American Flag Cupcakes

Ohhhhh boy, so let me tell you guys about these 600 American Flag Cupcakes...! I got a call on Tuesday asking if I would be interested in making 600 cupcakes in the shape of an American Flag at the Texas Motor Speedway for a press event based around the Coca Cola 600 and of course I said yes! Seems simple enough right?? On Wednesday they needed to know the specs for the table/set up, so I started to draw out a diagram/figure out the dimensions and that's when the buttercream hit the fan! In order to have the flag proportionate with 13 even stripes and 50 stars using EXACTLY 600 cupcakes the flag would end up being 2 feet by 8 feet long or almost an exact square except it would actually be wider than it was longer. ....Not cool!! Thank goodness my math skills have really blossomed since 7th grade math- I was punching in all different kinds of combinations on my heart shaped calculator. I figured it would all "come together" once the cupcakes were baked off and I could set them up. .................Well Friday rolls around and I didn't finish baking them off until about 6 PM. By the time my handy dandy assistant (my MOM) and I finished icing and sprinkling them it was about 10 PM. Oh and about the sprinkles- I am really not a fan of using food coloring to dye frosting, especially when the three hardest colors to achieve are red, blue and purple. Also I know grown people aren't fans of walking around with red and blue teeth and tongues. So when I was laying in bed tossing and turning on Wednesday night having visions of cupcake flags, it hit me- sanding sugar! That way I wouldn't have to dye the buttercream and it would also give it an awesome "glittery" sheen. Anywho- We start to set up the flag- and it is NOT going well people. Talk about a good reality show pitch: my mom and I on the kitchen floor at midnight "bleep bleep bleepity bleep bleep" I have to say I was spewing out most of the expletives. Although my mom did declare that Satan had entered her because she was saying words she never says. ......So at this point we have literally done every combination possible- I'm trying to make the flag "wave", make optical illusions- nothing was working! And then at like 1 AM it hit me! We just had to space out the rows. PHEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW finally it all came together!! After we got them all boxed up and labeled it was finally time for bed at 2:30AM. We left early on Saturday because all I kept hearing was what a nightmare the traffic would be, and there was actually not a smidge of traffic, it was awesome!! We got to the speedway and went in to the middle of the track to the media room and began setting up. Everything went so smoothly and everyone loved it! It was awesome opportunity and experience and I'm soo glad I had the opportunity! Hopefully next time I get a giant order like this I get a little more than 3 days notice ;)