Our original plan didn't fall through and now my fiance and I are trying to find a cake vendor at the last minute for our upcoming wedding. The only thing is, we didn't have to pay anything for our original idea and we hadn't put much aside for it in our budget. Everyone said I should stay away from making my own wedding cake, but then I heard about cupcake wedding cakes.
Am I naive to think that I could probably easily pull this off? I would just need to make cupcakes, decorate 'em and make a small slab cake for the top. What sort of things do I need to consider/plan on buying? Anyone recommend NOT doing this?
i thought about doing this. what i would do is have a cupcake party one or two nights before the wedding. invite over your mom, bridesmaids, close friends, etc and share the work! you can make it a girl's night by providing some refreshments and the time would fly by and you'd be having fun.
spulurge on some pretty cupcake holders and buy an cupacake tree and you could have it all done, and looking awesome, for less than a hundred bucks!
good luck!
Me! You dont need the stress or pressure.i decided to do this but realised not a good idea.and cupcakes never turn out like shop bought ones.what country are you in.
Making your own cupcakes will be a huge undertaking, here is a video of an actual wedding with cupcakes for dessert. Hopefully it will help you and give you some ideas.
http://www.uniquelyyouplanning.com/92/we...
Good Luck!!!
Don't listen to the first poster. Making bulk cupcakes is very easy, you just need a production line.
You will need to make them the day before at the earliest depending on what type of cake you use.
Make the cakes in batches and have the icing (I suggest butter cream in a piping bag with a large star nozzle for this effect: http://www.flickr.com/photos/socake/1002... ) and as they cook. have the next batch ready to go in the oven as soon as those come out. When they have cooled a bit get your icing happening.
Like in the picture I would suggest you keep it simple with a single fondant flower or cut out to decorate it. You can buy them at any cake decorating store.
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Nasturtium (peppery tasting) My own wedding cake was made by the restaurant where Cupcake wedding cake designs are a feast for the eyes and the stomach!
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Store them in an air tight container, but don't put them in the fridge. make sure they are completely cooled before putting them in the container.
I would suggest you buy packet mix for this, just to keep it simple for you unless you have a really good tried and true cupcake recipe. Always buy more than you think you will need.
Don't skimp on the quality of the butter for the butter cream icing, you can taste it.
I would steer away from flavours that are dark like chocolate only because it can look really bad through the cup cake papers if you bought them as a specific colour for your theme.
P.S. if you want to spend more time on each here are some I made that I thought would suit a whimsical wedding:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stiffydagol...
Like many, I wouldn't suggest you doing this yourself. I say this because you'll have plenty to do without having to worry about putting together cupcakes even with help. I recommend going to a supermarket and pricing them out. My cousin had cupcakes instead of a cake and we were able to get 150 delicious cupcakes for like $50.
In theory, making your own sounds great but in practice it's not always all its cracked up to be. Save yourself the time and trouble.
Unless you are very artistic, don't do it. It looks easy, but it's not.
Be sure to try it out a few times before you do the actual cake.
TX Mom
Here's another idea, that I saw on one of the wedding shows (can't remember which one) and it might save you money.
You can get regular 10-12 inch cakes and put one on each table, as your centerpiece. You can have them decorate with flowers- ask around at some local bakeries or supermarket bakeries and see what they can do for you. If you use these instead of centerpieces, then you will free up some of the money in your budget and it will be more affordable.
Don't consider doing the cupcakes unless you are a good baker and you enjoy being in the kitchen. I have seen shows where the bride tries to do this stuff herself, and it always seems to end in disaster. I love to bake, but I wouldn't try it! You should be able to enjoy the time before your wedding, not be stressing out about getting the cupcakes done.
Good luck.
RESOURCES AND IDEAS:
AVOID making it yourself (less stress!) unless you're a very good baker.
COST: (See below for details) Varies from 250.00 to 350.00 for 100 cupcakes.
One of our family members who got married insisted on cupcakes and it was lovely. She chose a local bakery to have the cupcakes made (It may be a much easier route for you, taking into consideration that there will be so much going on as the bride.....consider minimizing the amount of work as you get closer towards your wedding day....less stress).
For cupcake resources, consider a reputable local bakery and/or a grocery store with a very good bakery (i.e.: In Florida, Publix Supermarket is very nice, and reasonable too). We placed the cupcakes in a larger four tier "cupcake tree". The top was saved for a mini cake for the bride and groom, and it was decorated with fresh flowers and a fern and ivy garland around the table. We had 100 cupcakes.
The cupcake tree was made of cardboard, and you can find this and some other decorating ideas on their website:
www.cupcaketree.com
(They also have a 5 tier cupcake tree for up to 100 pieces)
I decorated and edged the cupcake tree using vellum paper and a paper edger [i.e.: Martha Stewart paper punch edger "Cornice" pattern....available on line; WalMart and/or Michael's craft store).
Enclosed are photos of the one I made for our family member:
http://outdoortropicalweddingmarch08.shu...
http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq192...
http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq192...
Best wishes on your special day!
COST: 333.00
(You may be able to do the same for approx. 233.00 to 350.00)
The bride chose a better bakery for the cupcakes. It was 2.00 per cupcake. A grocery store w/a good bakery usually charges around 1.00 to 1.50 each (for 100, your looking at approx. 150.00 plus 28.00 + 9.95 for S&H for the cupcake tree [if this is what you'd consider]) Flowers consisted of loose cymbidium & dendrobium orchids and an 13' garland of varigated ivy & plumosa fern. Total for flowers were 95.50. We shaved cost on embellishing the cupcake tree since I created it myself (including the imprinted ribbon) www.studioalegre.com
FYI: Main focal points to consider for wedding photos are: bride & groom's table; cake table & ceremony site.
