Cupcake delights!

Cupcakes are all the rage nowadays. Whether its in a trendy west london eatery like hummingbird bakery, or at a local fete– these finger-food sized sweet treats have definately made a come back.

Ideal for all kinds of parties, from a kiddie table to a sophisticated soiree, their adaptability means they can look both fun and chic. Cupcakes are also very easy to display and are perfect for large gatherings and buffets, or the back of a village hall.

To top it all off, I just discovered these delightful ‘supercook’ cupcake wraps:

They give a very pretty lace look to your baking, and if you are getting different people to contribute a dozen or so cakes each, would be a perfect way to tie them all together.

Here seen with berry and almond muffins, they come in a pop out flat pack, and wrap around any standard cupcake case.

Best of all they were under £1 for a set of 12 at my local Sainsburys- Bargain!

Combine these with lacy bunting and doily lighting and you have an instant teatime party treat with a pretty delicate feel. Perfect for a garden party or church hall.

And one with icing

Lacy doily bunting

I wish I had made this discovery before our wedding, but it wasn’t until my birthday party in July that I had a total brainwave on how to make pretty bunting easily on a budget. I’d toyed with making bunting before, but fabric bunting can be quite faffy if you need lots of it, so I gave up on the idea.

This method is quick and easy and will make you around 100m of bunting for the grand total of £4.50 (I guarantee you will not find such a good deal buying the stuff!)

You will need:

• 100 doilies (I got mine for £1 from a pound store)
• A ball of string
• Scissors
• Glue

Making the bunting

Fold each doily (see below) to make 8 triangles. Cut these out.

Now, fold the top end over a piece of string and glue down…

Space your triangles a few cm apart and keep folding and gluing. Each doily will make around 1m of bunting. You could experiment with other papers etc, but this is by far and away the quickest and cheapest effect I’ve found to get an effective and pretty look.

If you need tonnes of the stuff, this is quite an easy one to delegate out to friends who want to help out as it really is very simple and should end up with a fairly uniform effect.. or, if you want to make it social, why not have a bunting making party over a few glasses of wine!

More delightful craftiness- A bit of Doily love!

I am sorely tempted to have a go at this wonderful idea from ‘more design please’. Its a variation on old school balloon papier mache but with a delicate twist- using doilies!

From http://www.moredesignplease.com

Instant cheap shades- with a cute vintage look! you could do them in different sizes and maybe even colours. I LOVE the possibilities here and if I’d have seen this before my wedding it would have been high on the ‘must try’ list.

I discovered recently that doilies can also be used to make very effective and pretty bunting. Here seen on greentreegoods, but having made some (slightly more traditional looking) myself recently- watch this space for a step by step bunting ‘how to’.

Doily-bunting from greentreegoods.blogspot.com