First let me say that I am pretty new to decorating. I have completed the basic cake decorating course through Wilton and have been actively trying new techniques, etc.
I am making cupcakes for a wedding as a gift this coming weekend. I am extremely nervous as the wedding and reception are going to be held outside, while the cupcakes will be shaded, I am worried about the temperature affecting the flowers as the weather channel says it's supposed to be about 95.
The bride wants sunflowers so I was thinking about doing either butter-cream or royal icing flowers. However I'm not sure if I should make them ahead of time on or off the cupcakes so they will be hard and hopefully not wilt outside. I am looking for advice so any help is welcome.
Please and Thank you in advance

I would use fondant for the Sun flowers considering that it will be in the 90's.. royal icing would work too.

Hi,
If its going to be hot, I'd say buttercream is a no no, its probably going to melt
I think if the sunflowers are fondant the heat will effect them too, they probably will start to "wilt"
Royal icing would possibly be better, if the cupcakes are decorated before you go and the royal icing has gone solid
The nature of gum paste is to go hard also, so gum paste could be a possibilty, but I'm not an expert on gumpaste.
I'm positive though, that buttercream or fondant will melt.

hope this helped.

I personally wouldn't use fondant, just because I know most people don't like fondant and would end up picking it all off. I did 250 fondant cupcakes for a wedding last year and sooooo much work was put into them, I was so upset when I saw that 90% of the guests had just picked off all of my hard work and ate what was underneath. I guess it's just a personal thing because I know how upset I was! I would use royal icing, I think this would work the best, espcially if you make it a little stiffer than you normally would so the petals stand up rather than run down the cupcake If you google pictures of sunflower cupcakes there's a lot of great ideas out there!

Hi I would use royal icing. Its the best when very hot. It always holds it shape. Hope it all goes well for you.

Hi I would use royal icing if its going to be very hot. It always holds it shape.Hope it all goes well for you.

I hope you guys are talking about make the sunflowers out of royal frosting and not frosting the whole cupcake with royal frosting. Royal frosting gets hard, rock hard. I personally wouldn't eat a cupcake iced with royal frosting. And as far as people picking off the fondant decorations, I can almost bet that they will pick off the royal frosting decorations too. I don't like the taste of fondant either, so I know what you mean about people taking the decorations off and not eating. If you make the sunflower out of royal frosting, I would start making them soon because they take at least 24 hours to dry enough for you to handle them. I had cupcakes that had roses on them. Thank goodness I did start ahead of time, because you can NOT expect them to last putting them on the cupcake if they are not dry. If you make the sunflowers on wax paper, once they are dry, they peel right off. They are easy to work with, and fun to make. I hope I don't sound offensive, I don't mean too. I have taken all 3 Wilton classes, and have had some experience, so I am only giving my opinion. HTH

I made suflower cupcakes last years for a 90th birthday.I made them from fondant.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1403316

Use buttercream that has shortening in it and just pipe the flowers onto the cupcakes. I made two cakes last weekend for a picnic which sat out in 93+ degree weather for over 3 hours-plus a 45 min. trip in a car with dead air conditioner. Now the cake table got moved a couple of times to keep the cakes out of the direct sun, but the frosting held up perfectly.

Frankly, I didn't even think about it ahead of time. If you were using a 100% butter, I think you would have problems. The butter- shortening combination doesn't seem to be heat sensitive.

Thanks everyone for the great ideas.. Lots of mixed reviews on using BC vs fondant.
I just checked the weather, it should mid-80's around the wedding/reception time so we should be good to go with BC and just make it stiffer than normal. I don't have experience with fondant or gum paste so I was trying to avoid going that route until I have some experience with it.
The wedding is tomorrow so I'll let ya'll know how it turns out and hopefully post some pics.
Again, thanks for the advice.

I just did them for a wedding. I did buttercream using indydebi's recipe and did 50/50 fondant/gumpaste for my flowers. They were fairly easy to do. They are in my photos.