So, I have been asked if I would like to make the cupcakes for a friends daughters wedding......please can someone give me an idea of the logistics involved in making that many cupcakes before I commit either way!  The idea seems to be that she would like them decorated with buttercream not fondant, perhaps with a rose on them.  The wedding is an afternoon event.  Grateful for any advice and helpful comments.  Many thanks,  Helen.

It sounds like you are a hobby baker like I am.

I have done this several times.  I will bake the cupcakes ahead of time.  I will make different flavors because that is what guests love.  I then freeze them unfrosted.  I have a friend who owns a cupcake bakery and freezes the cupcakes frosted, I just was a little worried about that.

I bake the cupcakes in plain white cupcake papers then place them in colored or decorated papers after they are baked.  The colors of the papers seem to fade when baked.

I made the buttercream before the date, it can be frozen or refrigerated for a long time BTW.  If you are doing roses from buttercream, you can make those and freeze them too.  In fact I always freeze the roses even if I am using them right away because it is so much easier to place them on the cake without damaging them if they are frozen.  Keep the decorations simple.

You will need boxes to carry them to the reception place.  I have several cupcake carriers, but you can buy cupcake boxes at a reasonable price online.

The day before the wedding I will defrost all the cupcakes, fill the pastry bag with frosting and then like an assembly line frost all the cupcakes and then add the decorations. Try to get someone to help carry them and set them up.

You can do this, I as an hobby baker managed to make 300 cupcakes for our school's 20 year anniversary while we had a blizzard and the electricity was out for a week.  Thank goodness for the Firehouse that always has electricity!

Have fun!  This can be a great gift for the bride and groom.

Wow. that's so helpful thank you.  Yes, I am a hobby baker and this will be the first bake on this sort of scale.  

Can I ask a silly question....you bake in plain white cupcake cases - do you then remove these before putting them in fancy cases or use fancy cases over the plain white ones?  I had thought of decorating with fondant roses but coincidentally was just reading another post on cake central about buttercream roses.  I've not done anything with buttercream before but I do have a year to practice!

If you make different flavoured cakes I presume you need a discreet label somewhere saying what flavour they are or is that not necessary?

Thank you again.

I am happy that you found anything I posted helpful.

I bake in white papers and then I put a dab of frosting in the decorative paper and drop the cupcake with the white paper into it.  It sticks well, some people use a dab with a glue stick into the decorative paper instead.  The cupcake will have two papers, no problem to the guests.

I have used coordinating colored/designs of cupcake papers.  One design for each flavor, then I have a little framed menu by the display. To make the menu I cut out a little circle from the cupcake paper and glue it next to a description of the flavor of the cupcake and frosting.  I do, in small print, note if any of the flavors have any nut products just in case.  At one wedding they used a tiered display and each tier had a different flavor so I had a little card on each tier naming the flavor. I do this because who wants to eat calories when it isn't your favorite flavor?!?

I had a problem with knowing how many cupcakes to make.  I find people will have one piece of cake, but have more than one cupcake.

Since you have time, practice with fondant and buttercream roses.  By far the sugarpaste roses are the best looking, fondant can be made into petaled roses or the roses that are more like ribbons, buttercream roses were the first I learned to make.  You, and I guess the bride or friend should decide which they want.  Buttercream are the best to eat, then fondant, as far as I know no one eats the sugar paste ones.

I sometimes have a friend help when I frost over a hundred cupcakes, I don't really need the help but it just goes faster when someone else is around to talk to.  She will take care of the cupcake papers and refill pastry bags etc.  She doesn't really frost or decorate but it is great to have someone to help box and move things around.

BTW-I taught school for years-there are NO silly questions.  LOL

I did 300 cupcakes for my sons wedding, baked on thurs, frosted and decorated on friday am  delivered fri night, set up on saturday  I made 4 different flavors, made the chocolate roses and other decorations ahead.  Bought boxes from local bakery, On Wed night I measured out all dry ingredients in batches and had everything all organized.  I had my sister help bake and we had all 300 done in 6 hrs.  We had an assembly figured out.  I cheated and bought my frosting in a big pail from sams club and it worked great.  My son and his wife were pleased.  Also made a cake for cutting

I'm loving learning from this thread!! Question...how do you freeze the cupcakes without them drying out? 

i've not usually had a problem freezing cupcakes - i think the key, as with freezing anything, is to make sure they are well wrapped.  This forum is great for people asking what could be viewed as basic questions and getting help from the more experienced home bakers and professionals.  It's a great learning resource!

For some reason I am unable to edit my last post - I wanted to say thank you to the kind people who have replied to my question - thanks, I appreciate you taking the time.  I'm going to do this and am looking forward to it...already doing some research and I have nearly a year to plan/prepare for just 100 cupcakes!!  Flavour wise I  thought of just a normal vanilla cupcake, lemon & poppy seed, chocolate and coffee and walnut and I know the bride to be is thinking along similiar lines which is good.

I'm going to be doing an engagement cake in June this year as I know a marriage proposal is on the way for one of my own daughters.....hope they don't decide on a Feb 2017 wedding day!

Helen,

I don't know if you have tried and true recipes for the cupcakes.  If not I have made a mocha cupcake with espresso frosting that everyone loves.  You can find the recipe by googling Brown Eyed Baker.  I would post the link but haven't learned how to make it clickable. www.browneyedbaker.com

OMG they look and sound fab -think i will be trying some of those!

I made my cupcakes for my wedding (around 150 of them) plus a top cake for cutting.  I made them well in advance and froze them.  To freeze, I just put 9 into a gallon size plastic bag and put all the bags in a freezer.  I didn't wrap each individually.  And they were delicious!  Very moist and fresh tasting.

I love the tip about using the extra cupcake wrapper!  I hate how the color is always gone from them after they are baked.  I am definitely going to use that for some cupcakes I am making this weekend.