It's safe to say that I spend a lot of
my days checking out cute things so it takes a lot for me to have an "I
just have to have that moment" but it happened when I was shopping
recently and came across these crazy cute teacup cupcake molds
. We celebrated
Kayla's birthday a few months ago, and I only wished that we'd had these back
then and found myself looking for an excuse to make cupcakes.
. We celebrated
Kayla's birthday a few months ago, and I only wished that we'd had these back
then and found myself looking for an excuse to make cupcakes.
Regardless of when Kayla’s birthday falls I have to admit that
in our house we do a lot of pretend birthdays.
My little munchkin just loves to whip up some pretend cupcakes in her
play kitchen and serve them to any adult willing to play along. So when my friends at Pollinate Media asked
if I wanted to check out the Birthday Bundle at Vons I had found my perfect
excuse to make these super cute cupcakes.
What’s in a Birthday Bundle?
Well, I was expecting it to be cake mix and frosting but was fairly
shocked when I discovered that it was actually cake mix, frosting, a package of
candles and 2 – 2 liter bottles of soda.
All for just $5. I admit I had a
bit of a head scratch moment in the baking aisle as I did mental math. I’m not a big price comparer or coupon user
when it comes to groceries but I knew this was a steal.
I decided I would surprise Kayla with this special treat
when she came home from school so back at home I got right to work. Which as you know, when dealing with cake mix
from a box is not really any work at all.
Throw some oil, water and eggs in a bowl, mix and pour. What I had forgotten was just how good the
smell of cake batter is as you are mixing it and took my sweet time stirring it
so I could extend the moment.
The little teacup cupcake molds are made of silicone, so you
just pour your batter in and bake them as you normally would. I put them on a baking sheet lined with foil
for easy clean up and it worked perfectly.
I purposely filled the molds past the normal 2/3 full rule you’d use for
cupcakes in the hopes of producing big puffy topped cupcakes and it worked out
just fine.
After that I took my frosting and decided to color some of
it pink and some purple for fun and because I was curious to see which color
Kayla would go for given her ever changing list of favorites. With the help of my little frosting spatula I
bought back when Craig and I got married it went on perfectly and I was able to
achieve a perfect yet homemade feeling to the frosting. I don’t know about you, but I don’t love
those cupcakes that are piled an inch high with frosting piped out of a
bag. It’s too much, it’s too sweet and you’d
be just fine with 1/3 of the amount.
After icing those cupcakes I remembered I had some very cute
little tulle picks I had bought at Target a while back and decided to add in
some of those as well as put candles in the cupcakes. One thing I have learned as a mother is that
candles do not need to be lit in order to be special. The Birthday Bundle includes a 24 pack of
Betty Crocker candles and in hindsight I would have stuck a candle in each
cupcake for Kayla’s friends for the full birthday effect and given Kayla one of
those big special candles.
Satisfied with my final product, which is almost never the
case I decided it was time for a little break for me so I treated myself to a
glass of ginger ale and decided to add some strawberries to make it a little
more special. Ginger ale is one of
those things I grew up with as a child that was reserved for bribery when you
were sick to get you to drink fluids.
It’s one of those obscure items that at 30 years old clearly I could
just buy whenever I want to, but it still maintains it’s rare treat status in
our home.
After that it was time to pick up Kayla from school. You can imagine her excitement when she saw
these cupcakes. Clearly it doesn’t take
a birthday to have a child desperate to dig in to a cupcake. We went out for a “family date” which is what
we call those nights when we eat out as a family, usually at our favorite La
Jolla sushi restaurant and returned home for a treat. And yes, as always, my child is the queen of
the silly looks.
