My First Cake Order

Yeah! I just completed my first ever cake order! 200 red velvet wedding cupcakes!

How do you bake 17 dozen cupcakes in a regular home kitchen without losing your mind?

HAVE A GAMEPLAN.

1. Set a schedule. Each day before the wedding, I accomplished a different task. For example, two weeks ahead of time, I did a test run with the giant cupcake (Remember "Chris and the Giant Cupcake"?). One week before, I molded the giant cupcake wrapper out of fondant and left it to dry. On Thursday, I made 15 or so pounds of cream cheese frosting. On Friday, I did all the baking. And on Saturday, I decorated and delivered the cupcakes.

2. Be flexible. My original plan was to use an idea from Hello, Cupcake! to use a large freezer bag to portion out the batter evenly. Well, it worked great for the first two batches. When I went to pick up the bag to fill the next batch, the bag had a gazillion holes in it. (NOTE: Red velvet cake contains vinegar. Not much, but enough to completely eat through a freezer bag in 15 minutes.)

I also planned to speed things along by baking 2 trays at a time. My oven is much colder on the bottom than the top. The cupcakes didn't bake evenly, so I resorted to one pan at a time.

3. Be organized. The weekend before the wedding, I portioned out all of my dry ingredients into my own little cake mixes. On baking day, I laid out everything in sets. Unfortunately, this didn't prevent me from forgetting the vanilla extract in the first 3 dozen cupcakes. OOPS!

All in all, I think the cupcakes turned out great, and the bride was pleased. I look forward to the future when I have a professional grade kitchen and a truck or van -- squeezing 200 cupcakes into the back of a Nissan worked, but it took some doing.

The finished product:

And the happy couple, perched upon their giant cupcake: