Mini rose cupcakes make a perfect dessert canape, £1.80 each, minimum order 24.

1

They’re not actual flowers. Your host wont have to unwrap them, trim the ends and grapple with a stupid flower food sachet that will only come away from the cellophane if they cut the sellotape with scissors so it dribbles all over their £310 Anthropologie dress*, find a vase and fill it with water in the sink where the beans are being refreshed in iced water. While the canapes burn to a crisp in the oven.

2

They’re a perfect dessert - no crockery, cutlery, washing up or running to the petrol station to get fake cream; unlike the vegan Bakewell tart that someone you don’t really like brought...

Delicate flowers piped in Italian meringue buttercream, £3.65 each, minimum order 12.

3

Thery’ re a bit grown-up, beautiful, and delicious, but also whimsical and cute - a reflection of your ideal dinner party (arrival) self.

American flag pull-apart cupcakes. Buttercream swirls £3 each

4

They’ll double up as a celebration cake for the birthday that the dinner is in aid of, and that you’ve forgotten. This sitch will never unsettle me in the slightest: not only do I always take cupcakes to everything - even Kettlercise - I wouldn’t leave the house without a packet of cake candles.

Mini succulent cupcakes, £1.80 each, minimum order 24.

5

They can be frozen. Well buttercream cupcakes can. As if anyone reading this would ever be tempted to buy fondant cupcakes lol.

6

You can mix and match the flavours and designs to suit the occasion. A couple with two young children will love a mixture of exquisite flower cakes with a couple of dogs thrown in. Or foxes, or pigs. Owls even. Or neon fluffy monsters.

Piped American buttercream animal cupcakes £3.65 each, minimum order 6.

Five good reasons to take cupcakes to a dinner party