My neighbor was planning her daughter’s graduation party and she was asking me my thoughts on a cupcake tower she had seen. She loved the idea for her party but the tower itself was over $100 and then the cupcakes would have been over $250. Plus is wasn’t exactly what she was looking for. She went ahead and bought the circle cake bases and figured she could make this creation herself. I like her thinking! But if you can imagine all the planning that goes into a graduation party, sometimes those extra “projects” can get overwhelming. As I was talking with her, my head was spinning with ideas and I knew this was a project I could do. So after I offered to make the cupcake tower for her, I went even further and offered my {very talented} niece’s services to make the cupcakes for her. I knew this would be such a fun project – and working with my niece would be an added bonus.
First, I want to brag about my niece. She’s made several cakes and cupcakes for events for us and other family and friends. She is uber-talented and completely self-taught. She once did 4 different cupcake creations for my daughter’s carnival-themed birthday party and they were amazing. One looked like a small tub of popcorn, one looked like a grape soda float, complete with grape soda flavored cake, a straw and bottlecap candy. Another was topped with two different favors of cotton candy balls on a stick. And the last was a snowcone flavored and designed cupcake. They were perfect. And they tasted amazing! I’m very proud of her as you can tell. So when I offered her sevices, I knew she’d hit it out of the park. Oh, and did I mention, she’s only 15 years old? My neighbor wanted 2 different flavored cupcakes {chocolate & vanilla} with 3 different fillings {caramel, lemon, and chocolate}. If you’ve never tasted cupcakes with a filling inside, they’re delicious, unique and oh-so-chic. And in addition, she wanted a large cupcake about 7″ to go on top of the tower. All decorated with fondant flowers. Shannon did an amazing job and made my cupcake tower shine! I’m putting my order in now for my daughter’s birthday party!
I’ve outlined the steps for the cupcake tower below. I would consider this an easy-to-moderate difficulty level. But more than anything it just takes time and patience.
Materials:
Cake bases at the sizes you want – I found them at Michael’s {I used 2 cake bases of each size for a total of 8 bases}
Xacto knife
6 white plastic bowls, 6″ round
hot glue gun and glue sticks
Super 77 Adhesive Spray
Decorative scrapbook paper, 6 sheets for this size
Decorative ribbon, 5 yards {I used a 1/4″ grosgrain}
Additional decorative ribbon, about 1 yard
How to make a 4 tier cupcake tower:
1. Cut the cake base circles to 4 different sizes. I made mine 16″, 14″, 12″ and 10″. If you’re not comfortable cutting the bases, you can buy them at these standard sizes. It will cost a little more but might be worth it.
2. I decided to glue 2 cake bases together for added support. Use the Super 77 Adhesive spray. I glued the gray sides together so the white sides showed. This gives it a nicer, more finished look.
3. Use the Super 77 Adhesive spray to adhere the scrapbook paper to ONE side of each cake base and trim to the edge.
4. Use the hot glue gun to adhere the ribbon to the edge of the bases. I did this in small sections to keep the ribbon straight. {I originally used a delicate, lace-like ribbon but it didn’t hide the corrugated edges enough so I went with the polka dot grosgrain}
**do steps 2-4 for each of the 4 bases.
5. Once all the bases are done, use the hot glue gun to attach one plastic bowl UPSIDE DOWN to the top of the bottom base. To make sure the bowl was centered, I marked a 6″ circle in the center of each base. Then hot glue another bowl RIGHT SIDE UP on top of the first bowl. This is the support between each of the bases. **Do this step for each base attaching them as you go.
6. I noticed that where the 2 bowls met between each of the bases, it looked a little sloppy with some glue spilling out. So I took another decorative ribbon and adhered it to the seam with hot glue. This covered up the messiness and added a nice detail to the crude support system!
7. Now you have created a custom cupcake tower!
Here it is with the amazing cupcakes and some fresh peonies for decoration. The tower held up well and the cupcakes were devoured! If you’re looking for something unique for your next party, cupcake towers are a great solution. And when you make them yourself, you can really personalize the details to match your celebration. Try and create one yourself or I’ll be happy to make one for you! And I know a very talented baker who can make some amazing cakes and cupcakes! Enjoy!
I'd love to hear your comments!