Cupcake Flower Bouquets

These little beauties are as much fun to make as they are to eat. 

There is nothing like a beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers to brighten up any day, unless that bouquet is totally edible, then we made it to heaven!  That is what we have here.  These cupcake flower bouquets are sweet and yummy and super easy!


I was given an opportunity to make these beautiful cupcake bouquets for a very dear friend of mine for her bridal shower.  My friend went back and forth on a few different styles, but finally decided on these beautiful bouquets.  She found the original design on Pinterest, but I decided to make them more like her wedding style.  Since her colors are going to be dark purple and dark yellow, I decided to make a mixture of each.  She also suffers from a gluten intolerance, so I had to consider this when preparing to make the cupcakes.

Using the original idea we got from Pinterest, I headed to Michael's, our local crafting headquarters, and got the flower pots and 5 inch Styrofoam balls.  I bought 6 pots and 6 balls not knowing exactly how many I would need.  Next a trip to Walmart got me all my baking supplies, toothpicks, and tissue paper.  Going with her wedding colors, I used yellow, purple and green.  (I will explain later)

I made a combination of regular vanilla cupcakes and a batch of gluten free vanilla cupcakes.  The reason for vanilla you ask......these are the brides favorite!  To help distinguish which ones were which, I used different color cupcake liners.

For the gluten free cupcakes, I used King Arthur Gluten Free cake mix.  I know, I feel like I cheated, but I tried a few gluten free from scratch recipes, and each time they did not come out so hot.  I'm not sure, but I think it may have been the type of gluten free flour I used.  I will keep trying till I get it right, but for this one I ran out of time and went with a cake mix, and let me tell you, by far this is the best brand of gluten free cake mix I have tried.  I truly recommend this brand to anyone who suffers from a gluten intolerance.  These came out so good and when given to my kids to taste test for me, they could not tell the difference between the regular ones and the gluten free one!!! 

For the regular vanilla cupcakes, I used one of my favorite recipes for Mini Vanilla Bean cupcakes.  I promise to blog about these cupcakes soon, but for now, just know that they are AMAZING!!!! 

Ok, so I made a combination of big and small cupcakes for each kind.  As a rule, I made these the day before.  Not only then am I sure that they are completely cooled, but they are much easier to frost.  This also gives me a chance to taste test and see if I have enough for what I am doing. 

While the cupcakes cooled, I went to work on the flower pots.  I gently pushed each Styrofoam ball into each pot and made sure that they were firmly in place.  Then I took the tissue paper and cut 3"x3" squares (well maybe my daughter helped with this, but you get the idea.  I had her make a LOT of squares, since I was not sure how many I would need).  Then I layered one green square, one purple square, and one yellow square.  I did the same thing only switched the yellow and the purple squares.  I left the green on the bottom to represent the green of a flower petal and they alternated the purple and yellow.

Taking a toothpick, I gathered the three squares together and punched a hole through the middle of the tissue paper.  Pull the tissue paper close to the top and then twist the tissue paper around the toothpick to create a flower.  Take the flower and push into the Styrofoam ball at the base near the flower pot.  This covers the base of the flower pot and give the pot a flowery look.   

 
Next, I made a simple butter cream frosting and dyed one batch yellow and one batch purple.  Using a 1M tip (open star), I created a rose pattern on each cupcake.  I placed the cupcakes in a cake box for transport.  The flower pots are top heavy, so I suggest that if you are using these at a place other than your house, to transport them there and then set them up.  This way they don't get damaged in transport.

Once we got to the shower, I assembled the bouquets.  This was really easy.  Simply place a toothpick where you want a cupcake to go in the ball and then take your cupcake and place over the toothpick.  I used a verity of large and small cupcakes and also gluten free and regular.  I did make sure that one ENTIRE bouquet was gluten free and that one was for the bride!!  There is no right or wrong way to make these.  Have fun and be creative in arranging them!

Once you have all your cupcakes placed, fill in any gaps with more tissue paper flowers.  Again, there is no right or wrong way to do this.

For the shower we put one flower pot at each table.  I got a total of 5 flower pots for the two batches of cupcakes that I had made.  Again you could get more or less depending on how you make the pots.
They ended up being a complete hit and my friend was so very happy with them!  I was so very happy as well.  This was a great experience for me and it made my day knowing that I could be part of her special day!!

Happy Baking and ENJOY!!