Cupcakes enhance all kinds of party themes.
Cupcakes have become an extremely popular dessert at all kinds of parties. They're portable, small and decorated so that everyone gets a small part of the party theme expressed in frosting. Because commercial equipment and cake decorators have responded so abundantly to enthusiasm for cupcakes, many of the ideas you may have---a train for travelers, flowers for gardeners and all kinds of pets---have already been translated into molded baking equipment, decorating kits and sets of directions available through catalogs or online. However, you still have an opportunity to explore your own unique themes, as well as strategies for creating them.
The Line Strategy
Whether you're putting your ducks in a row or your power points in order, lots of things in life come in lines. For a goodbye party, truck, car or train-car cupcakes can be lined up between bowls of flowers representing old and new destinations---azalea blossoms for the Pacific Northwest and a cactus for a new home in Arizona. "Laundry" cupcakes on a yarn clothesline can celebrate a vacation: flip-flops, tropical shirts, bathing suits and a sun hat. Use mini loaf pans for your cupcakes and make a row of suitcases for a travel-themed trip or a row of postcards showing scenes from your "stay-cation" party. A line of mortarboard cupcakes celebrates graduation just as it happened.
The Circle Strategy
Lots of fun things come in circles, and cupcakes can, too. Top half your cupcakes with chocolate frosting and marshmallows, the other half with orange- or lemon-flavored frosting, and you have the makings of s'mores around a campfire. Arrange cupcakes in a circle for a club, service group or organization, frosting cupcakes with names. Put leaders or guests of honor in the center of these solidarity circles (if your club uses another shape as part of its insignia, adapt your cupcake arrangement to reflect it). Instead of names, decorate cupcakes with insignia indicating regular members and those of other ranks. Concentric circles also make a great display at a large family gathering of several generations, with the oldest in the center and the following generations circled around; use different colors of frosting to distinguish each age group.
A Shape for Your Theme
Whether you use craft-paper cutouts, tiered plates or yarn and ribbon, making a shape to display cupcakes that fits your own theme can be easy. For a family reunion, cutting out a brown-paper branched tree trunk and arranging leaf-decorated cupcakes is a natural; add paper labels or challenge attendees to figure out their exact position in the family in order to claim dessert. Yarn for "lines" and mini loaf pan "flags" let you spell out a message of love and honor for a confirmed sailor. Tiered plates of cupcakes frosted in shades of green and white can create a winter holiday forest; add a little cotton-ball snow and a small glass-mirror pond to create the complete atmosphere for your after-skating dessert party.
Creativity Counts
In spite of all the equipment and directions available, putting your own creativity into the theme of your party is the essential ingredient needed to produce a confident host and happy guests. Thinking in shapes is only one of many exercises you can do to bring your party theme alive. A special taste may be the key you need, or a particular color. Look at your cupcake dessert as one vehicle for getting that theme across. Toast the coconut on the cupcakes' tops to bring the beach party alive, stir a bit of that special island liqueur into the frosting and frost them the shade of that wild blue bikini. These small creations will make a more powerful statement than sprinkling little orchids on all the food, and they're a lot easier than draping the living room with fishnets. Think of cupcakes as little "power points," and use your creativity to carry out your theme in a way that is uniquely yours.
Let Cupcakes Set Your Theme
In some communities, cupcakes themselves have become popular as a party theme. Consider a PTA cupcake-bake right before the school fund-raising fair. Hold a holiday cupcake exchange instead of a cookie exchange. Make baking or frosting cupcakes the central activity of a children's party. Cross over into muffin-land to welcome a new neighbor with a morning coffee. Cupcakes are powerful little-somethings---use them for all kinds of occasions.
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