Practice makes Perfect.....Right?

So, I'm practicing making cupcakes and frosting them for my son's wedding. The colors are purple, black and white....the bride and groom wants both white and chocolate cupcakes with a buttercream frosting. Each month on our Playday (my husband and I host Playday with our best friends as well as our son and his fiance)...for Playday, I'm creating cupcakes to taste test for the wedding. Each month I'm making a different flavor of cupcake and a different flavor of frosting. Did I tell you....I'm teaching myself to frost cupcakes, using different designs. Well, I can definitely see improvement each month.....it's not like all I'm doing is trying different techniques every night (I'm not a pro....yet, LOL)....I'm only working on them one night a month, however, I do plan on working on roses this week....I'm really excited to be working on these! Cross your fingers! I will post pics!
So, here is my first ever frosting of cupcakes:

I just pulled out tips and played. I tried a bit of everything. I suppose I should buy or look up some frosting techniques to help me out but I don't usually work that way...I usually just jump in head first and this is no exception! My first try! 

So, the next month I made Sparkling Cider cupcakes with Sparkling Cider frosting. The cupcakes were a hit, the frosting wasn't (it was good, just not too die for good)! But, they looked pretty! LOL Sticking with the purple, I tried my hand at flowers (the roses were pre-made, can't take credit for them). I posted in an earlier post the design choice from this session of cupcake making. I just want to show you my second attempt....here it is: 

I had a great time with the flowers, can't wait to practice more. I'm sure everyone is going to be tired of cupcakes by year end, but hey, I'm having fun! I don't want to make this post too long, don't want to bore anyone so I will post my third try another time. The third attempt was for Valentine's Day.....guess what: they are not purple! LOL

Sparkling Cider and Cupcakes

So, my first attempt at cupcakes for my son's wedding...I found a recipe that used Sparkling Cider. The cupcakes were a huge hit (a 4 out of a 5), the frosting, not so much! The frosting was a bit runny, didn't seem to set well. I did use it to pipe frosting and because I am new to all this, I didn't know that it wasn't up to piping par! Here are a couple of pictures....I didn't think to take pics of the "before frosting"....

Oh, by the way....the wedding colors are purple, black and white! My son and I moved the roses (Wilton's Gum Paste roses) around until we got the design that both my son and his future bride are happy with!

I will be teaching myself to create Royal Icing Roses (another post). Because I can't find dark purple roses, I have to learn to make my own (and they will taste a whole heck of a lot better than gum paste which tastes like....sugared chalk)...The dark purple of the smaller flowers is the color I'm striving for even if everyone gets purple mouths! I'm having fun.....that's the coolest thing!