The 100+ Cupcake Baking Challenge: The Party Pics

Birthdays are fun, right? I keep asking myself why I did all this work on my own dang birthday. Wasn't I supposed to relax and be queen for a day? That probably would have killed me. Like Rachel, I enjoy feeding others, making others (especially my friends) happy. She's smart enough not to bake all her cupcakes, but I thought it'd be a good challenge. It was. About 16 hours of baking, filling, frosting, topping and packing and there were 6 cupcakes left over at the end of the night. (Oddly, all of 'em were the El Diablo/spicy Mexican cupcakes.)

Thank you Twanna, Tess, Rachel, Sheri and Jason for setting up the birthday cupcakes, as I was busy being a nutcase on Saturday night.

I made little cupcake signs so people would know what they were getting.

The cupcake carriers from Rachel and Blondie came in extra-handy as serving platters.

Here's the amazing cake Deborah Lauren from City Sweets made for my birthday:

SO good!! Lemon and coconut...

And you can even get a peek at the gorgeous lilies I received in the background (thank you Stephanie, Jenn and James!). I was completely overwhelmed by people's generosity and love.

Thank you Richard for the awesome banner!

A nice perk of being a photographer is having professional photog friends there to help you celebrate. Many, many thanks to Norman Blake, Vautrin, and Mark French for these (and other) fabulous shots. I was too much of a wreck at my own event to take many pictures.

I may also be able to post some of the cupcake-themed cards and gifts that I received if y'all are interested. Too much birthday sharing??


Last but by no means least, thanks to all of you for all your birthday wishes. I'm touched. As new woman at Cupcakes Take the Cake, I am thrilled to be so readily accepted and "friended" by all of you gentle readers.