apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

They give them to you EVERY Friday?? I would ask if they can give them to someone else and maybe rotate every few weeks or so. Who can eat that many cupcakes? sheesh..

or tell them to donate them to a nursing home instead.

I would definitely second the freezing idea, and Trifles are my favorite way to show off fresh fruit!

Make mini-layer cakes out of them: cut them in half, just beneath the top, and fill with fruit, cream, lemon curd, jam or whatever, and then give them to your neighbors. Or to the UPS guy, or your mailman, or the kid walking his dog. One of the most fun things I've ever done is randomly hand out cupcakes to people at a festival. You've never seen so many smiles.

You could slice them up and dip them in candy coating or icing and make faux petite fours; with a total coating, they won't go stale as fast.

You could write them a nice thank you note, saying how much you've enjoyed the cupcakes, but ask that they only include one per staff member in the future, because you hate tossing them, but you can't eat so many cupcakes.

I'm with plumeria. Maybe find a rotating schedule with the other not-for-profits, or if there's another agency in the area.

what a lovely "first world" problem! haha.

is there really such thing as too many cupcakes?! frost 'em and eat 'em!

When I have an abundance of goodies like that, I take them to the fire department and they are always appreciative.

@sizetoosmall Heck yeah there is! When your pants cease to fit, there have been too many cupcakes. If the office can't finish them in a week, yikes!

And yeah, it might be a first world problem, but abundance is just as bad for us as scarcity, or have you somehow managed to miss all the news articles regarding obesity rates and how bad it is for your health?

using them in trifles sounds good, or maybe making a bread and butter pudding using them instead of bread. i would definitely suggest freezing them though, i freeze cupcakes all the time and then defrost and frost them, they work fine. of course then you'll end up with no room in your freezer... you could also use them for fondue. or make cupcake kebabs.

if all else fails though, the rotary system sounds good to me. then it becomes more of a treat than an inconvenience to eat them! even i could definitely get fed up with cupcakes if i was given that many.

You could save them in the freezer and assemble them into a cake. This instructable has useful blueprints: http://www.instructables.com/id/No-Bake-Muffin-Cake/

Granted, that just delays the problem, but the option of adding jams and curds for a filling adds more creativity than just frosting. It would also be easier to just frost one cake instead of fiddling with 12 little cupcakes.

bread pudding with cupcakes!!!!!

I've never tried this, but I'll bet cupcake bread pudding would be delicious! thin out some frosting for more of a glaze. YUMMY!

Oooh! If you are in DC, I know a group that might be willing to rotate with you ;)

you can turn them into crumbs and use the crumbs a la "blackout cake"

I would definitely try to find another non-profit they could donate cupcakes to, whether every other week or splitting the cupcakes every week. Even if you get a bunch of great recipes to "re-use" the cupcakes, you're not going to want to do it every week. Share the wealth!!

There was a recipe posted here a while back for zucchini flower desserts - honey ricotta stuffing rolled in chocolate cake crumbs and baked. Not sure how many of those you could eat, but...

Take the extra cupcakes to the local senior center and let them use the cupcakes for their lunch program. Our senior center also distributes Meals-on-wheels which would thrill the shut-ins to see. The center relies on day-old items from TJ's and local business, so the cupcakes would be well loved.

Make cake balls!! It is a bit time consuming, but oh-so worth it.

Just crumble up the leftover cupcakes into a big bowl and mix with whatever kind of icing or frosting suits you - homemade, store bought, any flavor. Mix in just enough frosting until the mixture will hold a balls shape. Shape into balls and put them on a cookie sheet and freeze for about an hour or until they're firm enough to not fall apart. The colder, the better.

Melt any kind of chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave and once it's smooth, dip the cake balls into the chocolate and put them back on a cookie sheet. I drop them in and roll them around with a spoon, but you can use any method you like - tongs or using a toothpick sometimes works ok too.

After you're finished just let them set - placing them in the fridge or back in the freezer will speed this up. Then you can put them in a large ziplock bag or an air-tight container. They last for quite awhile in the fridge and even longer in the freezer.

Trust me, totally worth it. I made them for a work pot-luck and get requests for them incessantly. My boyfriend also pesters me to make them way more often than I'd like to admit.

Definitely donate them. A local shelter or soup kitchen or even a children's hospital would enjoy these way more than any freezing and re-eating ya'll could do. We did that at the cake shop I worked at at the end of the week. Good for the soul.

But, if you want to use some of them- cake pops, hands down. dump em in a food processor til crumbs and mix with icing. make balls, dip in chocolate and eat.

Superfluous cupcakes? No such thing!

I vote for cake pops.

Ditto on the cake ball/pops!

Kathy Griffin puts leftover (or bakes it for this specific purpose) chocolate cake or cupcakes into a kitchen aid mixer with vanilla ice crea and eats it straight. Sounds delicious.

I'm not sure how you anyone could suffer from an overabundance of cupcakes! But here are a few ideas off the top of my head:

Crumble them up, and bake until toasted to make "Crumbs", then use as a topping for ice cream or mix with butter and press in to a pan for bar cookies or (depending on how sweet they are) mix with some salt, red pepper and other spices and use to "bread" chicken for a sweet/spicy/savory dish (depending on how sweet the cupcakes are, YMMV, but it doesn't hurt to do a small trial batch)

Fruit Trifles or top with macerated fruit and whipped cream for Shortcakes

Cut them in to slices and spread on top of fruit and bake for a "cobbler" style dessert.

Cut in to chunks and allow to stale and use to make a Bread Pudding style dish.

Cut in to symmetrical shapes and make Ice Cream Sandwiches.

Cut in to slices and allow to stale then use as a "French Toast"

Del
Delementals

@tiamat

take a joke! i'm not living in a box - and im well aware of all the food related issues in the world. im diabetic and of all people i should know there is a limit to the cupcakes. i just think it was a funny issue to have to deal with! laugh a little!