Family Fun

Hello there my creative confidantes!

Depending on where you live...tomorrow may or may not be a holiday. For me, here in Canada, tomorrow is FAMILY DAY!!! It's always the 3rd Monday every February, and it's meant to be a day that basically everyone gets off to spend with their family. No grocery shopping, no soccer or piano lessons, just a whole day of fun for the whole family YAY!

Since many things will be closed tomorrow I wanted to give you some fun and creative ideas for what you can do with the whole family in the comfort of your home, tomorrow. So why not get everyone together for a cupcake decorating party?! 

Decorating cupcakes is truly fun for the whole family. We'll say this idea is just for the kids, but you know mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, aunts and uncles alike will have a blast. Decorating cupcakes is fun for really young kids who will love to load up each cupcake with as many candies and sprinkles as they can manage, and a creative challenge for older kids and parents who want to try something a little more sophisticated. Boys will love to make crazy cupcake monsters and girls will be proud to show off their beautiful cupcake chrysanthemums. So, are you ready to have some fun?!

Here's what you'll need:

Cupcakes of course! 

You can decide if you'd like standard cupcakes, or mini cupcakes, or a mix of both. You can buy some, unfrosted from the grocery store, or better yet, bake them yourself...baking yummy cupcakes can be just as fun as decorating them *(and a little side note on learning...baking taught me how to grasp the concept of fractions as a tween; BONUS, haha)* The colourful benefit of baking the cupcakes yourself, is you can use all sorts of different baking cups. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to use fun colours and patterns when baking my cupcakes. You can find a good variety at your local grocery store, BUT if you can get into a store like Bulk Barn or Michaels...oh man can you ever go to town!

Try out one of my cupcake of the day recipes, or try a few different ones and let everyone pick their own flavor and baking cup. Of course you'll need icing. You can use any of the tubs of icing you find at the grocery store, make your own, or use some of the wilton icing tubes. They come in every colour of the rainbow. It does help to grab a coupler and a few round piping tips to attach to these tubes...but you can also use them on their own, a little like toothpaste.

You can also get gel icing tubes that have a really pretty shimmery sparkle to them. I love working with them. They are a little goupy, but even if you put a dollop and spread it around to add a shimmery shiny finish to your cupcakes, its a fun touch. Of course, they also come in a ton of colours.

So again, a store like Bulk Barn is great for getting decorating bits for the young or impatient. They have tubs upon tubs of every candy and snack food you can imagine. You can buy as little or as much as you want at a time. Grab some candy coated chocolates, gum drops, gummies, licorice, teddy grahams, mini cookies, and lolipops... anything you and your family would want to eat...and play with.

Here are three fun cupcake ideas for boys and girls to try out that don't require any fancy tools, but give great results.
For anyone who loves a beach day, why not try making some 'teddies at the beach'!

These cupcakes are super simple, and so cute. All you need is teddy grahams, jelly beans, fruit by the foot or fruit roll ups, gummy rings and drink umbrellas. For the ocean cupcakes frost the cupcakes and squirt some blue sparkle gel on top to get the shiny water look (if you don't want to use sparkle gel you can tint your icing blue with food colouring). Put a teddy graham into the center of a gummy ring and push the legs into the top of the cupcake. You can also roll up some fruit by the foot and put it in the water to look like a pool noodle. For the beach cupcakes put some teddy grahams in a ziplock bag, squeeze out all the air and seal. Take something hard like a jar and smash up the cookies into crumbs to look like sand. Dip a frosted cupcake in the graham crumbs to coat the top. Place a drink umbrella in the 'sand'. Cut a small piece of fruit by the foot for a towel, and cut some jelly beans in half and pipe foot straps to look like flip flops. Simple and delicious!

For the boys in the house, you can try some monster cupcakes. These are from the book "What's New Cupcake?"

For these cupcakes you'll need some coloured icing (either in freezer ziplock bags, or from the icing tubes), lolipops, gummy rings, and candy coated chocolates (such as m&m or smarties).
Here is a link to a great video tutorial by the creators of Hello Cupcake and What's New Cupcake, showing you how to make two different kinds of cupcake monsters!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KP8yHKjUAo

For the girls in the house, try your hand at these gorgeous marshmallow flowers. These are also from "What's New Cupcake". Both of the cupcake books by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson are incredible. They show you how to make crazy cupcakes using really simple and common ingredients...no cake decorating skills necessary! 

For these cupcakes you'll need some shimmering sugars (like these),

 mini marshmallows and some small candy coated chocolates. Here is the link to another great video tutorial showing you how simple it is to make these stunning flowers. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_jDlSp4lAo

For these and many more great ideas, pick up a copy of What's New Cupcake, or Hello Cupcake...they have some super fun ideas like spaghetti and meatballs cupcakes, puppy dogs and this AMAZING family tree. 

What a great idea for Family Day...let each member of your family decorate a cupcake to look like themselves...see if everyone else can guess who is who! 

This Family Day, spend some time together, be creative, get a little messy, and don't forget to have fun together, after all, that's what this day is all about! 

Until next time,

Happy baking, caking and tasting!

Love and sprinkles xoxo

>>What are your plans for family day? Have you had a cupcake decorating party before? How did it go? Have any questions about products I used or where to purchase them? If you try out this idea for with your family this Family Day, tell me how it turned out, and of course share your pictures!<<