thinking about baking my own cupcakes?

Sure, you should do as much as humanly possible YOURSELF for your wedding.

Pumpkin Cupcakes sound great. Whip up a nice buttercream/cream cheese/ orange zest frosting. Pipe it on with a fluted tip. (recipe online)

Make them the day ahead & do the frosting the morning of the wedding.

Keep in fridge until one hour before serving.

Set them out just before you set up the tables & chairs & flowers in the reception hall.

You gonna have time for all this between making the food & the punch?

No, not crazy, but what's the word I want---I would not do this for these reasons, first everyone may not like the pumpkin spice/cream cheese (which I love) you need a variety and you are looking at making 200 plus cupcakes, getting ingredients in order, mixing batter, pouring into cupcake pans, baking time, cooling time and frosting plus a place/containers to store cupcakes to keep the fresh, preferably sealed to keep the icing from getting hard. You do not want to be up all night baking on the night before you wedding. I think by the time that you buy all of the ingredients and considering the storage factor that you would be much better to get an assortment from a deli/grocery store bakery and simply have someone pick them up and place them for you.

I think I'm going to have to agree with the person that suggested doing a variety. Although I'm sure your pumpkin spice cake is delicious, there will inevitably be people that don't. Maybe do some of the pumpkin spice, and then something more basic, like either yellow or white cake with vanilla or buttercream frosting. I think how many to make is going to depend a little-are you using just standard size cupcakes or the larger ones? Either way, it's always going to be safer to have too many as opposed to not enough. But I think another thing it will depend on is is this going to be the main dessert, or are you serving other dessert as well? If you're serving other dessert as well, I'd say make less of course. But to be on the safe side to have extra, but not a ridiculous amount, what if you made between 300-350 if they're the standard size ones, and then maybe 200 or so if they're the large ones? Either way you'll likely have way more than enough, but like I said, better to have too many than not enough. And people can always take some home if there's extra. I think you'd be safe frosting the day before the event and then refrigerating them. Often times when I've ordered cakes from bakeries, they'll refrigerate them and tell you to put them out at least an hour before serving. But I think you're going to have enough to worry about-are you sure you want to take this on? It may be a bit overwhelming with everything going on. And as far as the frosting goes, I'd have no idea how much to make-I agree that piping it on looks alot prettier and more professional, but you go through ALOT of frosting when you do it that way. So if a recepie says it frosts x amount of cupcakes, it won't do that many if you pipe it on-usually a can will frost a cake mix worth of cupcakes, but when I've piped it on w/a bag, it'll do maybe only half that many. So I really think that you should look into having a pro do this-with all the time, and trying new recepies, it may not even be the most economical way to do it yourself. Plus, apparently having a bakery do a cupcake tree is cheaper than them doing a traditional wedding cake. So it may just be more worth it to have a pro handle this. But good luck & congrats!

Cream cheese frosting doesn't keep well, yes it need to be refrigerated.

Also, keep in mind that a lot of people can't eat cream cheese frosting due to allergies. There is also a lot of people who don't like cream cheese frosting. There's also just as many people who don't like spike cake. You'd be better off having more than one flavor. Cream cheese is also not a cheaper ingredient, with the amount you'd spend just to make the frosting, you could pay a bakery to make them for you.

Last, its really not a good idea to do your own wedding cake or cupcakes. It is very time consuming and you will be very busy. How long do you have to learn to decorate them yourself?

Cream cheese frosting is just cream cheese, unsalted butter, clear vanilla extract and powdered sugar. You can use regular vanilla extract but your frosting wont be white, it will be an off-white color.

I own a bakery that specializes in wedding cakes and even I didn't make my own wedding cake. While I had the skill-set to do it and and it well, I knew I wouldn't have the time to do it and do it right. I came up with the design for the cake and assisted my staff with the baking, but they did the decorating.

We're in the same boat. In all honesty we have to figure we'll have enough things to be worrying about on our wedding day than silly cupcakes.

Agree that you should have a selection of flavors. It's not a must but the special flavors arent always for everyone. So maybe your pumpkin spice and a vanilla?

Depending on size for the cupcakes and your guests. Are they eaters? if so have more than 2 per. Maybe consider 2.5 per guest. Better to have extra than not enough.

You can bake the cupcakes in advance and freeze them. I would recommend going to Walmart or a similar place and asking if you can buy their cupcake packages at the bakery. Buttercream can sit for a while. Whipped needs to be refrigerated. Plan ahead and make sure you have the space for them. Believe me, 15 packages of 12 count cupcakes add up quickly. Take a lot of space.

You may be better off getting them at a samsclub or Costco (costco taste better) to save you the time and hassel. It's not cheaper to make your own.

Check with your venue and make sure they dont have policies where all food has to be catered commercially.

I would think two per guest would be plenty. As for frosting, are you going to have time the day before or the day of? Leaving it til the day of would mean its fresher, but you might have to convince someone to help you, or to do it for you. You're also going to need quite a bit of storage if youre planning to freeze them. This is a discussion I found regarding freezing and defrosting cupcakes - http://cakecentral.com/t/742724/freezing-cupcakes

And for a recipe, I've never tried it, but this one looks simple - http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/cream_cheese_...

It's a nice idea... but there are thousands of things I would rather be doing on the week of my wedding rather then making a hundred+ cupcakes.

Do yourself a favor, spend the money to not have to worry about it... and have some down time. You will thank me later.

You need to do a variety of cup cakes for the guests you could do red velvet cakes too

Lol, I was one of those brides. Thankfully, I had friends and family to talk me out of it. Let me show you a blog full of well-intentioned people who were making things for far fewer than 100 guests. If you still want to take it on, well, God bless you.

http://www.pinstrosity.blogspot.com/

seems very involved why not buy a variety i do not like pumpkin or spice and would appreciate a choice