Dozens of Cupcakes

We don't usually handle Scrappy's class room birthday celebrations, but this year the request was filtered down to me that she wanted me to make cupcakes for her class. When I asked about it, she said, "Um..." and changed the subject. That was a week before her birthday. As per usual with requests such as this, I was left hanging until the night before her birthday. This gave me plenty of time, though, to ponder what I should do with these cupcakes. The response of "Um..." had left the door wide open to interpretation.

The birthday party at Scrappy's mom's house was going to be a Tinkerbell theme. The party at our house was going to be a Star Wars theme. After looking all over the internet for Yoda and other Star Wars-themed cupcakes, I decided maybe I should just buy some High School Musical 3 papers or decorations and call it a truce. But then I went to Party City and found frosting bags and tips and--most importantly--Wilton's candy melts. Way back, when I used to read Woman's Day recipes because I was flowing the text, I had no idea what this specific ingredient was. But there they were--bags of pink, orange, and blue candies. Perfect.

Now, with the daunting task of creating at lest 25 pairs of butterfly wings from melted candy, I wasn't about to make cupcakes and frosting from scratch. Boxes of cake mix were on sale for 99 cents and frosting was like $2. Butter cake and vanilla frosting. Done. Well, except for the fact that a box of cake mix yeilds 24 cupcakes and I needed 26. Yeah, I was about to bake and decorate 48 cupcakes...

When LV asked me to bake some cupcakes for Scrappy's class, I'm sure he didn't picture me decorating until 11 p.m. And the whole while I was thinking how quickly a third grader could eat one--how little time there would be to appreciate the work. How the only person I should be trying to amuse with any of this is me. I said I didn't want to deliver them to the class. The last thing I needed to see what was became of them. The cupcakes were perfect just as they were all spread around the kitchen.

I made mini-cupcakes, too. In the end, we had 36 regular-sized cupcakes and 24 mini-cupcakes. A lot of cupcakes... I packed up 30 to go to Scrappy's class. I figured at least one would hit the floor and there are always extra people who deserve a cupcake.