I'm doing my cousins cupcake wedding the beginning of August and I need some tips. PLEASE!

1. Air bubbles in frosting is my first question. What do you do to prevent that? I know that sugarshack recipe says to fill your frosting over the beaters to prevent air. Are there other things you can do? Is a shortening based frosting more likely to get air bubbles than a butter based. Or is just in the mixing.

2. I'm making 400 cupcakes and I'm getting nervous. If I freeze them ahead will the papers separate from the cupcake. I read that somewhere and don't know if that is true. For those who've froze cupcakes ahead of time, can you give me your thoughts.

3. Transporting. What in your opinion is the best way to transport that many cupcakes.

4. When to put the cupcakes out at the wedding. Her wedding is at a church (which we will be at since it's my cousin), then we will travel 20-25 minutes to a winery for the reception, they will have appetizers while they are doing some outdoor pics and then a sit down dinner. So I was thinking during the pics/appetizers. THe appetizers will be outside but the dinner is inside where the cake will be displayed.

THOUGHTS> The more the better. THanks.
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Answer to your questions:

#1- I only use Sugarshacks recipe and I never get the air bubbles. Although it did take practice a few times, but it comes out silky smooth now. I also only use hi ratio shortening. I am not sure how butter will hold up in this heat. For flavor I add 2TBSP of clear vanilla and 2TBSP Almond.

#2- How to freeze. I think you will definitely want to freeze 400 cupcakes if you have the space. Wendy Paul gave instructions on how to freeze cupcakes the other day on cakeswebake. She said to place cupcakes on a cookie sheet and place them in a freezer for an hour and then put them in a zip lock bag. That way they will not get distorted.

#3-I normally use the really large boxes to transport them in. I just stack them on top of one another.

#4-It takes a while to put out the cupcakes. I would arrive at the wedding early and put them out then. You DO NOT want to be rushed with having guest around you. It took me 2 hours to place 130 cupcakes on a cupcake stand and arrange them. So, please give yourself plenty of time.

Have fun with it.

HTH,
Carol

Are you using a stand mixer like a Kitchenaid? I use Sugarshacks recipe and don't get any air bubbles...

I personally would be leery of freezing the CC's. But, I did just read that CC's should be removed from whatever they're wrapped/frozen in BEFORE thawing. Please take the time to experiment wth freezing before the wedding. You don't want any surprises at the last minute.

Get some non slip material. It's like a rubber mesh and can be found in Walmart in the kitchen dept next to the rolls of Contact paper. Place that inside either a sheetcake box or one of the long, flat rubbermaid boxes, and put your CC's on top of the non slip material. (Make sure the rubbermaid box is well aired out and does not smell like plastic.) Use the non slip material on top of your boxes if you're stacking them for travel. And also place it underneath your boxes in the car. You don't want your boxes or your CC's going anywhere.

I agree, give yourself plenty of time. Even if that means setting them up before the wedding or leaving the ceremony early. After all that time and effort, you'll want to display them as nicely as possible. And I think everything should be set up before any guests arrive.

Best of luck to you!

I've had air pocket problems for my last two cakes, my frosting was overloaded with them. I've learned that you can used your spatula to work your icing a bit by dragging it along the sides of the bowl (pretend like your icing the inside of the bowl) at it will deflate almost all the bubbles. Your frosting should be smooth and creamy afterwards.

I agree that you should give yourself plenty of time. It seems that cupcakes shouldn't take a lot of time to set up, but even with me setting up all wedding cakes on site, the cupcake towers took longer than the stacked cakes.

My advice for delivery would be to do it BEFORE the ceremony! You don't want 400 cupcakes sitting in your (possibly hot) vehicle for a hour or so before delivery!

I've done a LOT of cakes for friends that I've attended (or been in) the wedding, and I found it better to deliver before the ceremony is usually best. That way you can get it done, and not be sitting there during the service worrying about getting over to the reception site in time to set up before the guests arrive!

Besides- I'd imagine setting up that many cc's is gonna take awhile- heck, just all those trips to get them out of the vehicle will take some time!!
Allow yourself plenty of time, then go enjoy the service and cocktail hour! You're gonna need it! LOL

Good luck!

Speaking from experience...it will take you at least 2 hours to set up that many cupcakes. It takes a long time to unload all the boxes, set the cupcakes up and then clean up afterwards. Either have some help or do it before the reception.

