Bridal Baking Extravaganza!

This weekend, I dedicated most of my time to baking. I absolutely LOVE to bake. It is definitely my stress reliever. With the Syracuse bridal shower planning underway by the Ice Cream Sundae maids (and mom), I thought I might chip in where I can, by taking something small off their plates. So, I enthusiastically volunteered to bake the dessert for the shower. I immediately went into planning and prepping mode. I bought all of the ingredients and got down to business (and baking). I searched for recipe archives on my computer that I knew were absolute keepers, and scoured the web for new.

Although I was feeling funky and wanting to really give the guests something spectacular, I chose to play it safe and stick with vanilla almond and classic chocolate cupcakes.

The vanilla almond batch turned out wonderfully! The chocolate ones, not so much. They were extremely dry and a bit on the crumbly side. Not allowing myself to become disheartened that easily, I decided to search for another recipe and try again (cue the theme song from Little Engine That Could<-is there even one?). The second time around, the chocolate cupcakes were much better! Out with the old, in with the new!

After the baking, came the decorating. I should have taken a picture of the Ice Cream Sundae household, because it looked as if something had exploded by the time I finished. I thought Mr. Ice Cream Sundae was going to have a fit (he is a very neat and tidy person)! But, alas, he sat at his desk very calmly and did not once look over to the kitchen until I gave him the "go-ahead". Clearly, we've done this a time or two.

Personal Photo

Here is what the vanilla almond batch looked like. Mmm, makes me want to take a bite right out of the screen! I definitely prefer vanilla over chocolate (gasp, I know!) I will confess, the frosting was absolutely not the color that I was going for. I believe we settled on some sort of blush for the bridal shower, and clearly, these cupcakes were not blush. I completely misread the food coloring bottle--oops! Mr. ICS willingly took part in trying these bad boys. He was a happy camper :)

Personal Photo

Here are the chocolate (2nd batch) cupcakes. For these ones, I tweaked the food coloring (now blush), and tried my hand at another rose design. I'm not quite sure which design I'll go with yet, but I loved the way that both turned out.

So, hive, here's where you come in! Which do you think I should go with? I should preface this with the fact that I wanted the cupcakes to resemble roses not only because they are so feminine looking, but because the Kentucky Derby is also known as the Run for the Roses. Also, what do you think about the flavors I chose? Should I stick with traditional, or think outside of the box?

I can't wait to read your comments and will surely post a picture of the final products all set up come the time of the shower!