It Takes a Village...

...to make and frost enough cupcakes for an island wedding.

You've got to love it when an entire community comes together. Recently a local gal, Kelly, got married. She didn't want anything fancy at the reception so she opted for cupcakes instead of a big cake. About 400 cupcakes! So another friend, Wendy, organized everyone, passed out two dozen paper cupcake liners to each person, and told us all when to bring the cupcakes as well as our icing bags and tips to the Mackinac Island Community Hall for a good old-fashioned cupcake decorating party. (I'm doubtful that islanders of old held cupcake decorating parties, but who knows.)

It did not take the 15 of us long to frost the bazillion cupcakes with the giant 45 pound vat of frosting Wendy brought down. Trust me, I'm not exaggerating when I use the word "vat."

We island girls are nothing if not prepared! Wendy knew we couldn't just pop home to whip up another batch if we ran out, so she intentionally over estimated the amount of icing needed per cupcake - just to make sure we'd have enough. Believe it or not, there was more icing that just isn't in the picture.

It worked out well for me. I brought home four one-gallon size zip-lock bags of it home to use on my son's birthday cake and there was still about 25 pounds of leftover frosting, so we had to have a few samples. Nothing like a sugar buzz to get you ready for the one mile, up hill, bike ride home.