This is a step by step tutorial on making the cupcake bouquet which has got you covered with all the steps like baking the cupcakes, piping techniques, constructing the bouquet and finally assembling everything
Decorate any cupcake (preferably chocolate) by using your favourite buttercream or whipped cream frosting.
Divide the prepared frosting into different bowls and colour accordingly. Just make sure to colour a small amount in green to be used for piping leaves.
Prepare your piping bag by first adding the nozzle of your choice.
Take one colour frosting on your spoon and instead of adding all at once, spread it onto the sides of the piping bag to create a cavity.
Now fill the cavity with a contrasting coloured buttercream. This way the petals that is the sides of the flower would get one colour and the buds or the centre design would be of contrasting colour giving a dual tone effect.
Instead of piping it directly on the cupcake, do a test run on a parchment paper to make sure the colours are flowing properly then start piping the cupcakes.
Apply pressure to release the frosting, hold for a few seconds to give time for the frosting to fold on itself and stick to the cupcake and then pull your hand upwards and leave. The more you pull the larger the petals will be.
Pipe all around the cupcake. Do not worry if there is some gaps or some petal fell off.
Use the green coloured buttercream with leaf tip to pipe leaves and fill the gaps and hide flaws if any.
Once frosted, let the cupcakes chill for 30 mins in the refrigerator. Meanwhile start constructing the bouquet part.
Constructing the Bouquet
Start by gluing together the plastic cups. Arrange the plastic cups on your worktop with 1 in the centre and 6 cups surrounding it.
Tape two cups adjacent to each other and also tape it to the centre cup. So each cup will have a total of 3 cello-tapes; two on the sides and 1 in the centre.
Turn the cups upside down and then stick three cups that are lined diagonally together.
Place the cellophane sheet on the top of your worktop. On top of that place the tissue papers diagonally to each other followed by the cake board and the prepared plastic cups.
Place any heavy object on top so that the cups doesn't move while you are working with the tissue papers.
Now choose the midsection of the two cups and draw an imaginary line to reach the end of the cellophane. Gather the cellophane and tissue papers together and bring it closer to the cups, overlapping the sides on top of each other. Seal it with a cello tape. Repeat until all the cellophane and tissue papers is stuck to the cups.
Tie a rope at the base to further secure everything in place. You can hide the rope by tying a ribbon on top.
Assembling the Bouquet
Take the smaller green tissue paper here.
Place the cupcakes on top. Bring the tissue paper closer to wrap the cupcakes.
Before placing the cupcakes in to the glasses you can add in some chocolates into the cups as a little surprise.
And then place your wrapped cupcakes in each of the glasses and voila a beautiful cupcake bouquet is ready to be gifted.
Video
Notes
Please note that the amount of buttercream frosting mentioned in the recipe card needs to be taken as approximate value as the amount would depend on which nozzle you are using and what design you are making.
For the designs seen in the images I have used 350 gms of Butter and 150 gms Condensed Milk. Find the instructions for making it in our Buttercream 101 post.
If you do not have Russian Nozzles you can still make this with any regular nozzles that you own. Check this post on Buttercream Flowers - Part 1 for additional details of making buttercream flowers using regular nozzles.
In place of using Plastic or Foam cups, you can also use styrofoam balls that is available commercially. The constructing instructions would vary in that case.
I would recommend using chocolate cupcakes as the base as it would represent the darker colour of soil. But again you can definitely go forward and use any flavour of choice.
No Russian pipes - no problem. Check this post on Buttercream Flowers were I teach not 1 or 2 but 5 different piping techniques to make flowers using regular piping tips. If not anything you can simply do a swirl frosting on top and use that too.
Once frosted place the cupcakes in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 mins. It is always a better idea to work with chilled cupcakes as the frosting won't smear easily while handling the cupcakes and you can be rest assured that the design remains intact.
No matter what make sure to use green coloured frosting for leaves and green tissue paper for wrapping the cupcakes as that is what will give the bouquet a cohesive look.
First decide on the colours of the cupcake flowers and then choose your tissue paper colour accordingly.
A fancier looking cellophane paper on the outside part would further enhance the look of the bouquet.
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