60th Anniversary Cupcakes!

For my grandparents' 60th Anniversary, I wanted to do some kind of dessert that represented their interests. Unfortunately, I had to work the day before the party, so I didn't get to do as much as I wanted to, but I still think they came out pretty cool!

THE CUPCAKE:

I wanted the cupcake to center around wine and berries, because my grandpa is into gardening and wine making. The recipe I came up with was white cupcakes infused with a sweet wine, filled with a wine berry compote, and topped with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting.

The cake was moist; the filling, which was made of wine, raspberries, and blackberries, was tart; and the frosting was thick and sweet.

THE DECORATING:

I used an idea from "What's New, Cupcake" to make knitting cupcakes for my grandma, who loves to knit. However, I could not find any kind of cupcakes decorated with gardening or wine bottles anywhere online.

First, my mom and I made fondant from scratch. We decided that it would look cool if we shaped twinkies like wine bottles and covered them in purple fondant and white fondant labels. Well, they looked okay... until I put one on top of a cupcake and realized that they were ridiculously large for cupcake toppers.

So we started over and made miniature fondant wine bottles instead. Fondant was not nearly as easy and fun to work with as I had imagined!

The knitting cupcakes were decorated with blue frosting and pocky sticks for the needles.

Here they are! Enjoy!

KNITTING CUPCAKES:

WINE BOTTLE CUPCAKES: