I love to see new ways to solve (what should be) simple problems. This is one reason I like Real Simple.

Still, what usually happens is I read how to use aluminum foil to scrub your glass bakeware, for example, and think “Hey, that’s a good idea.”. Only to forget all about it when I have aluminum foil balled up and headed for the bin.

But there is one tip that stuck with me recently.

And since it is so easy and even helps me keep my fresh perspective about doing the dishes, I wanted to share it with you: Use a bowl as an iPhone speaker.

That’s it. If you want to get fancy, tilt the bowl so that it points toward you instead of up.

Now, if you are an audiophile you will probably be disappointed with the sound quality. But if you just want a little music while you scrub the pots and pans (and don’t like using headphones except when working out, like me), this actually works.

More useful stuff:

• I was thinking the other day that someone should make a universal wish list so that I could just have 1 list somewhere instead of a list on Amazon, a list of favorites on Crate and Barrel, etc, etc…
  
  Wish granted!

  Amazon has opened up their wish list so now you can add things from any other web site to your wish list. Just add the button to your browser toolbar.

  So, for example, you could add stuff from Etsy and Anthropologie to your wish list and your special someone can look in 1 place to find out what to get you (for birthdays, Christmas, Tuesdays, whatever).

  Thanks Amazon!

• This one is high on my “want to try” list…
  Turn bar soap into liquid soap with glycerin.

  Seems like a perfect use for those random soaps that have accumulated in the closet and/or the little nubbies left when you get to the end of a bar.

How about you?

Has any useful stuff caught your eye recently?

Have a great weekend!

So far we have baked and frosted 200 cupcakes while keeping our cool, stored them overnight and got them to the venue, and now we are going to show them off.

Cupcakes can entice nearly anyone into their presence like the Sirens luring sailors to their doom. Without any special displays or fancy decorations.

So we could leave well enough alone.

We could just line them up on a table and say “have at them”. And probably no one would say a bad word about it. Especially not once they’ve tasted the ridiculous red velvet cupcakes.

Heck, I bet you could launch cupcakes across the room for people to catch like Tshirts at a hockey game (or basketball or… you get the idea) and people would scramble and elbow each other out of the way just to catch an ultimate cupcake.

But that’s not how I roll.

I had a vision. And my vision included cupcake stands. 4 of them. At least.

They would be distributed around 2 or 3 dessert tables. And across the room, there would be a table set up with a cookie buffet stocked with homemade cookies for guests to take home as favors.

And then there was the photo booth. You know, the old school kind you still find sometimes at the mall.

Yeah, with all sorts of accessories and props for people to play with in their photos (Not those kind of props. You know, tiaras, funny glasses, boas… that kind of thing. Sheesh).

So yeah, I tend to dream big. It is only recently (in my thirties?) that I’ve learned that maybe – just maybe – doing it all is sometimes too much. And maybe going overboard isn’t called for. Maybe sometimes.

Anyway, back to reality. I did some research and found a couple of cupcake stands ranging in price from $30-$50. Multiplied by 4?! Ouch. That didn’t really fit my budget.

Not to mention, what the heck am I going to do with 2-4 cupcake stands after the party? Where would I store them? When would I use them again?

I won’t lie. I was disappointed and almost ready to to hit the “Checkout” button anyway, budget be damned. I mean, they were already in my shopping cart anyway.

But I took a deep breath and stepped away from the laptop.

A few days later I was in Borders (by the way, did you know they are closing a bunch of stores? The ones that are closing are having crazy sales… just fyi, in case you are needing any book-type stuff).

I browsed the crafty section and then the wedding section. And one book in particular jumped out at me: The DIY Bride. I flipped through the pages and there it was: my cupcake stand.

So I took the book home with me (I have a weakness for books and consider it a good day when I make it out of a bookstore with fewer than four books… which is also why I don’t go to bookstores very often anymore).

Cake circles (8-Inch, 12-Inch, and 14-Inch), scrapbook paper, some rick rack, plastic cups, and some glue. That’s it. Infinitely customizable, and disposable (recyclable). Perfect.

