Since my son’s birthday is in July, he misses out on celebrating it at school. The teachers usually let them pick any day they want during the year to be there “school birthday”. This yea Royal decided he wanted it to be on the last day of school. As if this time of year is not crazy enough lol

I decided to just do cupcakes. It was the least mess and hassle for the teacher and I of course am a considerate mom The only thing about this is I hate to frost them and I am still in the learning stages with pastry bag. I took a few classes for it this year so while  I am not horrible at it, there is still plenty of room for improvement.

I didn’t want to do anything to time consuming but I also wanted them to be cute. I had a bunch or Wilton Cupcake Wraps left over from a previous project so I figured I would just use those up. I also knew that I wanted to fill the cupcakes just for a little fun. I had never filled a cupcake before so I was a little nervous but it turned out being very simple.

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1. First I prepared one box of Duncan Hines Swiss Chocolate Cake Mix and one box of Duncan Hines French Vanilla Cake Mix because he wanted chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.
2. After baking and cooling, I filled my pastry bag with icing. Using a No. 230 round Decorating Tip I filled the cupcakes. It was VERY easy. Just stick the tip in the center of the cupcake about 3/4 of the way down. Gently squeeze the bag as you pull the tip up.
3. For my first time, I thought I did a pretty good job filling them.
4. I used a Pastry bag to put the icing on. I wasn’t sure which tip would be a good choice. I bought the Wilton 12 Piece Cupcake Decorating Set. It is a great starter kit for under $10. I used the Round tip 12 for the white icing which was a little smaller than I would have liked  I used the 1M Star tip for the chocolate. This was a good size but uses a lot of icing.

To decorate the cupcakes I used the following Wilton Products:

1. Celebration Cupcake Wraps ‘n Pix
2. Celebration Royal Icing Decorations
3. Wheels Cupcake Wraps ‘n Pix
4. Wheels Royal Icing Decorations
5. Sweet Dots Cupcake Wraps ‘n Pix
6. Big Top Royal Icing Decorations
7. Big Top Cupcake Wraps ‘n Pix

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Spencer was turning 4 this year and I wanted to do something special for him. He really loves dinosaurs so I knew making that part of the cake was important. I looked at several dinosaur cakes and they were all either “dragon looking” or way to advanced for me. His cake had to be cool  because he loved the Bunny Cake so much. I had to make 2 of these cakes so I used a full sheet pan. Since most people won’t be making this size, I am including the directions for a 10×8 pan. If you need to make a full sheet cake, double the recipe. If you wish to use a boxed cake, you will need 2 boxes for the 10×8 and 3 boxes for the 11×14.

Ingredients: (Cake) (10 x 8 cake pan)

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup Hershey’s Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean
4. Completely cool for at least 15 minutes
5. Remove from Pan
6. Frost

Ingredients: (Frosting)

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
• 2/3 cup Hershey’s Cocoa
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Melt butter
2. Stir in cocoa
3. Add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency
4. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.
5. Makes about 2 cups frosting

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I will post more this week on Spencer’s Cake! Happy Birthday to my “baby”!