How- to #1: Make a giant cupcake cake without a cupcake pan

So here’s the thing…. I was asked to make a Giant cupcake cake on short notice for a six year old girl’s birthday party. I thought , no problem, I have the pan(which I bought over a year ago and have never used!) .Quoted my single layer cake price when she sent a picture of a cupcake cake with no icing on the bottom part,just something like a ice cream swirl on the top part with a cherry on the top…incidentally the party theme is 50’s she said……
So I baked the cake on Thursday – in the pan- and when I took it out I said to myself this cake is so small! I will have to add at least 12 cupcakes beautifully decorated… I asked my husband his opinion ,he gave one look and burst out laughing… Saying noooo you can’t give a client such a small cake(my normal single layers cakes are 25cm with 3 layers of cake) . Well that confirmed it! I will have to bake ,ice and put together all in one day now.. So on Friday morning I started baking at six : 3 × 25cm vanilla 2 × 20 cm vanilla and 1 × 15 cm vanilla.. I put them in the deep freeze for half an hour after they cooled down… I usually leave the cakes wrapped in plastic wrapped in the fridge overnight..

So here goes….this is how I put together my GIANT cupcake cake..

On a 33 cm cake board I put together the 3 × 25 cm vanilla cakes with my buttercream and strawberry filling…
Incidentally, that is the ’giant cupcake pan version to the left lol!
After finishing the crumb coating it went back to the freezer for 20 minutes or so and I started on the 20 cm rounds..

I was going to put the two 2ocm and 1 × 15 cm together but then decided to use the top that came put of the pan on top of the 20cm cakes.. It fitted and looked fine.

I then stacked the two together using dowel sticks.. Now I am not one to carve a cake to smithereens, The less I can take off the better,I always feel.. Give the client their monies worth! I wanted to carve the bottom one just a little inward at the bottom to resemble the bottom of a cupcake…

I off course ended up having the off cuts with a cup of coffee!

After dirty icing the bottom where i cut off, I started preparing the dark pink pettinice (this is what we call fondant or plastic icing here in South Africa) …. I did nit know what I was going to do to make it look like a cupcake at the bottom, and decided while I was busy to put thin stripes on in white…

The end was in sight.. Decided there and then I was not going to cover the top part in pettinice but rather ice it like a cupcake…. I put a pettinice sausage around the cakes , then started to butter ice the top with a large closed star nozzle…

Oh and I put the girl’s name that I made the night before on circle discs in front on the board..
I used a slightly smaller closed star nozzle from the middle to the top and put a red pettinice ‘cherry’ on top..
And there it was , actually a double tier cake for the price of a single tier… Another lesson learnt… As long as the client is happy…

My husband waited for the client to collect the cake this morning, I went to a well earned craft class at my sister’s place.. He phoned me to tell me that she was so happy she said that she wanted to give me a big hug. she also sms’d me and thanked me. (And here I was not sleeping on Friday night , wondering if she was going to be satisfied with my version of a giant cupcake!

So this was my 1st tutorial… Let me know what you think.. Too much or too little information? I would love to get some feed back…..