Help With Wedding Cupcakes

Baking By crazy4cupcakes Updated 15 Mar 2009 , 7:36pm by sugarspice

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crazy4cupcakes Posted 13 Mar 2009 , 1:34am
post #1 of 7

I have my first wedding coming up and I am making 150 cupcakes for my friend's daughter's wedding. I've never made this many cupcakes before so I'm trying to get organized and plan to do as much in advance as possible so I'm not scrambling like crazy. Any advice on the following questions would be really appreciated!

(1) How far in advance can I make fondant toppers and how should I store them?

The cupcakes are going to have various fondant flowers and other fondant decorations (circles with monograms). They are in my gallery. I normally make fondant decorations for cupcakes a few days in advance, let them dry and store them in a cardboard cake box. With this many flowers to make I would like to make them as far in advance as possible. Does anyone know how far in advance I could make them? I will be using homemade MMF.

(2) Will the fondant be ok in the summer?

Also I've only made fondant flowers in a cool environment. I only started using fondant in the fall of 2008 so I'm not sure how the heat and humidity will affect the decorations. The wedding will be indoors and I'll be storing the fondant decorations in a cool place. Has anyone had any experience with this? Should I make a fondant/gumtext mix instead?

(3) Should I make the flowers in gumpaste instead?

I've done alot of gumpaste work before and they dry hard so I know I don't have to worry about humidity. Should I at least make the smaller flowers out of gumpaste to save time?

(4) I'll be transporting these in cake boxes in the trunk of my Matrix in the summer. I'll be turning on the aircon full blast before I load my car. Will they be ok in the trunk (with non slip mats) for a 25 minute drive?

(5) Any other advice?


Thanks for any advice!

Judy

6 replies
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ApplegumKitchen Posted 13 Mar 2009 , 4:46am
post #2 of 7

Hi Judy,

Being organised is the key - so you are definately on the right track.

1) The fondant toppers will last a great deal of time if stored properly in a moisture free dark environment (a shoe box is perfect) I have found plastic containers can cause moisture build up and may cause decos to soften. At least 6 months will be OK - even longer!! Just a tip though - check whether the colours you are using are UV sensitive because some of the newer gel colours fade quickly when exposed to light. Do a test portion if you are unsure.
I haven't used MMF for these - only homemade fondant or Bakels (Brand available in Australia) but think it should be the same

2) In the summer here we add a little extra CMC Tylose to the fondant to compensate for extra humidity - this make a perfect medium for modelling etc - a little knob of crisco can be added as well.

3) I only use Flowerpaste to get the thin petals - it stretches better than plain fondant with CMC - but if you don't think you need the workability of the flowerpaste then the CMC strengthened fondant should be fine (they still set hard)

4) The boot of the car is a good place to transport - just make sure you have suitable boxes with cupcake inserts to prevent them touching each other

Only think I would be testing is the keeping qualities of your buttercream - here in Australia we have to be careful if it is a "butter'cream as oposed to a SHORTENING CREME - whcih does tend to withstand the higher temps.

Make sure you do a test run of your cupcake mix - the more dense types of mixes that we tend to favour here definately have better keeping qualities - Cakes could be baked on say a Wednesday for a Saturday function and still remain more than edible for another few days.
It is always a good tip to completely seal the cake with the buttercream (no cake showing) as this also helps to prevent cake from drying out.

CUPCAKE LINERS - do not buy cheap ones as they tend to come away from the cake and look messy.
Take cakes out of tins straight away to cool on wire rack as being left in tins can also cause liners to separate from cakes


Good luck - I am sure you will do fine - cupcake towers are very popular at the moment

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milissasmom Posted 13 Mar 2009 , 5:05am
post #3 of 7

Awesome Advice...Can't go wrong following this Judy.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ApplegumKitchen

Hi Judy,

Being organised is the key - so you are definately on the right track.

