Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Cupcakes
This is going to sound crazy, but I have never made cupcakes. I am, however, considering having cupcakes instead of a big cake for Aisling's birthday. I have a few questions though, and know there are some cupcake divas on this board...please share your wisdom!
-Has anyone had experience with those giant cupcakes they sell the mold for at places like BBB? I'm considering doing a giant one for Ais, then regular size ones for guests. I'm just wondering if a cupcake that large actually stays in one piece through baking and all.
-Weighing out costs- I could either buy cupcakes, make them, or, of course, scratch the whole thing and get a sheet cake. What would you suggest? We're talking probably about 5 dozen cupcakes FWIW.
-If I made them, do I just buy regular cake mix and icing, and those little paper holder thingies? (I told you I'm clueless!) I've seen that some of you have made all sorts of flavors- do they sell mixes for those, or is that something that I am better off not doing at this point?
-Finally, can you make them a day or two ahead, or is that something I'd have to do that morning? The party is on a Sunday afternoon at 2pm.
Re: Cupcakes
I've never made one of those giant cupcakes but I'm pretty sure they come with a top and a bottom pan so it would be similar to baking a two layer cake. It's a cute idea and I say go for it. If it sucks, return it to BBB.
I almost always make my cupcakes and frosting from scratch but for DH's 30th I just bought the cupcakes since it was one less thing for me to worry about. If you decide to go that route, I've already done the search for the best store-bought cupcakes in the area (because purchasing them at any bakery would have cost an arm and a leg). I found that Superfresh was the best over Acme, Giant, Genuardi's and Pathmark. Wholefoods cupcakes were also crazy expensive so I didn't even try them. I just looked back at my statement and it was $26 for four dozen chocolate/vanilla cupcakes.
As for the large cupcake mold, I never used one but I've seen them a billion times in other people's pictures on FB. I would assume it's not too difficult and if you're good with frosting you might be able to "fix" any imperfections when decorating it.
Like Meldot said, it's not expensive to make cupcakes. For 5 dozen I would do cake mix. Some of the cupcakes with different flavors and fillings can be tricky for a novice baker so I would try those another time so you're not stressed trying to get them right the night before the party. If I'm using a cake mix I like Duncan Hines Classic Yellow or their Chocolate Devil's Food. I never use frosting in a tub because I think it's gross so I would mix that up yourself. Frosting is super easy to make.
They have a lot of cute paper liners however after I bake cupcakes in them you can't see the cute design or color anymore so I like using the foil liners and then putting the paper liners on over those.
Make sure you don't fill the liners too much when you're putting the batter in or else you'll end up with cupcakes that look like muffins. You want to fill them 3/4 of the way. I usually use an ice cream scooper to make this process easier but I was just told that it's even easier if you load a gallon ziploc bag up with your batter then snip a little piece off of the corner of the baggie and use it like a piping bag to fill the liners.
I would make the cupcakes the afternoon before. They won't take a ton of time to mix up and bake. I would do a dry run a week before the party since you've never made them before just so you get the hang of it before tackling them the day before the party.
The last thing I'll throw out there is do you have to transport the cupcakes or is the party at home? I think they're a pain to transport and that would be a deciding factor for me because I don't have one of those cupcake holder things for the car and if I were moving 5 dozen cupcakes I would surely screw a few of them up.
We did about 5 dozen cucakes for Emma's party. It's doable. I agree with others to do them the day before.
We did cake mix and made icing. I thought they came out great.
Just a tip for transporting, if you don't have the containers. At AC Moore, they have cardboard cake boxes in their cake decorating section. They are like $2. We bought two of the half sheet size, and they transported the cupcakes great.
Good luck!
Personally, I would buy the paper liners and like Shannon said fill them 3/4 of the way. Greasing the pan sounds annoying and its something else that has to be scrubbed clean. If you use the paper liners its not as messy and clean up is so much easier.
You can bake the cupcakes a week ahead of time and freeze them in an air tight container. I've done it before and the consistency holds just as well as if you baked them that day. I defrost the day before and continue to keep them in an air tight container and then I ice them the day of. If you don't want to freeze you can still bake up to 2 days prior. As long as they are stored properly, they won't dry out.
Since this is your first time, I'd suggest the box mix. Seriously, if you can bake a cake, you make cupcakes. I believe 1 box = 2 dozen.
My little nuggets
My little nuggets
Thank you everybody- and so sorry it looked like I posted and ran. My laptop at home is a Mac and somehow it won't let me post- it keeps bringing me to a login page when I try to post and I go in circles as it keeps telling me to verify login stuff and then keeps bumping me out. I'm actually at my parents' house today and thought I'd pop on and try to post a response at least.
My aunt's co-worker lent me the giant cupcake mold, so I will give that a test run in the next week or two and see how I do. And I appreciate the advice about how to do them in advance. I am hoping my MIL will do some, and I can do the rest (have to talk to her), but knowing I can do ahead is huge, esp. since we have two other first birthday parties to go to the day before Aisling's, so time will be limited in terms of prep immediately before the party.