Any suggestions for how someone non creative (me!) can make a giant cupcake look professional??

Also don't want it to cost too much

Also any giant cupcake recipes much appreciated

You could make a white frosting, pipe it on, sprinkle hundreds & thousands on and stick half a flake in making a 99. I sometimes buy colours ready to roll icing, choose a main colour & cut with a round pastry cutter then cut small shapes out in other colours like flowers & stick them on.

Thanks - I have kind of agreed to make someones Birthday cake so need it to look good

Oh when it comes to cake I am not very creative. Now my sister in law seems to be a nature & can just pop an idea out of her head. I even bought a couple of cake decorating books & some cutters & stuff to have a go but ended up giving up & passing them on to her.
Hopefully someone will come on & give you some ideas & tips. Good luck

http://www.wilton.com/technique/1M-Swirl

This is a great demonstration for cupcake icing, they also have a recipe which I prefer to the normal buttercream, they use half butter and half white fat (I use trex) it gives it a gloriously silky consustency and is really easy to work with. I used it for a cupcake birthday tower recently and got rave reviews

I'd keep decoration simple, either some pretty sweets, chocolates or maybe some silver balls. Sainsburys does some ready made sugar icing decorations if you fancy.

I've never made a huge one so don't have any recipes.

Have fun, I've only gotten into cake making/decorating in last year and I love it, I make celebration cakes for my family and friends

If you're really not that confident I would recommend buying ready made frosting from the supermarket - literally slapping it on with a knife, spread it to even it out then take the tip of your knife and "swirl" it around here and there. Then put little hundreds and thousands or chocolate balls etc on top

Silverspoon do some chocolate alphabets now that I cheat with sometimes to put a name on a cake

Here's one I've done using the slap and swirl technique lol. Much less mess than a piping bag
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images...927042120.jpg/

Wow that cake looks lovely, well done

Oh my - that looks amazing!!!

Ready made frosting here I come....

Thank you I used roll out fondant for the bottom part - turned it upside down, moistened it with some warm jam and stuck the icing on. Doesnt have to be perfect on top when you turn it back round because you're filling and top will cover it

And I just chucked a ribbon around to make it look a bit neater.
That was my first try at giant cupcake - I've only ever done 2 and to be honest I'll be glad if I never have to do one again lol.

The mixture just didnt want to cook right or rise in the mould

Me again

do you think this could work?

I was going to buy some ready made frosting (I can only find white) and then buy some edible flowers (daff's) so my colour theme will be yellow and white - I'll also buy some gold balls and edible gold glitter?

Right, I am getting far too serious about this BUT if I buy ready made frosting do you think I can make it green with food colouring (I'd empty it into a bowl and then add colouring and then forst cake)

Think my theme is going to be "garden in bloom"

I buy the white frosting & colour it, I also flavour it sometimes too especially when I make cupcakes for the grandkids.

It would be fine colouring th ready made icing, just put a little in at a time so you get the shade you want, I guess if it goes a but runny you could add some icing sugar but hopefully you won't need to.

Your idea sounds lovely

That just looks beautiful !

Thanks


Rainbowgirl - if you have anywhere near you that sells proper "foody" stuff the best kinda colouring to buy would be paste or gel instead of liquid like you get in supermarkets. This is like thick consistency so you are not watering down the icing too much if that makes sense

If not - just buy the normal watery icing and f it gets too runny add the icing sugar as suggested above

I use the gels, I noticed Asda are selling them now. Much better than the liquid & stretch further.
I use a cocktail stick to get some out of the tub so I don't contaminate the gel with anything. Fantastic range of colours too, great for making rainbow cupcakes

seriously!?

My local asda don't sell them. I always buy all my cake stuff online from one supplier and hate it when I need something quick and Asda is no good.

Your idea sounds lovely RG. The colour paste is brilliant, if you are using a piping bag you can load it up with blobs of different coloured icing to get a tie-dye effect. You need quite a big nozzle for the giant cupcakes though

I find buttercream a bit too sweet and have been using one that starts with a flour roux, its creamy and much less sweet (will find the link and post it).

Just checked asda online - its a very recent addition in our area but fantastic to know!

I love using two tone icing looks so fancy

if I'm short of time I like to use Bettie Crocker vanilla flavoured buttercream icing but its quite expensive compared to making your own (think £2.15 for a small tub)

I always have the same problem. I cant get the cake to cook evenly. It takes a lot of mixture to fill my giant cupcake mould, so i've given up trying as its too much of a waste of money when it inevitably goes wrong!

Rainbow your theme sounds lovely. I hope you will post pics when youre done

Thats exactly the issue I had. And if I put a lot more mixture in it would take forever and a day to cook. Was still soggy inside while being overcooked outside.

Took me 3 attempts first time to do my first one, and after my second one I vowed to never again make a giant cupcake lol

The only time it cooked consistently...it didnt rise!!
They look great when they are done (yours is beautiful) but i doubt i'll try again for fun as its a lot of ingredients wasted if it goes wrong, and expensive to do even if it goes well, and i wouldnt do one for a special occasion as its not reliable.

I would use an ordinary cake tin and make maybe four cakes and layer it up, you could have different flavour layers then if you wanted or just one flavour with buttercream or chocolate or anything else you fancy in between. If you want it to be shaped like a cupcake (narrower at the bottom) just trim the cake layers after they are cooked. Put matching coloured tissue paper or something around where there would usually be a cake case, use food colouring and flavouring to make the buttercream for frosting and put some sweets or other decorations on top.

Thanks all - I am still waiting for the cupcake mould to arrive LOL!

I'll have a trial run with the actual cake I think!