I have never made a cupcake cake before and don't know where to start. Does anyone have some helpful hints and suggestions on what to do OR NOT to do? Thanks in advance for your help!

I have been wondering about these too, haven't made one yet either, hopefully someone will have your answers!

Hi, cupcakes are really easy and fun to make (well that is my personal opinion of course ). Just choose a normal cake recipe (or mix), or you can use a muffin recipe (in this case you have to watch that you don't overstir the batter!!). I use a muffin-bakingpan, with 12 cupcakes in it, put cupcake papers in it, about 1,5 spoon of batter (just almost full) and bake it for about 20-25 minutes. Then let it cool and if you want you can decorate them with almost anything you want.

Goodluck with your first attempt!

Cucpake cakes are really easy! Leave the cupcakes in their papers/cups/liners. "Glue" the cupcakes to the cake board with a dot of icing (I usually just pipe a dot using the border tip #22 b/c I already have it out to do the border). Place the cupcakes as close together as possible, so there is as few "holes" between cupcakes as possible. Use the cake icer tip* to pipe slightly overlapping rows of icing over the tops of the cupcakes. Smooth with an off-set spatula. Make sure all of the top part of the cupcakes (the part not in the liners) is is covered with icing so the cake doesn't dry out. You don't ice the sides of the "cake", though. Decorate the top of the cake however you want!

*If you don't have the icer tip, use the open coupler to pipe rows of icing over the tops of the cupcakes, making sure each new row touches the previous row.

I can't wait to try one of these, thanks so much for asking this question!

prterrell gave you some great pointers! Make sure not to overfill the cupcake liners (maybe 2/3 full) so the cupcake doesn't rise over the top. If they do rise, I put a piece of wax paper over the entire pan of cupcakes and place my cutting board on top to smash them down a little. You want a nice level surface for icing. Now I'm going to contradict myself. I find it helpful to have a few cupcakes that are slightly smaller than the others so I can 'snuggle' them together. They just get more icing to keep the surface level. Play with the cupcakes awhile until you get an arrangement you like before you 'glue' them down. I've found that 19 cupcakes arranged in rows of 3, 4, 5, 4, 3 make a nice round-ish arrangement that fits perfectly on a 12" round board.

I will post a picture later--my children are having their pre-lunch meltdown.

Here is a great tutorial done by cali4dawn. HTH some, Jen

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/105830324epGFhn

My tipis that whomever passes out the cupcakes wear gloves- so messy. THe kids love doing it and then licking but it is an idea to throw in a glove if you are making these to sell.

Thanks for all the great advice. I have baked tons of cupcakes - just never assembled them into a cake before. Also the tutorial link was great - I feel better already! Thanks again!