Spiked Cupcakes

Lemons are sour but they just made life a little bit sweeter for local baker Dawn Eskins, of Carolina Cupcakery, who was recently honored by Modern Bride for her incredible wedding cupcake flavor Hard Lemonade spiked with Limoncello. If you haven’t tried Limoncello, you just haven’t…lived. And as soon as you snag a bottle of lovely Limoncello, put it straight into the freezer to produce an I-just-died-and-went-to-heaven moment when you taste the sour madness of a lovely lemony smoothie. But go easy on the amount, it’s a little bit of potent paradise and a little dab will do ya.

Limoncello Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon butter, softened

2 eggs, room temperature

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel, no pith

2 teaspoons plus 2 tablespoons limoncello

1 tablespoon milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In the bowl of a food processor, combine all ingredients except for 2 tablespoons limoncello and milk. Pulse until the batter is smooth. As the food processor runs, slowly add in remaining limoncello and milk through the funnel and mix until completely incorporated into the batter.
2. Divide the mixture up into the 16 bun muffin pan and bake for 15-20 minutes until the cupcakes have risen and are golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and cool the cupcakes for a few minutes in the tin before removing from the tin and cooling completely. Once cool, frost and top each with a flower. Serve with chilled limoncello.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened

2 teaspoons limoncello

1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest

2 cups sifted confectioners sugar

1. In a large mixing bowl beat the cream cheese, butter, limoncello and lemon zest at medium speed until smooth. Slowly add the confectioners sugar and beat at high until full incorporated and the frosting is light and fluffy, about three minutes.

Directions for making homemade limoncello.

Daring Wedding Dresses

Here are my favorite oh-no-you-didn’t-wear-that unconventional wedding dresses by notorious haute couture designers such as Jean Paul Gautier and Ian Stuart. Bridal wear or bridal scare?

Vintage Inspired Corsets

Corsets, a two-faced fashion friend and merciless master. Imagine leaning over your brass four-poster bed back in the late 1880s while your muscular maid dutifully presses her right foot squarely against your backside, cinches your (plenty small enough) 26 inch waist into a dainty, diminutive 18 inches. Besides making you look much thinner, your breasts went from flat to flashy and your diaphragm was so compressed, you were so short of air, you had to push away from your second plate of buttery croissants with white chocolate buttercream and raspberry marmalade. A great diet aid unless you're fond of breathing. Now corsets are more divine than difficult, and I spotted these romantic Edwardian corsets from $225 to $325 at La Belle Fairy on Etsy.

Looking For Mr. Right

Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that's a real treat. -- Joanne Woodward

Being a typical twenty-something year old studying English Lit, when I wasn’t spending my time wondering what in the world Shakespeare was smokin’ when he wrote “A Midsummer Night's Dream,” I was on the lookout like everyone else for Mr. Right. I had four items on my short list. He should be Italian, Catholic (aren’t they all?), smart and funny. Italian, because once I basked in the Mediterranean warmth of Anthony D’Amico’s sexy little smile in ninth grade, I was hooked for life. Catholic, because would my mother have it any other way? Smart, for obvious reasons. Does anyone go looking for a dumb guy? And funny, for the same reason Joanne Woodward was happily married to Paul Newman for 50 years. A man that makes you laugh is working hard to please you, and that seems right to me.

Choosing Bridesmaids

Two bridesmaids and a maid of honor suited me fine. One of my bridesmaids had been a friend since we were teenagers, putting in a good word for me every time she picked up part time work. When she left one job for a better one, I piggybacked off her good fortune all through college until I got married. I owed her.

My other bridesmaid I met at the university while were both studying to be English teachers. She always held two or three jobs in addition to going to college full-time. She was all over the place, and will tell you now that she suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder, which was diagnosed back then as “being all over the place.”

My maid of honor was a close friend I met in Journalism. She was a looker. And in hindsight, if you don’t want people looking at your wedding album for the next fifty years bewitched, bothered and bewildered about how ONE woman (not me) could be so drop-dead gorgeous, try picking your creepy cousin with the crooked teeth instead.

I owe something to all of them. But there’s only one, always available for weddings and funerals and snorkeling in Maui, even if it means flying over 3,000 miles when ticket prices are up and her business is down. Over twenty years after nearly giving me a great-big-nervous-breakdown by making her bridesmaid dress the night before my wedding, she’s still all over the place, and every place I need her to be.

Blogging About Weddings

BOLDLY GOING NOWHERE. It’s a bumper sticker I saw this weekend while on the road and it really made me smile. I am happy to say that after blogging for nearly two years, this little blog is actually boldly going somewhere (over 170,000 views to date). Unlike some, I don’t want to be talking about my great products ALL THE TIME. Tempting, but no. What I do want is to encourage you to get a good deal everywhere you go. I want you to be a fearless shopper. Never demanding, just fearless. Instead of settling for the big bridal chain store, walk into a privately owned bridal boutique, be honest and straightforward with the owner (even if she’s your mother’s age or older) and ask her for a great price. In my view, bold is the new beautiful.

Getting the Business

Weddings aren’t my business, only brides. And with brides I know where I stand, most of the time. But when my two daughters married within the last two years, I found myself on the receiving end of getting the business from the wedding business if you know what I mean. For example, I decided to go with my own DJ instead of the one suggested by our venue. (Little did I know mine would introduce the newlyweds by the WRONG LAST NAME. Hindsight is everything.) For being such a rowdy renegade, I paid an extra “set up” fee of fifty bucks so an employee making $9.00 an hour could pull a 7 x 3 inch table out of a closet, snap down the legs, and throw a tablecloth over it in less than five minutes. Wedding vendors, if you aim to please, go easy on the extra fees.

Mothers In Law

The only one left is my son (the “Baby”). He recently bought his first house and no doubt will want to make his girlfriend of six years a part of that happy home. No more night sweats over being chased by Truffled Mushroom Fricassee and Orecchiette with Crab Arribiata Sauce, and all those expensive catering concoctions from my daughters’ weddings. No more cleaning-the-whole-house-and-making-all-the-pretty-pastries-from-scratch for my daughters’ bridal showers. A pretty easy ride if you ask me. How will I be as a mother in law? In a word, grateful.

Bridal Magazines

Not a big fan. Looking at a popular bridal magazine “Collector’s Edition” sitting on my desk right now. Over 730 pages of five foot six, 110 pound women posing as brides. Remind you of yourself or any of your soon-to-be wed friends? Thanks to Alfred Angelo there are now a few plus size brides, but not enough. A quick trip to David’s will remind you fashionable full-figured brides outnumber these pretty pretenders. Give me a bridal magazine with real women—and wedding gowns real women can afford.

Bridal Hair Flowers

I love to make them, I love to share them, I love to wear them. Flower hair clips made of silky, sheer organza in all these rich colors (both plain and sparkle): white, ivory, silver, yellow, gold, red, wine, peach, lavender, purple, pale blue, royal blue, midnight blue, hunter green, chocolate and black. Taking a basketful of these fabulous flowers to our next bridal show at the end of this month. Bridesmaid hair flowers or bridal hair clips, or both. (Approximately 3 1/2" in diameter on a small silver alligator clip.)