Cupcake Tutorial

As I promised last week, the cupcake tutorial.  When I was searching for ideas for Madi's graduation party I came across this picture (on Pinterest of course) and knew Madi had to have that cupcake! I am always telling my husband, "we can make that"...so, we did.  

Supplies Needed:

3/4 inch plywood

Corrugated Metal

Mini White Lights

Aluminum Flashing

Paint (your choice)

1/2" Screws

How to Build the Cupcake:

The first thing you need to do is draw the pattern onto your piece of wood (we just happened to have the piece of plywood lying around the garage).  I just drew the cupcake freehand with a pencil, then traced over it with a sharpie, so my husband could see the line to cut on.  

Once you have the pattern traced onto the wood, cut the cupcake out with a jigsaw. After you cut it out, you will need to sand down the edges. I also sanded the front of the board, because the wood was in pretty rough shape and I wanted it to be smooth. When finished cutting and sanding, you need to figure out the placement of the lights (we used the little twinkle lights for Christmas trees, there were 50 lights on the string). We started to measure, but the spacing just wasn't working, so we just randomly selected where we would place them (this was much better). After you mark where you want the lights, you need to drill the holes (I didn't take a picture of this...it was entirely too COLD to go out in the garage).  My husband had to drill a couple of different times, because the holes weren't big enough at first. 

When you are done drilling, you need to paint the cupcake (not pictured).  We used Krylon spray paint  (Gum Drop), because we knew Madi would love it. We had a scrap piece of corrugated metal that we measured for the 'cupcake liner' and I painted it white.  It was a Valspar paint sample from Lowe's. Once you have it painted, you will need to attach the liner (corrugated metal) to the bottom of the cupcake with the screws.  We chose the hexagon screws with washers (see above photo). 

Now for the hard part...attaching the flashing!

This part was very challenging and a few times my husband was ready to throw in the towel, but we persevered and are glad we did! The first thing Craig did, was cut the flashing in half (we had to buy 6" flashing, because Home Depot or Lowe's did not carry the 3" in the store). The top right picture shows the first set up we had to attach the flashing, but this didn't work.  I couldn't take pictures of this process, because it was a 2 man job! We figured out that it was easiest if one of us held the cupcake while the other one drilled the screws in place. As you are screwing the flashing on, you need to make sure that it is straight.  There were a few times that we had to take the screws out because of this (above picture on the right, see how it isn't going straight?).  At the top of the cupcake when we came around the point, the flashing got off track a little bit, but it wasn't noticeable so we left it.

 After we finished it, we noticed that the back of it needed some help, so we covered the extra lights with burlap. I have to say, this project was truly a labor of LOVE!  The next time I come up with a bright idea like this, I think Craig will tell me NO! Madi loved it and that made it all worth it.  

We hope one day she will have her own cupcake shop and be able to display her cupcake there, but for now it will have to stay in her room!

 Just remember, when you see something and want to make it...do it! Just make sure you make it your own and if it isn't working at first: persevere and keep going because the final product is usually worth it!

~Julie