The Best Cupcakes to Bring to a Classroom
If your child's birthday is coming up, he might already be bugging you about what treat he'd like to bring to share with his classmates on the special day. It's common practice for the birthday child's parents to send him with cupcakes, since these are like little birthday cakes and don't have to be sliced to share. Whatever type of cupcakes you decide to send to school, be sure to have a container for easy transport so they won't arrive in a heap. Does this Spark an idea?
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Healthy Cupcakes
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In many schools, there is concern about encouraging healthy eating, and many parents will appreciate cupcakes that are healthier than the usual sugar-packed varieties. You can find many recipes for tasty treats like apple-cinnamon muffins or blueberry cupcakes, or recipes that use zucchini instead of oil and agave instead of sugar. Make icing from Greek yogurt instead of shortening or butter and use mini-cupcake pans, so not only can you feed a whole class with just one batch, but each student will get a more kid-sized portion.
Decorated with a Theme
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Since your "customers' are kids, the flavor of the cupcakes might not matter as much as the way they're decorated. Kids will enjoy bright colors, and even if each cupcake is the same flavor, use different colors of icing so they can choose their favorite. Use the time of year as inspiration for decorating and make green icing with flower jujubes for spring or red, white and blue sprinkles for Flag Day. Depending on the age of the children, they might enjoy cupcakes decorated with paraphernalia from their favorite cartoon; buy Dora the Explorer or Pokemon picks to stick in the tops of the cupcakes if you think that will be a hit.
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Decorating in the Classroom
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For those parents who'll be present to deliver the cupcakes themselves, helping the children decorate their own cupcake is a great way to make sure everyone gets what he likes. Bring small amounts of lots of different cupcake toppings, such as sprinkles, chocolate chips and red hots. You can bring the cupcakes unfrosted and make your life easy by picking up a couple of cans of special decorators icing from the store. This type of icing is now available in easy-apply cans that the kids can use to squirt their own decorations onto cupcakes.
Alternatives to Cupcakes
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Sometimes the best treat isn't a cupcake at all. If the school frowns upon sweets, if cupcakes are too difficult to transport, or if you just want to be different, you can find an alternative that kids will enjoy. Rice cereal treats are inexpensive, easy to make and carry, and will have less sugar than cupcakes. You can even add icing to them if you wish. You could also make brownie pops on sticks or chocolate-covered pretzels. Healthier options that kids will still eat are homemade granola bars or fruit kabobs.
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References
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- Photo Credit Child Eating Cupcake image by Kalani from Fotolia.com
