Cupcake Wedding Dress for Bridal Shower

Our eldest son is going to be married soon and our future daughter-in-law recently had a bridal shower, in which I was asked to make the bridal shower cake. Of course, I was thrilled to be asked, but at the same time, I was a bit overwhelmed as I am not a professional cake decorator and some things are way beyond my capabilities.
I am an excellent cook and baker but decorating cakes is another and totally different skill set altogether.

I immediately started researching recipes and found several pictures of cupcake wedding dresses. What a cute idea. Possibly simple. I can do this...yes!
My plan was to whip up a batch of a simple buttercream frosting and arrange the cupcakes so that they made a dress form...just like the photos reveal.

So as a precaution, a couple of weeks before the bridal shower, I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to do a practice run. I gathered up my few cake decorating tools and I made a single batch of white cupcakes. Now the cupcakes were absolutely perfect. I thought the frosting was good too, but after frosting the cupcakes I realized that this recipe was horrible. The particular buttercream frosting was entirely too yellow and tasted like colored butter. ICK!  The frosting held up for the first few minutes and then sort of slid over the sides of the cupcakes, like a snowman melting on a warm winter's day. I had followed the recipe exactly from a website; a website that specialized in cupcakes. My theory of why it failed is that they must have gotten the wrong measurements in the recipe ingredients. I double and triple checked my measurements, too. I was frustrated! My first run was a failure. However, my family scoffed them up like hotcakes and said that they were extra yummy, but the frosting was too buttery. (Like I already knew that.)

I began to panic and the thought of embarrassing my son, future daughter-in-law and her family. It would be terrible to show up to the wedding shower with cupcakes that looked like the local kindergarten decorated them. That night I did some major praying. I asked the Lord to help me find a great frosting recipe and the skill to do this correctly and beautifully.  That night I had a dream in which God revealed the right ingredients and even showed me a short video of how to accomplish the cupcake decorating. Hooray!!!

The week before the shower I bought a thick foam core board, which I purchased from a craft store. I used wedding decorated scrapbook paper and glued them to the board. I let this dry for several days. Now, the day before the bridal shower, I made the thirty-six cupcakes so they would be cooled and not have to rush to bake the cupcakes. On the day of the bridal shower I only wanted to frost the cupcakes.

So, here we go again and there was no time for failure. I got up
early on the morning of the shower and got completely dressed: hair, makeup, and decorating clothes. I donned my apron and began mixing up the frosting...with the right ingredients the Good Lord sent to me in the dream.  ARE YOU GOING TO ASK ME IF IT TURNED OUT WELL? ....

I set the cupcakes out in the dress design, stuffed the piping bags with the two different colored frostings and piped the frosting onto the cupcakes.
My daughter, Dannie and I used sugar pearls for added decoration and two different colors of frosting for the dress.

So, as you can see, the cupcake dress was beautiful and delicious! (Thank you Lord)




Ingredients for Cupcakes:

2 boxes of Duncan Hines White cake mix
6 egg whites (save the yolks for a quiche or pudding)
2/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 cups water
2 teaspoons clear vanilla flavoring (most often can find at a craft store in the cake decorating section)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 cupcake pans (12 muffin cups in each pan)
36 white parchment cupcake liners
Non-stick cooking spray
1 large mixing bowl and
Stand mixer (or heavy duty hand mixer)
2 small bowls
#24 disher (aka cookie scoop which is about 1&3/4 ounces of batter)
Wire cooling racks...or cover the counter with thick towels.

 Directions for cupcakes:
1. Line all the cupcake pan cups with a parchment cupcake liner.
2. Lightly spray each liner with non-stick cooking spray and set these aside
     for later.
3.  Preheat oven to 350F degrees
4.  In the large mixing bowl dump in the dry cake mixes from both boxes.
5.  In two separate bowls, crack the eggs and separate the yolks from the
     whites -- discard the egg shells.
6.  Add the egg whites only to the powdered cake mix.
7.  Add in the greek yogurt, water and clear vanilla flavoring.
8.  Turn the mixer to the lowest setting and mix for about 1 minute then
     with a spatula, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
9.  Up the mixer speed to medium and let it mix the bowl for about
    2 minutes. Stop mixer and remove beaters.
10.  Using the disher scoop out the batter, do not fill the disher completely.
       and empty the disher into one of the cupcake liners.
11.  Repeat this for the remaining 35 cupcake liners.
12.  Place the pans in on the oven racks. Make sure the racks are not in the
              bottom most part of the oven. Try to get them as close to the center of the oven as possible.
              IF necessary, only bake two pans at a time.
13. Set the timer for 17 - 20 minutes. When at the 17 minute mark, test one of the center cupcakes with a
      toothpick for doneness.
14.  When done, remove the hot cupcakes with tongs to a wire rack and let them COMPLETELY COOL,
       about 30 to 40 minutes.
15. After they are cooled completely you my decorate them with frosting or ganache. You may also fill the
     centers with fruit jams or puddings/creams before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting Ingredients:
1/2 cup of room temperature butter - unsalted
1/2 cup of vegetable shortening
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons clear vanilla flavoring (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
3 to 4 cups of powdered sugar (do not use regular sugar!)  I wanted my frosting to be stiffer so I used more powdered sugar.
Decorator's gel color - any color you want (since these are gelled colors they can be very dark, so a little bit goes a long way. I used a toothpick and dipped the tip into the gelled color and then into the uncolored frosting. I would mix with the mixer and check the color. Add more until the desired color has been reached.)

Frosting Directions:

1. In the large mixing bowl put in the room temperature shortening and butter. Mix on a high speed until
    smooth and creamy.
2. Add in the vanilla flavoring and 1 cup of the powdered sugar. Turn the mixer on a low speed, mix until
    incorporated.
3. Add in the whipping cream and mix well again.
4. Slowly incorporate more powdered sugar until you reach the desired consistency for your decorating
    needs.

ALL cream filled cupcakes and buttercream frosted cupcakes MUST be refrigerated!