I was a busy bee on Saturday baking and setting up this cupcake display.  A friend from Emma’s former playgroup asked me to donate to her daughter’s preschool auction.  I thought a dessert donation would be more fun than a gift certificate, even though it means more work for me.  The theme was Mardi Gras and it was a really fun project for me to work on.

Here are some photos:

I was really excited to use my new cupcake tower.  I had bought it back in November for a holiday party in December, but one of the stems broke and I couldn’t use it then.  The person who made it was kind enough to send me a replacement piece in time for me to use it for this event.

In total, I think I made around 300 mini cupcakes.  The flavors were: chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream, chocolate cake with cookies & cream buttercream, butter pecan cake with whiskey buttercream and chocolate ganache, and chocolate cake with mocha kahlua buttercream.  Some of the cupcakes are topped with a gum paste round that I stenciled a fleur-de-lys on using a powdered food coloring.  On top of the cake stand is a cake dummy covered in white fondant.  I made the mask out of gum paste and it is completely edible.  I’m really happy with how this turned out and I hope the auction-goers enjoyed them.