My good friend was making a bar mitzvah party for her son a couple of weeks ago and I asked how I could help. She asked if I could make a dessert for the lunch party. Excellent. Any excuse to pull out my cake decorating tool kit and play.
I went to AC Moore (that's right, by myself, at night - it was like a super-exciting date night for one), bought myself a few new piping tips, a couple of new gel colors to tint my frosting, some matching shimmery sprinkles and (I was so proud that I thought of this) one of those cardboard bakery boxes that was big enough to fit 30 cupcakes. So fun!
So I baked cupcakes and made the blue and green boy-colored frosting in advance. The plan was, the night before I was to deliver the goods, I was going to frost the cupcakes, sprinkle my shimmery sprinkles, make letter 'B' chocolate lollipops (her son's initial) and then construct a mini "Mazal Tov" banner to string across the cupcakes when they were displayed on the table, made of fondant, of course. Ambitious? Yes. But totally doable.
I had a theme, I had a plan. I was pumped. The only thing I wasn't, was awake. By the time all the kids were in bed and I had washed the dishes, washed the bottles, filled lunchboxes for the next day, wiped down the counters, washed the bottles (wait, I think I did that already), swept the kitchen floor and scrubbed the sink (oh come one, you know what I'm talking about - I get those FlyLady emails) it was way past 9pm. In fact, it was almost 10pm - and that is waaay past my bedtime these days.
So I drank a can of soda and persevered. I frosted, I sprinkled and then the baby woke up and the party was over. No chocolate lollies, no mini fondant banner. But, honestly, I was too tired to worry. Baby ate, went back to sleep and so did I.
Next morning though, panic city. But I dont have the luxury of standing in the kitchen making chocolate lollies with the younger ones at home. I do, however, have the luxury of sitting on the living room floor with them while the baby rolls around and my 2 year old plays yet another game of her older brothers' favorite: pizza store ("What you want? Pizza? We dont have. What you want? Soda? We don't have." And on it goes.)
Once again, I printed stuff on my printer. I cut out the letters, in squares, to spell out "mazal tov" and attached each letter to a slightly larger, different colored, square of paper. I then sewed (yes, sewed - I can't sew a button, but I can sew colored paper) the small squares together to form a banner. I attached each side to a long skewer and there it was, my banner. Each skewer was stuck into the two outermost cupcakes and I smiled upon them. I just hope they tasted good.