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