First time I've been asked to do one of these and looking forward to it I can tell you.

Firstly can anyone tell me where I could buy a cupcake stand that will hold about 180 Muffins and an 8" Cake on the top over the net.

Secondly when you bake and ice your muffins, when do you insert the decorations. The bride's colours are ivory and green, she's looking for muffins in both colours with a sugarpaste heart topper in each. If I finish them up the day before the wedding and insert the sugarhearts, will they go greasy?

And what would you think of a vanilla cupcake with green buttercream icing on it... does that sound icky to you or is it just too early on a monday to think about such things?

anyone?

bump....

Maybe you could make the stand from stacked Styrofoam shapes or wooden boxes covered in cloth.

That's a LOT of Green icing for a wedding. It might look like a christmas tree. I'm not sure what your traditions are in Ireland. I think I would try for ivory icing & ivory heart outlined in green or a marbelized heart. Perhaps just some of the cupcakes could be green to cut down on the dark color. I would definately do some samples and or drawings for her to choose from.

Thanks Jenn,

I've found a cake stand company in Britain, will cost me about 160 for a perspex stand that holds about 150-160 including delivery, which is an awful lot of money. I know I can charge some of it out to her as stand rental, but I definitely seen an american company that sold cardboard collapsable cup cake stands, but I'll be darned if I can remember who and searches are throwing up nothing!

Her BM's are wearing this green colour and her own bouquet is of green orchids, thats why she wants the ivory and green cupcakes, but just the thoughts of it is turning my stomach, lol. I have a feeling her BM's flowers might be pink, so I'm going to try and edge her away from the green if I can.

I'm kinda thinking if she has her top cake with a green ribbon around the base and has all her cupcakes in ivory with the little hearts in ivory with green writing or ivory and silver, and a green ribbon around the edge of each tier of the stand that it will be enough, will have a proper chat with her about that when I work out my prices completely.

Sparkly

at www.bossmanufacturing.com you can get gorgeous metal dessert stands. I have this one here and it holds 120-140 large cupcakes when each tier is used, and the extras you have can simply go beneath it onto the table. It is very very sturdy, made of metal painted white and weighs a very solid 34lbs.

You can also remove the tiers in any combination you'd like.

They cost about $200 - $250

It's great if you plan on renting it out over and over again, because you will make the price back very quickly.

Antonia, thats even more expensive, lol.

These cupcake cakes are a really only coming into focus in Ireland, people are really only starting to come away from the compulsory three tier fruit cake and are still going with one tier fruit because "my granny will expect it", the chances of me getting another one of these to do within twelve months is very very slim.



This is the one I was looking at from

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/displaydesigns

What percentage of the cost of a stand would you charge as rental?

I'm doing one this weekend and i ended up purchasing the Wilton cupcake tree and plan on putting the extra cupcakes around it.. it cannot hold a cake on top though.. but you could always put that one on its own stand next to the cupcake tree with even more cupcakes surrounding it... also, i wanted this to look more like a wedding and not a birthday party so i bought some white satin and drapped it inside the wires so that the cupcakes sit up against the satin and it looks like a wedding cake more...

as far as the green goes... couldnt you do ivory BC on the tops of the cupcakes.. and add a few tiny, tiny green leaves around it.. maybe a pink dot in between with the heart in the middle of the cupcake??

Does the bride want the cupcake stand to display the cupcakes?

If you can't find or don't want to spend too much money, what about having the 8" on a pedestal stand and use square or round cake plates for the cupcakes to display around the 8"? Nicely decorated, I think this would be a great substitution unless the bride definitely wants the cupcake stand. Just for ideas of what I'm talking about, check link below and click on "New cupcake stand click here". Scroll down there are pics of a few pedestals as well as a round and square grapevine stand. I'm sure you could find something cheaper than what is on this site but what I was imagining was a pedestal in middle with 8" and the round or square stands surrounding. I think this could be a very pretty setup with other decor; flowers, candles, etc. Hope this helps.

http://www.njsweddingshop.com/diy_cakestands.htm

I forgot to mention that you should probably put the hearts on the morning of or as late as possible the day of the wedding before delivery. I've read that fondant may breakdown if left on buttercream too long. Also, with the heart topper, the green shouldn't be that bad. When setting up, alternate the cupcakes with white and green so not all green are side by side.

Here's a cardboard one in Michigan.... don't know if you want to pay the shipping.
http://cupcaketree.com/item.html?PRID=800252

Is there a place near you that rents things like this? I can rent fountains, pans, and large separator plates.

Antonia74 has a beautiful cupcake display.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=favpics&cat=0&pos=-5829

thanks...but I had a local carpenter make that one for me from MDF

Jenn the company in Michigan is the one I seen before, thankyou. $40 is a lot nearer the budget I was thinking. I've emailed them to see how much they would charge to ship it here, but even if its the same again its still half the price of the one in England.

Sparklycake-
I've purchased several stands from the one in MI. They are really helpful. Shipping isn't too much, either, between $20-$50 depending on how quickly you need it. I highly recommend them.
Just a tip: If you cover the cardboard with clear contact paper, you can reuse them several times. I always cover mine in clear contact paper, then put a ribbon or some other decoration around the edge as well as some sort of decoration ontop of the clear contact paper 8fondant, pretty paper, material, etc). The contact paper protects the cardboard and makes it so you can wipe them clean.

HTH

Thats great Cande. Good to know that someone has used it and was able to use it again, i was wondering about that too!

I've emailed them requesting postage cost so I can give a final price to the bride.

How many does the larger stand hold? I didn't see a quantity in the description. (Of course I may be blind)

Jenn-I use mine in tons of different combinations depending on what I need it for--it's really versatile!-- so any where from 30-300. If you use the complete large stand it holds 300. It doesn't look very nice (IMO) if you use smaller cupcakes/desserts on it though, unless you use something to fill in the extra height/empty space between the layers.

Whenever I use less tiers, I make sure to use large cupcakes (sometimes mixed with mini cupcakes). If I use less tiers and want to use smaller desserts as well, I always add something to 'fill it out' or it just doesn't look right. I see that they have a new mini-version though...so maybe I'll need to order one . (Stands are outrageous over here).

Oh, and I really like to use less tiers and put a small cake on top, with other desserts on the tiers underneath. It looks nice (and an added bonus is that no one here is used to seeing it that way, lol)

I just looked on their site and here's what they say:
"How many cupcakes will the original Cupcaketree hold? The original Cupcaketree will hold between 50 and 300 cupcakes depending on how many tiers are used. For a large party, all five tiers plus the table top can hold 300-plus cupcakes and for a small event, 2 tiers will hold 50 cupcakes or less. "

Sparklycake
I made 140 cupcakes for a wedding a few weeks ago and i put together my own stand with masonite cakeboards and cake dummies. The bride didnt want all the cupcakes on display and the stand i made held 140 cupcakes only because they just went around the perimeter. They were large muffin sized cupcakes so 2 inches wide.
Here it is, a bit similar to what you're doing but in other colours. I found
that at first the hearts got a bit sweaty but that wore off once the sweat dried up. I put the hearts on the night before and refrigerated them all for at least 14 hours.
Hope this helps
Nati

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