Balloon Cupcakes

I made this adorable Balloon cupcakes display for a co-workers birthday party. She wanted some colorful and fun and thought this would be a great idea, and so did I. They are super easy to make, here’s how!

First I divided up the frosting and colored it in six different colors (pink, red, yellow, green, purple, and blue). I also baked the cupcakes in those color cupcake papers. To frost the cupcakes I used a pastry bag with a large round pastry tip (I used Wilton 2A). At first I tried just using a spatula but it wasn’t come out as clean as I would like. I would swirl the buttercream on first with the pastry bag then go back and smooth with the spatula. You could also let it sit until the buttercream crusts over a bit and smooth further using parchment paper or a viva paper towel.

Now that all the cupcakes were frosted I needed to figure out what to do for the board. At first I thought about covering a board with blue fondant, but I hate wasting ingredients like that. Instead I found this great blue foam board at the local craft store. It was the perfect size too!

I happened to have a can of acrylic spray sealer on hand so I coated the board with that just to protect it from the grease of the cupcakes, but I don’t think that step is necessary. I then cut out about 15 pieces of ribbon each a little over a foot. I bunched them together and taped them, then tied a nice ribbon around the ends.

I taped down the ribbon near the bow, then spread out each piece and taped it to the board. I thought about using a hot glue gun, but tape is much easier plus the cupcakes will cover it up.

That’s it! I then arranged the cupcakes on the top part of the board in alternating colors. I was able to fit about 36 cupcakes on total. This would be great for a UP party and you could put a picture of the house at the end of the ribbons.