I recently took a cupcake bouquet to our neighbors’ dinner party (my avatar). Aside from providing a desert, the flower pot was the hostess gift. Most of the local ladies there had never had a cupcake before and loved the flowers. So Saturday I had them over to play with cupcakes. I had never made a liquer mousseline before, but based on the rave reviews for piping, I made grand marnier. Their flowers turned out so lovely! They really enjoyed the day and the frosting worked wonderfully for new decorators!

I also served a chocolate butter torte that I had frozen a few weeks ago. It was a hit! It’s a hodgepodge: filled with one layer of chocolate praline, and one layer of ganache and salted caramels that came out too soft. I made a half batch of light whipped ganache to frost. I do wish I had taken more care in putting it together and freezing it. It was a bit off kilter and sad-looking to start with!

What a great idea, and how nice of you!

I love their flowers.  They’re all so pretty, individually, and their variations make a fabulous bouquet!

I think your hodge-podge cake quite wonderful—and it sounds magnificent!!!

For someone who claims to be a beginner decorator, your roses are very beautiful!!

It sounds so nice to have a cupcake flower session for your friends- I also love all the different variations for the flowers!

Your “hodgepodge” cake looks sooo good, it has me wanting to make a chocolate cake, too.

Thanks Ladies! It was a lot of fun and something I’d like to do again- maybe actually construct the bouquet next time…

My son gave the hodge podge cake a 9 out of 10- it is one that didn’t rise properly, so it’s very fudgy and does taste really good! The caramel, chocolate praline and the ganache all play very, very nicely together. I think coming out of the freezer I actually taste the chocolate praline against the cake a little more than I did before. We officially prefer the chocolate butter torte to the chocolate butter cake

The ladies did a fantastic job with the flowers! I was a little (pleasantly!!) surprised they had such good success with the roses. The mousseline really is easy to work with. I did the rose at 3o’clock and the “begonia” at 11. The rest were theirs. My better half informed me that a few were much better than mine To make the roses a little easier we piped the center cones, then stuck them in the freezer for a few minutes to firm up a bit before starting to add the petals. A few received a 2nd chill down if the outer petals got difficult for them to add. There’s a great youtube tutorial from the Culinary Institute of Chicago for the “begonias” if you search for “Cupcake Bouquet”. They are fast, easy-peasy and so very pretty!