The Flower Cupcake Box

Next up is a cupcake decorated with a wooden flower.  The inspiration for this design were these cupcakes:

The wooden version looks like this:

To make the lid, I used 1/4” thick yellow heart and decorated it with petals cut individually with the grain from 3/16” thick padauk, shaped by sanding.  You could also cut the petals as a segmentation, but you'd lose the grain effect.  For the center, I drilled a hole ½” in diameter in the middle of the petals, and cut a matching plug, which was sanded and covered with fabric paint dots.

Here's the pattern for the flower:

The Baseball Cupcake Box

The second in this series of cupcake lids looks like a baseball.  Here's a picture of a cake I made several years ago with a baseball theme.

Here's a picture of actual baseball cupcakes.

And here's a picture of the baseball cupcake box.

The lid is cut from ¾” thick aspen lid, and the markings made from red fabric paint.  Since aspen is porous, seal it well with shellac or lacquer before you add the decoration so you can remove any paint mishaps easily.

To position the "stitching", cut two equal sections of the ring from the cupcake base pattern and use them as a guide to mark the location for the "stitches".  

The Rainbow Cupcake Box

For all cupcake variations, use the instructions that appear in the Spring, 2015 issue of SSWC for the base and lid, then add the decorations.

The first of the variations I'll be posting is the rainbow cupcake.  Here's a picture of the real thing, and my version in wood.

I used ½” thick purple heart for the lid, and a ½” thick lamination of veneer and colored wood for the rainbow which was cut into a 2” diameter half-circle.  For the cloud, I used 3/8” thick aspen with this pattern.

Stay tuned for the rest of the cupcake toppers, or just forge ahead and create your own!

Cupcake box and variations

I've always loved the cupcake box that was featured on the cover of my box book.  However, I knew there was more that could be done and proposed a different kind of cupcake box to Mindy, one of the editors of SSWC.

I started with the iconic "Hostess" cupcake, using fabric paint for the icing, and searched out photos of actual cupcakes that could be translated into wood.  Because of space constraints, only the instructions for the "Hostess" cupcake, lid and base, appear in the Spring, 2015 issue of SSWC.  Since their new website is not yet up and running, it was agreed that I'd post instructions for the variations on my blog.

To avoid a long and unwieldy blog post, I'm planning to use a series of entries, each giving instructions for a different top, and will have all of them out long before you receive your issue.  They all fit on the base that's featured in the article.

Here's the lot of them, along with the coffee cup that you may recognize from the box book.  They definitely look good enough to eat!

Some thoughts about cupcake boxes

The cupcake box, inspired by an editor's challenge, has certainly become a popular project.  It's easy to make, and different enough to attract attention.  And what is becoming more and more apparent is that there are many alternative woods that can be successfully used.

For example, one scroller used pieces of 2x4 construction lumber for the base, an economical alternative to mahogany, and pine for the icing.  Dark oil finish added a desired "chocolate" effect to the pine, and the grain added considerable interest.  Another scroller used zebrawood to create a "mocha swirl" icing, something that never occurred to me to try.

If you keep in mind that suggested wood, and dimensions, are just that---suggestions---you free yourself up to experiment with what you have on hand.  Often the variation may be even more attractive than the original version.

The Cupcake RING Box

In my cupcake box videos, I mentioned that the box could easily be turned into a ring box. The change to the box itself involves only one easy step: before gluing the rings together, you need to drill a hole through the center of the lid insert, just until the point comes through the upper face of the bottom circle, using a 1-1/2" Forstner bit. Then the rings are glued up and the box finished as usual.

Instructions and patterns for making ring inserts from 1/2" foam core and adhesive backed velvet are in the box book, but I made a slight change in procedures, which allows a ring with a larger stone or setting to appear centered on the velvet.

Enjoy the video, and if there's a "ring occasion" in your future, give it a go!