Cupcake Bouquet!!

"When you look at a cupcake, You've got to smile."

         ~Anne Byrn

So, I last left you after Mother's Day with the promise to return and tell you how to make cupcake bouquets!

The baking and the decorating is probably the easiest part of this whole thing. Baking vanilla and/or chocolate cupcakes take 26 minutes if you use a box mix. Frosting them takes about 15 minutes, with the right tools and equipment. However, assembling them is tough!

Here's what you'll need:

• 12-18 cupcakes (in my experience 12 was plenty for two bouquets)

• 12-18 cupcake liners

• about 3 cups 'stiff' buttercream icing here's the recipe 

• 1M tip (Or N˚ 2110)

• any 2 icing colors, contrast is nice, so pick two bold colors!

• 20 tooth picks Or very thin wooden dowels used for kabobs. (Must have a pointy end!)

• half a styrofoam ball OR styrofoam cube

• planting pot OR fancy watering can

• ribbon for decoration

 Before we begin, here's some Do's & Don'ts that I wish I saw on a blog before this adventure:

☺ Do make this ahead of time, give yourself at least 5-6 hrs. It seems simple, but the assembly is annoying. 

☺ Do make 12-18 cupcakes, even though you  think you'll need anywhere between 3-6, in the assembly process... some will break. That's when things get annoying.

☺ Do wait for the cupcakes to cool before icing.

☺ Do try to find green cupcake liners.

And ☺ Do wait for decorated cupcakes to dry before trying to assemble.

☹ Don't use floral foam instead of styrofoam!

☹ Don't bake too dense of a cupcake, try to stick with a box mix, OR better yet, angel food cupcakes 

☹ Don't cover cupcakes once baked OR decorated. Cupcakes and icing won't get hard enough.

And ☹ Don't get frustrated when it all starts to fall apart, and throw it in the garbage!

Ok, So you have all your materials- Let's go! Once you've baked your cupcakes (and they've cooled) set aside the ones you will be using. All extra can be put in a freezer ziplock (up right, not stacked) and frozen for the next bouquet you make (or for any future cupcake project!) To decorate: Once you've cut a hole in you pastry bag (if you don't have a pastry bag or don't feel like investing in one... a ziplock freezer bag will do just fine!), fit tip into bottom of bag. Fill your pastry bag a 1/4 of the way with frosting. Take your first cupcake, angle it toward you, starting in the centre and using medium pressure start to frost the cupcake. Instead of turning the cupcake, it's a lot easier to go in a circular motion with the hand holding the pastry bag. Make sure to decorate to the very edge of the cupcake so that no cupcake shows.

Once all cupcakes are decorated, wait until the icing is slightly hardened. To assemble: Place the half styrofoam ball into a planting pot (the half ball should not go down more the 1/3 of the way into the pot.) Pre-place two- three toothpicks into each spot where you would like to eventually place the cupcake. Then once the holes have already been made into the styrofoam take them out and insert them into the bottoms of the cupcake in the same pattern you inserted them into the styrofoam (the best way to do this should be in a "wide- stance" tripod pattern!). Once all the cupcakes have been assembled around the half ball, fill in gaps by decorating with fake (or real) foliage and Voila!