Flower Cupcakes (and India Tree)

Received an order from a local Momma recently who might be one of the sweetest people I've never met. Ha!  Seriously, we are in some groups together online and share some mutual friends which is how she found out about my cakes.  But in communications with her I found that she was just so easy going, and on top of that, her passion to support a local Momma trying to make ends meet just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Her daughter is having a garden party and when I showed her the flower cupcakes I've made in the past, she said that she loved them and her daughter did too so that's what we went with.

4 dozen cupcakes for the party-- 2 dozen are both gluten and dairy free vanilla cupcakes and 2 dozen are chocolate cupcakes.

ALSO, in other news, this was my first time working with natural dyes/food coloring which was also a request by this sweet Momma.  I ordered a set of India Tree natural dyes online.  (Later discovered they sell the set at Whole Foods and I could have saved shipping.)  When looking into them and asking around about the dyes, I got a mixed bag of responses, so here's what I have to say about them.....  They are NOT bad dyes.  They actually seem to work very well, they just aren't as bold in color.  For the pink and lavender flowers it worked pretty perfect, but if I was going to make red decorations, I would be there ALL day adding more and more of the red dye I think.  (And keep in mind the set is only primary colors, so you have to mix up the colors to get your purple, green, orange etc.)  Also, as a decorator, I'm used to using Wilton gel colors, and these are liquid colors, so you DO have to make some adjustments to your icing to get the right stiff consistency for decorating.  Just my 2 cents for the night.

Wishing this sweet Momma and her daughter a Happy Day and Happy Birthday at their garden party this weekend! :)