cupcakes

Graduation Cupcakes

spaleksic5 Comments
IMG_7863
Image provided by Megan

One of the moms in my son’s class had the brilliant idea of hosting a party for 40 kids graduating from Kindergarten. It was an opportunity for all of the families to meet and a chance for all of the kids to get together on the weekend outside of the school environment. There were a group of moms that got together to plan the event. We rented a “block party” trailer from the city which included chairs, tents, tables and games. With 40 kindergarten children plus their parents, and siblings we ended up with just over 100 people in attendance. With a group that large we opted to book a local park with a playground. We ordered party platters of fruit, veggies, cheese and meat to compliment the chips, popsicles and cupcakes. There was also two surprise guests from the movie Frozen who made a special appearance.

The weather was fantastic. The turnout was amazing. And my kids were exhausted and that is the sign of a good party. I volunteered to bake the cupcakes, all 100 of them. It was a bit of an undertaking but it was a challenge that I eagerly accepted. If you happen to be planning a graduation party these cupcakes were a hit.

Ingredients:

  • boxeingredientsd cake mix
  • eggs
  • vegetable oil
  • canned frosting
  • fruit rollups
  • mini peanut butter cups
  • chocolate covered cookies
  • m&m’s

Instructions:

1. Bakes the cupcakes as per the box instructions and let cool

2. Place chocolate covered cookies upside down on a tray (so that you can put them in the freezer)

Step 2

3. Put a dab of frosting in the middle of each one

Step 3

4. Place the small end of the mini peanut butter cup in the frosting/cookie

5. Place the try in the freezer to set for 15-20 minutes

6. Cut the fruit rollup into 1/4″ x 1 1/2″-2″ strips

7. Remove from freezer once stuck together and flip all of the cookies over so that they are standing on the peanut butter cup

8. Put a dab of frosting in the middle of each cookie to adhere the tassel and M&M

Step 8

9. Place the fruit rollup “tassel” and them the M&M in the frosting and place the tray back into the freezer to set

10. Ice the cupcakes

11. Place the graduation cap (mortarboards) in the center of the cupcakes

12. Refrigerate or freeze (because we were having an outdoor party I froze the cupcakes so that the chocolate hats would melt slower. We had them out for an hour and only had a couple break before eaten)

Ahoy Matey

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About three weeks ago my sister, brother-in-law and niece welcomed little Bennett into the family. In honour of the event and my sister’s love of cupcakes I made a little welcome cupcake dessert to celebrate his arrival. His room is decorated in a nautical theme so I ran with that for the cupcakes as well. Welcome to the family little guy.

anchor cupcakes

It only took 6 years…

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We live 5,000 kilometers from all of our family which makes some things a little tricky logistically. When our first son was born we investigated getting him baptized. We had decided that we would try and baptize the kids into my husband’s religion which proved to be very difficult. I say investigated because we live on an island where there isn’t a church of my husbands religion. There were also some pretty strict rules about who could be the children’s godparents. The best option that we had available would prove to be very expensive, involve ferry travel and included strangers as godparent’s. Not exactly the ideal situation. So for years we didn’t do anything because we felt that we hit a road block. The solution that we finally chose was to baptize the children in a church that was neither mine or my husbands. That might seem extreme, but it was actually the best option for all of us. We found a church which would baptize the children and welcome us all. The minister was lovely and organized a ceremony on a very short timeline. The minister removed all of the barriers which we had previously run up against, which in my mind is the way that religion should be anyway. We met with him on a Friday and baptized the children on Sunday while we were visiting family. This also allowed our family to be present and be involved in the ceremony. My mom arranged a little party last minute and the whole day came together without any issues.

In my regular style the event included cupcakes!

Bird’s Nest Cupcakes

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Spring is here, the flowers are blooming, Easter is just around the corner. It’s time for a little cupcake celebration. In honour of Easter I made these mini cupcakes for my son’s kindergarten class.

The baking part isn’t really my forte, so I typically opt for boxed cake mixes. The decorating however is what I really like. Cake/cupcake decorating is like a relaxation exercise for me, I zone out and get lost in the repetition.

Using a Wilton 233 tip and green frosting I made the grass. With a Wilton #5 round and chocolate frosting I made the nest. I did a batch with jelly beans, and a batch with mini eggs.

My taste testers don’t exactly have discerning palates. Anything with copious amounts of sugar typically passes their inspection. I was asked why I didn’t make them bigger by my 6-year-old, and my two-year old asked for more while making a shoveling motion towards his mouth. So it appears that they are a hit.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

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When my son’s school put out a request for silent auction items, or cakes for a raffle to raise money for the school I was debating for weeks as to what I should make.  What I finally decided to make was a “Cheeseburger in Paradise” cake, I hope that there is at least one reader that will get the parrot head reference.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBsPZV14I-k

A while back I made cupcake sliders which were the inspiration for this larger version.

