I am making cupcakes for my Granddaughters Christening. There are approx. 80 people coming. I am looking for some ideas on the cupcake recipes and frosting. I've bought a makeshift cupcake stand (Wilton separater plates 18", 14" 12" and 10" with 5in grecian pillars) I'm planning on putting a small fondant 6" cake on the top. Would like some recipes on the cupcakes and frosting that may go together with a Palm Sunday Christening. I am looking for a light fluffy frosting and wondering what size wilton tip I should use to achieve a nice spiral look on top of cupcakes. Thanks for your ideas!

Good tips to use for making swirls on cupcakes are tips 1M & 2D. Any large star tips or basic round tips work well also.

Here is a great website on frosting cupcakes...
http://glorioustreats.blogspot.com/2011/08/cupcake-basics-how-to-frost-cupcakes.html

Maybe someone else will chime in with more experience, but I have concerns with your idea of the cupcake tower. To use the separator plates you need to have a bottom plate, the pillars then the top plate. These are pressed together. Then there would be a layer of cake. Then a repeat of plate, pillar and plate. It seems to me you won't have the cake layer to hold the two plates together. I am just questioning if that system will really work. I would give it a try and see if that will work and will it be stable with people grabbing cupcakes from it. It would be unfortunate if it would collapse. If you were just going to have one plate and pillar, I think it would be unstable and slide around. Also, ditto, 1M and 2D work great for the swirls.

Thanks for the suggestions. That website is great! As far as the cupcake tower I have my reservations too about that. My husband seems to think it will work but I'm afraid it would the fondant cake will be too heavy up top. I mentioned that to him when we where in the craft shop and he spied those wilton plates and pillars. I said if they were designed to do that it would have said it! lol. Anyway anybody else have any suggestions for a cupcake tower?

I didn't have much luck with my CC search for cupcake towers. But then I went to the cupcake category and just scanned down for cupcake tower or stands in the heading. Here is one http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-740443.html This lists some different cupcake stands, Wilton also sells a variety. You could do some more searching or scan some more topics in the cupcake heading for some more tower ideas.

I bought my cupcake tower at http://www.thecupcaketower.com/

I got my cupcake stand at[url] www.thesmartbaker.com [/url].

You can make a stand from pvc pipe, threaded rod and a few other items. I made one similar to the bottom link. You can always have it for future events. HTH

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-725649-0.html

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1713132/homemade-cupcake-stand