How to Construct Cupcakes to Look Like a Sheet

A sheet cake made from cupcakes is large enough to serve a crowd, but easy enough for a novice to make.

You no longer have to decide between serving party guests a sheet cake or serving them cupcakes. Cupcakes are easier to serve because you do not have to cut them, but a sheet cake is easier and faster to decorate. Arranging the cupcakes in the form of a sheet cake accomplishes two things: it makes icing the cupcakes easier and makes serving the cake faster. Toothpicks will hold the cupcakes together during decorating and delivery of the cake, and they can be easily removed by the eater before peeling off the cupcake liner. Does this Spark an idea?

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24 baked cupcakes
76 toothpicks
Serving platter
2 cups buttercream frosting
Spatula

Instructions

- 1
  
  Insert four toothpicks into the bottom one-third portion of eight undecorated cupcakes with half the toothpick in the cupcake and the other half sticking out from the side. Place the toothpicks so that they point in opposite directions, forming a cross. These are the center cupcakes. Set them aside.
- 2
  
  Insert three toothpicks in the bottom one-third portion of 12 cupcakes for the cake's edges with the toothpicks at right angles to each other, forming three parts of a cross shape. Set these aside for the sides of the cake.
- 3
  
  Use two toothpicks in the bottom one-third of the remaining four cupcakes to create a single right angle with the cupcake at the center of the angle. Set these cupcakes to the side for the corners of the sheet cake.
- 4
  
  Place the four corner cupcakes at the four corners of the serving platter with their toothpicks pointing to where the rows and columns of the cupcake sheet cake will be.
- 5
  
  Press the center cupcakes together so the cupcakes are touching each other and the toothpicks are holding together adjoining cupcakes in a rectangle shape two cupcakes deep and four cupcakes long.
- 6
  
  Arrange the side cupcakes between the corner cupcakes and the center cupcakes so that all of the toothpicks point are inserted into another cupcake and none are sticking out of the sides of the cake. Each cupcake should have two toothpicks in it on each side it shares with another cupcake. The cupcakes should be tightly packed without compressing the cake.
- 7
  
  Spread the buttercream frosting over the entire cupcake sheet cake, spreading it with a spatula as you would if decorating a whole, flat cake.