Notes:

• The scrapbook paper I used was 12″ x 12″, so to cover the 14″ base cake circle, I had to do some patch work.
• I used spray adhesive to attach the paper to the cake circles and hot glue to attach the rick rack and plastic cups.
• Use spray adhesive in a well-ventilated space (I went outside)
• Work quickly (and carefully) with the hot glue. I’d run a bead of about 3-4 inches and attach the rick rack to the edges, then do another 3-4 inches.
• Lightly trace with a pencil where you want to place the plastic cups (centered) before doing anything with the hot glue.
• I used really basic clear plastic cups between the tiers, but you can get creative to match your style and decor.
• For more DIY wedding stuff online, be sure to check out DIY Bride.

I made 4 cupcake stands, but only used 2. There was only 1 dessert table. The cookie buffet idea was filed away for another time. And the photo booth was just nixed.

It was hard to let go of the cookie buffet and the photo booth. But pushing to make those details of my vision happen was starting to stress me out, which went against the theme that Dan and I had set for our party: relaxed, easy, and fun.

It turns out the cookie buffet would have been overkill anyway. 200 cupcakes was enough for most everyone to have 1-2 at the party and then take 1-2 home.

(I had one friend who skipped dinner completely so that she could eat 3-4 cupcakes. I think she was sick of cupcakes (literally) after that so her husband got to enjoy the ones that made it home).

We used plain brown paper bags (lunch sack style) to send cupcakes home with people. I looked for cupcake boxes and almost let myself get stressed about it, but in the end the paper bags were simple and perfect for the casual style we were going for.

Anyway, I hope this series on my trials and triumphs making the cupcakes for my own wedding reception is helpful for you in some way… even if it only inspires you not to do it yourself :)

So you’ve got 200 cupcakes piled up in your kitchen, now what do you do?

First, figure out how to store them

I have 2 cupcake carriers. Each holds 36 cupcakes. Normally this is an excessive amount of cupcake storage, but for this endeavor it came up short.

I don’t necessarily recommend having 2 cupcake carriers unless you know you’ll use them often. I only have 2 because I ordered one and at the same time Dan bought one for me at Costco. This was a couple of years ago so I kept one at my apartment and one at his place which somehow seemed reasonable. Now I’m not so sure. It did however come in handy for this project.

Beyond the cupcake carriers, I had a couple of standard cake boxes on hand (sized for like an 8 or 9-inch layer cake) so I filled those. But I still had almost 100 cupcakes out in the cold.

Then my mom had a brilliant idea: Let’s build a fort.

And so we did…

With one carrier on each side, and the rest of the cupcakes lined up in between, we wrapped the whole lot with plastic wrap. Perhaps this was overkill.

Boxes and carriers

• I bought this 36-Cupcake Cupcake Courier from Amazon. It’s pink. And it’s hefty (though not great if you only have 1 dozen to transport). It comes in other colors too (though why you wouldn’t want pink is beyond me). Also, I’ve seen this one at Costco recently.
• Dan bought a 3-Level Snapware cupcake carrier from Costco a couple of years ago. I haven’t seen it there since then. The best I could find online was this Snapware 2-Level Cupcake Carrier on Amazon. It’s not as hefty as the pink one, but it can be handy for smaller batches since you can snap-on or snap-off levels depending on how many dozen you have to carry.
• I had a couple of pink bakery boxes I bought from Cake Works (my local bakery supply shop). (Unfortunately, I could only find them online in bulk quantities)

If you don’t have animals in the house, you may not need to go to such great lengths to cover and protect the cupcakes for a short overnight stay. Then again if you are using more perishable ingredients your cupcakes may need to be refrigerated in which case you’ll have to figure out how to fit them all in the fridge yourself.

Now… how to get them there

It’s good to have friends. Especially friends who will chase you down to make you give them something to do, because, you know, you’re a control freak or something. I didn’t say that, your friends did. That’s between you and them.

But seriously, having someone willing to tote 200 cupcakes from your place to the venue is a lifesaver. This is the day of your party so you should be relaxing, primping and not worrying about those cupcakes. Even though I know you will.

But still, find someone you trust that can handle it for you because even if you think you can do it all, you’ll enjoy your party more if you don’t.

