggsis, consult again, just don't stop talking or thinking about cake.

rent dress, make sure it fits with enough room to allow for taste testing.

three weeks out: clean out one of your freezers. fill it with cookie dough, pop-tarts, and muffins for the before-the-wedding festivities and the after-wedding breakfast. begin baking cake layers at a leisurely pace. once they are cool, wrap them in plastic wrap, label with masking tape, and freeze. do not stack more than two layers on top of one another before they are completely frozen.

five days out: clean out fridge. replace the baking soda box. buy all of the heavy cream and butter in grand forks. take a deep breath, or a nap, or a b-12 shot.

four days out and three days out: realize your vanilla cupcake recipe still sucks. work on it, save all the good ones, bake 16 batches. put them on sheet pans, wrap them in plastic wrap, and freeze. keep some out to practice frosting swoops. bake all remaining cake layers and freeze. 

two days out: welcome mum to town!! assign her to frosting duty and emergency butter runs. frost all cakes with a white layer of buttercream. don’t be lazy, do a proper crumb coat, firm up in the fridge, and then do another coat. store uncovered in the fridge.

one day out: welcome celeste to town!! color all of the frosting for the flowers, fill piping bags. cut out small parchment squares. pipe flowers ad infinitum. refrigerate on sheet pans until firm. top cakes with a mound of frosting to give dimension to the flowers, top the mounds with flowers. fill in empty spaces between the flowers with leaves and artful blobs. tweezer on gold pearls. store in the fridge.

eat pizza because it’s friday and because pizza appeared on the farm while everyone was outside setting up for the rehearsal dinner and because eggboy came in with a slice hanging out of his mouth and it looked good.

say hi to eggsis and any other visitors that swing by! 

go to the rehearsal, sneak out of the rehearsal dinner early to finish the remaining flowers. brainstorm the finishing touches and a way to differentiate the center cake from the other cakes. brainstorm brainstorm brainstorm. taco bout it with celeste and mum. go to sleep, confident that quality brainstorming really does happen in the middle of the night. wake mid-slumber with the correct idea! cha-ching! set an alarm to go off the next morning so that you don’t forget it. (“marzipan cut-out heart” 9am.)

wedding day: take cupcakes out of the freezer, frost them all, put em in boxes and keep at room temp. make marzipan heart. assign mum to pop-tart glaze and sprinkle duty!

pack everything up (cakes, cake stands, spatulas, gloves, piping bags with any leftover frosting, tweezers, and sprinkles), fill eggmom’s mini van, ride slowly slowly all the way there. set everything up at the venue, add a last-minute border around the center cake. 

yeah go team!!! hi fives all around. cakes stay out at room temp. 

get hairs did! eat a bagel. put on dress. acquire a brother-in-law!!!!!!!! party. cheer on eggsis and eggbro as they cut the cake! steal two slices, go outside with celeste, style those suckers, and get those shots before the sun goes down! eat nachos, lose voice, guard cake leftovers, bring them home, stick them in the deep freeze, and go to bed!!

yayyyy!!!! congratulations, eggsis and eggbro!!!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

photos by celeste noche!

VALENTINE'S DAY PREP

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around these parts i am ferociously preparing for valentine's day via making my annual almond cake, drinking red velvet tea, making little almond paste bonbons, hyperlinking in pink, and practicing my heart-shaped eggs so that they may be flawless and unbroken for eggboy. {because you can't give your sig other a broken heart on valentine's day, even if it is just in the form of a broken yolk.}

i simply can't wait for valentine's day. it is one of my most favorite days of the year.

-yay!! yipee!!!!

recipe: black sesame cupcakes

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idk what you were drinking doing saturday night but this girl was recovering from a night of quarter tones and xylophones via midnight improvised black sesame cupcakes. it's what happens when you get out of rehearsal in soho and it's already past your bed time and the 19-year-old in you asks the 23-year-old in you if you should hightail it to the party in the heights but because a 62-year-old chinese jewish grandma comprises most of you these days {and bc everyone else in the band tells you that you're too old for these partying shenanigans}, you go home and soften some butter.

anyways, i love black sesame to the point where it baffles me why everyone in america doesn't. it is nutty and smokey kinda and so... couthly sophisticated. black sesame goodies are never too sweet, just badass.


black sesame cupcakes.
this recipe is a work in progress. the cake turned out deliciously, but i could see the future version of myself deciding to add more sesame seeds. the frosting was a learning experience... i think for now i'll just recommend using a basic buttercream frosting recipe minus some of the vanilla, and adding a couple tablespoons of ground black sesames.

ingredients
1 stick butter, softened
3/4 c white sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tb cocoa powder
3 tb black sesame seeds, ground in a spice grinder
2/3 c milk

clues
preheat oven to 350.

cream butter and sugar. add eggs. stir in vanilla.

in a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients. add to the butter mixture. stir in milk.

bake in muffin tins. if making mini cupcakes, bake for about 10-12 minutes. if large cupcakes, bake for 18-24 minutes. 

cool, frost, sprinkle with a few more sesames, and spread the good word of black sesame things.

-yeh!


sweets scenes and sister stoop on a snowy christmas

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on christmas eve day, stoopie and i executed a four-course sweet tasting for santy claus. {santy claus, benji, santy claus! so goes my all-time favorite/only favorite faulkner quote.} it began with an amuse-bouche of almond-pistachio nougat and then launched into almond + cinnamon + meringue biscuits in anticipation of what if santa is gluten free? marzipan oreos came next. meaning, i just threw a bunch of marzipan and almond extract into the mixer as i was making the filling. they are at least seven times better than the candy cane joe joe's i stole from roommate megan. the champion of the tasting, however, was a little coconut layer cake that stoopie made and that we covered with tiffany's-colored marzipan and marzipan evergreen trees. {consider it practice for when i find myself making stoopie's wedding cake next year.}

it completely paid off. i think i'm santa's favorite. he brought me a hello kitty rice maker. it's exactly what my kitchen needs. i hope it speaks japanese to me as it cooks me fluffy rice in the shape of kitty cats.  

-yeh!