HELP!!!! 250 cupcakes oh my!

I can't really help with the logistics since cupcakes are not my thing. I will only bake several dozen or so.

What happens if you go into labor right before the wedding? Who will be delivering the cupcakes and setting? Could some of the others do some of the baking and decorating?

I worked the day of every one of my three births. Unless you have a condition that needs rest, yes you can do it.

In my family, there is a tradition of all of the women to get together and cater our big events. We all get together the night before and have a great time. We are all very good cooks and bakers and the results are always phenomenal.

I suggest that you square this away now and get some help. I also hosted parties the nights of the births at my house, so babies are definitely not hard to have, unless again, there is a complication or CC. So even if you have the baby before or you are slightly miserable in the last weeks, the friends and family should be on notice that you will need help and plan this now.

Many freeze cupcakes but I never do. The timeline, even for that many, for me, would be to make the frostings a few days before. They don't get old. Then the night before, make the cupcakes. After they are completely cool, put them in under bed containers and don't close the top all the way. On the morning of the event, frost the cupcakes in the container. Now they are ready to go.

Two months ago, I let a group of girls do a cupcake fundraiser in my bakery. Within a few minutes and a few practice swirls on wax paper, the girls were frosting swirl pros. So don't worry about inexperience. Six girls made hundreds of cupcakes in a few hours, but I did have three mixers and a hand mixer (they had more flavors).

Don't put your cupcakes in the refrigerator.

Do fondant decorations ahead of time.

For the lemon, you can add plenty of zest and good extract to your white cake and buttercream.

Hopefully, everyone will chip in and help. If they don't, under the circumstances, I would get advice from people who freeze.

Make sure you have disposable piping bags. This will be a big time-saver. Plus a few extra tips will come in handy if you get help.

I don't think you will have time that morning to decorate any cakes. In January my two kids I were in my brothers wedding and I made the cake. It was an 11am wedding and if I didn't have the cake made the day before I would have been showing up to the wedding when everybody else was leaving lol. If you have air tight containers that would fit that many cupcakes one night shouldn't hurt.

I do agree with sleaky. The night before is fine for a morning wedding.

Hey there, I just did a 130 cupcake order with a two tier cake to match. I started baking on a Monday and finished on Wednesday. I made all of the icing on Thursday and decorated all on Friday. For the cupcakes, i purchased the huge ziploc bags, removed most of the air and stored the cupcakes in the freezer. Before I went to my regular job on Friday morning, I put the cupcakes on the counter while still on the bags to defrost. On Saturday, every cupcake and cake was eaten. The taste was as good as the day I made them.

You should definitely have them ready to go the night before. If you are in the wedding, you will have to be there at least an hour early for pictures. Add the time that it takes to get ready...yikes, frost them the night before!

D.

I will be making 125 cupcakes for a wedding in August and was thinking about frosting them the night before and letting them set out. Would they be find just setting out on counter over night? or do they need to be covered somehow?

thanks!

Cher

If you used any frosting that had milk, cream or egg, then I would store these in the fridge overnight.

If you put fondant directly onto cake with no cream filling, then you can leave them on the counter...but yes would would cover them. They will need to be covered when you drive them to the party.

It will also be easier to drive them if they have come out of the fridge just before you get into the car and start driving.

BakingIrene:

Thanks for the reply, I will not being using any dairy(milk or such) for filling or frosting, so I think sitting out will be fine then.

thanks again,
Cher

Angiefalangee and Scrappindaisypatch--Welcome to the forum!

Looking at your cake photos, you have the skills and I think it is absolutely do-able. I am a hobby baker and LOVE freezing my cakes and cupcakes. I bake them, wrap and freeze, and they always taste every bit as good as fresh-made.

If it were me making 250 cupcakes for a wedding:

I would make a practice batch of 48-50 cupcakes today. Freeze the unfrosted cupcakes for at least 24 hours. Make a recipe of buttercream frosting today. Freeze the frosting in "frosting bullets". (Here's a link on how to do a frosting bullet (about 2 minutes into the video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgjW8bOb84s

In 24 hours, take out the frosting bullets and cupcakes and let them defrost. Do a generous 1M swirl on each one. See how much frosting it took to do 48-50 cupcakes. Take that amount x 5 and you'll have the amount needed for your 250 cupcakes. Let a bunch of people do a taste test of the previously frozen cupcakes. Do NOT tell them they were frozen. Just ask how they taste. (They will taste just fine.)
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I'd do ALL the fondant decorations in the next 2 weeks, starting ASAP. Store them in a NON-airtight container out of the light. Darker colors, especially purple, fade very easily, so make sure they are in the dark when stored. (A cardboard cake box would work just fine.)

Purchase ALL your supplies needed NOW. Cupcake liners, 16-18" disposable piping bags if possible, or the Wilton 12" bags. Purchase 5 or more 1M tips so you can have multiple bags filled and ready to go.

You can make all your buttercream frosting now and freeze it.

FYI: Here's a thread about how much frosting for 400 cupcakes. You can get a lot of information regarding how much frosting you'll need:
http://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=150674&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=&STARTPAGE=2

Get clean boxes/containers in the next 2 weeks to transport the 250 decorated cupcakes to the venue. The cardboard boxes that strawberries come in make wonderful, cheap transportation. Purchase some non-skid, rubberized shelf liner at the dollar store, and cut to fit the bottom of the boxes. The strawberry boxes work great because they can "nest" and "stack" and have room for extra-tall decorated cupcakes.

