Cupcake bouquet!

So a friend from work is leaving and she will be sorely missed and what better way to say we'll miss you then with a bouquet. But not an ordinary bouquet, no that would be too easy, a cupcake bouquet! I got this idea while pouring through hours of YouTube videos about cupcake and this seemed like a good occasion.

What holds the bouquet together is craft foam; covered in glad wrap and reinforced to whatever the bouquet in going to be in, in my case a basket. However make sure you reinforce the craft foam securely enough so it can hold the weight of the cupcakes. 

Then I started with vanilla Bailey's cupcakes and because it was a thirty degree day I figured buttercream was the way to go for frosting. Now I've never made buttrtercrem before but I found this recipe from My cupcake addictions; it was simply, easy to follow and tasted great. The only thing I did differently was tint mine pretty purple! I was a bit over zealous and made the buttrtercream hours ahead of time, just incase I screawed it up and another batch was required, so I reluctuntly refrigerated it. Luckily all I needed was to nuke it in the microwave for ten seconds and you're good to go. To pipe roses I used the equivalent of a Wilton 2d tip which I got in my cake decorating magazine. This is also the first time I've piped buttercream and its a lot firmer than frosting so my hand cramped a little but I got there in the end. The roses need a lot more practice but the end product was still pretty.

The fondant rose toppers were a first attempt too. I followed the gourmet cupcake company instructions as well as one by poetry on a plate. Both are easy, again, all you need is practice.

To attach the cupcakes to the foam cut a bamboo skewer in half. Then with the point end poke a hole in the bottom of the cupcake making sure that you don’t pierce the top. Then poke a hole in the foam and attach the skewer and then the cupcake on top of it. I suggest not attaching the cupcakes at too much of an angle just in case. You can decorate and then attach the cupcakes or vice versa it’s entirely up to you. I attached and then decorated purely because I didn't know how the cupcakes would hold and as it turns out it held fine.To make it look more realistic I cut square green tissue paper and poked it through the skewer before I attached the cupcake so it looked like leaves.

And then just coz I could and also because they look like rose buds, I added chocolate covered strawberries to the mix. 

Then all it took was some purple cellophane and a card to complete the look!