I’m in the middle of that picture (in case you didn’t recognize me all dolled up). And to my right is April, my cupcake princess. She made not 1 but 2 trips to get all the cupcakes to our party venue, Picchetti Winery.

Because she is wonderful. And because I had eaten too much sugar to come up with a better plan to transport all those cupcakes. (She brought all the cupcakes in the carriers and boxes, emptied them and then came back to get the rest).

Luckily the winery is nearby. Had it been farther, I probably would have listened to my mom. She suggested lining a plastic bin (like the ones that fit under the bed — like this) with foil and putting all the cupcakes in a few of those. That definitely would have moved more cupcakes at once. Still I wonder if the risk of frosting disaster would have been higher?

Anyway, back up in that picture of me and April — To my left is Kristi. She’s in the band. She plays a wicked banjo. Check her out in action with the Coffee Zombie Collective…

If you are in the Bay Area and looking for a party band, look no further. Seriously, the comment we heard the most from those in attendance was some version of: “The band is rad!”.

They had everyone dancing. I’m still waiting for someone to send me a video of my mom and Dan dancing. You have to see it to believe it. They were both shaking their groove things something fierce.

I hate to do this to you again, but this post has become rather long. So I will follow up with a part 3. There isn’t a lot left to say: we’ve made the cupcakes, stored them and got them to the venue, all that is left is displaying them.

I could just skip it but I’m too excited about my cupcake tiers (so cute, easy & cheap!) not to share.

Well, almost. Even though I estimated that I needed 100-140 cupcakes I wound up baking almost 200. What can I say? I’m an overachiever.

As freaked out as I was the night before, it wasn’t so bad. I’m not saying that if you’ve never baked a cupcake you should start by baking 200 in one day, but if you’ve got a method to your madness, it ain’t that bad.

I started planning months in advance: what I’d put the cupcakes on, the kind of liners, the flavors. But the real work began on a Thursday. I did a few calculations, made a shopping list, and bought ingredients. Friday was all about baking and frosting. And Saturday was transporting, eating, and sharing. (Sunday was all about recovery).

My mom asked, “Why not buy the cupcakes?” with a distinct “tsk, tsk” in her voice. I told her because I wanted to do it in my most confident tone while the voice in the back of my head agreed with my mom.

But even though she was skeptical at first, as soon as the baking commenced my mom was completely supportive and was the first to suggest that we needed to do a taste test.

Here are a few things I learned…

Equipment that makes life easier:

• 2 12-cup muffin pans so that you can always have 1 in the oven and 1 getting ready for the oven.
• A scooper/disher. Mine is a little bigger than ideal but still made filling the cups easier. I think the right size is the #20 disher, but I don’t have that size and used one about 1.5 times bigger than that but just didn’t fill it up all the way. I also tried the Oxo medium cookie scoop but had to scoop twice per cup and that’s just too much scooping.
• Lots and lots of cupcake liners. I love the dark brown ones I bought from Sweet Cuppin Cakes. They have some really cute colors on there that were tempting but I wanted to keep it simple for the wedding reception.
• A KitchenAid stand mixer isn’t required, but will keep things running smoothly if you are crazy enough to bake 200 cupcakes in a day (I’m not sure I would’ve made it without mine).

Tips about ingredients:

• Do the math up front. I know some you don’t want to hear that, but if you leave it up to your gut you may end up with six times the powdered sugar you actually need. I’m just saying.
• Shop ahead of time and take a list. I went the day before, but wound up forgetting the oil. Still, it was a relief to only have to pop into the store for 1 thing while my mom watched over the oven.

The night before

Okay, so it’s the night before the cupcakes start exploding from your oven. You have the equipment and your ingredients. What now?

• Set up your work areas. Designate a table where the cupcakes will cool & be frosted and make sure it is clean and ready to go. (I used a folding table and covered it in craft paper (taped down at the ends of the table) to create a clean workspace that was easy to clean up when I was done).
• Locate all of your tools and equipment. Where are your frosting tips? Pastry bags? Spatula for scraping down the bowl? All those little things you know you are going to want but you don’t use very often… now is the time to find them (to avoid the heat of the moment meltdown over your missing star tip)
• Set the butter out before you go to bed.
• Go to bed early. Once everything is set out, walk away. Unwind and get some sleep. Once I had everything laid out, I was tempted to start baking. It was 8:30pm. But I forced myself to go watch TV because I knew if I started doing anything at that point I would be up all night. It will be there in the morning, go get some rest.

