I volunteered to provide cupcakes for a bridal shower last weekend. I wanted to share the final results plus everything I learned in the process of planning, baking, frosting, transporting and setting up 80 cupcakes.
Choosing the Cupcakes
First of all, I needed to come up with some recipes. From what I read online, most people recommended only making 1 type of cupcake, and trying out the recipe before making it for the event. I broke both of these rules. I made 3 types of cupcakes, none of which I had tried prior to 3 days before the shower when I started baking them.
These 3 types of cupcakes were:
Choosing the Cupcakes
First of all, I needed to come up with some recipes. From what I read online, most people recommended only making 1 type of cupcake, and trying out the recipe before making it for the event. I broke both of these rules. I made 3 types of cupcakes, none of which I had tried prior to 3 days before the shower when I started baking them.
These 3 types of cupcakes were:
- Chocolate Mint Oreo Cupcakes (24)
- Chocolate Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow Peanut Butter Frosting (24)
- Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake (double for 32) with Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting (quadruple this recipe)
My decisions were based on the fact that I wanted one kind with chocolate and one kind without chocolate just in case someone hated chocolate. I threw the Mint Oreo one in because it has an Oreo in the bottom!! Yes, that and the toasted marshmallow frosting were both emotional decisions.
I didn't like the Oreo one much because of the box mix, but went ahead and made it anyways. The batter tasted funny; could definitely tell it was out of the box. The Chocolate with Marshmallow/Peanutbutter frosting was by far my favorite one.
At least 1 week before, print out the recipes and make your shopping list. The vanilla one needed vanilla beans of which I ordered online.
Transporting the Cupcakes
This was the part I struggled with (and stressed out about) the most. I ended up ordering the Cupcake Courier 36-Cupcake Plastic Storage Container, Soft Blue Sky
from Amazon and was about to order a second when I came to my senses. When would I ever need to transport 80 cupcakes again? For transporting the remaining cupcakes, I purchased 2 round trays from Gordon's Food Supply.
This combination was perfect. I was actually going to leave a few cupcakes home, but since they were all nice and snug in the containers, I decided against it. One of the biggest fears I found online was driving with them and having them topple over because of the heavy frosting. Some remedies for that in which I saw were:
from Amazon and was about to order a second when I came to my senses. When would I ever need to transport 80 cupcakes again? For transporting the remaining cupcakes, I purchased 2 round trays from Gordon's Food Supply.
- Creating tin foil supports for the cupcakes by molding the tin foil around a cupcake pan and placing that in your container
- I didn't have enough room in my containers for this to work
- Placing a small dot of melted chocolate under each cupcake so that it sticks to the tray and doesn't fall over
- My cupcakes were already touching each other, so I was quite confident that they wouldn't fall over
As far as transporting them, I had a 2.5 hour drive. Lucky for me, it was cold out. It is not often I wish for cold weather. They all fit snuggly in the trunk of my G6. I made sure they were packed in well.
Making the Cupcakes
The shower was on Saturday, so two days before, Thursday, I baked the cupcakes. This took around 3 hours. I didn't encounter any issues with this. Made sure to read through all of the directions prior so that I had all of my butter and eggs at room temperature if needed.
I checked off the ingredients as I put them in so that I wouldn't get confused. After the cupcakes had cooled, I put them into their containers. This was my first time working with vanilla beans. It was surely exciting.
Friday, 1 day before the shower, I frosted the cupcakes. This took much longer than the baking and I ran into only 1 major issue. The frosting for the Oreo Cupcakes contained pieces of Oreo which got caught in the nozzle while I was piping it on. I only got through 2 cupcakes before having to remove all of the frosting from the bag to get the nozzle off. From there on, I just used a piping bag with the tip cut off.
Snoops had a sugar high. I let him lick a few of the beaters once I was done with them :)
I left the cupcakes on the counter overnight as our house gets down to about 55 degrees at night during the spring time. If this was summer, I would have put them outside in the trunk, but since the weather was going below freezing, I didn't want the frosting freezing. I read that if the frosting freezes, it will develop a hard shell on the outside.
The Day-Of the Bridal Shower
The day-of the bridal shower, I loaded up the car and was on the road by 6:30AM. I had a dress fitting at 9AM. When I rolled into town, the first thing I did was open up the trunk to make sure the frosting didn't all fall off. After I noticed the cupcakes were just fine, it was smooth sailing from then on.
For the dessert table, I used Cupcake Stands which I made previously (see the making of those here).
A Chalkboard Bunting Banner which I also made prior to the event (see that how-to here).
And Paper Cupcake Toppers (tutorial here). One definite thing to remember is to put the toppers on the cupcakes 1 to 2 hours before they are to be served as, after awhile, the moisture from the cupcake begins to seep up into the paper.
I had to get a picture with my cupcakes. This took a lot of planning, but I was so thrilled to see it all come together the day of.
From the Chalkboard Bunting, I had a few triangles left over, so we used those on the gift table to spell out "Best Wishes".
The shower was beautiful and everyone did a fabulous job planning and making all of the food, decorations and games. Can making cupcakes be my full-time job? ;)
Just as a recap, all of the Bridal Shower Planning posts are:
The shower was on Saturday, so two days before, Thursday, I baked the cupcakes. This took around 3 hours. I didn't encounter any issues with this. Made sure to read through all of the directions prior so that I had all of my butter and eggs at room temperature if needed.
Friday, 1 day before the shower, I frosted the cupcakes. This took much longer than the baking and I ran into only 1 major issue. The frosting for the Oreo Cupcakes contained pieces of Oreo which got caught in the nozzle while I was piping it on. I only got through 2 cupcakes before having to remove all of the frosting from the bag to get the nozzle off. From there on, I just used a piping bag with the tip cut off.
The Day-Of the Bridal Shower
The day-of the bridal shower, I loaded up the car and was on the road by 6:30AM. I had a dress fitting at 9AM. When I rolled into town, the first thing I did was open up the trunk to make sure the frosting didn't all fall off. After I noticed the cupcakes were just fine, it was smooth sailing from then on.
Just as a recap, all of the Bridal Shower Planning posts are:
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