Does anyone offer Cupcake Parites (for Birthday's, mom groups, etc.)? If so do you charge by the person? One flat fee for so many hours?

If anyone would mind sharing just a little bit about how their parites run I would really appriciate it. I am thinking about offering this and was wondering what everyone has found that works and what may not have....Are there any advantages/disadvantages to doing it either way?

thanks so much - I really appriciate any input anyone may offer

Never heard of this.

But I do send cupcakes into work with DH and DD all the time. I hear I have a ton of best friends that I have never even met.

And what would a cupcake party be? Make your own? Or just have them there?

I think we need more information about what you are envisioning.

There's a caker in my area who does cupcakes decorating parties for kids' b-days. She brings undecorated cupcakes and piping bags with b/c for all the kids and all kinds of sprinkles and toppings and they decorate their own. Is this what you mean?

And actually I think it would be fun to go to a tasting party with a whole bunch of different flavors to sample.

oooooohhhh, me likey this idea!

There is a place near Vancouver that offers birthday parties for kids

Yes, a cupcake decorating party. Cupcakes would be provided as well as bags of icing and sprinkles, etc. I know when my kids have had parties at places like paint your own pottery or at a salon some places charge by the kid ex. $20 per kid up to 10 kids for 2 hours of party time, each additional kid is $15 and then some place charge a flat fee ex. $225 for up to 10 kids for 2 hours of party time. I know the amount of space available would determine how many kids could be invited but I was just wondering what would make more sense. I was thinking that all the kids would be provided with aprons and/or chef hats and then the birthday child could keep their apron or be given a new one that all the guests could sign before the party was over. Then I thought they could be given a tour of the bakery as part of it. I'm not sure how time would go and if that would even fit in. I was thinking 2 hours would be a good amount of time for the kids to decorate and interact then allow time for gift opening.

Also - would it make sense to box up the kids cupcakes and send them home with them or should they eat the cupcakes there? Or should I leave that up to the parents to decide as part of the package? I was just wondering how that would work with doing the "cake" and singing Happy Birthday part of it. Should I offer a custom cake as an "add on" for the package or they could chose to just let the kids eat their cupcakes at the end of the party and maybe have a "special" cupcake or small cake for the birthday child.

Hope that's clearer! thanks for the input!

The shop where I used to work did this, so let me see if I can help:

We had a person dedicated to handle these types of parties. If you're the baker/decorator at your business and are even remotely busy, you will NOT have time to arrange the parties, host them, etc, and do everything else at the shop....especially since most of the parties are on the weekend when you are probably the busiest. The bakers at the shop were responsible for baking the cupcakes and making the frosting, but that's it. Our time was not taken away from baking/decorating. We didn't even color/bag the frosting...the party person did that.

I don't remember ever having a party at the bakery; our person took the cupcakes and decorating supplies to the party location.

If it's a kid's party (and most of them were), keep the piping bags small or they won't be able to control them. Some kids will be very precise and really try to decorate the cupcake and use a reasonable amount of frosting, while others will want to squirt 5 whole bags on theirs! You also have to keep an eye on the kids because they'll want to suck frosting out of the bags and then pass them (and their germs) onto a friend. Some kids will squirt the frosting on each other. Or on you. Lots of fun!

Don't have one big bottle of sprinkles for the kids to use. Instead, put the sprinkles in small containers for each child. They can choose the color or type of sprinkle they want, but if you give them a big bottle of, say, sanding sugar to share, it might last 3 or 4 kids before it's empty.

As far as doing a custom cake as an "add on" for singing Happy Birthday, most of the time we were asked to do a jumbo cupcake cake for that. If the parents want a more "elaborate" custom cake, I would certainly provide it at regular cost...but I don't think that was ever requested. Usually, the adults attending would eat the cupcake cake.

I too am curious about this.

Johnnycakes, do you remember the cost for the party goers? Was it a set cost or an amount per person?

