I love Birthdays and not just my own. I love everyone’s Birthday, in fact I’m really a lover of any special occasion. Now that I think about it I might be a lover of any occasion that involves the giving/receiving or eating of special food.

I love any excuse to make something a little bit special and always jump at the chance to make a special edible gift for a friend.

Cruising my Pinterest boards last week I came across the image below, from a New York bakery and I know I had to create something similar for my friend’s Birthday.

I was pretty happy with how mine turned out. After making the cupcakes, putting the whole thing together is easy. It’s a fun way to present cupcakes and I can see it on a cute kids buffet table or stylish bridal shower or just as the perfect cheerful gift.

 

 

 

To make the base you will need a pot, some styrofoam and something to cover the styrofoam so it doesn’t look so ugly. I just used a paper napkin. You can’t use anything too thick because the skewers have to go through it.

Use a bread knife to roughly cup a piece of foam to fit in the pot. A word of warning – the little bits of foam will go everywhere and be hard to clean up. I recommend cutting it outside or on top of a towel that you can shake out.

Once you’ve cut the foam, stick it in the pot. I cut a few extra little pieces and wedged them down the side to make sure that the middle doesn’t move. I didn’t want the flowers falling out.

I forgot the photo but the next step is to cover up the ugly foam – I just wrapped and tucked the napkin around it.

It’s best to prepare the cupcakes the day before or at least a few hours before so that the icing has time to set.

I used this recipe and piped on butter-cream icing roses using a star tip. It’s best to make the icing nice and thick so it sets hard and doesn’t lose its pretty shape.

You could probably just stick the skewers straight into the cupcakes. I wanted to make sure they’d stay there so use a bit of white chocolate cement.

Any type of chocolate will do but I used white. Melt the chocolate and then dip the pointy end of the skewer in it about 2cm. Shake off the excess chocolate.

Poke the stick into the bottom of the cupcake about half way in so it’s nice and secure.

It’s probably better to start in the middle, as I learned along the way but just poke the cakes in one by one until you have a pretty pot.

If you really wanted to go all out, which I might do next time, soak the skewers in a mixture of water and green food colouring to stain them green. It would take a bit longer because you need to let them dry but it would look more authentic.

Admire your edible bunch of flowers for a little while and then wrap them up and gift them to the lucky recipient.

What about you? Do you like giving and/or receiving edible gifts?

How to make a cupcake flower pot

An edible gift for any occasion.

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Ingredients

• 12-20 cupcakes
• 12-20 skewers
• a pot
• a piece of styrofoam or oasis (from the florist)
• 50g (2oz) white chocolate melts (or white chocolate)
• ribbon, paper napkins and fabric to decorate

Instructions

1. Cut the styrofoam so it sits snugly in the pot.
2. Cover with fabric or a paper napkin.
3. Melt the white chocolate.
4. Dip the pointy end of a skewer in the white chocolate to about 2cm.
5. Shake off the excess and then insert the skewer in the bottom of a cupcake.
6. Poke the skewer into the flower pot.
7. Repeat with the rest of the cupcakes.
8. Wrap the pot with fabric and ribbon to finish.