Chesapeake, VA Newborn and Baby Photographer {Faux Giant Cupcake Tutorial}

Giant cupcakes are probably my favorite for cake smashes. I don't provide the cake for my client sessions for liability reasons but I do make them for my own kids or good friends. Making a giant cupcake cake is kind of a pain because for the best aesthetic results you also have to create a candy shell for the cupcake base with layers of melted candy wafers and then trim the base cake to fit inside. I don't love working with candy melts and that base cake never gets touched during a cake smash. In my experience, most babies don't even get past the frosting on top of the cake before they are done with their cake and ready for their bubble bath! I've got several ideas in mind for my own baby's cake smashes as he's turning one in one month but I didn't relish the idea of creating several of these giant cupcakes. I came up with creating a faux giant cupcake base using plaster of paris in a silicone giant cupcake mold. The mold has two parts: the base and the cupcake top. You can create a faux base and then bake a couple of tops and freeze them if you like so they stay fresh until you need them. All you have to do for a cake smash is just defrost the top, set it on your cake base, and frost! The cake base can be spray painted beforehand to coordinate with each session...which is way faster and cheaper than creating an edible cake base each time that will just end up in the trash. I had enough plaster of paris mix to also create a faux cupcake top. I don't plan on using that for cake smashes (because sometimes a baby does get past all of that sticky frosting and really smashes up the cake...which is the best!) but I did use it for my baby's first birthday party as a faux centerpiece. The faux cake topper can also be used as photo prop decoration that isn't for eating too (like a sweet shop setup). Here's a quick video showing how I made it and the final results. You do want to start this well in advance as it took about two weeks for the plaster to fully harden. Feel free to ask questions about the process in the comments below!

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