Creating a Cupcake Tower

    Cupcakes are definitely a trend right now in the cake biz!  They are easy to serve and very cute for children's parties, baby showers, and even weddings!  But how to display them in a manner that creates a centerpiece for your party like a big cake does?  With a custom made cupcake tower!!

All my cupcake towers usually include a small 6" - 8" fondant cake with corresponding decorations to whatever the party theme is, anywhere from 4-6 dozen cupcakes (all color and theme coordinated) and the cupcake tower decorated to the theme.  Of course, you don't have to do a small cake on top, but I think it really pulls the design together. 

I buy the cupcake towers from www.cupcaketree.com.  They offer cupcake trees that are square, round, large, small, ....you name it!!  I usually purchase the round cupcake tree that holds up to 100 cupcakes because it works for the size of the cake and amount of cupcakes I am using.  These cupcake trees usually go for around $30-$35 with shipping and tax.

So, first things first!

1. Paint or cover your cupcake tower! The cupcake towers come as unassembled cardboard.  The big plates and the actual tower support must be colored by using spray paint or wrapped with a color coordinated wrapping paper.  I usually use spray paint.

2. Assemble your cupcake tower  The towers are very easy to assemble and come with instructions.  They are lightweight and can be moved from one location to another already assembled!

3. Cover your edges!  I usually use a color coordinated ribbon to cover the edges of the cardboard.  You don't need to do the inside structure, just the plates.  I fire up my hot glue gun and glue the ribbon all around each edge.  There are usually 4 plates, so one roll of ribbon usually does the trick.

4. Fill with cupcakes and/or your cake and enjoy!  I do this step at the location, you cannot travel with the cupcake tower and the cupcakes all together.  Make sure to fill up the tower, as it will tend to look empty without at least 48 cupcakes, unless you are using the petite tower.

Here are some examples!

This cupcake tower was for a little girls 1st birthday.  We hand sculpted the Hello Kitty from rice krispy treats and covered her with fondant.  We also sculpted baby blocks with the little girls name.  All the cupcakes were iced with buttercream in coordinating colors and topped with a little Hello Kitty ring! 

 

This tower used an 8" cake (see how it takes up the entire first plate, so keep that in mind!)  For the cupcakes, we used buttercream icing in coordinating colors and placed edible image cutouts of the Paul Frank design on each.

This design was for a monkey themed baby shower.  The monkey is resting in a hammock tied to two gumpaste palm trees!  So cute!  The cupcakes are frosted with color coordinated buttercream icing.



Cupcake towers are a fantastic way to serve cake at your party without taking the time to actually cut and serve the cake!  The towers I have shown will serve roughly 60-80 people.  It would take almost an hour out of your entertaining time to cut and serve a cake that big!


If you are in the Los Angeles Area, please contact us to create a beautiful custom cupcake tower for your next event!

Sincerely,
Wendy Beauvais
WB's Custom Cakes
www.wbcustomcakes.com

Integrate your cake into your party theme!

On all my cake adventures (deliveries!! haha), I have come across some really beautiful parties!  And some very inventive hostesses!  It is always an inspiration, and what I noticed was that the parties were clearly centered around an invite.  (I mean, that's where it all starts , right?) Down to the decorations, entertainment, food, cake, etc....it all centered around an invite and theme.
I have created quite a few cakes around an invite, as the customer requested.  It actually makes my job fairly simple because the main design is pretty much already created, via the invitation company.  Here a few examples:

I love monkey themed baby showers!  This one was at a beautiful restaurant in Downtown Pasadena.  The decor was simple; matching colored linens, balloons, etc. and the cake was the centerpiece for the event. 

This cupcake tower was created for a 1st birthday garden themed party!  I love all the little bugs and flowers.  We took special care to design the flowers and leaves just as they were on the invite (adds that little detail that makes a big difference!)  Cupcake towers are so beautiful!  They make a big statement, and the cake cutting is very minimal.  I will go into cupcake towers in a future blog!

This adorable Minnie Mouse themed cake was for a 1st birthday as well.  So many elements from this party were printed at home using a print your own party package from etsy.com (which by the way, I love!) The party was so well coordinated, all the way down to the water bottle labels and gift bags!

I really enjoy all the themed "print your own party" packages that etsy's vendors offer, so here is a link to a vendor that does a fantastic job! http://www.simonemadeit.com   There are some that offer to print everything for you, but honestly if you have a nice printer and time on your hands, do it yourself!  You can save sooo much hard earned moola!

Have fun planning, and if you are in the Los Angeles area, please shoot us an email so we can help you with a cake design that pulls together your party theme!

Sincerely,
Wendy Beauvais
WB's Custom Cakes
www.wbcustomcakes.com

               Wedding cake for the modern bride and groom

Today's weddings are so unique....each one I go to is so different from the next...and in a good way!  People are so in tuned to who they are and what they like.  Traditions no longer hang over your head and whisper in your ear what you should eat, wear, or decorate with at weddings.  Weddings can be as unique as you are... 
My cousin was recently married, and I had the opportunity to create a truly unique and memorable cake for the bride and groom.  They wanted a design that was theirs....no one else would ever make this same cake.  And how exactly to do that?  Well, by writing your favorite quotes, song lyrics, inside jokes, etc all over the cake of course!  And to top it off, paint your silhouettes on the cake while you're at it!

Their wedding was so fun!  I would call the wedding style "vintage country" but even that doesn't fully explain it.  Sunflowers, mason jars, white twinkly lights, etc... you get the drift.  The couples themselves are very unique.  Both worked as acrobats for Disney theme parks, so to say their life is exciting would be an understatement.

So, if you are looking for inspiration for your wedding cake, keep these tips in mind to be able to create a design that is truly "you":

1. Integrate your interests into your cake- This could be a subtle dash of color, a small design element, or even a unique shape to the cake.

2. Add elements of your relationship into the design- You could even do this with your cake flavor.  Met in a coffee shop?  Make your cake filling a coffee mousse or a mocha cake flavor!

3. Don't copy other cake designs!- So many bakeries will have you look through their "cake book"... don't fall for it!  Google a lot of cakes!  Maybe pick out design elements you like, and then have a cake artist help you design something along those same lines, but custom!  It's worth it!


Good luck with all your planning and if you are in the Los Angeles area, give us a ring to help you design the perfect "unique" wedding cake for your big day!

Sincerely,
Wendy Beauvais
WB's Custom Cakes
www.wbcustomcakes.com