Cupcakes!

I'm admittedly quite challenged in the cake decorating arena, so I tend to purchase birthday cakes instead of trying to make them. I make an exception for first birthdays because I just do something simple. For The Boy's first birthday, I made a dirt cake and served it in a dump truck. (Please note that if you serve a dirt cake in a dump truck, be sure to keep the truck from rolling off the table onto your new beige carpet.)

Anyway, for Little One's birthday this year I simply baked chocolate cupcakes from a mix. The only change I made was to use brewed coffee instead of the water called for by the box directions. For frosting I used Cool Whip, since I wanted something light and easy. The fun part was making the decorations!

I poured about 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips into a zip top sandwich bag, sealed it, and laid it flat in the microwave. I heated the chocolate for 30 seconds at a time at 50% power until the chips were just melted, massaging the bag in between cycles. Snipping off a tiny corner of the bag, I piped shapes onto a cookie sheet covered in wax paper.

These are treble clefs, since my original idea was to do a music theme. I also made several letters for the children's initials. If I made a mistake I didn't worry about it, I just moved on to the next blank space and tried again! I made a bunch of them, knowing that I could pick and choose the best when the time came. After piping the shapes, I placed the sheet in the fridge and let them harden. Then I carefully peeled them off the paper and placed them on top of the frosted cupcakes. You don't want to touch them much because they melt really quickly!

The birthday girl's cupcake, with her first initial and sprinkles!

I think she liked it!