anyone ever throw a cupcake decorating party?

[HappyLady]

I'm thinking about hosting one. I've read all the tips and suggestions online that I could find, but I want real life experiences. LOL I'd probably have 10 - 12 kids, ranging in age from 3 - 6.

 

Do you think mini cupcakes would be better or actual size? I'm not expecting these kids to make "pretty" cupcakes, but rather just with any topping that they want and they can take home whatever they don't eat.

 

Any suggestions?

[kewb]

Yes, my dd had a cupcake wars birthday party a couple of years ago. I only had 6 girls so it may have been easier to manage. I really was not elaborate. I baked full size cupcakes the night before. Purchased a bunch of tubs of white icing, food coloring (I mixed up the icing colors the night before), and assorted toppings. I believe I had gummy bears, sno-caps, m & m's, chocolate chips, licorice nibs, and mini-marshmallows. I set up everything on the dining room table and they went to town. They each decorated 2 cupcakes. My ds was the judge.

 

My group of kids was older then yours. I would think at that age range decorating a mini cupcake would be difficult.

[DragonFaerie]

My DD11 did this as part of her birthday party rather than having a traditional cake. She's an October birthday, so we baked cupcakes and then had a bunch of Halloween decorating stuff (black and orange icing, etc). The girls had a lot of fun with it.

[Belacqua]

We did that as part of a birthday party once, and it was hugely successful. I think the tiny cupcakes idea is a very good one, especially with kids that young.

 

Your expectations sound reasonable. When it comes to cake decorating, kids do not seem to have a Less Is More mentality (just imagine how much more more would be!). You don't have to have 300 different kind of decoration, though it will probably be tempting. I kind of got sucked into, "Ooh, mini chocolate chips! And red hots! And gummy worms!"

 

The taking cupcakes home part strikes me as possibly posing a problem, only because the kids tend to pile on so much stuff the cupcakes don't end up being especially portable. But if you hustle them into boxes or bags right away, it could definitely work.

 

Have fun!

[Mabeline]

In my uneperienced opinion, I would do mini cupcakes so they could decorate more than one or two and not end up with too many. I would put the frosting in squeeze bottles for less mess and have sprinkles and other candy in small bowls with spoons sitting in a rimmed cookie sheet to try and catch most of the mess. Also have paper plates with seran wrap or another easy way to transport them home.

[DragonFaerie]

One though to consider with little ones though is that getting decorations onto tiny cupcakes might be hard for them. Bigger cupcake = bigger target. :)

[Trilliums]

We used home made frosting in small ziplock baggies with end snipped off but this was for 8-10 year olds. Purchased tubes are a lot of $$ for the quality you get, imo.

 

For that young, you might consider pre-frosting them and having small tubes/bags of lots of different colors of frosting then small containers of toppings. Also, I'd recommend several small dishes or cupcake liners of the different toppings instead of large bowls. If you really want to get organized, each kid could have their own "station" where they have some of each topping, and they can only take from their supply. That way no worries over one kid using up all of one kind of topping.

 

Hope you have fun!