A First Day Back...

Summer is glorious. Days of sleeping in, making my own schedule, trips to visit the ones I miss and all around shenanigans are thoroughly enjoyed. I'll admit, summer is a HUGE perk of being a teacher. Though,  is is a well earned (with blood, sweat and tears), well deserved, perk of being a teacher. The majority of people would not last a day in my shoes... Seriously. My sister made the mistake of coming to my classroom once, and I think she may be scarred for life. With summer being so magical (we're talking random, unexplained, choreographed musical numbers in the street magical), it makes going back to the old grindstone reeaaallllllyyyyyy hard. Realllly, reealllly hard. I have it on good authority, that most normal people would just never go back if they had summers off. Alas, it is a burden I must carry upon my still-ghostly-white-despite-the-end-of-summer shoulders. Since that first day back is such a beating, (often made in a very ill chosen shoe choice... Heels? Really? Total palm to forehead moment there.) I knew it was essential that I made it slightly more bearable with cupcakes. I decided to take the old "an apple a day" adage, and apply it to cupcakery. To the littlest bakesweatshop I went to create a myriad of fondant wonderies. Little red apples, gold stars (who doesn't love a bit of affirmation?), and chalkboards with chalk (really, kinda passe... everyone knows that chalkboards are soooooo 1999) were to adorn each little bite of first day salvation. I found a delicious recipe for apple cupcake with apple filling that was both sweet and tart, and topped it with my favorite cream cheese frosting. The piece de resistance (ha!) was the corny, cheesy, teachery, poem that I paired with the cakes de cup. Word wizardry is a skill that has come in handy many a time in my life... It goes without saying that these little beauties didn't last long in the Teacher's Lounge. If I had to put a time to it, I'd say a hot minute. I think I've started a tradition though... The first day of school is apple cupcake day. To go with our adage theme here, the early bird gets the worm, and if you snooze you loose.

A brighter way to start your first day...

A very teacherly display.

Until next time, sweet dreams!

-J

A Teacher's Lounge Celebration...

Once a month the teacher's lounge is fully decorated and stocked with snacks of all kinds. Decadent sausage rolls (my recipe is unrivaled), delicious snack mixes, cream cheese blocks with chipotle jelly, crackers and dips, assorted fruits and vegetables and desserts of all kinds are proudly displayed. These treats are put out once a month in honor of birthdays. Instead of having many mini-celebrations, we combine all of the birthdays into a mega celebration totally worth having. And, as all of my fellow teachers will tell you, nothing makes us happier than a delicious food day in the lounge! We live for them. My team always has November. Each teammate brings something salty or savory and something sweet. For me, it is always the sausage pinwheels and some kind of cookie. However, this year I knew I was going to bring CUPCAKES. Thanksgiving is also a time for pumpkin (um, pumpkin pie anyone? I like my whip cream with a side of pie...) and my Halloween cupcakes were such a hit, I decided to revisit my pumpkin/brown sugar/cinnamon cream cheese creation with a different topper. These were to be fall themed, so I got to work mixing fondant in foliage colors, cutting and inlaying leaves, and hand painting steams on each little cupcake. The result, as my little brother from another mother would say, was out of this world!

Some pretty (edible) fall foliage!

Some more yummy treats.

Unitl next time, sweet dreams!

-J