All photos by Kate Alison Photography

Kate of Kate Alison Photography imagined a purply blue, galaxy-inspired wedding full of glitter, gathered a creative group of vendors, and made it happen! I was excited to take part in this beautiful, sparkly shoot by providing the cupcakes.

“Celestial colors and imagery have always been appealing to me,” says Kate. “I even got a telescope as a birthday gift many years ago!”

Galaxy Cupcakes

I used gum paste and edible glitter to make stars and moons to top my cupcakes, which were frosted with swirled purple and blue. More on the techniques I used, coming in a future post!

The shoot took place at Brooklyn’s Dobbin St, a tailored event space in Williamsburg. Please see below for everyone who participated!

Participating Vendors

Photography/Planning: Kate Alison Photography
Venue: Dobbin St
Day-of Coordination: One Six 9 Occasions
Paper Goods/Calligraphy: Le Petit Prints
Watercolor Art: Jaadin Adele Studio
Cupcakes: Cupcakes by Amélie 
Jewelry: Desert Daisy Jewelry
Hair/Makeup: Natasha Lynnanne
Flowers: Karma Flowers
Linens: Nüage Designs Inc
Settings: Anthony Joseph Events
Models: Mary Godwin & Timothy William

Brett and Margaret Wedding CupcakeI was honored to be asked to bake wedding cupcakes for my friends Brett and Margaret. They set up a fabulous weekend in the Catskills for the big event, which was unique, relaxed and great fun, just like the couple.

The bride and groom requested my chocolate with vanilla frosting. I did ask if they wanted something fancy or a new flavor, but a tried-and-true flavor was just fine with me, I was happy to oblige.

I baked the cupcakes the night before our drive upstate and brought along a pound of butter, 4 pounds of powdered sugar, and a bottle of vanilla extract to make the frosting on site. Decorating supplies including small edible silver dragées and dark chocolate shavings completed my wedding cupcake prep kit.

Catskills Wedding Cupcake Display

Recruiting a friend to help, I ran some tests to set a decoration plan. The goal was festive wedding vibe that wouldn’t look out of place at the rustic venue. And I wanted them to look special for the very special occasion.

Sprinkling the dragées didn’t get good coverage, I preferred a solid silver layer. It ended up working best to ice with a knife, dip and swirl (like glue and glitter). We added a pinch of chocolate shavings in the middle for fun. When we ran out of dragées, we covered with the chocolate shavings—again dipping after icing—and added silver sugar sprinkles.

Rustic Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Shavings

Congratulations, Brett and Margaret, and thank you for making me a part of your wedding celebration!

Wedding Bell - Hikers
A cute design of a hiking couple adorned bells distributed to guests and other décor.

Cupcake Recipe

Frosting Recipe

Red, White and Blue CupcakesThese patriotically colored cupcakes are fitting for a Fourth of July post, though they were baked for a party celebrating the recent union of two friends, one of whom was born across the pond.

UK US Love Cupcakes

American-British relations certainly have improved over the past 238 years.

Bobby and Katie

UK-US BK love
I also designed an event “logo” for the invitation, cocktail napkins, and party décor.

Basic Vanilla, All Dressed Up

Vanilla Mini Cupcake with Chocolate Sauce

To provide a variety of flavors without baking different cupcakes or making a lot of icings, I went with vanilla on vanilla with a little something extra. Baking mini rather than full-sized cupcakes gave me more to play with. Half the cupcakes got a swirl of frosting, then a chocolate ganache or caramel drizzle. On the others, I used a dollop of strawberry-rhubarb jam or lemon curd, piping frosting around.

Cupcakes with Lemon Curd and Vanilla Frosting

I was honored to bake for such a special occasion celebrating two good friends (and loyal cupcake fans)!

Cupcake Amelie
Yes, I do eat the cupcakes.

Frosting Recipe

In October, I got married. And there were cupcakes.

The wedding cake was, of course, one of the most important things to plan. To read about our tasting and planning with Kara of KaraBoo Bakery, see my post “Travel Treats: Miramar Beach, Florida.” We discussed the design and Kara sketched it out for me, but I didn’t see the result of our master plan until we entered our reception and finished our first dance.

Wedding Cupcakes
I was delighted with the final product. Thank you, KaraBoo!

Ours was a beach wedding. It took place at Carillon Beach, which is a beachside community on the Gulf of Mexico near Panama City Beach, Florida. We used blues and greens and silver seashells in the wedding décor to reflect the beach theme and definitely wanted that carried over to our cake. We also wanted to use a version of the wave “logo” that showed up in various wedding materials and we thought could work on a cake, too.

A traditional tiered cake to cut was a must, but I had to have cupcakes, too. The bonus was that this meant we could have five different delicious cake/frosting combinations. The main cake was three layers of Peanut Butter Cup (black velvet cake with peanut butter cup filling and peanut buttercream), then we had four flavors of cupcakes, color coded.

Wedding Cupcakes Sign
Navy Cupcakes – Pumpkin Spice with Caramel
Green Cupcakes – Piña Colada with Spiced Rum
Periwinkle Cupcakes – Lemon with Raspberry
Light Blue Cupcakes – Vanilla with Salted Caramel

So tasty… I only got to take a few bites at the actual reception, but leftover cupcakes were breakfast for the next three days. Now that’s the way to start a marriage!

The Cake Pull

Wedding Cake Pull

To involve some important ladies in our wedding who weren’t in my bridal party, I co-opted the New Orleans cake pull. I’m a Louisiana girl and have participated in this fun tradition as a bridesmaid in my NOLA cousins’ weddings. The cake pull is traditionally for single girls, but I paid no mind to that. I didn’t include a wedding ring or an “old maid” (?!) charm, just fun charms predicting happy futures. (I also did this as an alternative to torturing single girls with a bouquet toss.)

Bicycle Charm

Sharing our First Slice

Cutting the cake was serious business, and my newly minted husband let me do the honors. I was really concentrating at this point. After all, 100 people (including my caterer mother-in-law) were watching.

Cutting the Cake

And, then, we ate!

Eating Cake

We had a fabulous party with family and friends, and the cake and cupcakes were a highlight of a celebration full of highlights.

Amelie and Jason
Me, my love, and a cupcake = Happily Ever After

Wedding Party Shout Out

Our wedding party

This crazy crew includes some of the family and friends who made our day possible. They spoke during our ceremony and guided our guests. They helped with planning, threw parties, calmed the couple, and toasted our happiness. They let us dress them up. LOVE to our wedding party!

Photos by Rae Leytham Photography

Click here for more wedding cupcake photos…