HOWTO: Oh-so-tiny itty-bitty Cupcakes
By Never teh BrideTiny cakes continue to be a hot nuptial commodity based on the preponderance of cupcake stands and cupcake wrappers out there. As grand as traditional tiered cakes can be–and wow, are they ever fabulous when they’re done right–couples are still gravitating toward cake in personal portions.
I’ve seen cupcakes doled out during cake cuttings and cupcakes stacked as centerpieces all reception long, which meant that some guests were noshing on cake before dinner was even served! What role haven’t I seen cupcakes take on? Well, I’ve never seen cupcakes given away as a wedding favor. This is probably because cake is smushy-mushy and must be boxed well lest it be rendered inedible during travel.
So how do you render little cakes fit for transport? If you’re the lovely and talented Bakerella, you make them EVEN LITTLER! And, sometimes, but not always, you put them on sticks:
Bakerella’s tiny cupcake tutorial makes it look so easy, which usually means that the project at hand will be really difficult. Not this time, however. As long as you’re patient enough to wait for melted chocolate to dry (just eat some while you wait) and mold a bunch of cakeballs into cupcakes, you’ll do just fine. The best thing about these…besides the fact that they’re so dang simple to make…is that there is icing mixed right into the cake. Yum!
If you’re looking for a fun DIY favor, think about whether you fancy spending a bit of time in the kitchen baking, rolling, and icing one or more mini-mini cupcakes per guest. Should it happen that the answer is yes, go thank Bakerella for posting such a well written and easy-to-follow tutorial. I’ll be doing just that when I whip these up for my impending book release party!
EDIT — Here’s an alternate, even easier tutorial!
May 14th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Too, too cute! Love it!
May 14th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
For our second reception in Sri Lanka (where it’s traditional for the groom’s family to host this event, following the honeymoon), we served cupcakes instead of the traditional wedding cake. As in America and other western countries, our cupcakes were arranged in a tiered cake stand to look like a wedding cake, and it was a big hit! Though cupcakes are popular here in the U.S., it’s very uncommon in Sri Lanka, and people thought it was the coolest thing!
Both children and adults LOVED the cupcakes, and we loved the fact that we didn’t have to cut individual pieces of cake. I think it’s a great DIY project too!
May 15th, 2008 at 10:56 am
I made these over the weekend actually. They are really easy but they do tend to make a big mess. My favorite flavor combination so far is white cake, caramel pecan icing dipped in milk chocolate then sprinkled with toasted coconut. I call them Samoa cake balls.
May 18th, 2008 at 2:17 am
I made them for a baby shower, and they are super cute and crowd pleasing. They were also not super difficult to make, but I found it time consuming to try and get a nice cup cake-y shape.