Graduation Cake and Cupcakes!

   Flashing back a few months... May 2013, I graduated! I was not one of those people who wanted to order a couple big graduation cakes for my reception, and I surely didn't want anything that was ordinary or simple. I wanted to have cupcakes and a cake, and I wanted to make them all myself.
   That week I was busy that is for sure! I spent a full day in the kitchen mixing up all the cupcakes myself and baking them. 280 cupcakes, 6 hours, and one big mess later, I was finally finished with the baking. Once they were all baked I had them all tightly wrapped and stored in airtight containers until the next day when I spent the evening frosting them. I decided to have four flavors of cupcakes: Salted Caramel, Pink Lemonade, Vanilla with butter cream frosting, and Confetti with butter cream frosting.
   The next day I spent half the afternoon painting the cupcake stand that my dad helped me to make for my cupcakes. I absolutely love it and it will be used over and over for many occasions I am sure! After I finished my cupcake stand, I spent all evening mixing up each kind of frosting and frosting all of the cupcakes to which I then repacked them into their airtight containers. Thank goodness for the help of my best friend who came to Chadron early before graduation to help me frost all of the cupcakes and make signs for each flavor to follow go with the theme of my graduation party (peacock). My graduation preparation would have taken twice as long as if it wasn't for her help.
   That evening I also threw together a graduation hat cake for the top of my cupcake tower. I spent about an hour frosting and star-tipping the entire top part of the cap. It turned out super cute and I got so many compliments on it! It was definitely the finishing touch to my cupcake tower!
   The cupcakes were a huge hit at my graduation reception! People typically go from reception to reception and of course that means the usual cake after cake after cake. When people got to my party they loved that I didn't just have typical flavors of cake. My guests loved trying the salted caramel and pink lemonade cupcakes because they were something different from every other party. I love to cook, so making my own cupcakes and cake was not a problem at all for me, and I loved getting to hear the responses when people found out I did all of the work on my own rather than hiring out someone to do it for me!

My Family! They are my biggest supporters! Love them!

   The day of graduation was of course a bittersweet one, but definitely a day I will never forget. The weather was perfect (especially since I was planning my reception outside of my house in a huge party tent), and I had the most amazing friends and family to support me. Graduations are all about celebrating a great accomplishment and huge milestone while gathering with family and friends for good food and a good time, and I was so blessed to have such a wonderful day!