Hello all!

So, I'm making a flowerpot cake this weekend (a small 6" chocolate cake, shaped like a flowerpot with terra cotta colored buttercream) and I would like to make mini-cupcakes as flowers. The majority of flowerpot cakes either have gumpaste flowers held up with wire, or cupcakes put straight on the pot (I want to try to suspend the mini-cupcakes in the air with wire "stems")

I know all the dangers of wires in cakes, so I'm going to use three straws as dowels/wire holders in the cake, and have 2-3 wires coming out of each of the straws. I wanted to try to coil the wire at the top to hold the cupcakes in their own individual "nests." I just wanted to get some input on what kind/size wire to use that would hold up the weight of a mini-cupcake with Italian buttercream....

Any thoughts?

I would never use wires. Have you considered wooden skewers? You could tint them green with food coloring.

i see what you're wanting to do. question is, how many cupcakes are u putting on? you can probably use just one wire if it is a large guage wire. I think the issue would be in the number of holes u poke into the cake. It may compromise the stability of the pot (i'm assuming ur pot is 3D and iced in buttercream?). also, the weight of the cupcake may pull the cake apart unless the "stem" was doweled into the board.

Pat317 -- I understand why wooden skewers would be more structurally sound, but I'm going for a lighter, more whimsical feel that I feel would be better accomplished by wire (although I'll probably drop my artistic vision when the wire folds under the weight ) I will certainly keep the skewers in mind, and most likely use them when I browbeat myself into the reality of cupcake + wire vs. gravity.

eneq -- I was hoping that more dowels would equal more structural integrity. I suppose that might not really be the way things go -- I was thinking to have two thicker wires coming out of the straw dowels; each containing a cupcake (one low one high for visual interest). I might have to rethink.

Well I'm not going to make a decision until Thursday night, since I make the cake Friday. That will give me a few hours to scramble frantically for supplies. Thanks, both of you for your input. I may be posting again, soon, under cake disasters.

I get what you are trying to do. OK, use an 18 gauge wire. not floaty. but bendable.Insert a cocktail drink straw through the cupcake.Attach a small spice drop at the end of the wire you have inserted through the straw. Cover with icing along with the top of the cupcake. Cut a sepal ( the green thing under a flower ) out of tissue, or something of the sort. You will also need a raisin and a piece of waxed paper
Assemble this way..sliding down the wire:
sepal,waxed paper spot to prevent the raisin from staining, raisin, prepared cupcake ( with cocktail straw in the center ), Spice drop. Once this is done,glue the sepal ends around the wrapper to resemble a flower. Hope I was clear enough.
Nothing is a disaster..it's learning experience.

Thanks Pat317!

Great instructions...I really appreciate it!

hope this doesn't sound silly, but what is a spice drop?

A spice drop is a tiny gumdrop Anything really sticky would work.