My best friend would like me to make 250 cupcakes for her outdoor wedding this July, to be held about an hour from here. You can see that I am going to have some logistical problems, because I don't do this for a living! I would appreciate any help, tips, ideas or suggestions as to how I can pull this off!

Her husband is making the cupcake stands (2) and I assume I'll have to scatter more around the table as well. There is a sheltered area, so they won't be in the direct sun at least.

I am planning to use a crisco-based buttercream because that should hold up better in the heat - 1M tip swirl with some sort of decoration on top. Nothing fancy. I was thinking of using the WASC recipe with 3 or 4 different coloured buttercreams. (Theme is luau)

I am going to purchase a bunch of the 2-doz plastic clamshell cupcake containers from my local grocery store (I hope) for transporting. Even still, that's a lot of containers stacked in the back of an SUV. I guess I'll take the Friday off work and bake all day - 21 dozen!

Since many of you have done this before, I would really appreciate any input you might have.

If it will be really warm where you are, you might consider using fondant for the tops of the cupcakes. I've done some with fondant that came out very nice, and it holds up well in the heat.

Buying the containers from the grocery store is a good idea...hopefully they're more reasonable that the grocery stores here, who want a dollar per plastic container.

I'm just remembering bits and pieces of other threads...unfortunately I'm heading to work so I can't verify right now.

--I think indydebi's buttercream recipe has withstood travel and heat. You may want to pm her and ask.

--I also thought our big cupcake thread said that WASC was not a good choice for cupcakes--great for rounds, but just not cupcakes.

Sorry I gotta run or I'd check it myself. If someone else doesn't jump in here, I'll check later. Can't wait to see photos

Paula

another way to transport the cupcakes well is to get a large inch thick sheet of styrofoam and stick it in a full sheet box and then stick toothpicks in the foam and pop a cupcake on each toothpick (I do a smaller version of this for my cake tastings) then the cupcakes don't move around AT ALL and smoosh into eachother and being in a full sheet box you can get like 60 in a box! You'd only need a couple boxes and its bound to be a ton quicker gettting them OUT of the box then out of those clamshells without dinging the icing.

I'd recommend the Magnolia Bakery's cupcake recipe, and indydebi's buttercream. For transport, (granted I've never had to cart around 250 cupcakes), but I often use the flats from soda cans, the taller the better. OR, there is now cupcakeshoppe's Ghetto Fabulous Cupcake Carrier to make.

Gosh, wish you tons of luck!!!

Thanks KHalstead, that is the best idea I've seen on how to transport a lot of cupcakes.

The info helps me a great deal I have a 150 cupcake wedding June 7th.

Martha:

I've used the WASC recipe for cupcakes and everyone loves them, that was one of the selections by my bride & groom on the 7th.

If you have time, do a test run and see if it meets your standard, but I love them.

And the different colors icing sounds like it is going to be very pretty.

Good Luck!!! and make sure you post some pics.

ladiva

Khalstead - that is an incredible idea for transporting cupcakes. Thanks so much!

Homemade Goodies and Ladyvacrj - I have always wanted to try the Magnolia recipe, so maybe I should do a batch of both and do a taste test. People at the office are always willing to do a taste test!

pjmw - I will also check out indydebi's buttercream recipe.

TexasRose - I will also consider the fondant, although she did mention big swirls of icing, so I don't know if she'd go for that. No matter what I do, the bees and flies are gonna love the stuff!!!

Thanks so much for all the help!

I had a cupcake wedding in March, 216 in all and a 6 inch topper. I used the WASC and bc. I baked all the cc about 3 weeks prior. I used the clamshell containers and 2 gal. storage bags to store them in the freezer.
I baked 24 at a time (using 2 12 cavity pans on the same shelf), let them cool, then placed them in the container stacked in 2's, with saran wrap in between, wrapped container in saran wrap, placed entire container in zip-loc bag and placed in freezer. So there were 9 containers of cc stacked in my freezer. Doing it this way saved a lot of space.

When it was time to ice them, I took them out of freezer to thaw still wrapped. Then I un-wrapped, brushed with simple syrup, iced, placed them in the containers, and stacked those into large boxes. I used shelf liner from the $ store in between the containers to keep the stable. I had no trouble transporting them at all.

tyty, did you do the simple syrup because of moisture lost in the freezing process, or do you do this ordinarily??

I just did a 275 cupcake wedding cake with 6 in round cutting cake. I used the clamshells to transport. Didn't take up that much room. I ordered mine from plasticcontainercity.com. Had to travel about an hour with them also.