Cupcakes, cakes and Cake kits..

Today was the last day of term and not just of term but also the end of the school year. Here we give the teachers a gift to show appreciation of the work they did in the year that's just past. Knowing that the teachers adore my baking we decided that a kit to make cupcakes would be a good way to go so I found some cheap 6 hole cupcake tins and got enough for the teachers we wanted to give a gift to. I also got a nice sized fridge/freezer box to put the mixes in as I didn't want the baggies etc lost before the teachers got home.

First I spent an age weighing out the right amount of each ingredient for each bag as I wanted to be 100% sure that each bag had exactly the same amount as every other bag. I was making 10 kits so I weighed out 10 x each ingredient for the chocolate mix and then 10 x each ingredient for the vanilla mix and put them in the baggies - I later (with the help of oldest) shook it all together in the baggie to make the mix evenly mixed before removing all the air and putting them in the little boxes.

  I then added some cupcake papers and the recipe, closed the boxes and wrapped them up.

It was really nice seeing the teachers faces - they were all surprised and happy with them so it was a gift well gifted.
 

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Meanwhile I was also baking cupcakes for youngest to treat his class with because it's almost his birthday.  He wanted to do mini cupcakes so he could let the kids have more than just the one so i baked 72 vanilla and 72 chocolate ones. I then put them on sandwich sticks in pairs - some with both the same flavour but most with one of each flavour. I ended up with a huge basket of these which were enjoyed by the kids and also by the teachers as I had, of course, made far too much

I also baked 2 large cakes for the teachers as my personal gift to all the teachers at the school and sneaked into the kitchen when they weren't looking and put them there - it's something I do every summer as my way of showing them how much I appreciate the teachers.

 This one was iced with the help of oldest vanilla ring cake on top and chocolate on the bottom.

And this is a caramel 2 layer cake iced with fudge frosting and filled with fudge. All in all the teachers were spoiled rotten - as they fully deserve :)

Baking was a pain as my old oven was on it's last legs and it was taking 2 x as long as it should have to bake each batch of cupcakes/cakes. But today (after I *really* needed it) my nice new shiny oven arrived. You can see the packing material reflected in the door hehe. I had to put the oven on for a bit empty to get rid of the factory newness smell that would make food taste bad. I then made some cupcakes to try the oven with.

They were done in 25 minutes - half the time I'd needed for the mini cupcakes last night and they are perfectly done - light and fluffy - all the things I'd been missing in the old oven lately that on occasion made me feel uncomfortable about giving people my cupcakes.

I am again a happy baker :)