To cupcake or to cut cake

Mr. Fried Rice and I originally decided not to have a wedding cake, back when our reception was just a dinner. Now that things have evolved, I don't see how we can have a wedding without a cake. And since we'd already budged in the restaurant's deserts at $6 a pop, we decided to go with cake that would (hopefully) be cheaper.

I'm in love with the idea of cupcakes. I'm having parasols for female guests at the ceremony and for pictures, which led me to the idea of little drink umbrellas in our wedding colors inserted into the tops of cutely decorated cupcakes.




The only baker in Cambria sells them for $4.75 a cupcake. Such a rip off. I could make them myself for about 20 cents each, but I'll be a tad busy in the days leading up to the wedding.

In fact, I have been making a lot of cupcakes lately. I used a gift certificate from my sister and nephew to buy my new favorite cookbook: "The Baker's Field Guide to Cupcakes."



I've done chocolate cherry cupcakes with chocolate frosting and handmade chocolate leaves molded from real leaves. And most recently I made malted milk ball miniature cupcakes. Malted milk balls are crushed up and folded into the batter and the frosting and one milkball is plopped on top of the cupcake. Those things disappeared at the July 4th barbecue.

When I mentioned cake to Mr. Fried Rice his eyes lit up and he said, "pound cake?" The man adores pound cake. And who doesn't? Anything with three sticks of butter in it is scrumptious. The man has so few requests when it comes to the wedding, this is one we'll definitely honor. I'm thinking a mix of pound cake cupcakes and chocolate cupcakes.

But now I have a dilemma: If the cupcakes are on display, will guests help themselves to them before the "cake cutting" time? If so, I'll need more, which ups the price tag. And how do I serve them? The restaurant charges a $2 a person plating fee for use of plates and silverware associated with cake. Can I get away without paying that charge if we have cupcakes? What do you think? I'm thinking maybe we can look at bakers outside of Cambria to save money, but that would probably entail someone driving to that other place to pick up the cupcakes.