The other day my beautiful daughter decides that she wants cupcakes.  After all, it was pouring outside, and she felt jilted because she couldn’t go to the park as she had originally hoped.  I thought cupcakes sounded like a fine idea myself, so we got to measuring and mixing.  We opted for a nice strawberry cake in a vain attempt to make them healthier. 

Honestly my daughter was only game because the strawberries made the batter pink.  Silly us, we didn’t gather all of our supplies before we got started and discovered that we were out of cupcake pan liners!  I’m not a huge fan of greasing then flouring each and every muffin tin cup, or having cup cakes without liners.  Muffins go without liners, cupcakes always feel naked.  So I’m strange.  Before my daughter’s panic could turn to a full fledge tear fest I had an inspiring moment.  Let’s MAKE our own cupcake liners!  Yes!

We took parchment paper (not wax, wax paper melts and leaves an aftertaste) and cut them into circles.  We cleverly used a CD for a template.  I cut all the circles out then let my daughter go to town coloring them.  She was allowed to color one size only because I was terrified of eating marker residue.  This turned into such a great project.  She wrote all of our names on some, so we knew which cupcakes were ours.  Ironically, her name showed up more often than her brother’s!  I was amazed at how her imagination never got bored, even after 32 circles.   Each was unique and fantastic.  Once she finished them all, I shoved them into the cupcake tin and pushed them down with a drinking glass.  Then filled them as usual with batter.  My favorite picture?  Daddy doing the robot.

-Stephanie Wright