Cupcake cakes can charm small children, especially when decorated with festive motifs.
Your child's first birthday is a momentous event, when friends and family gather to celebrate a milestone in your child's young life. As such celebrations usually include both children and adults, the birthday cake should not be overly complex in flavor or difficult to digest; rather, it should be simple enough to please both young and mature palates. Cupcake cake designs allow bakers to construct interesting, whimsical cakes that delight eaters of all ages. Does this Spark an idea?
Baby Animal Cakes
Since most small children adore baby animals, why not decorate your cupcake cake to resemble one? Try arranging carrot cake cupcakes in the shape of a baby bunny rabbit, and decorating them with a fluffy white frosting---such as meringue---in order to simulate bunny "fur." Pink frosting can be used to line the bunny's "ears," while small black candies can be used to create whiskers, eyes and other features. Using the same method, you can create a monkey cupcake cake with banana bread cupcakes and chocolate frosting. By thinking creatively, cupcakes cakes in the shapes of kittens, lambs, baby chicks and other animals can be constructed.
Insect Cakes
Because cupcakes are so easy to arrange, it is a simple matter to construct impressive-looking cupcake cakes that resemble kid-friendly insects, such as caterpillars, butterflies and ladybugs. These cakes have the added advantage of being easy to serve. Try covering cupcakes with brightly colored fondant, using jelly beans to simulate the patterns found on ladybug's shells and butterfly's wings.
Cupcake Towers
Batches of frosted cupcakes can easily be arranged into towers, which are sure to delight children of all ages. Once you have created your cupcake tiers, try decorating them with visual and textural flourishes, such as frosting flowers, nut clusters, lollipop bouquets and gumdrop swirls. You can even frost cupcake towers to resemble castles, hilltops and islands. By studding cupcake towers with fresh sliced fruits and berries, you can create tropical effects.
Cupcake Bouquets
Cupcakes can also be clustered into shapes resembling flower bouquets. To create a cupcake cake bouquet, plant cupcakes on sturdy sticks, such as shish kebab sticks or rods of sugar candy. Decorate the cupcakes to resemble flowers, either by using frosting rosettes or by using small, candied flowers, such as violets. Place the cupcake "flowers" into a large, heavy vase and arrange as you would a real bouquet of flowers. This presentation can be truly charming and impressive and allows much scope for creativity.
Ice Cream Cupcake Cakes
Instead of frosting cupcake cakes with standard frostings, use ice cream, sherbet or sorbet. This will eliminate the need to serve ice cream with your cake. Lemon, orange or berry sorbets complement chocolate and vanilla cupcake cakes, while creamy ice cream flavors, such as cookies and cream or strawberry cheesecake, will play well off fruity cupcakes, such as blueberry cupcakes or apple-walnut cupcakes.
Mini-cupcake Cakes
Mini-cupcakes are even more versatile than standard-size cupcakes, as their small size allows them to be easily piled into intriguing shapes. Mini-cupcakes are also a very appropriate serving size for small children. Try decorating mini-cupcake cakes with fresh or maraschino cherries, lollipops, gummy bears and other small candies.
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