Cupcake Bouquet

My friend (I would refer to her as the cupcake fiend but I got told off for that) had a nice birthday barbecue party at the weekend, and so I thought it was about time I made her the present I had been planning (since her actual birthday a month ago). I spotted cupcake bouquets on the Internet, they looked like the perfect present but at £35 and the uncertainty of my friend being in for delivery, I thought there must be a better way. I googled "how to make a cupcake bouquet" and found this site.

It seemed simple enough so I popped along to hobbycraft, picked up a plant pot and a ball of oasis that you would normally use for flower arranging. I also purchased 1000 lollysticks, but didn't actually use any!

The instructions said to hot glue the ball to the pot but for some reason I was keen on being able to use the plant pot for plants afterwards. Instead, I attached a kebab skewer to the bottom of the pot with blu tak. I unwrapped the oasis, realised how crumbly it was, and immediately rewrapped it with cling film. I poked it onto the skewer and admired my handiwork.

I baked 24 cupcakes, and iced half with one icing tip and half with another and used slightly different shades of pink (I wanted it to look like it had variety).

When it came to attaching the cupcakes I realised that the lolly sticks were too long for the ball I'd chosen (I think the one in the instructions must be bigger) so Ian and I decided a three cocktail stick prongs would work better.

The prongs really need to go into the oasis first, because otherwise when you try to push the cake on, the sticks will come out the top of the cake. Thankfully Ian thought of this so I didn't ruin any cupcakes.

The cupcake bouquet ended up with 15 cupcakes on it, and although there were a few small gaps, it didn't look bad. It certainly got a lot of comments from the guests at the barbecue, and my friend liked it so it's all good!