Not all of my complex baking visions always work out as I plan. This cupcake bouquet is a good example. I made the plans, did all the shopping, even made a mock up of how I’d arrange the cupcakes, but in the end I would up wearing the delicious cream cheese frosting as it fell over shortly after I snapped these few shots. While it sure looks cute here, the bouquet ended up being quite unstable and unsuccessful in the end.



I used a styrofoam ball atop the glass vase and toothpicks to attach the cupcakes. I think something sturdier than toothpicks or a denser cake batter would have been more promising. Any suggestions?

The cupcakes are white cake mix doctored up to be vanilla almond cupcakes and decorated with cream cheese frosting using a petal tip. Cream cheese frosting isn’t ideal for piping, it doesn’t hold its shape quite like buttercream, but it’s my mom’s absolute favorite so I did my best to make it work. After seeing Sweet Savory Life’s tutorial on buttercream pansies, I figured I’d give it a whirl with this bouquet and I was very happy with the results. The yellow centers are candy melts and the white ones are peppermint pearls.



I was able to salvage a few survivors to give to my Mom, and although they weren’t presented exactly how I had imagined, she still loved them — especially the frosting. Sadly I showed up empty handed to my Grandma’s, but at least I had a good story and have these pictures to show!

Vanilla Almond Cupcakes
Adapted from Gimme Some Oven

1 box white cake mix
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs

– Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 1 pan of regular muffin tins and 1 pan of mini muffin tins with cupcake liners (I only used 8 regular sized and 8 mini muffins for the bouquet)
– Add the cake mix, buttermilk, oil, almond extract, and vanilla extract to an electric mixer and mix on medium for 30 seconds
– Add eggs one at a time and beat until well mixed
– Turn mixer to high and beat for another 2 minutes
– Fill liners about 2/3 full with batter
– Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean
– Allow cupcakes to cool while preparing the cream cheese frosting

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6 Responses to “Mother’s Day Vanilla-Almond Cupcake Bouquet”

  1. #
    1
    Amy — May 10, 2010 @ 5:26 pm

    It’s lovely – sorry it didn’t hold up!

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    2
    Raina — May 11, 2010 @ 12:05 am

    Beautiful cupcakes. I have seen cupcake bouquets before but not sure how they held them together.

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    3
    withoutamicrowave — May 11, 2010 @ 2:27 pm

    This was such a cute idea! Sorry it didn’t work out. You might try using wooden skewers, like they have for kebabs…that’s how they do those fruit bouquet thingys…

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    4
    fozen1 — February 2, 2011 @ 2:40 am

    actually i have the picks from an edible bouquet and they are a hard plastic check out the food stores I find the thing with using wood skewers are slivers and you can’t really soak them for cup cakes

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    5
    Eli aka NC — April 8, 2012 @ 5:45 pm

    Lovely idea. I guess cake-pop sticks would’ve been handy for this

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