Pleated Paper Cupcake

Pleated and and v-folded paper forms this 3D papercraft cupcake.

Add a paper candle or flower and wish someone a Happy Birthday.

It's not quite origami, but it reminds me of origami baubles or origami Christmas balls.

Easy to hand cut, or download file set to machine cut.

How to Make a Pleated Cupcake and Icing
Make It!

Click here to download file set: Silhouette Studio, PDF.

Files download for free. A huge thank you to the many readers who support my site with a small contribution when downloading.

Pay what you wish for the tutorial and to support this site. Suggested contribution for this project is $1.00.

Make the Cupcake Base

Hand cutters:

Cut a rectangle: width 11.5" x height 3.5"

Machine cutters:
Cut and score cupcake and icing pieces by machine, cutting perimeter lines of both pieces and scoring interior lines.

Hand cutters only:
On the back, measure down from the top and draw two horizontal lines, one at 1" and one at 1.5".

Score vertically every 1/2".

Hand cutters and machine cutters:
Flip rectangle to the front side. Pleat from left to right, starting with a mountain fold.
You will have 11 mountain folds, and an extra half fold at the right-hand end.

Handcutters only (machine cutters skip the next 7 photos):

On the back, lightly pencil v-folds as shown in red.

Here's a tricky way to fold all those v-folds.

Notice, marked in blue are valley folds (on the front side they are mountain folds). These will folded the opposite way as you work on the v-folds.

On the front side, work from the right hand end.

Fold back one full pleat (two half-inch sections). See how the valley fold has been reversed into a mountain?

Pull down the top corner at a 45° angle. Crease the diagonal, where the red line is. Do not crease all the way up, just that little section. Unfold.

Flip the entire cupcake rectangle over and crease the same piece the opposite direction. Again, only crease where the red line is. Unfold.

One v-fold crease is complete.

Now fold back two full pleats, reversing the crease where the blue line is. Crease the diagonals as above. Unfold.

Fold back three full pleats, then four, then five, etc.

Continue until you have creased all the v-folds. The creases should be on your zigzag pencil marks.

Hand cutters and machine cutters:
Flip to the front and begin pushing in the v-folds.

Pinch a vertical mountain fold with one hand (not shown as I had to hold the camera). Push the v-fold down with your other hand, creating a valley fold.