Cupcakes for Flower Lover

Cupcakes for Flower Lover
Originally uploaded by Fields of Cake

I love these! Very pretty and I'm sure really lovely on a tier. I'd probably want to add some cupcakes with a tall swirl of buttercream as well for the frosting lovers (the description says they're topped with buttercream and ganache, but it certainly looks like these are layers of fondant).

Beautiful cupcakes

Cupcakes for Fionas Grandma
Originally uploaded by Bev (Sugarbloom Cupcakes)

What bride wouldn't love these? Almost too pretty to eat, but my guess is that these are delicious as well. Made with premium ingredients, these would make spectacular wedding cupcakes.

Nouveau Cupcakes

Nouveau Cupcakes Series 2
Originally uploaded by Bev (Sugarbloom Cupcakes)

I love this design - it's not something I would ever think of, it's such a surprise! Be sure to click through and see more of Bev's designs, they're really something.

Cupcake kebabs!

Cupcake kebabs!
Originally uploaded by Rachel from Cupcakes Take the Cake

These really tickled my fancy! There are so many possibilities for the combinations (I'm thinking strawberries for sure). How fun for a barbeque or summer reception. I'd probably make them shorter, though - maybe half the size they appear to be here.

My little buttercup

My little buttercup
Originally uploaded by cupcakes & cartwheels

Such a variety of designs for cupcakes - these are so lovely and would be wonderful for a wedding or bridal shower display.

Pretty pink cupcake close up

Pretty pink cupcake close up
Originally uploaded by cakejournal

I love how a simple swirl with a couple of fondant flowers is so pretty. So many color combinations would work with this. Especially pretty would be to alternate the tall swirl with a flat ganache frosting with a piped embelishment (maybe the intials of the bride and groom).

Art Nouveau Wedding Cake Tower

Art Nouveau Wedding Cake Tower
Originally uploaded by cupcaketastic

This is so stunning. It actually wouldn't be too hard to accomplish, but the effect is something else! I might have done the vanilla cupcakes in a cream cheese frosting so they would be more white than ivory.

April and Simon's Wedding Cupcake Cake

April and Simon's Wedding Cupcake Cake
Originally uploaded by hello naomi

I really adore this cupcake tower - I'm a fan of Scandinavian design, so this one really appeals to me. When I'm making cupcakes, though, I do prefer swirling nice tall peaks of frosting - to me, a cupcake is the vehicle for the frosting, though!

Cupcake Tower

Cupcake Tower
Originally uploaded by Bakerella

Just found out that Wilton has this neat cupcake tier - I'm guessing it's available at Micheal's or JoAnn's fabrics.

cupcake tower

cupcake tower
Originally uploaded by andshewas

This is just so lovely - with chocolate cake, buttercream frosting, and blue flowers and decors, this would be perfect for Liz!

Colorful Flower Wedding Cupcake Cake

Colorful Flower Wedding Cupcake Cake
Originally uploaded by Wedding Wire: Wedding Cakes, Flowers & Dresses

Here's another example of a really pretty cupcake tier in case Liz decides not to do a small cutting cake for the top.

From Martha Stewart

Wendy Kromer cupcakes
Originally uploaded by Nightngle

Really elegant, still casual, and oh so cute! I wish I was closer, I'd love to make Liz's cupcakes for her wedding. :)

50th Anniversary Cupcake Tower

50th Anniversary Cupcake Tower
Originally uploaded by cakegirlkc

Here's another really cute example of a casual cupcake tower.

Cupcake Decorations Resources

The links on the right are resources for cake decorating, etc. Confectionery House has a lot of wonderful things, including really nice cupcake liners. For chocolate cupcakes, I love the brown cupcake liners. Red velvet cake looks great with their red liners, too.

Pfeil and Holing has all the basics like chocolate fondant and lots of pre-made and inexpensive roses and other flowers.

Cupcake Tree has a variety of really cute tiers, and Sugar Craft has a variety of styrofoam tiers that are very easy to decorate by pinning or gluing ribbon to the leading edge of the tier.

Wedding Cupcake Tree

Wedding Cupcake Tree
Originally uploaded by PinkCakeBox

This is so adorable - from Pink Cake Box bakery in New Jersey. Just a switch from pink to blue and it would be a perfect fit.

40th birthday purple turquoise and pink butterfly and hearts cupcake tower

40th birthday purple turquoise and pink butterfly and hearts cupcake tower
Originally uploaded by Simply Sweets

This is an adorable set-up found on flickr. For Elizabeth's cake topper, you could have just a simple cake frosted in blue or white, with a chocolate fondant ribbon around the bottom and maybe fresh flowers on top.

halloween tier

halloween tier
Originally uploaded by Nightngle

This is an example of a cupcake tier with a 6" cake topper. I made this one. :)

Colorful Wedding Cupcakes

Colorful Wedding Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by jdesmeules (Blue Cupcake)

I love this one! This would be very pretty in brown and blue, and would be quite easy to do, despite it looking very involved.

Blue & Brown Cupcake Tower

Blue & Brown Cupcake Tower
Originally uploaded by jdesmeules (Blue Cupcake)

This is a very pretty brown and blue example for Elizabeth to check out.

