i can bake more than cookies, you know

i have two cousins getting married this summer, and the first of the two is my cousin r's sister.  she contacted me a few weeks ago for recommendations for cupcakes to hand out as favors at her bridal shower.  while dots will always be our favorite, they're pretty pricey and didn't work with the budget they had set out for the shower.  you can guess where this is going, right?

after she gave me the color scheme and the bride's favorite cupcake flavors, i set out to find good recipes to use.  i was looking for a fresh strawberry cake recipe that i was going to pair with a strawberry cream cheese frosting, and i planned to do half of the cupcakes in chocolate topped with chocolate buttercream.  luckily, the internet came through as always and i got up early on sunday morning to make 3 dozen cupcakes.  first, i pureed the strawberries:

and in no time i had both flavors mixed up, baked and cooling on the counter.

while that was happening, i got to work on making the fondant toppers.  i went with simple hearts cut out of hot pink fondant:

and then mixed up the dark chocolate buttercream.  yum.

the shower colors were pink, gold, white and cream.  i'd bought some edible pearls the day before, and i was pretty pleased with how the cupcakes turned out.

with time running low, i added a couple of helpers to my assembly line to get the cupcakes boxed up and ready to go.

and then when it was all done, we sampled the strawberry cupcakes via some minis i'd baked up with the leftover cake batter.

not bad, if i do say so myself.  the bean concurred.  i'd forgotten how much fun it was to make cupcakes...and so much easier than cookies, i have to admit.  i only got a bite of the chocolate, but it was really tasty.  and now i can't wait till i have another excuse to make more!