I’m back from vacation and feeling refreshed. I know that fall doesn’t technically start until September 22nd but I’m ready for fall treats. If it was up to the retail industry we would be celebrating Christmas right now but I’m not going to fall into that trap and start showing you Christmas ideas yet. We need to celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving first.
Confession: I don’t like Halloween. I don’t know why or exactly when it happened but I just stopped liking Halloween. I hate dressing up and we do not give out candy. Since we don’t have any children we can get away with it but if we have children I will have to grin and bear it. Last year our house got egged because we didn’t give out candy. LOL!
Although Halloween is not my favorite holiday I do try to come up with some designs each year. While I was on vacation I came up with a couple ideas to share with you and this candy corn cupcake cake is one of them. I couldn’t wait to try it so I made it this weekend. I hope you’ll give it a try.
What you’ll need to make a candy corn cupcake cake:
- 1/2 sheet cake board; 14×20 {I was lazy and didn’t cover mine but you can cover yours with Halloween wrapping paper, a plastic table cloth in a festive color or foil wrap}
- 23 cupcakes in your choice of flavor {I kept it simple and used a box mix for this tutorial}
- white buttercream icing {approximately 1 cup}
- orange buttercream icing {approximately 1 1/2 cup}
- yellow buttercream icing {approximately 1 1/4 cup}
- piping bags
- couplers {I used ones that are completely round and don’t have a cut in them so that they pipe a perfectly round shape}
- #4 piping tips
- offset spatula
- Viva paper towels
- fondant smoother
Begin by laying out your cupcakes on the cake board in the following pattern. 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5 and 5. As the picture above states I ended up changing my pattern. Sometimes as you decorate you will decide that your idea doesn’t quite look like what you had in mind and you have to improvise.
Once you have your cupcakes laid out you will need to glue them to the board with some buttercream. With a #4 tip pipe a round circle on the the bottom of each cupcake and press down. Piping a circle will create a suction effect and help the cupcakes stay firmly in place. Place the cupcakes real close together. Squeeze them together if need be. Try to keep gaps to a minimum.
Next, take some buttercream using just a coupler on your bag and fill in any gaps that you see. This will prevent your icing from sinking down into the gaps. It’s okay to use white icing because it won’t be seen once you pipe your color on top.
Now you’re ready to start piping your color on. With your yellow buttercream, and a coupler on your piping bag, pipe a line in the center of the 2nd row of five cupcakes and then outline around each cupcake on the bottom row. Then fill in with buttercream. Take an offset spatula and smooth your icing removing any excess.
Repeat with the orange buttercream outlining the middle section with the exception of the top three cupcakes. Then fill in and smooth with an offset spatula. In the picture above you will see that I did not outline the outer cupcakes as a half circle. I tried to make a straight line. Do not do this. The icing will want to fall. I had to go back and fix the areas that were falling. Instead be sure to outline the outer cupcakes in the half circle shape. The pic below shows the extra cupcakes added in and the better shape.
With your white buttercream and a coupler on your piping bag outline and fill the last three cupcakes. Smooth the icing with an offset spatula.
To finish up the cupcake cake you will wait for your buttercream to crust and then use a Viva paper towel and fondant smoother to smooth your icing. Then to define the sections more I took yellow buttercream and a #4 piping tip and put a line in between the orange and yellow section. I repeated this step with white buttercream and a #4 tip in between the orange and white section.
That’s it. Not too difficult to make and it’s a unique treat to bring to a party.
Hope you have a wonderful week. I’m dreading the piles that must be on my desk waiting for me.
Note: This week’s Sweet Talk will be on Thursday instead of Wednesday in respect of September 11th.
I’m partying here.
I love it! Reading this…I had a total “Duh, why didn’t I think of that moment!” Fill in the gaps FIRST…DUH…that is why when I try cupcake cakes, the icing kept falling….Thank you. I will be trying one again soon. And outlining the cupcakes….OMG…Thank you!
Glad I could help Kim 馃檪
Very cute! Your candy corn icing colours are perfect! This is a great dessert idea for a Fall or Halloween party!
Thanks Paula!
How Fun!!! and this actually looks like something I could do!! Love your creativity Melissa!!!
Thanks so much Marci 馃檪
Such a cute idea!! I had heard of the Viva paper towel trick – your icing looks so nice and smooth! I’ll have to give it a try 馃檪
Thanks Jennifer! Definitely use Viva. You will love it. I don’t know who originated the idea but I learned about it in a cake class I took.
This is gorgeous! So cute. And you make it look so easy!!
Thanks Dorothy 馃檪
How adorable!!!!! What a fun idea for fall!!! It looks absolutely beautiful, you did a fabulous job with this!!!! (And it looks delicious too, of course!)
Thanks Maria!
What a cute and unique idea! I’ve never made a cupcake cake. I can’t believe how smooth you were able to get your frosting. It looks amazing! I’ll have to try your trick with the fondant smoother and paper towel. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Aida. Viva is the best way to get smooth icing.
This looks amazing!! I love it!!
I would love to invite you to link it up at our new party Lovely Ladies Linky where you link up once and get seen on 6 blogs!!
Link up starts Wednesdays!
http://www.lifewiththecrustcutoff.com/lovely-ladies-linky-link-up-2/
Hope to see you there 馃檪
Parrish @ Life With The Crust Cut Off
Thanks! I linked up. Thank you for the invite.