Cupcake Bouquet

Impress everyone with this beautiful and easy cupcake bouquet! This personalized gift is a thoughtful, home-made, unique and tasty way to say:  "Happy Birthday", "Thank you ", "Get Well",  "Happy Mother's Day" or "Congratulations". These bouquets are versatile and easily changed up to suit any ocassion by using a different vase, ribbon, icing color or cupcake flavour.  As an added bonus, the lucky recipient of this elegant gift is left with a lovely vase of your choosing, as well as a satisfied palate.
~Just follow these simple instructions to create the perfect gift for someone special~

You will need:

7 large cupcakes
4 cups of your favorite buttercream icing (medium stiff consistency)
1 disposable plastic pastry bag
1M decorating tip
yellow food dye
toothpicks
7 (4 ounce) plastic portion cups- I purchased at restaurant supply store open to public
vase (8 inch diameter)
1/2 ball floral styrofoam (6 inch diameter) - I purchased at craft store
stapler
3 sheets of green gift wrapping tissue paper
ribbon
scissors

Push 2 pieces of green wrapping tissue paper into bottom of vase. Push down into the middle so that the corners are sticking out at  the edge of the vase. 

Take the 3rd piece of green wrapping tissue paper and roll into a loose ball and place gently in vase.

Place the 1/2 ball flower foam on top of tissue wrapping paper.

Tie ribbon around the base, make a bow and trim. If the ribbon slides down the vase, you can use a little tape to hold it in place. 

Staple all of the 7 plastic cups together as shown, placing on top of the flower foam ball.

Color your icing with a small amount of food color on a toothpick. Keep adding until you get the color you like.( I use a mixture of buttercup yellow and a little lemon yellow)

Cut off end of plastic pastry bag and insert 1M tip from top.  Fill pastry bag half way with icing.

Then start piping in the centre of the cupcake with the tip upright, pipe in a clockwise direction, while applying even pressure and working your way outwards .

Continue to pipe clockwise, towards the outside of the cupcake until you reach the rim.  Repeat for all 7 cupcakes.

Place cupcakes in the plastic cups in vase.

Adjust cupcakes by pushing down on floral ball so they are sturdy and arrange paper to fill in gaps.
And....voila! You now have a  beautiful rose cupcake bouquet!

Variations:

-You can use a vase with a smaller opening and adjust floral ball and number of cups to fit. Please note: it works best to use an odd number of cups
- You can use a different tips for a different types of flowers - there are tutorials online demonstrating how to do a variety flowers (i.e. carnations)
- You can change the color or flavour of your icing and use any flavour of cupcake you wish
- You can also personalize with a variety of ribbons (different patterns and textures) and vase colors