Cupcake Milestone!

My mom and I created, what I think to be, the CUTEST cupcakes for my grandma - she turned the big 75 on the 5th. We decided to give her an extra-special birthday cake - a cupcake tower filled with cupcakes in the themes of everything she loves: Sewing, quilting, playing card games, Farkel (dice game), and dominoes, eating JUNK FOOD (definitely where I got my sweet tooth), and dogs.

It took us 4 hours to decorate them, and only a two minor tip-overs on the 6-hour trip up to Davenport, IA (we highly recommend the wilton cupcake holder!), but she absolutely loved them. Here's the rundown of what we used:


Cupcakes: chocolate and white box mix. Icing: Buttercream icing

Bottom Row... Hobby cupcakes...
Sewing cupcakes: thin layer of frosting, fondant scissors and bobbin, icing gel thread accent
Quilt cupcakes: all icing... Make a box and triangles, then just fill it in. Sprinkle accents
Dominoes cupcakes: almond-bark covered graham cracker with black buttercream icing accents
Farkel (Dice) cupcakes: cube-shaped fondant with black buttercream for the dots. By far the hardest to make. Oh yes, and I even looked at a real die to get the numbers correct :)
Deck of Cards cupcakes: fondant, red icing gel numbers. Remember to not use the ace of spades, that's bad luck :)

Second-from the bottom Row... Junk Food Cupcakes...
Most of these are pretty self-explanatory...
Popcorn cupcakes: wrapper is just printed out from a Word document, but put this on last. For the kernels, take mini marshmallows and cut them in half (hamburger-wise), then squish them back together again. I laid them out on wax paper and sprayed them lightly with Wilton Color Mist spray, so they weren't all completely covered. You could also use yellow marshmallows i guess...
Chex mix cupcakes - got the peanut butter chocolate lovers kind. They taste like puppy chow!
Candy cupcakes - set some mini hershey's on there and you're good to go.
Cookie Cupcakes - got the little individual packs of oreo, chips ahoy, and the keebler striped cookies.

Second-from the top Row... Dog Cupcakes...
I got this from the Family Fun magazine, or you can find them on Hello Cupcake (and their book has a ton more).

These were just too fun to make. I definitely loved getting creative and we brainstormed so much on trying to figure out what to use for each part! I look forward to making more of these! Oh, and Happy Birthday, Grandma! :)