No ONE GOT SICK OR BURNED!!

Monday was our weekly gathering of the "Li'l Artists". They get to choose a project once a month. They wanted to bake their own cakes and cupcakes and decorate them.
Okay, in my mind's eye, I saw pretty decorated cakes with lots of pretty trim and flowers etc made from icing. I have had to keep reminding myself this is the kids' work. They need to explore and do what they need to do.
keeping up with the rule "this is YOUR ART you need to make it the way it feels right to you. Don't worry about what anyone else is doing." So off we went.
There were nine members this week--we have picked up another girl who changed the dynamics drastically with her presence. She needs a lot of TLC so I think she is in the right place.

I had plied the table the day before with my little helper's aid. We had icing, icing tint, decorating tubes and tips, a gazillion sprinkles, dum dum suckers, candy melts, walnuts, coconut, almonds, choc chips etc.

When the girls and Cameron arrived they all rushed to the bathroom to wash their hands. We had two mixers going constantly and lots of chatter. I had everyone remember to read the directions before they did anything!!
I let everyone do their own measuring and mixing and helped a few with pouring. There were some interesting color tints to the batter and lots of color tints to the cans of frosting they brought!!!
Winter did not want any frosting at all on her cupcakes. She said most of her family did not like it or if they did she would let them frosting them themselves.........she did one for herself.
Macey was making her cake for her mom and did not want to ice the sides.
She is an only child and everything is for her mom. In the end her friends encouraged her to add frosting to the sides.
these two cakes were very trying actually. Tiffany wanted a double layer cake. Sure we can do that. She mixed and measured and put her cakes in the oven. Ten minutes later she was telling me about how one is cherry chip and one is strawberry. I caught the fact she had made TWO separate cake mixes and poured each batter into just ONE 9' inch round pan. About that time half the girls were in the kitchen yelling "There is a fire in the oven!! Quick it is pouring smoke!"
John was home by now and he rushed in and I met him at the oven. I hit the fan and someone opened the slider and kitchen window. The batter was spilling over onto the oven elements and catching fire sending smoke out.

So we carefully turned the pans away from the elements so they would drip onto the foil lining the bottom of the oven. We tried to keep it cool and calm and also remember Tif's feelings. I think she felt really bad.
Her Mom had told her to make them that way. After we got that taken care of she remembered she had forgot to spray her pans!!!!!!!!!! I felt so bad. I had no extra cake mixes to let her start over.

Then while I was helping someone else she decided her cakes had cooled enough. She was in tears when half her cake lay on her carboard base in pieces and the rest was stuck to the pan. So we worked it out as best we could. We managed to make two separate layers......not the two layer she had really wanted. We sort of used the frosting to glue the crumbs together and then she decorated them with chocolate icing and other stuff. Someone had decided to not use their strawberries they brought so she used those.

It was a good lesson to pay attention to the directions and to try to repair what went wrong. She is such a hard worker and supporter of everyone else. I loved how they all rallied around her buoying her up with ideas and stories of their own 'not so perfect baking incidents.'

John is the greatest. He cut out cardboard and covered it with foil so the kids had something to put their cupcakes and cakes on to get them home.
He is sooo supportive of the kids and especially me.

It is cute when he pulls up from work. There will be a call that echoes around the house "John's home John's home" They all think he is great too.
He talks to all of them and always complements whatever they are doing.

These are Tiffany's cakes.

When they had all left John said he hoped the parents would appreciate all the work the kids did and eat their stuff no matter what it looked like!!

Serena made one batch of cupcakes and one small cake. Everyone loved using the dum dum suckers!
Mikyla made an M for herself. She is very withdrawn and when her parents show up she stops any talking at all.
Everyone busy at work.
yellow cake mix is disquised with icing tint to become turquoise.
they are topped with blue coolwhip and pineapple frosting and a dum dum of course.

Cameron is the only boy right now. He is a 'let's get to and get it done kind of guy".
His cake got frostened on the top and then he added a liberal 'dump' of chocolate sprinkles and said I'm done can I go home now?" His grandma lives across the street. So I carried it over for him.
Big sister Gabi wanted a sheet cake and she tinted her frosting coral.
serena couldn't quite get the hang of filling her cupcake holders 2/3 full but she was very proud of them!!

IN two and a half hours we baked 6 cakes and 3 double sets of cupcakes.

They were decorated and iced and out the door. I wanted to change my name half way through and I remembered the good old days when it was 'mommy mommy mommy' and it made me smile so big. Serena always likes to pat my arm while she is trying to get my attention.

I was proud of the fact girls could put their cakes in the oven and remove them without anyone getting burned. It is three days later and I HAVEN'T heard that anyone got sick from their baking. I know they all had a good time. I was exhausted but I keep smiling when I think about the fun and the stuff that went out the door.