The cupcake cakes look so cute and I'm wondering how it is done... I'm a total novice so any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Welcome to CC

You arrange the cupcakes on a cake board in any shape that you choose. Apply some icing under the bottom of the outside cupcakes to hold them in place.

Apply your icing coverage, smooth your icing the way that you normally do and proceed with the decorating.

I love doing cupcake cakes...very quick and easy

The one time I made a cupcake cake I didn't put any frosting on the bottom, because I was afraid the girls would get it all over the place when they picked the cakes up. The cake held together fine, without any sliding. Turns out it was a silly concern-instead they got all the frosting from the tops of the cakes all over the house. Luckily it wasn't my house !

Cupcake Cake Tutorials
Thread on frosting CCC
How to Fill Cupcakes:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-57413-.html

More CCC threads
How to Transport
Cupcake Stand Ideas:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-57467-.html

HTH

When arranging the cupcakes make sure you stagger them to avoid holes in between the cupcakes, otherwise the icing will fall through the holes. I also love cupcake cakes and I have a few in my photos.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE making cupcake cakes so much that I try to talk my customers into them. I do make sure that I place them as close together as I can, but they are amazingly forgiving when you frost them. I just frost like a regular old cake and it always works out just fine.

BUT....make sure you use a very sturdy cake board...or use at least 2 cardboard boards or your frosting will more easily crack.

I saw those cakes on a Vons like advertisement or something. They are arranged and then iced.

I have made a couple of these. If you have to travel, you really should put the icing under the cupcakes. I almost lost my daughter's birthday cupcake cake because I didn't do it! The next ones that I did - I made sure I put the icing under and had no problem!

yeah....I also put a little dab of frosting on the bottom. It really doesn't add any more mess when serving to kids than the cupcakes do in the first place....LOL!

I found the easiest way to decorate them is with the frosting tip. I kid you not it took less then a minute and I didn' loose any frosting in the gaps. I can't remember what I transported them on, but I had no problems. I would definately do a dab of frosting on the bottom just to be safe.