Monday, April 16, 2012

DINER FOOD CUPCAKES - APRIL FOOL!

For April Fool's Day, I made special cupcakes for the "kids" who come to our house every Sunday for lunch. I wanted to get a photo of their faces, but decided at the last minute to just look at them - and enjoy watching them as they saw what I made for their dessert.

Spaghetti and Meatballs Cupcakes

The spaghetti is just piped icing. The meatballs are Ferrero Rocher candies, the sauce is strawberry preserves that have been warmed, with a little bit of cocoa powder added to make the sauce less pink.







Peas and Carrots with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy Cupcakes

The peas are green Runts candies - I had to buy three boxes to get enough green to cover 5 cupcakes. The carrots are quartered orange Starburst candies. The mashed potatoes are made from icing that has been thinned enough to sort of droop over the top of the cupcake. The pats of butter are yellow Starburst candies that have been  flattened, with edges rounded out a bit. The gravy is a pumpkin-caramel sauce combo that I make for pancakes and waffles.

You know, these were REALLY easy to make... but quite expensive, as I not only bought the candies required to make these cupcakes, but I also bought some mini cookies for future cupcakes and various other types of candies for more cupcakes and cookies down the road.


And I sure can't take the credit for the ideas, as the cupcake designs are from the book, Hello Cupcake, by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. But I wanted to show you how cool they turned out, and tell you how surprised and tickled the people were when they saw them. They loved them. :-)  It was worth every $10 increment I spent to see the expressions on their faces, and to see some who don't particularly want to eat veggies walking away with a veggie cupcake in hand!

PHIL'S UGLY SHOES WIN BIG BUCKS!

Thanks to everyone who voted on Facebook for Phil's shoes to win the Ugly Shoe contest through our credit union's contest!  

So now I know a little bit about using Facebook, and I've made contact with a lot of people I haven't seen or heard from in ages. 

It was a stressful week until we got the phone call on Friday of that week to confirm we had, indeed, won with the most votes.  Phil's shoes, #13 on the contest page, looked pretty similar to the shoes that were #8.   I don't know who owned Shoes #8, but in the end I guess it all comes down to who you know and who you can convince to vote for your stinky, ugly shoes.  And I guess it didn't hurt that Phil's shoes had a mouse coming out of the hole in the toe.  FINAL RESULTS: #13, 71 votes; #8, 43 votes. Or something like that.

So, on Friday we headed over to the credit union to pick up our cash winnings. I was hoping they would take Phil's shoes, but it didn't work out that way.

 

They made us take the shoes home again.
 

In the end, Phil got to keep his shoes... and he isn't wearing them (do you suppose the "winner" status is going to be lost if they get a little more beat up?).  You might say that's a win-win solution to the end of the contest for us both. :-)