I am curious, if you have to make 200+ cupcakes, how far in advance do you start baking, decorating and how do you keep them fresh for your event?
TIA

I have wondered the same thing! I can't wait to hear some answers!!

Well, I guess it really depends on how quickly you work and if you have a lot of other stuff going on, like taking care of kids or working a full-time job.

I'm doing 4 dozen regular-size and 6 dozen minis, some chocolate and some vanilla, with 4 different frosting colors for my first wedding order (woo hoo!) this Saturday. That's 120 total, and I plan to bake, make the frostings, swirl them and box them up all on Friday.

But, I don't have a real job, my kids are grown and gone, and my husband's out of town. So, no other obligations or distractions.

I had an order last summer for 215 cupcakes, four different kinds, four different fillings, and four different frostings.

I made all the fillings and frostings first, stored them in the refrigerator about 5 days before the event. I then started on the cupcakes 4 days before. I kept them covered as I baked them, either in cake carriers or just covered with kitchen towels. I don't worry about them drying a little, when I cut out the center to fill them, it is easier if they aren't moist on the top.

Baked all cupcakes within 2-3 days, then just did assembly line around the table - cut out centers, piped in filling, frosted them all. Boxed, stored in fridge, and delivered the next day to the event.

If you aren't filling any cupcakes, then I would make sure to keep them covered.

I just made an order for 400 cupcakes with just 2 people working on them. I baked on sunday and monday finished up on tuesday (only a few left). put them in the fridge with air tight container, filled on wednesday and frosted all day of thursday - needed to be there on friday am. It took me from 9:30am until 9:30 pm to frost them. My daughter helped frost from 1:00pm until 9:30 pm and my granddaughter helped too. We were exhausted on thursday. Didn't want to see another cupcake ever. LOL
One word to the wise. Make sure you leave time in case there is some kind of catastrophy. I had none, so I was lucky, but it has been known to happen. HTH

I bake the cupcakes ,let cool,freeze in closed boxes up to a month if I need to ,same thing with the butter cream,take everything out of the freezer to the fridge the night before I plan to decorate,after filling and decoration they keep nicely fresh for up to 3days in the fridge or one day in air conditioned room.

I made 675 cupcakes for a bake sale at my children's school. I made the cupcakes, while they were cooling I made the frostings, decorated and packed them in large rubber maid plastic containers. I started baking 4 pm after coming in from work and 600 were ready by seven am for pickup by my child teacher. He was shock at the beautiful array of cupcakes. All he could say was "when I was told cupcakes were coming for our bake sale I imagine something simple but this is better than the ones I get I our bakery" That made me feel like a million dollars. I had no mishaps that night and luckily my kids 6, 11 and 13 had no home work that evening. While baking I also taught our foster child who's 16 years old how to make cupcakes she was really helpful. I finished the other seventy five and dropped them to the school about ten thirty and went on to work. I love big cupcake challenges. Luckily I have lots of cupcake pans so i didn't have to wait for one batch to finish before starting the others.

I usually make frostings and fillings ahead of time, but I like to bake mine the day of. Cupcakes dry out so quickly. I can bake 200 in a few hours, but I do have a convection oven and can bake 6-7 dozen at a time.

i do large cupcake orders all the time. Earlier this year I did 1000 for the Governors Inaugural reception and last sunday I did 300 on 2 days notice for the Father's Day brunch at my work. Here is what I have found that works for me:

I collect boxes that strawberries come to grocery stores in and line them with foil. They hold between 30 and 42 depending on the size of the cupcake. The boxes have interlocking tabs so the stack. When stacked, they leave very little air space. Grocery stores are very willing to give away the boxes so they dont have to dispose of them.

When baking, I take the cuppies out of the pans and put directly into the boxes. I stack about 3 boxes and then put them into a garbage bag and close with a clothes pin. Into the freezer they go! Keep on going and stack another wrapped 3 boxes right on top. ( I take the shelves out of my stand up freezer when I do these orders.

When ready to decorate, take out of freezer and remove bag to allow the condensation to escape. Decorate right in the box, stack, and deliver!

Done!

I made 300 cupcakes for a wedding by myself, I did 100 a night, and put them all in the fridge, some in my freezer i keep for just cakes only, i got up early that saturday morning and iced them...i iced the ones from the freezer last, I just set them out to thaw while i worked on the others.

the bride and her guest loved them and complimented still on how moist they were.

I did 500 cupcakes for my son's school in June. I baked 100 each day, five days ahead of time. And placed them in the freezer, made buttercream and placed in containers. All cupcakes were fine.

I have 300 to do for this weekend. How fast do the cupcakes dry out if left covered, unfrosted at room temp? I don't have the fridge or freezer space for that many.