How to Decorate a Cupcake Tree

This cupcake tree is a blank slate -- use your imagination and spruce up your display.

Cupcakes are a popular dessert option these days; trendy cupcake shops are opening across the country, and wedding planners are choosing to stack the little cakes for a stunning display and serving ease at the reception. If you are serving a dessert at an upcoming event and want to dress up your cupcake presentation, use a cupcake tree, where the cupcakes sit on tiers of ascending sizes. You can embellish the plain cake stand to make it pop and really wow your guests.

Things You'll Need

• Cupcake Tree or three cake stands of increasing sizes
• Cardboard
• Wrapping Paper
• Scissors
• Double-sided tape
• Ribbon
• Glue

Instructions

1. Cut out cardboard matching the sizes of your tree's tiers exactly. An easy way to do this is to use a mixing bowl or casserole dish lid that you know is the size of the tree's tier; trace around the bowl or lid on the cardboard as a template to make your circle even. You will need one piece of cardboard for each tier in the tree.

2. Cut out a piece of wrapping paper sized as if you were going to wrap the cardboard like a gift. (You are!) Use wrapping paper with a pattern or color that matches the theme of your party. Tape the wrapping paper over the cardboard cut-outs, keeping the top as smooth as possible. If the edges are bunching and crinkling, cut the wrapping paper smaller. Only the top of the board needs to be covered.

3. Cut lengths of ribbon long enough to go around the edges of each of the boards. Use ribbon or any fabric border such as lace or thin rope, depending on your theme. Glue the border you choose along the entire edge of the wrapped boards, being careful not to let the glue ooze onto the wrapping paper. Now you have little wrapped wheels with ribbons for rims. Allow glue to set.

4. Put double-sided tape on the bottoms of the circles. Use enough tape so they are affixed along the edges. When you push gently on the boards, they should not scoot on the cupcake tree tier at all. If they do, put double-sided tape in the centers of the boards' undersides as well.

Tips & Warnings

• Use a different color wrapping paper for each tier in the tree, or alternate a pattern with a solid color. On the smallest tier, place a topper instead of cupcake, just as if you were topping a wedding cake. Or, if you have coordinating flowers, make a mini-bouquet out of them and place them in a small vase as a topper.

References

• My DIY Wedding Day: Cupcake Tower
• The Sweet Lowdown: O Cupcake Tree
• Cake Channel: Cupcake Wedding Cakes