All-New Cake Mix Doctor - Anne Byrn [165]
Mardi Gras— The colors of this holiday are purple, gold, and green, symbolizing justice, power, and faith, in that order. To make multicolored Mardi Gras cupcakes mix together a white cupcake batter and divide it into three bowls. Add purple food coloring to one bowl (mix blue with a little red to get purple); to another bowl add yellow food coloring, and to the last, add green. For each cup-cake, place a small scoop of each colored batter in the cupcake liner. Bake the cup-cakes, then frost them with plain cream cheese frosting and decorate them with purple, gold, and green sprinkles. This same method can be used for Easter egg cupcakes—choose the springtime colors pink, green, and yellow.
Valentine’s Day— Make “Sweetheart” cupcakes using heart-shaped baking pans and a red velvet or white cupcake batter. Frost the cupcakes with a plain cream cheese frosting. Then, using a tube of icing, pen the mottoes found on those Sweetheart candies, like “Be mine.”
Fourth of July— Last summer my older daughter Kathleen and her friend Marybeth baked their annual July Fourth cupcakes together. They often rely on the Pillsbury confetti cupcake mix, but without one at hand, they created their own. They folded “confetti” flattened colored sugar sprinkles into my White Sour Cream Cupcakes batter (see page 371) before baking. They frosted the cupcakes with plain cream cheese frosting. And then they went wild with the red, white, and blue decorations. When creativity wanes, enlist teens to help out!
10 Big Bake Sale Secrets
You baked it and homemade is always a big hit. But these plan-ahead tips should help you bring in even more money at the bake sale table.
1. Think whole cakes and whole pies. Think of a pan of brownies someone can stash in the freezer. With less time to bake at home, people love bake sales for stocking up on dinner party cakes they can freeze and for whole pies and batches of brownies and cookies they can take to a neighbor or to the office.
2. When it comes to cakes, go with the mainstream favorites—chocolate layer cakes, cozy pound cakes, and nostalgic carrot cakes.
3. Also think small. Parents may give kids money to spend at the sale and kids will enjoy a frosted cupcake or small plastic bags filled with homemade cookies.
4. The best cookies for selling are such classics as oatmeal-raisin and chocolate chip or cookies that are a specialty of one of the bake sale bakers. These can be heirloom holiday cookies, old-fashioned snickerdoodles, or some cookies that are rare and delicious and not available at any other time and place. Write the name of the baker on the tag, such as “Judy’s Snickerdoodles.”
5. No wrapping is needed for cupcakes. The favorite flavor of all time is vanilla frosted with chocolate and dusted with sugar sprinkles.
6. You’ve got to have pies—fudge, lemon meringue, chess, apple, or pecan. A cake may woo a woman, but the pie is the way to a man’s heart. And you can sell fruit cobblers and crisps ready to take home and heat for dessert.
7. Love the loaves, too. When it comes to whole loaves of sweet breads, banana and pumpkin are the most coveted. Fall is also the time for apple cinnamon and zucchini breads.
8. Sell homemade rolls right in the pan or a dozen cornbread muffins or bran muffins for breakfast—breads are beloved but not often baked.
9. To jazz up brownie sales, don’t just bake plain ones. Fill them with mint candies or brush them with Kahlúa as they cool in the pan. Frost the top with a homemade icing. Don’t forget butter-scotch brownies and peanut butter bars. Bake these in disposable aluminum pans and sell them by the panful.
10. And last, but not least, have candy makers prepare toffee, divinity, and peanut brittle. Bag them in clear plastic and tie them with a pretty bow. These are both a delicacy and a really sweet deal.
BAKE SALE CARAMEL CUPCAKES
IF YOU’VE READ MY BOOKS you know I love homemade caramel frosting. I’m especially fond of the recipe I share here because it is one my mother gave me years ago. What