Hi all,
A friend of mine is having a birthday party for her 4 year old with a carnival theme. She wants both cupcakes and a cake. She said a sheet cake but I hate doing those so I think I'm going to suggest just a large round! I suppose I could do some kind of FBCT for the cake (unless you have better ideas!) but does anyone have any suggestions for carnival-themed cupcakes?!?? THANKS!!
What about mimicing a ride at a carnival... do the center as a round cake decorated like the center of a ride, then the cupcakes would be the individual little 'cars' that the people ride in! You could do a search online for some pix of carnival rides for inspiration. That would be too fun! Or, if you are looking for something a little more simple, what about doing the cupcakes like little faces, and the center cake could be maybe a square dunk tank, or a show you'd see at a carnival, even decorate a square cake like a carnival train car that you see in old fashioned carnivals! Or, make it the tiger cage, something like that!! This could be SO much fun!! Good luck!
How about piping things like....lions and tigers and bears (oh my) faces....clown faces, elephants, etc, etc on the cupcakes. I know that I have seen these somewhere, but cannot remember where. (Maybe an old Wilton yearbook???) As for the round cake, make it look like a circus tent (think red and white). Hope this helps! Good luck and happy baking/decorating!
OH DUH!!!!! Ok.....someone needs more coffee this morning! I just re-read and noticed that it said CARNIVAL.....but I had CIRCUS in mind! SO....disreguard my above post! And I promise to have another cup of coffee before attempting to suggest anything again! SOOOOO Sorry!!!!
AWESOME ideas everyone! I also kind of think of circus and carnival the same 
I like the idea of doing a ride...maybe a ferris wheel? and using the cupcakes as cars or something, but they need something like 30 cupcakes.
I've been wanting to do those "cupcakes" that are baked in a real ice cream cone, or do you not associate ice cream with carnival??
How about making the center cake a carousel?
On the cupcakes you could put "admit one" tickets made out of fondant.
OR
You could decorate the cupcakes to look like "carnival" food:
you could use the open coupler to pipe the icing like icecream on some, top some with fondant "popcorn",
and get the prepackaged cotton candy and put that over smooth icing on some.
What about the ferris wheel cake by KellJ? (Sorry I don't know how to put the picture here.) I have seen a merry go round cake that goes round and round. You can use the rotating cake stand for this effect. Duff did some really cute bumper car cakes.
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