Cupcake Tier Tutorial

I found a set of three styrofoam cupcake tiers on ebay for a great price, but my thrifty heart won't let me throw them away, but my urge to prettify things made me search for a way to decorate this babies. I posted the picture below and got some requests to do a tutorial on how I decorated it. So here goes...



First, take the three disks and base out of the package and assemble the base (it's just two inter-locking pieces). The first tier I did, I used card stock, but had to piece it together for the middle and large disks, so for the red, white, and blue tier, I decided to try poster board (28" x 22") and that worked great. You'll need two pieces if you want to do a two color scheme like this one. Place the disks on the board (flat side down) and trace the circle and the inner "X" shape on the large and middle disks. Don't trace the "X" on the small size, you'll want to cover the cross piece with the solid color. Cut out your circles and the "X's".



One of the things I wanted to figure out was how to cover the colored pieces with some sort of plastic to keep clean up easy. I looked for large enough pieces of plastic at the craft and office supply stores, but didn't really find what I wanted. I wound up using a large poster frame that I had in the garage. The plastic "glass" worked ok, but the plastic was pretty brittle and it wound up with some feathered cracks and even broke a bit with I tried to cut out the "X's". For a fancy wedding or shower, this really wouldn't be good enough to use, but for work and home use, I'm going to keep it until I figure out something better. Perhaps heavy gauge vinyl sheeting would work. On the other hand, I guess for a fancy occasion, if I was a professional baker, I would just sell this kind of decorated tier to the customer and they would keep it, so a plastic barrier wouldn't be necessary.

The next step is to assemble the parts - the large disk slips over the center support, then slip the poster board circle over. You'll need to ease it on and may need to trim the cut-out a bit to get it to fit, but that's not hard to do. When all the parts are together, you're ready to make the ribbon boarder to finish the horizontal edges.



Take a look at your poster board and make sure it's lying flat - it's ok to put a small length of tape just at the very edge of the board to keep it flat. I used a short piece at the four "corners" of the circle. Next, use some neutral colored card stock and cut it in strips the width of your ribbon. tape the ends of the card stock ribbon together to make a length to fit the edge of the disk. Use straight dressmaker pins to attach the card stock ribbon to the edge. Be sure to push the pin in straight so they don't poke out from the disk.



Next take everyone's favorite tacky glue "Aleene's" and glue the ribbon to the card stock. It's easier to glue it to the card stock ribbon plus you cover the heads of the pins that way. Just go slow, and hold it gently for a couple of seconds and it will stick just fine. You'll need about 7 yards of ribbon to complete the edges. This is grograin ribbon, but you can use a variety of types of 5/8" ribbon or wider. Don't get too carried away with a very wide ribbon, or when folks pull a cupcake from the inside of a tier, they may scrape some frosting on the ribbon. A cool idea might be to find some eyelet lace ribbon, then thread a narrow satin ribbon through.



If you like, make little tailored bows for the four "corners" of the rounds. To make a bow, you'll need a length of 6" for the bow, and 2" for the knot. Just loop the longer length, and wrap that length with the shorter length of ribbon. Push a straight pin under the top loop but through the other 4 layers of ribbon. Turn the bow over, and put a bead of glue on the bow loops, then push straight into the disk, gently holding the loops to the edge for a couple of seconds.



And you're done! You can take this apart easily for a different color combination for the next event. Enjoy!

Wedding Shower Cupcakes

This was really fun! A girl in our office is getting married, and I made cupcakes for her wedding shower. Her colors are aqua and brown, so I decorated the cupcake tier and did cupcakes to match. I used vanilla cake with silver foil liners and chocolate cake with the brown liners, then did about 4 each of the various designs. I used butter cream for the aqua, cream cheese frosting for the white, and chocolate for the brown. I had planned on more of the designed cupcakes, but ran out of energy and wound up doing aqua/white swirls with a variety of sprinkles for the last two dozen. There were all gone at the end of the day, so I'm pretty sure they tasted good, even though I didn't get one!

I know they were a hit with the bride-to-be - she started sniffling when she came in (it was a surprise party) and burst into tears when she saw the cupcake tier! Tears of joy at the party, presents, good wishes, and tastey food.

Purple Bears

These bears were made awhile back for our hospice's BEAR camp for grieving children. I made 100 of these guys - vanilla with vanilla frosting and light purple bears, and chocolate with chocolate frosting with darker purple bears. I first made swirls that on their own look a lot like the Mickey Mouse icon, then piped on the muzzle and eyes, finishing with the black nose, iris of the eye, and "smile". I used store-bought black frosting, but it ran a bit which I didn't like. Next time I use black, I'll use chocolate frosting with black food color - hopefully, that won't bleed and will taste better as well.

Cupcakes - innocent hobby, or dangerous obsession?

For about a year now, I've been a bit obsessed with cupcakes! It started with the cupcakes I baked for our hospice's BEAR camp and I've been baking ever since. I haven't been chronicling my work so far, but I'm hoping to do better. Especially considering how many cupcakes I made for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life! I made over $100 selling cuppies at work, and nearly $200 at the Relay itself! I'm not a professional baker by any means, and while I may fantasize about opening my own cupcake bakery, it's not an active goal or likely to happen. But I can dream and bake at the same time! :)