My husband is a pastry chef and originally for our wedding his goal was to make the wedding cake, and then as favors recreate it in mini version wedding cakes for the favors. This proved too time consuming and he scraped the idea. He still made our wedding cake but has said that both cupcakes and mini wedding cakes are extremely tedious - they require a lot of detail work to look good and depending on how many guests you are having, this could take up too much of your time.
I highly recommend going to Costco and buying a cake from there - the flavors are excellent and so are the prices.
The only reason I would consider not doing this is because of the time involved. There are going to be a lot of other things going on right before your wedding, and you are going to have a lot of people demanding your time. You probably won't feel like making yourself a sandwich, much less baking and decorating 200 cupcakes.
But if you love to bake and you know you can set aside the time, and you have someone trustworthy who can transport and set up the cupcakes at the reception venue, go for it.
Things to buy: cupcake and frosting ingredients, decorating implements (frosting bag and tips, sprinkles or flowers to put on top, etc), a display stand, plenty of cupcake pans and papers, a small pan for the slab cake on top, and a cake topper (if you want one, I like just flowers on top).
you will need:
a cupcake tower (these don't hold a lot of cupcakes though) or a multi tiered cake tower
cake mix and other cake ingredients
icing
a decorators bag and tip
if you plan on putting flowers on the cupcakes you will need a flower naill and royal icing and a lot practise
make more cupcakes than you actually need, this lets you throw away mistakes you will make (everyone makes mistakes)
decorate them with a star icing tip in a swirl pattern sarting on the outside of the cupcake top.
have the cupcakes transported to the reception site in flat sealed containers, don't move them on the cake stand, that is asking for trouble
they should be neatly arranged on the stand at the reception by someone you trust not to get their fingers in all the icing.
the top cake should be small, about 4-6" decorate this one with a warm decorators spatula (having it warm will keep the icing from sticking to it and help make it smooth) add flowers and trim as you want, practice ahead of time until you get it right.
honestly you are going to have so many other things to worry about i wouldn't try to make the cupcakes. we got our wedding cake from the grocery store for $200 including delivery. we went to bakery's and did the cake tasting thing but nothing tasted as good or as moist as the cake we got from our local grocery store. they had many styles to choose from and worked with my color scheme.
I wouldn't think it would be that hard to do - especially with some help from you friends and family. You should check out Wilton.com - they have lots of ideas, recipes, etc. - they also have cupcake stands, which make the display look really nice.
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/departm...
If you are leary about making it yourself or don't have the time to do it you can always consider getting a sheet cake. My friend got a little round cake for her and her husband to cut, then she got a few sheet cakes from Costco for the rest of the guests...I think it ended up costing her about $30.00 - the cake was good and she saved a lot of money doing it this way.
We did basically that and it turned out great. I never saw a wedding cake gobled up so fast! The beauty thing is, you can make quite a variety of flavors when you're doing cupcakes, and then everyone can get just what they want!
Get a cupcake stand of course.
If you have a small budget for you cake I would try going to a store like Wal-mart or Target. You could order about 5 eight in cakes for about 60.00. The cake stand is about 20.00. Try ebay for that or you could take some type of boxes at various heights cover them with fabric add some flowers.
You could always get the cupcakes from their and they are so cheap
Where there's a will, there's a way.
I am planning to make cupcakes for my wedding, too (though we will also have other desserts). Yes, some people think I'm nuts, but I want to do it. To avoid going crazy, I am going easy on myself and realizing that these will not look like professional, fancy cupcakes. I am fine if they look like just homemade cupcakes and won't kill myself in the process. :) As long as they taste good!
I am buying at least one cupcake tree from the craft store and I will just put the cupcakes on that. Just plain frosting piped or spread on, maybe with some sprinkles on top. You can buy some cute wrappers/liners or little decorative items to stick in the cupcakes to dress them up further.
To make the baking process easier, I am going to measure out the dry ingredients a few days in advance and keep them in marked ziplock bags or glass jars. That way, when it's time to bake, I can just pull out the dry ingredients with no measuring!
I will also be having some friends come over to help measure, mix, line the cupcake pans and help with the dishes inbetween batches. They actually are willing to do this, bless their hearts. We'll turn it into a total cupcake party, and if we "accidentally" mess up the frosting on a cupcake here or there, I guess we'll just have to eat our mistakes!
Finally, I may have my FMIL make the frosting at her own home, which takes a load off me, especially since she has a mixer and I do not. I guess you can buy store-bought frosting, but yech, I suggest making your own!
Another tip, make sure you have transportation plans in line. Cupcakes can be difficult/messy to transport if you don't plan ahead and find a system that works! You might be able to carry them in the cupcake tins, or put them in a large tub/container, etc. If you have access to your venue early, you may even consider taking the cupcakes and frosting there separately the day before and frosting them on site to avoid the icing getting messed up via transit.
Good luck, be creative, you can do it!
I think thats a great idea! What you can also do is make a smaller, scaled down version of the cupcake tower for each table and then order a small traditional wedding cake just for pictures and to actually cut into. If you do do the cupcake tower just be sure to use a sturdy tower so they wont topple. also you can simpy use fresh flowers to decorate the tower so you wont have to put too much into decorating with icing. I think if you used a large star tip and swirled the icing on top, then once the cupcakes are stacked, start at the top and place flowers cascading down the front of the cake. Also, if you run an yahoo image search on wedding cupcake tower, it comes up with tons of beautiful pics
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Making my own cupcake wedding cake, any ideas?