Preheat your glue gun.  Take two of the 9 ounce cups and place a line of glue along the side of the cups where they will bond – press together until set.  Use caution as the hot glue will be HOT!  Take another cup and glue in the space between the two cups.  You’ll have one cup in the center and then the remaining six cups will go around the outside.  Continue to glue the cups following the angle of the cups until you have all seven secured.  Should have a dome shape to it.  Flip the structure over and place a dab of glue along the very outside edge of each cup that will come into contact with the plate.  Immediately flip over and secure to the middle of the plate.  Allow to set.  We’re done with the glue gun, so you may unplug and set aside to cool.  

Take the two pieces of tissue paper, colors of your choice, and lay them on the table.  The top one should be offset just slightly from the bottom one.  Place your cup structure in the middle of the tissue paper.  Reaching from underneath, grab the plate and flip the entire thing upside down so that the tissue is on top of the dome structure.  Very carefully, feel for the edge of the plate and gently tuck the tissue into the groove, all the way around.  Take your ribbon and place inside that groove and pull snug.  Tie a simple bow or get as fancy as you’d like here with your ribbon.  Trim the ends and flip the structure back over.  

*Pro Tip – Using the smaller, 2 oz plastic cups, place them upside down in each of the 9 ounce cups.  This will hold the weight of the cupcakes so they don’t sink down into the cups and stay propped up nicely.  

Take a square of green tissue paper, cut into a 5×5 inch square and fold into a triangular shape. Place the pointed end in between each cup and around the outside of the structure.  One to two pieces per gap should be sufficient – we can fluff this up more later once the cupcakes are placed as well.  Set the structure aside and get ready to decorate the cupcakes. 

Prepare the buttercream frosting so that it is somewhat stiff and will maintain its shape, think stiff peaks.  If the frosting is too thin, it will not keep the detail and will slide off the cupcakes – add more powdered sugar.   Tint the buttercream with the colors of your choice.  Using an empty pastry bag, fit with a 2D piping tip.  Make sure that the tip is snug in the bottom of the bag.  

*Pro Tip – use a large drinking cup to hold your pastry bag while you fill it by placing the bag in the cup and folding over the top of the bag over the edge of the cup.  Fill with tinted buttercream.  If you’d like to combine two colors to achieve the swirled look, fill the bag with one color on one side of the cup and the other color along the other side.  Once you twist the bag closed and start to pipe, the colors should combine nicely.  

Securely twist the top of the bag closed and keep a tight handle on the top so that the buttercream doesn’t come back out the top.  I’m right handed, so I use my right hand to keep it closed while applying steady, even, gentle pressure and then my left hand to help guide and steady the bag.  

Get your first cupcake ready.  We’re going to make a simple rosette design.  Starting in the middle of the cupcake, think a spiral design and pipe from the middle, around to the outside of the cupcake.  Stop squeezing and gently disconnect the tip from the icing by pulling the bag down and away.  Important – the frosting will follow your movement, so you must stop piping prior to this movement, otherwise you’ll end up frosting the side of the cupcake.  Practice makes perfect here.  Keep in mind that you get seven cupcakes to feature in the bouquet, so the rest of the batch of cupcakes can be used as practice. 

Once you’ve got the seven cupcakes decorated, choose the one that you like the best.  Using another 5×5 square of green tissue, place the cupcake on the square and then place the whole thing in the middle cup of the dome structure.  This is your center focal point.  Repeat with the remaining cupcakes all the way around the structure until all seven are placed.  If needed, fold more green triangles to fill in any voids or places that you may still see the plastic cups, etc.  Fluff as needed.