Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have been asked to do 300 cupcakes for a wedding and I am a little unsure about it and haven't agreed to do it yet. I probibly would have to bake them in advance and freeze them? are they okay to stack after frozen? What about decorating and transporting them? Would you decorated them once you have gotten to the facility or would you ice them prior to that and transport them decorated. What is the best way to transport them (what would you transport them in)? Help me please

In the past few days there have been a few threads about this so you can look them up. But you sound very unsure of yourself. Maybe this is too large a quantity for your first wedding attempt. Best of luck, whatever you decide.

It depends on how detail and decorated the cuppies are and how experenced you are a baking.........make your decorations ahead if you can and have them ready to put on.....baking 300 cup cakes takes a while but if you bake 2 dozen at at time......15/20 minutes...a couple 3 hours to bake....I like to bake the day before...don't like to freeze them. (but if you don't have the time to bake the day before...go ahead and freeze them) In the AM fill them....and ice them. depending on the decorations a couple or three hours again.....depending on how fast you ice. If you use a large tip and swirl the icing it goes quite quickly. Good luck....Like MimiFix said there are several threads on the forum about cupcakes.....Let us know how you do.....

Opps....transportation....you can buy the cupcakes plastic containers to transport them..this is the best way...they don't touch each other or get bumped around. If you want and can ice them there....it would be OK I guess....but allow yourself time to get there and time to decorate them. Hope this helps.

We recently did 250 and the wedding cake. Here is my timeline...Monday, cake supply store for plastic cupcake containers (highly recommend!) and made fondant toppers. Tuesday I made all the batters (9 different kinds), Put them in the fridge in ziploc bags. Wednesday, Made all the buttercreams and frosting ....again ziploc and fridge. Thursday we began baking very early morning, by mid afternoon all cupcakes and the ale were baked and cooled. We frosted, filled and decorated by days end. Friday I decorated the cake. Then we left for delivery for that evenings wedding! For delivery we have a suburban which can accommodate A Lot lol GL

Oh fogot, while baking the cupcakes allow all the buttercreams and frosting to come to room temp and then do a quick re whip.

I saw somewhere a recommendation for transporting cupcakes but am unable to locate it. 300 cupcakes are a lot but for what it's worth here it is.

They recommended turning your cupcake pan upside down and using a large piece of foil, mold the foil around the underside of each of the cupcake cuppy. Then remove the foil and the cupcake shape will be left. Then place the molded foil on something firm like a cardboard box or piece of plastic. Now put in your cupcakes.

Floursifter, have you ever seen that done, using foil to mold around an upside down muffin pan? I'm trying to picture how that would work after there's no more support for the foil. Foil is flimsy, right? Is something else used in addition to foil?

i do large cupcake orders all the time. Earlier this year I did 1000 for the Governors Inaugural reception and last sunday I did 300 on 2 days notice for the Father's Day brunch at my work. Here is what I have found that works for me:

I collect boxes that strawberries come to grocery stores in and line them with foil. They hold between 30 and 42 depending on the size of the cupcake. The boxes have interlocking tabs so the stack. When stacked, they leave very little air space. Grocery stores are very willing to give away the boxes so they dont have to dispose of them.

When baking, I take the cuppies out of the pans and put directly into the boxes. I stack about 3 boxes and then put them into a garbage bag and close with a clothes pin. Into the freezer they go! Keep on going and stack another wrapped 3 boxes right on top. ( I take the shelves out of my stand up freezer when I do these orders.

When ready to decorate, take out of freezer and remove bag to allow the condensation to escape. Decorate right in the box, stack, and deliver!

Done!

I invested in a large quantity of 12-cup clear plastic cupcake containers. Only 11 cents per container if you buy in bulk.

I baked 200 cupcakes just today actually for a wedding this weekend, oh and the top 3 layers for the 6 inch. In my one little oven. I have the recipes memorized and as one batch is baking the other is mixing and getting scooped into the liners. I never bake more than two days in advance. That is my promise to customers.

After they are baked and cooled completely they go into their containers and are placed in my second refrigerator that is just for cakes.

Tomorrow I will make all the swiss meringue buttercream. Oh, I made the flowers on Tuesday and some yesterday along with decorating the cupcake tower.

I will immediately decorate the cupcakes once the buttercream is done, place the flowers and pearls on, and then back to the fridge.

I use large shipping boxes to stack rows of cupcake containers and to keep them from shifting inside the box: empty egg cartons are the perfect size to squeeze in but they do not look horrid as newspaper or smell funny when you unpack the boxes at the event.

When the cupcakes are very cold right out of the fridge they will transport more easily. And the shipping box and egg cartons keep alot of the cold in so the buttercream doesn't melt and slip/slide right off.

Hope that helps some.

Mimifix, Unfortunately I am still unable to remember where I saw this tip of molding the foil to the back of the cupcake pan but there were pictures showing how it was done and it seemed fine to me. Cannot remember if they used heavy duty foil or regular.

I just baked 2oo last night for a wedding on Saturday morning. It has made alot of sense for me to buy cupcake boxes with inserts (i get mine from brpboxshop.com ) These ones have no toppers so I just ice them tonight and will be good to go Saturday am. The boxes can then be stacked in the car for delivery and the inserts keep them from sliding..I used some for the disco cupcakes and the Lightning Mcqueen cupcakes in my photos if you take a look. Well worth the investment for. I incorporate the cost into the cupcakes when I quote.

[quote="TheTattooedCakeLady"]I invested in a large quantity of 12-cup clear plastic cupcake containers. Only 11 cents per container if you buy in bulk.
.[/quote]

I use those also, but I pay a LOT more than that? Did you order online or find a local supplier?

Forgive me, I was quoting how I priced them out using two 6-count sets. You can get the 6-counts 300 for 86.77 making them 3 cents a piece. Meaning 12 cupcakes in two containers for actually only 6.5 cents

It's a bit of a hassle but the 12 counts are 50cents a piece at 100 for $50.

I sell my cupcakes for $14-16 bucks so the 50cents isn't a bad deal for me.

sorry for the confusion

I buy the plastic containers also.
At my local supply shop they sell them to hold, one, two, four, six twelve or 24 at a time, all with interlocking lids that still lay a couple inches above even a fully decorated cuppie!

The largest that hold 24 is like $1.25. WELL worth the money.
And as a bonus, if you are dropping them off, & setting up you can bring most of them back home with you. I always leave 1 or 2 on a huge order like that just in case there are any leftovers.

Absolutely! Cuptainers.com and look up the 6 counts cupcake containers. They are extra high as well so they won't squash any really high swirls or delicate sugar flowers.

I have this link and advice in my database (from different threads and people).


http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/562995554IkWUef

Short underbed boxes. They hold 160 cupcakes each. Make sure they don't smell like pastic inside. Buy industrial shelf liner at Home Depot and put one on the bottom of your cargo area and one between each box.
(from SCP1127)

For minis, pizza boxes, or brand new egg cartons that you can buy online.

Regardless of the box you use, put a piece of foamcore board or styrofoam on the bottom of the box, and then poke toothpicks through each cupcake and into the board, or you can stick the toothpicks into the board first and then skewer the cupcake bottom on the toothpick if you're worried about messing up decorations on top.