I have to make 50 or 60 cupcakes for my brother's wedding. The wedding starts at 5pm at the same place where the reception will be.

My question is of timing.. Should I make the cupcakes the day before (its to be a mudcake recipe) and then ice them over that evening and the day of the wedding?

The icing is going to be fondant with little sugarpaste flowers and drizzled chocolate in lines over the fondant.

I'm scared that I won't leave myself enough time to get all the fondant and decorations right; but i don't want to make the cupcakes too far ahead of time or they'll be stale by the time i get them to the wedding.

I'm thinking i should make the cupcakes the afternoon/evening before. Have the sugarpaste flowers made a day or two before. And then lay the fondant and do the chocolate drizzle and attach the flowers on the day. Then i could just go early to the wedding and drop them off hopefully by 3pm so they can be set on the tables.

What do people think??

I would do a trial run and taste a cake each day to see how long they last - mud cake covered with fondant is usually good for at least week so even allowing for the smaller size I think you would be ok to bake a couple of days in advance - only one way to find out with your particular recipe though.

I've got a very similar situation coming up at the start of January: 100 cupcakes, fondant, gumpaste blossoms, chocolate 'branches'.
My plan is to make the gumpaste flowers up to a week ahead. Then make the cupcakes on the Friday. Use a little simple syrup on each cake before I ganache and fondant on Fri night. Saturday morning pipe the chocolate branches and attach the gumpaste flowers when the cakes are already in the transport boxes. Deliver and assemble the tower by 3pm.
Hope this helps.
Emma

Yes thanks this definitely does help! My cupcakes sound very similar with gumpaste flowers and fondant. And I made a batch of the cupcakes today - my thrid trial before i finally found a suitable recipe: Caramel mudcakes. SO yum, it's up there as one of the best flavours of cupcake ever! And they all came out perfectly domed and even so will be nice when i fondant them. And I plan to try the testing of them each day, great idea!

Good! I'm glad that you've got it all figured out!

P.S. Carmel mudcakes do sound really good!

WendyRainbow, would you mind sharing your caramel mud cake recipe? I've really struggled to find one that's suitable for cupcakes. You could PM me if you didn't want to make it public.
I'd be really appreciative.
Emma

Yes I can share it, its from the Australian Womens Weekly Cupcake book. - I have a few cupcake books but I always find the most reliable recipes in there. I'll post the recipe shortly!..