1) The fondant toppers will last a great deal of time if stored properly in a moisture free dark environment (a shoe box is perfect) I have found plastic containers can cause moisture build up and may cause decos to soften. At least 6 months will be OK - even longer!! Just a tip though - check whether the colours you are using are UV sensitive because some of the newer gel colours fade quickly when exposed to light. Do a test portion if you are unsure.
I haven't used MMF for these - only homemade fondant or Bakels (Brand available in Australia) but think it should be the same

2) In the summer here we add a little extra CMC Tylose to the fondant to compensate for extra humidity - this make a perfect medium for modelling etc - a little knob of crisco can be added as well.

3) I only use Flowerpaste to get the thin petals - it stretches better than plain fondant with CMC - but if you don't think you need the workability of the flowerpaste then the CMC strengthened fondant should be fine (they still set hard)

4) The boot of the car is a good place to transport - just make sure you have suitable boxes with cupcake inserts to prevent them touching each other

Only think I would be testing is the keeping qualities of your buttercream - here in Australia we have to be careful if it is a "butter'cream as oposed to a SHORTENING CREME - whcih does tend to withstand the higher temps.

Make sure you do a test run of your cupcake mix - the more dense types of mixes that we tend to favour here definately have better keeping qualities - Cakes could be baked on say a Wednesday for a Saturday function and still remain more than edible for another few days.
It is always a good tip to completely seal the cake with the buttercream (no cake showing) as this also helps to prevent cake from drying out.

CUPCAKE LINERS - do not buy cheap ones as they tend to come away from the cake and look messy.
Take cakes out of tins straight away to cool on wire rack as being left in tins can also cause liners to separate from cakes


Good luck - I am sure you will do fine - cupcake towers are very popular at the moment


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crazy4cupcakes Posted 14 Mar 2009 , 12:58am
post #4 of 7

Thank you so much for all of your advice!! I really appreciate it!

The wedding is at the end of May so I think that I will start working on some of the flowers now and maybe do a test to see if the colours stay true. I'll also try mixing some tylose with the fondant. I found out (the hard way!) that if you leave the decorations in a plastic container they tend to melt. I'll put them in a nice cardboard box away from light.

I am going to order some boxes with inserts so that the cupcakes don't tip over.

I will be using a buttercream that has both butter and shortening so hopefully that will be able to withstand heat although everything should be indoors.

I am hoping to bake in batches earlier in the week (as I have young kids so my baking time is limited). I will freeze a number of batches ahead of time. My goal is to have everything baked by the Thursday night and then Friday night I will be decorating and delivery is Saturday afternoon. I hope that everything goes to plan. I never realized that if you keep the cupcakes in the tins while they are cooling that the liners separate from the cupcakes! Really great info!

Thank you again for taking the time to answer all my questions and to provide invaluable advice. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I will be really relieved when it is over!

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ApplegumKitchen Posted 14 Mar 2009 , 5:56am
post #5 of 7

Don't want to 'rain on your parade' icon_cry.gif
but..... freezing can cause the cupcakes to separate from the liners as well.

I found it easier to purchase another couple of cupcake tins and bake 3 doz in 1 batch - they only take about 10-12mins - so you should be able to pump out 100 in a little over 3/4 hour - You might need to remove cooked cupcakes from tins and then quickly pop the tins into a sink filled with cold water - so that you can use them straight away - never put cake mix into a hot tin it will affect the cooking process.

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crazy4cupcakes Posted 15 Mar 2009 , 2:26am
post #6 of 7

I didn't realize that freezing can cause the cupcakes to separate from the liners. I'll have to test it out. For the recipe that I'm using it takes approx 20 minutes to bake. In my oven I can fit 24 cupcakes per batch. I haven't tried putting 2 additional cupcake tins on the lower rack in my oven. I was kind of worried that they wouldn't bake properly.

Thanks again for your tips! I will definitely purchase a few more tins to expedite the baking process.

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sugarspice Posted 15 Mar 2009 , 7:36pm
post #7 of 7

I have my first 200 cupcake wedding next month--so this is helpful!!

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