40th Birthday Cake for Sports Fan

My cousin was celebrating his 40th birthday today so we came up with this cake for him. He is a big sports fan so we incorporated the Detroit Lions, Detroit Tigers, and Michigan State Spartans into the cake. 

I was just going to write on the top of it, but decided it was too plain with that. (And I had extra fondant, so I made a different cake topper.) 

I colored the fondant and created this guy and the chair. 

For a final touch, I created a tv out of fondant and wrote ESPN Top 40 on the tv screen. (The only problem was the frosting had left its color on the top even after I took it off. The chair covered up most of it though.) 

Baseball Field Cupcake Cake

My boys are huge Tiger fans. So, when they found out that Miguel Cabrera may not make it to the All-Star Game, they were pretty upset. They decided to take matters into their own hands. We made cakes for a lot of occasions, so they immediately thought to make a #VoteMiggy cake. The boys came up with the design. I just baked and arranged the cupcakes. I do have a square cupcake pan, so all the cupcakes that went in the middle of the design were square cupcakes. 

I used fondant to make the D and the bases. The rest is just cake decorating frosting. The boys wanted to add Teddy Grahams for players as well. I think it turned out pretty well! Plus, we shared it with David's minor league baseball team that night. They all loved it! 

Funfetti Donuts

I came across this recipe on Pinterest. (http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/01/12/baked-funfetti-donuts/) We all loved it. I have used this to not only make donuts, but also little "Timbits" (the kids' favorite!)

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup sour cream

1 egg

2 Tbsp butter, melted

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/3 to 1/2 cup sprinkles

Glaze

1/4 cup milk

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Whisk the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and sugar in a bowl. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, sour cream, egg, vanilla, and butter. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix until just blended. Fold. in the sprinkles. 

Place in a greased donut pan. I do this by putting the batter in a plastic ziplock bag and snipping off a bottom corner of the bag. I make six donuts out of this batter and about 6-8 mini donut holes. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees. Place on a wire rack when they are browned. 

To make the glaze, either just whisk the ingredients together in a bowl and dip the donuts into it. Or, to make it set a little better, combine the ingredients in a saucepan and whisk on low until it is warm and smooth. Then dunk the donuts in the glaze. I find that I have plenty of glaze left when done. (I usually only glaze the top of the donut.) 

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Kindergarten Graduation Party

Our school doesn't do a Kindergarten graduation, so a few of the moms got together and created our own little ceremony. We all had so much fun, and we got some really cool pictures to save for their high school graduation. 

For decorations, I made a "red carpet" runway out of a plastic tablecloth I bought at Dollar Tree. It is just folded in half and taped to the floor. I cut out stars from glitter cardstock and wrote each kid's name on the star. 

The runway led to another red tablecloth that was opened up all the way. This was our "stage". I used rolls of decorative mesh I bought at Michael's for the backdrop. (This is one roll of black and one roll of red.) 

I just found some scholarly-looking things around the house to place on the end table. (A globe, some old school books, and a miniature school desk. 

On a large chalkboard I wrote Congratulations Class of 2027. 

The graduates' table had their cap and gown and time capsule form. 

I bought the caps and gowns from Oriental Trading. The gowns could be purchased individually, but the caps came in a package of 12. They came with a small yellow tassel. I cut that off and hand sewed on a black 2027 tassel that I made. 

http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2015/05/class-of-2027-graduation-tassel.html

Each kid filled out these All About Me forms for our time capsule. I bought a pack of 10 of these sheets at the Dollar Tree. 

We measured the kids with a piece of yarn. This piece of yarn secured their All About Me form. It will be really neat to open these when they are seniors graduating high school to see how much bigger they are than the piece of yarn. The kids also brought some items that represented things they really liked at this time in their lives. They also each brought a current picture. We placed this in a sealed plastic container and are planning to open it after they graduate high school. 

Here is the picture board we created. http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2015/05/kindergarten-graduation-photo-board.html

I printed some certificates for each kid and their teacher signed it. We called each kid up to the stage to get their certificate and a medal. (One of the moms ordered graduate medals from Oriental Trading. She also got them a 1st grade book and graduation duck. They received all of these things while they were on the stage.) 

We took turns taking pictures with some of the stage props. 

The best pictures of the day came when the kids were throwing their caps in the air! 

It was a beautiful day. Everyone brought a dish to pass and a lot of the parents made up little goody bags for the kids and helped with decorations, so it was not a lot of work and we will have these memories forever! 

Ice Cream Cone Rice Krispie Treat

David is lucky enough to have a teacher that takes the time to celebrate all of the summer birthdays. Tomorrow is David's day to celebrate. For his early birthday treat, we decided to make some "ice cream cones". 

He helped by filling each of the colored cones with two mini candy bars. (You can't have an empty ice cream cone!) 

Then I made a double batch of Rice Krispie treats. I used a large scoop and my hands to shape these ice cream scoops. (Make sure you spray your hands with cooking spray. That will make it easier to mold the treats.)

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I then used melting chocolate discs to color the Rice Krispies.  He picked out the colors. You could do any color you want. I used a spoon to spread on the melted chocolate. Then we put on some sprinkles. To get the treat to stick to the cone, I used a butter knife and spread some remaining melted chocolate around the rim of the cone. Then I stuck the treat on top of the chocolate. It stayed really well when it dried.