I would line up reliable people now to help you do all the assembly, cleaning/packing/transporting/setting up, the day before and the day OF the wedding. Tell them they MUST be there. Have the vehicles for transport ready. 250 cupcakes takes up a lot of room.

Plan of having everything done and packed in the vehicles in covered boxes by 10 pm the night before the wedding. Get everything to the venue and set up a minimum of 2 hours early. Leave someone to "guard" the cupcake display at the venue while you get dressed.

The freezer can be your best friend through all of this. Refrigerator's cause the process of going stale to accelerate, so unless you are using perishable ingredients that must be refrigerated, I'd stay away from refrigerating your cupcakes.

If you go the route of using a freezer, you can do nearly everything ahead of time. Once everything is pulled out and put in an "assembly line" display for frosting and applying the decorations, it should go fairly quickly with help. If your friends can bake and freeze the white and chocolate cupcakes, that would perfect.

Since you are pregnant, I would have at least one of your friends come over when you do the very first practice batch of 50 and show her how to decorate the cupcakes. Then, if anything happens to you health-wise, that person can kinda take over the assembly while you supervise.
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Recipes:

I personally would use raspberry sleeve filling. It is tasty, shelf-stable, and doesn't require refrigeration. I use an OXO corer to core my cupcakes, squirt in some filling, then tamp the cored piece back on top of the filling.

Here is a doctored box-mix lemon cake recipe that has gotten rave reviews. You can omit the poppyseed if you wish:
LEMON POPPYSEED CAKE:
1 box Duncan Hines (18.25 oz.) lemon cake mix
4 oz. (1 box) Lemon instant pudding
1 cup lemonade
4 large eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 Tablespoon poppy seed
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Here are some wonderful crusting buttercream recipes:
BUNNYWOMAN'S CRUSTING BUTTERCREAM: (a lovely lady on Wilton.com)
http://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=7&threadid=132579&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

BUNNYWOMAN'S CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM:
http://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=7&threadid=135438

BUNNYWOMAN'S MOCK SHACK:
http://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=7&threadid=135663&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

INDYDEBI CRISCO-BASED BUTTERCREAM--(Excellent for hot/humid areas):
(IndyDebi is a very experienced decorator/caterer: http://cateritsimple.blogspot.com/)
Single Batch Recipe:
1-1/3 cups Crisco (BETTER: store brand shortening with 3 grams of trans-fats, or BEST, a specialty cake supply product called high-ratio shortening. As of 2010 Crisco no longer contains trans-fats.)
1/3 to 1/2 cup milk, depending on consistency needed
3 Tbsp powdered Dream Whip (powdered whipped topping mix made by Kraft Foods)
2-3 Tbsp clear vanilla, depending on personal taste (optional: almond extract, or lemon extract )
2 lbs. powdered pure cane sugar
IndyDebi says: There's no wrong way to mix this. I usually mix all but the powdered sugar & milk for a minute or two, then gradually alternate the sugar & milk, but the only reason I do this is to avoid the "sugar-splash" factor. The longer the mixer runs, the smoother it gets. Sifting the powdered sugar before blending helps with smoothness but is not necessary.
NOTE: Based on recommendations from other users of her recipe: 1) I make a double batch so the beaters are totally immersed to avoid air bubbles, 2) I beat the shortening, milk, Dream Whip, and vanilla for 10-15 minutes BEFORE I add the powdered sugar. I refrigerate or freeze leftover icing.
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This is an idea from Rae of BlakesCakes that I have used with great success:
"I often ice with a 50/50 mixture of homemade buttercream and canned cream cheese icing so that the cake can stay at room temp for long periods.

LOL . . . I voted but after reading the whole post I would change it to "you are crazy!" I have a 3 1/2 year old and a 7 month old and can barely get my stuff done, but to be IN the wedding, and for their to be THAT many cupcakes, and THAT many different flavors, etc. I'd ask the bride to hire some help for you! Don't mean to worry you, but I'm stressed just reading it!

You are crazy! I like that in a person! Another thing I did not notice as I skimmed through - make sure you get quality baking cups. The crappy ones collapse or pull away or both and that ruins the look!

I made 101 cupcakes and a large cake for a graduation party this past weekend. I agree with many above - first of all the underbed storage box is GREAT. Someone who is not 9months pregnant should lift it because it's awkward but its perfect for a lot of cupcakes.

For box mixes it's about 24/25 full size cupcakes per box. I made them on Friday for a Sunday party.
Using the 1M tip for a rose swirl is super fast and everyone loves the look. I decorated on Saturday afternoon using a crusting buttercream.
Make your buttercream up to a week ahead and put in the refrigerator. Store the buttercream by making a log shape onto a long piece of plastic wrap and then put that in a ziplock. Then each 'log' can go into a disposable icing bag (cut the end of the plastic wrap free)

I thought that part of my project would take much longer than it did. The decorations on my cupcakes (mini graduation caps) is what took me the longest.

Good luck and Happy Baby!
Theresa

Uhoh! Adjusting my previous post! Just making some cupcakes for 4th of July --and using Pillsbury Stars and Stripes Funfetti so i can make those Bakerella snowcone cupcakes. The "new" box size yields 18 cupcakes not 24! Yeah, thank you Pillsbury