You are also going to need a lot of space to transport 400 cupcakes. You can buy plastic inserts that hold 12 cupcakes each. 2 inserts will fit snugly in a half sheet cake box. That's 17 fairly big boxes to make room for.

For the liner separation issue: I've read someone else on CC say that they put their cupcakes in a 2nd liner after they take them out of the freezer.

Good luck!

#1 - Can't help you.

#2 - No problem freezing, I pop them unwrapped in the freezer to firm up when they are still warm, when almost frozen I stack them 6 at a time then triple wrap in plastic and roll into a log. When I am ready to use them I tale them out, separate them in their boxes and let them defrost. It only tales 30 minutes or less. I frost away. The wrappers separate if there is too much condensation build-up so I make sure they defrost in the open air, not an air tight container.

#3 - Under-the-bed storage boxes. I can fit almost 100 cupcakes in one, they stack, they are re-usable and you can get them for pretty cheap.

#4 - cupcakes take time to set up unless you have lots of extra hands, so I suggest set-up before, keep them indoors and enjoy the wedding.

Good luck!

Jen

Cakedout had a excellent point about not having them sitting in your hot car. I hadn't thought about that!

Thanks for the ideas. Okay, so there is no problem leaving out the cupcakes, they won't get dry. Because the wedding is at 2, if I say put them out a few hours earlier, they may not getting eaten for 5 or 6 hours. I
m just trying to figure it out, since it's for my cousin and we'd like to go to the wedding.

The timeline of the day is...

wedding at 2... let's say it lasts an hour. Travel time to winery for people, so 3:30. Appetizers for people while they have pics, so 4:30. Then a sit down dinner, another hour.

Thanks.

Oh, I almost forgot. I wasn't going to leave them in the car during the wedding. I live in the same town as the wedding. But good points on how long it may take to transport and set them up.

They will be fine sitting out for 5 hours

I suggest doing a test run on a dozen or two, so you can see whether your cupcake liners peel or not and if it is dependent on your cupcake flavours, both before and after freezing (I used to have a problem with that but only on chocolate cupcakes, but I tweaked the recipe and now use greaseproof liners only). You don't want to be taking any chances once you have baked 400!!

I haven't had problems with the liners coming off when frozen.

One thing I would suggest, is that after you take them out of the freezer & into a box, or whatever you decide to transport them in - if you are stacking the cupcakes on top of each other make sure you put a sheet of wax or parchment paper in between the layers!! Otherwise the tops of the cupcakes will peel off onto the bottom of the ones layered on top. make sense? I made 160+ cupcakes last week and a few got ruined in transport because I decided that they would be ok without a parchment layer in between - NOT! ;D Good luck, that is a lot of cupcakes!!!

The answers on this topic seem pretty good. I use SMBC, and even though it warns about air bubbles, I have never had that problem so I can't answer that one.
I do freeze my cupcakes. I put them in a plastic box, put them in the freezer that way, and when I am ready to thaw them, I take off the lids, (because of condensation) and let them thaw.
I also have a wedding of about 400 cupcakes and transportation was one of my biggest concerns. I have transferred about 200 cupcakes and this is what worked for me, so I am going to try this for the wedding. I got a big plastic box from walmart. (the large ones that go under the bed) My husband makes holes in foam core ( the size of cupcakes) that will fit in the bottom of the box. That way the cupcakes stay in place better. They won't shift as much. It may cost a little, but you can always use the box for future orders, or for some other storage. If you think that maybe the cupcake will be a little low, (for handling) you can put some supports under the foam core and raise the cupcakes up closer to the top of the box, for easy handling. I hope you can understand what I am trying to explain. It does make for a complicated explaination without pictures. I will try and get some pictures up if you are interested. Let me know.

A trick that I use for transporting lots of cupcakes is to buy the under the bed storage boxes like others suggested. Then go to Home Depot and have them cut a piece of 1/8 hardboard to fit the inside of the box. Then mark on the board where the center of each cupcake should be placed so they do not touch each other's sides. Get out your trusty glue gun and hot glue a plastic treat cup on top of each mark.

The cupcakes fit very nice and snug inside the plastic cups and they can't slide into each other.

I reuse my boards all the time -- fitting about 40 cupcakes onto each board.