Awesom Johnnycakes, that helped alot!! I know prices are supject to where you live but do you happen to remember what the going rate was for the parties?

Actually I would be the person handling the parites, the cupcakes would be baked and the icing would be made already. Good tips on making sure things are in smaller piping bags and about the sprinkles!!! LOL I know from my kids and my nieces that when we do cupcakes at our house there are sprinkles EVERYWHERE and you're right they are used up in no time!

This location has a seperate party room so the angle is going to be that the parties will be held at the bakery itself.

I was thinking along the same lines as a giant cupcake cake as the add on for the cake to share.

Thanks again for your help - this is going to be a good start!

There is a bakery near me that does this, also. I haven't been there, but here's a link to their website:

http://www.ourcupcakery.com/cupcake-decorating-party-info/

Thanks for the link - that's helps alot as well!

Also a place near me does this...

www.freshcupcakes.com which has decorating parties for kids 6 and up...includes invite/apron for each child/gift bags/cupcakes for each child and a photo......

sounds like a money maker....I personally would not want to be around a bunch of potentially bratty kids

Thanks, I have been searching for bakeries in my area that offer this and I can't find any - hopefully this will be a success!!

Here's one more link...they offer all kinds of parties.

http://www.themakery.com/index.php

I don't remember pricing, but I'll try to find out. I didn't have much to do with the parties, other than baking what was needed. I do know there was a minimum fee for up to a certain number of people, and then it went up from there.

The person in charge of the parties was responsible for promoting that part of the business, finding customers, organizing and hosting the parties...but she also taught decorating classes and planned weddings and other events that the bakery would provide cakes/desserts for.

The cupcake decorating parties were usually kids parties, but the next popular was bachelorette/girls night parties. I have baked my fair share of "male member" small cakes that the ladies seemed to enjoy decorating. Might be offensive to some on here, but they were definitely popular parties.

hi there

i run a business in the uk doing just this (for adults though, hen parties mainly) and I charge per person with a minimum booking of 8 people at around £30 per person. i imagine you may make less money if you did a flat fee.

i go to people's homes or hire out reasonably priced venues.

shout if there;s anything else you need to know x

p.s. its £30 for a 2 hour party. I provide 6 undecorated cakes for people to frost, edible glitter and pots of sprinkles and teach a few sugar craft techniques. i provide cheap cake boxes for them to take their creations home in too : )

hope this helps x

THanks guys...all of this info has helped so much!!

I do this, here is a link to details http://www.israelcakeshop.com/en/cake-decorating-parties

I do them for kids and adults (cupcakes and cake parties). Next week I am running a cake camp which is a more complicated version.

I live in the Chicago area and I do cupcake birthday parties. Our parties start at $25 per child with a 10 person minimum. That includes decorating 3 cupcakes that the child will bring home, a personalized apron, and a homemade cupcake (that I have decorated) to sing Happy Birthday with. We supply everything and do all the clean up and prep work. The cupcakes that the kids decorated are either my own designs or could be something out of the book Hello Cupcake.

I am getting excited with reading this thread..... I had never heard or even thought about cupcake parties.... This would be perfect... Thanks everyone for sharing.....

My daughter's teachers are always asking for the free cake at school parties. I was getting too busy to do free cakes so I decided to bring naked cupcakes so each student could decorate their own. The students loved it. My daughter loved it even more because she stood in front of class and "taught" the others how to decorate. She's only 6 it was cute. She told them that she made and sold cakes like her Mama also. Which in a way wasn't a lie. For Christmas she got an Easy Bake oven and one of those Girl Gourment cake decorating thingys (because she wanted to be like me, awww *tear*) and she bakes and sells cakes to her Grandma at least once a week, lol. Got off subject. Anyway, my business will be open in a couple weeks (finally!!!) and I plan to add the cupcake party to my list.

~Kim

Thanks guys....all of this is very helpful and is exactly the direction I was thinking about. Hoping this is something I can do in the near future!