Making 200 Cupcakes, and not going crazy

My crazy child at a cupcake decorating party

This week I have taken on a mildly insane task. Aidyn’s Irish Dancing School is doing their annual fundraiser this Saturday night, and I volunteered to do a cupcake buffet. I volunteered before I asked how many people usually attend the event. How many people attend you ask? About 400. OMG.

My Niece Bella's Baptism Cupcakes

So, I committed to making 200 cupcakes for the event this weekend. I have made massive amounts of cake and cupcakes for events before, but 200 on a weeknight seems a little daunting. So I did what any rational person would do in this situation. I begged asked for help! My sister and cousin are going to come over on Thursday to help with baking, decorating and storing a bazillion cupcakes.

The OCD person living inside of me knows that the best way to get through this task is to make lists. Lists of ingredients, recipes, and the supplies we will need for the baking, decorating and storage.

I also plan to “zone” the kitchen into specific areas:

Batter and Prep - pre-measuring ingredients, lining the cupcake pans

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Cooling Zone – that one is pretty self explanatory

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Icing Prep – with a specific note to take the butter out first thing in the morning, the Icing Prep zone will have two different types of icing prepared and bagged and stored in my fancy dancy new icing bag organizer (Nerd, I know...)

Eila Bean's 2nd Birthday Cupcakes

Decorating Zone – with four different cupcake recipes, each with its own decorations, I am going to setup four little sections in the decorating zone. I’m hoping to pre-make the white chocolate shamrocks for the chocolate cupcakes tonight so they are all ready to go on Thursday!

Here are the cupcakes we are going to be making this week:

Confetti cupcakes with butter cream and rainbow sprinkles
Coconut cupcakes with butter cream and green coconut on top
Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate butter cream and a white chocolate shamrock
Vanilla cupcakes with butter cream and green sugar pearls

I will post the recipes and photos next week!