Notes about the burger cake:

  • I used a devil’s food cake mix for the patty
  • Vanilla cake mix for the bun
  • Baked 3 cakes using a 8″ cake pan
  • Sprinkled the sesame seeds on the bun just before i took it out of the oven
  • Pickles, onions and cheese are all made of white fondant mixed with food colouring
  • Relish is coconut with green food colouring
  • Ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise are all icing with food colouring

On the first day of Christmas…

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Two years ago I started a blog called Crafting through the holidays, and I wrote about a craft, baking, or holiday inspired project everyday for the 12 days of Christmas.  It was my first attempt at blogging, and two years later I am still at it.

So on the first day of Christmas my true love made for me….. Reindeer cupcakes!

reindeer cupcakes

There was a cupcake fundraiser at my son’s school this past week and these reindeer cupcakes were my contribution.

I used pretzels for the antlers, M&M’s for the eyes and nose, and a chocolate button for the snout.  I was thinking as I was making these that chocolate or yogurt covered pretzels would be good too.

On the first day of Christmas two years ago my true love gave to me a Veggie tree, check out this link for more info

veggie tree

I also made a cookie version of the reindeer cupcakes last year, check out this link for more info.

reindeer cookies

Logan’s Birthday Take 2

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I love to entertain, and I am often looking for any opportunity to throw a party.  Logan had 2 birthday parties for his second birthday, one with family and one with friends.  I know that throwing parties can be a lot of work, and some people just groan at the thought of throwing one.  But it’s not work when you really enjoy the preparation and the party planning.  In truth Logan’s birthday was just another reason to get friends together and have a chat, get caught up and have a bite to eat.

Logan is learning to speak and is putting words together in an attempt to communicate in sentences.  Pulling a party theme from his common words and phrases we came up with a woof woof puppies theme.  Food consisted of hot dogs, smokies in crescent rolls, chips, veggies, and plums from the yard.  It wouldn’t be a party with out Happy Cupcakes which were also dog themed.  For the doggie bags I made the kids dog ears, and puppy treats (malt balls).  There were also balloons dog themed of course.

Dog themed cupcakes and dog dish cake
Doggie bags
Puppy treats
Dog ears
Dog ears
Dog ears
Sasha with his dog ears
Logan modelling his dog ears
Logan and his happy cupcakes

Pictures of the Logan and his friends at the party.

Keep celebrating!

Logan’s 2nd Birthday

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Logan turns 2 in less than a month, but we celebrated a little early this year.  We live 5,000 km away from all of our family so family birthday parties don’t happen often.  This past week we were fortunate to have my parents, sister and niece in town so we took advantage and threw Logan a pre-birthday party.  He is still a little young to understand what a birthday is but he is old enough to understand cupcakes.  I made him some Bear cupcakes at least that is what they were supposed to be.

bear cupcakes

Here are some of the pictures of the birthday boy, and his party guests.

Worms, Dirt & Sprouts

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cupcakes 3

When I ask Sasha what he wants to eat for dinner, the standard responses are worms & dirt, or bugs & worms.  He is a five-year old boy, so no surprises there.  Now if he was served worms, dirt or bugs I am sure that his response would change.  Sasha graduated from pre-school this week, and I thought that these little sprout cupcakes complete with worms & dirt would be perfect for the occasion.

What you need to make these:

  • Chocolate mini cupcakes
  • Chocolate icing
  • Chocolate cookie crumbs
  • gummy worms
  • mint
  • mini clear plastic shot glasses

cupcake 2 helpercupcake 1

Directions:

  1. bake & ice cupcakes with chocolate frosting
  2. dip the tops of the cupcakes in the cookie crumbs
  3. to get the little ones involved, give them a cold mini cupcake pan and the little glasses, have them put one in each circle
  4. Put a worm in each little cups – again a very kid friendly task
  5. fill the cups 3/4 full with cookie crumbs – Sasha did this task also using a spoon to scoop in the crumbs
  6. put in a mini cupcake (wrapper removed)
  7. top with a sprig of mint before serving (if you put the mint in the cupcakes and refrigerate the mint wilts)

The kids and some of the parent’s at pre-school loved them.  The kids loved pulling the worm out of the dirt.  I like them because they represent my little guy sprouting, plus they are fun.

graduation

Keep celebrating, baking and creating.

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Watermelon Cupcakes

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Here is a super quick post, because these cupcakes are super easy.  Especially when you are a box baker.  Sometimes life warrants cupcakes but time doesn’t allow for “from scratch”.  So faced with the choice of cupcakes fast and easy or no cupcakes at all, I go the easy route.

Ingredients:

Cherry Chip cake mix

3 eggs

water or milk as per the package

oil as per the package

red food colouring

mini chocolate chips

vanilla frosting

green food colouring

 

Directions:

1. Prepare the cupcakes as per the box directions.

2. Once all of the ingredients are mixed add a couple of drops of red food colouring, the more drops the more intense the colour.

3. Then mix in about 1/3 of a bag of chocolate chips.

4. Bake the cupcakes per the box directions

5. Mix up the green frosting, using vanilla frosting and green food colouring.  Again the colour depends on how many drops of green you use.  Start with a couple of drops and add more drops until you are happy with the colour.

6.  Wait until the cupcakes cool.

7. Frost.  I used a piping bag, but you could use a knife.

8. Add chocolate chips to the top.

9.  Serve or eat.

Keep baking, crafting and creating.

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