Cupcake-Bar
All my stands for cupcake display—even the Ferris Wheel—made it out for this event.

The always crowd-pleasing Carrot Cupcakes were the request for a friend’s baby shower, and I was happy to bake a double batch. I also helped with decorations for the party, though I was not the mastermind (that was another crafty friend)! The artist mom-to-be drew a baby owl to adorn the invitations and décor, and we used it as a theme throughout.

Suzy-Owl

Owl-Cupcakes

Pies ‘n’ Thighs catered everything but the cupcakes, including their tasty fried chicken and cornbread with honey butter (and lots more). Lucky bar patrons who came in after the party got the leftovers.

Boat-Bar-Shower

Congrats to the new parents (beautiful baby boy has now arrived)!

Sock Favors
Owls overlook the favor table. (Unmatched socks! If you know the mom-to-be, you get it.)

city cupcake

My cousin-in-law had her baby shower at Brooklyn Bridge Park on what turned out to be a beautiful day by the river. The Picnic Peninsula at Pier 5 has grills, which made it the perfect spot to set up a BBQ celebration. I baked mini vanilla cupcakes with blue-tinted icing for the occasion.

blue frosted cupcakes

Planning a Pier 5 BBQ? Get there early to reserve a space (the park is open 6am-11pm; grilling is allowed until 10pm)! And note to party decorators, nothing is allowed to hang from or otherwise be attached to the umbrellas. We learned this only after completely decorating and being made to take everything down.

baby_boy_cupcake

The happy, healthy boy himself has now arrived. I hope he has a sweet tooth (when he’s a teeny bit older)!

The Cupcakes

Black and white cookies are a New York classic, so I thought I’d make a cupcake version for a returning native’s bridal shower.

cupcake tower with black and white cookie cupcakes

For these, I baked straight from Bon Appetit. Why muck around when their test kitchens already perfected a recipe for black-and-white cupcakes? One of my co-hostesses found them on good ol’ Pinterest, and—after inspecting the ingredients for NYC b&w cookie authenticity—I carefully followed the directions.

black & white cupcake process

The hardest part was getting the halves of icing exact. I had been thinking that any irregularities on the chocolate side would be more noticeable, so I did those first in case I needed to cover up imperfections. The white icing was not opaque enough, however, to allow for correcting when I added the second side. Next time, I might start with the white half.

They weren’t perfect, but I think they looked enough the part! And they tasted just right.

I believe it was the bride’s sister (and Woman of Honor) who called them “cupcookies” and began lobbying for more cupcake versions of various cookies. Maybe… What kind of cupcookies would you like to see?

The Wrappers

I made cupcake wrappers from NYC subway maps and from a design on the shower invitations. Making your own wrappers is really easy to do. Offbeat Bride has a great tutorial including a template. I found that my cupcakes were smaller than the template, so I trimmed until they fit as I wanted.

nyc subway cupcake wrappers