D Day

Or perhaps I should say B Day. Anyway, it’s here. The big day. You have been planning forever and now it’s time to execute. But first things first:

1. Eat breakfast.
2. Have a plan for lunch. Whether that’s a peanut butter sandwich, leftover fried rice, or sending someone out for rations. You need to eat (for strength and to avoid getting hangry), but you also don’t need to wait until you are too hungry to think and surrounded by cupcakes. Don’t worry, you will get to sample plenty of cupcakes, but real food is important too.
3. Know yourself. If you are a social worker bee and love the extra hands (good for you), have those hands lined up ahead of time. If you are a loner (read: control freak) and others just get in your way (read: stress you out), then plan for that… but consider having one or two friends or your mom standing by just in case. They can keep you company and if get overwhelmed you know you aren’t alone (I find having moral support keeps me from getting too overwhelmed. Wait a second, did I just admit to being a control freak?)
4. Make sure everyone else knows that the kitchen is not open for big stuff. You don’t need someone else coming in trying to cook beef bourguignon or something while you’re mid-cupcake. Also, if you are the primary cook, delegate dinner duty to someone else, you’re going to be busy. (I was lucky to have my mom there to take care of dinner. So not only did I get all of the cupcakes baked I got to eat one of my favorites: bulgogi)

Now Bake!

• Do things in batches. I baked all of the first flavor, then took a break and had lunch. Baked the 2nd flavor, took a break (I’m talking hour long breaks – off my feet and mind on something not wrapped in brown liners). Made frosting, had dinner… you get the idea.
• Don’t worry if the first batch doesn’t come out. Count it as the practice batch and set them aside as samples for anyone who comes by (Luckily we had a lot of family around that I was able to push cupcakes onto). But do take the first batch as an opportunity to hone your method (how much batter per cup? how long to get the perfect golden brown? etc)
• Since the first batch is “practice”, that means you should be overestimating in your math. I had enough extra ingredients to go over my original estimates by half a batch or more.
• Take breaks. Yeah, I know I already said that, but you’ll feel better if you do.
• Don’t stress. They are only cupcakes… (worse case scenario you place an emergency order at the local bakery. But it’s not going to come to that. You’ve got this).
• Sample your handy work! That’s the best part, right? Though truth be told, when I’m baking that much I don’t really want to eat very many sweets. Crazy, right?
• Don’t fear the frosting. Use the largest frosting tip you can find. I found some at a cooking store that was going out of business and wasn’t sure I’d ever use them. But they were perfect. Each cupcake was covered in one circle of frosting. (Update: the tip I used: Ateco #807 though this one looks to be the same size – 9/16 inch diameter opening).

Since this has turned into a long post already, I will continue with a part 2 that will talk about storing the cupcakes overnight, transporting them, and displaying them.

Remember all those lemons I didn’t know what to do with? Well, I decided to punt. I deferred my decision. I froze my assets, if you will.

More specifically I froze the zest and the juice.

To freeze lemon zest:

1. use a microplane for fine zest or a peeler to take off strips of zest (avoid the white pith).
2. Place in a ziptop freezer bag and stash in your freezer.

To freeze fresh lemon juice:

1. Juice all of your lemons. Put juice into an ice cube tray and stash in the freezer.
2. Once cubes are frozen (a couple of hours later), remove from ice cube tray and keep in a ziptop freezer bag.

Kept frozen in airtight bags, both zest and the juice will keep for months. Which means I can space out my lemon-goodness instead of trying to use it all up in one big batch. (Note: Squeeze as much of the air out of the bags as you can before closing them)

And now I have a bag of lemon zest and cubes of lemon juice in the freezer to be used later when I feel like making:

• lemon bars
• fancy lemonade
• lemon curd
• lemon custard cakes
• blueberry scones with a little lemon zest for brightness
• or any other lemony treat.

Bonus tip: put a couple of the zested and juiced lemon “shells” down the garbage disposal to freshen things up down there.