Cupcake Bouquet

     Another one of those things that progressed into something much more than my initial thought. A co-worker of mine asked me to make something special for his wife on her birthday. Right off I thought of flowers. I had done roses before but only as practice and never had I applied them to my projects. So once again... this was a first for me. Simple rose cupcakes was a cute idea... at the time. Then the idea of making a bouquet bubbled into my mind. I pitched the idea to him before I even knew if I could do it *guilty*. But thankfully I did, because I made a beautiful creation and now I can do it again!

     Before I start... you should know, that I am a baker first, decorator second. For me, making things taste as great as I can possibly make them, is my thing. I love it and I love seeing peoples faces enjoying my creation. However at the same time my mind goes to those places that create things like this bouquet and even though it's slightly out of my comfort zone... I just have to go for it sometimes.
    
     Things you need for this project:

1. Flower vase. Depending on how big you want the bouquet. Choose one that will hold a foam ball on top without going too far into the vase
2. A foam ball :)
3. Toothpicks
4. Cupcakes (I used mini cupcakes and it held 30 of them)
5. Icing
6. Icing coloring

     Make sure your cupcakes have completely cooled before you start icing them. For obvious reasons... you don't want the icing to melt :/
   
     To make a rose with the icing I use a 104 icing tip. This makes the petals and you just have to go at it one by one.

     Now, in my mind... no two flowers are exactly the same. So I didn't want my flowers to look exactly the same. So, when I made my icing I divided it in half. I kept the white icing and then colored the other half pink. When I was filling my icing bag I would put half pink and half white. It blended together nicely giving me shades of pink and lighter pink as well as white. I never filled my bag too full and tried different techniques while doing it. I also took red coloring and put it on the piping bag where the small end of the tip was. This made the tips of the petal come out more red while the rest of the flower stayed pink. I went back and forth changing the shade of my pink a couple of times to create a bouquet of flowers with more accuracy.
    
     After I had made my flower cupcakes I then had to go to assembly. First off, all I did was set the foam ball on top of the flower vase. You may want to glue it for more security. I liked the idea of reusing the vase and found it to be fairly stable without it. The choice is yours. :)
     Then, starting at the bottom I stuck two toothpicks into the foam side by side. Then you just (carefully) slide the cupcake on. When you get towards the top you may only want to use one toothpick. I wanted to make sure it would stay and... it's just a toothpick, so I used two.
     There was a couple of cupcakes that made me worried. Angled the wrong way and just didn't seem stable (mostly at the bottom). So I would carefully stick another toothpick in those making sure the toothpick didn't show. I pushed it right through the icing using extreme caution.
     My boyfriend walked in on the middle of this with a worried look on his face (I don't blame him). He offered no opinion and stated "have fun with that". Completely understandable... looking back I can see how stressful that could have been. Especially since I had a deadline and didn't have much more for mistakes. I however went at it with an easy attitude. It would either work... or it wouldn't. I knew that. That is why I wasn't stressing out (I really don't know how I did that though).

    The finished project was more than satisfactory. I must admit I even jumped up and down (not holding the bouquet, I might add). Next step... was delivery :O
     I asked my mom for help in this particular instance. She drove... I held onto my bouquet and admired it all the way. I was high up on bakers delight beaming all of the way. I would even smile at other people in their cars. Of course, I'm sure they thought I was crazy because they just saw flowers... because I did that good of a job (ha ha).
     I somewhat regretted having my mother help me as we turned down a bumpy road and one of the flowers fell off. Unfortunately a word slipped out of my mouth. Starts with an 's' and ends with a 'whoops'. My mom understood but I still felt guilty. :/ Luckily I thought ahead and made a few spare cupcakes to take with me. After I set it up I replaced them and it was good to go!
    
     I was sad to have to leave my creation but so excited that I had done it. I can only see more possibilities with flowers and cupcakes. You never run out of ideas with cupcakes... now I'm just waiting for my next one :)