Custom Cupcake Wedding Stand

For one of the last wedding orders I completed I needed to construct a stand ASAP. I didn't have time to go and buy one that met the bride's specifications (plus, large scale stands that can hold 70 cupcakes are ridiculously expensive) so I knew I needed to get working. The supplies to make the cupcake stand were a tad bit on the expensive side, but I wanted to make sure the stand was food safe and stable. My bride wanted something with bling to match the glamorous cupcakes so I needed to buy bling wrap, but you can basically decorate this cupcake stand with anything you desire.

Time: 2 Hours

Materials needed to make the basic cupcake stand (approximately $115.00 for all of the materials I used):

• Varying sizes of flat and square/circular styrofoam blocks (get the strong stuff, not the garden stuff!)
• Cube shaped styrofoam boxes 
• Food safe wrap (it kind of looks like gift wrap, but it is food safe and a lot more pliable; I bought my roll from Michael's)
• Cake board

Optional Materials that I used:

• Ribbon
• Bling Wrap

Tools:

• Glue gun
• Stapler

Instructions:

1) Wrap all of the flat Styrofoam pieces with the food safe wrapping (shown right on the picture above); Don't worry about wrapping them all the way around as only one side will be visible (as shown below). TIP: Make sure that you place a few staples in the middle so that your tiers don't shake and rip the paper. I had a little bit of an issue!

2) Place a small amount of hot glue on the edge of the Styrofoam block and carefully line up the ribbon to create a straight border. Only apply a little bit of glue at a time as hot glue tends to dry very quickly. Run your hand over the ribbon to even out the glue. It will look silly if the ribbon is popping off of the edging.

3) Next, I added bling wrap using hot glue to give it that extra pop. Bling wrap is awesome as it comes in thick strips that can be cut to your specifications. I chose to cut rows of three as it was the perfect amount. Not too much bling, but not too little either.

Once you are finished, your boxes should all look uniform.

4) Cover all of the smaller boxes with the food safe wrap. For these ones I would recommend covering the whole box. 

5) I added ribbon and bling wrap to the boxes, but feel free to leave them plain as the cupcakes may end up covering a lot of the detailing.

6) Hot glue the largest tier on the cake board.

7) Hot glue one of the cubes onto the middle of the bottom tier. Make sure all of your tiers and blocks are super centered or else the law of physics will be against you and your tiers will tip over. Continue the hot gluing process with the rest of the tiers and blocks. 

When placing your cupcakes on the upper tiers, make sure that you equally distribute the weight of the cupcakes. 

Beautiful baking sweeties!

Oreo Cupcakes

I am back my baking buddies! I became so incredibly busy with finishing up my education practicum that I have obviously failed on writing blog posts. I have taken plenty of pictures of my baking endeavors the last few months, but I didn't have time to post all of my tutorials so I will do that in due time. 

UPDATE: I shut the bakery down to the public because I am officially going to be a full time kindergarten teacher this September and I am still going to continue to teach piano as well (not to mention the fact that I am getting married!). I now only provide baked goodies for family and friends, but please visit SD Bake Shoppe's Facebook page (and hit like if you love sweets!) for up to date pictures. 

It was a ton of fun making these and it was one of the smoothest and quickest orders I ever completed. Hope the kiddies enjoyed them as their party favours!

Now let's get baking!

My sister is absolutely obsessed with everything Oreo so my mom requested that I make these fantastic Oreo cupcakes for our annual family BBQ. 

I used my favourite vanilla cupcake recipe from Glorious Treats. I also opted for the less traditional Oreo cookie. Who knew that they had mint triple chocolate Oreos? I sure didn't!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F

Place the Oreo half with the icing on the bottom of a cupcake liner (my apologies for the blurry photo)

With the halves without the icing, toss them into a food processor for expediency or place them in a strong plastic Ziploc to form cookie crumbs. This will later be used for the buttercream frosting. 

After all of the cupcake liners are filled with Oreo halves, cover the cupcakes in cupcake batter 3/4 of the way full. I like to use a measuring cup with a spout for easy batter pouring. 

Bake the cupcakes for 12 minutes, turn the pan around and bake for another 4 minutes. The cupcakes should have a slight golden brown edging. I cut these in half so I could see the yummy goodness!

For the buttercream, I used a typical vanilla buttercream recipe. 

Ingredients:

3 Cups Confectioners Sugar

1 Cup Unsalted Butter

1 Tablespoon of Milk

2 Vanilla Bean Pods

Cream all of the ingredients together until it forms a stiff buttercream. Add the cookie crumbs and pipe onto your cupcakes. For the mint cupcakes, I dyed the icing green and added mint chocolate chips. Enjoy with a tall glass of milk.

Beautiful Baking Sweeties!