O Cupcake Tree

About author / Rebecca Michaels

Queen of the desserts and pastry chef extraordinaire; graduate French Culinary Institute; Golden Scoop Award winner; Flying Monkey Bakery founder

Cupcakes are all the rage these days. Every bakery makes them, some are small and delicate, truly a cake the size of a cup. Some are gargantuan and indulgent, more along the lines of a baby's head or a miniature cabbage. Everyone's got their favorite cupcake, and we could argue for days on the merits of the 'muffin top' versus the underrated bottom; American buttercream over French; jimmies versus sprinkles. But one thing is for sure: everybody loves 'em.

I served cupcakes, from a local bakery in New York that specializes in making large buttery pound cake cupcakes loaded with frosting and decorated with all sorts of buttercream flowers, for my wedding. There were about a hundred of them set up on a cupcake tree, creating a dazzling effect--a little pyramid garden, if you will. It was very pretty. And our guests loved the fact that they could walk around and eat them while they mingled. And it wasn't a typical boring slice o' dry wedding cake either.

So I got to thinking about what a great holiday showpiece you can have with cupcakes and a little know-how (like that certain lady from Connecticut).

The construction of the cupcake tree can be done in a couple of ways. Some companies actually make them out of pieces of cardboard that you assemble at home. These will run you about $20. The other option is to use graduated sizes of cake pedestals stacked on top of one another. If you don't have different sizes of cake plates, that's okay. Just stack the smaller ones toward the top. You can fill in the tree shape when you distribute your cupcakes on the plates.

Determine how many cupcakes you'll need for your party when you plan your cupcake tree out. Figure about 1 1/2 per guest. Extras are better than not having enough and having to look at a bare tree. The more you put on the plates, the fuller the tree will look. But don't crowd them to the point where they start bumping into one another and looking manhandled.

Decorating the cupcakes is like decorating your Christmas tree. Again, personal style is the key. Do you tend toward the simple white lights and a few strategically placed velvet bows, or are you an all-out "let's DECORATE this puppy!" with multi-colored blinking lights and heavy, heavy on the tinsel extravaganza-type? Experiment with sprinkles and dragees (those little sugar balls that come in different metallic-like coatings), with sugar paste flowers that you can buy at cake decorating supply stores, or even by creating simple plaids out of different colors of frosting.

Decorating all of the cupcakes the same way creates an elegant showpiece perfect for a sophisticated Christmas Eve dinner or New Year's Eve cocktail party; using multiple artistic techniques creates a homespun, more casual feel that's great for events with lots of kids or people who just like to beat to their own drums.

If you want, add a few bows or tinsel to the sides of your cupcake tree, but try not to make it look too busy. Or add a tree topper to the top pedestal to really give it that ultimate holiday look. Most of all, have fun decorating your new tree. And the best part is that you won't have to clean up all the pine needles you tramped through the house when you clean up!