The tale of making 400 cupcakes.

Once upon a time I was asked to bake 400 cupcakes for a friends wedding.  I can't pass up a challenge.  I knew it was going to be a challenge from the start, but boy, am I SO glad I did it!  From how much ingredients to buy, to how much to charge, to where I'm going to bake 400 cupcakes, ALSO where was I going to store 400 cupcakes once they were all iced, or how was I going to display 400 cupcakes.  These are the things that I had to take into consideration when I had 5 weeks to plan.  For 5 weeks, this house lived, breathed, and ate cake and icing.  First things first was I had to come up with an idea and a design on how I was going to display a good amount of the 400 cupcakes.  My mom and I googled for hours and shopped around Lowe's for inspiration.  We finally found 3 20" glass table tops for $6.00 and my loving father found 3 $1.00 fancy bowls.  We decided to stack the glass table tops of top of the bowls and put a flameless candle underneath each bowl.  It turned out so pretty, better than I ever thought it would!  Then comes the baking of the cupcakes.  First round of baking cupcakes was the chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.  My mom and brother helped and we made a huge dent in what needed to be baked.  Unfortunately, Phillips first turn up to the Kitchen Aid got him fired from the job because he turned the mixer on full blast at the very start.  BATTER WENT EVERYWHERE. When I say everywhere, I mean, EVERYWHERE. So he was fired.  By the end of that night we had 24 dozen cupcakes baked.  The second night I had to make 12 dozen red velvet cupcakes.  My mom and I went over to my sister's house and we took over her house for an evening.  So in only 2 nights I was able to bake 400 cupcakes.  That was certainly a weight lifted off my shoulders.  All I had to do now was to bake a cake and icing the cupcakes and figure out where I was going to store 400 iced cupcakes.  The wedding is on a Friday so Thursday rolls around and my best friend Allie comes over and and my mom helps me out and we set up 3 tables in the family room, and once I again, my cupcakes take over.  Allie is in the kitchen slaving away making about 15 batches of cream cheese icing.  While she is doing that, I'm in the family room icing the cupcakes.  About 10:00 pm rolls around and I finally iced the last 400th cupcake! High fives all around!! Luckily, it was very chilly that night so you know what we did?  We packaged all the cupcakes up in their boxes, opened up the doors and windows in the family room, and the family room served as our innovative refrigeration system.  Don't be alarmed, I did have a back up plan for an actual refrigerator, but this way they were able to all stay in my house, and this was less travel time for when I needed to deliver them the next day.  Friday morning at 9:00, my mom, dad, and myself travel over to Independence to set up my display, all goes smoothly.  Mind you, this entire week I was desperately sleep deprived.  After setting up, I come home and decorate the wedding cake that they were having for the cutting of the cake.  Then, 5:00 rolls around and Aunt Trinett, my mom, and myself travel back over to Independence in Aunt Trinett's van that is lacking backseats.  That is where myself and the 400 cupcakes and cake resided for this 20 minute car ride.  I just sat back there and talked to the cupcakes and encouraged them to stay strong and not topple over or commit suicide.  After a long 20 minutes, we finally made the last turn into the parking lot and everything went smoothly. I know, I know, you were hoping for a traumatic ending to that, but alas, the 3 Musketeers did it again!  We unload the cupcakes and start displaying them out on the cupcake table.  That took only about an hour/hour and half.  To celebrate a successful day, we ordered pizza and drank wine!  Then 10:00 pm rolls around and I go back to the hall for a 3rd time that day to collect all my things and out of the 400 cupcakes, there were only about 50 or so left and the night was still going strong! WOW! I thought they were going to have cupcakes coming out of their ears.  I was so glad to get some great feedback that night and the following couple days.  What an experience it was.  I couldn't had done it without my dad, my mom, my brother, sister, brother-in-law, Allie, and Aunt Trinett and Uncle Don.  I seriously could not.  I am so blessed. For this being my first wedding, let alone a HUGE wedding, I must say, it was very successful. 

  

And this was the tale of making 400 cupcakes. 
And no one killed anyone in the process. 
And we all certainly lived happily ever after.

The end.