Homemade Touches at a Birthday: In the name of friendship

For JEL, who did it "by herself."

I've been asked on more than one occasion if I cater or bake cupcakes for pay.  The answer to that is a resounding "no" because the whole reason I write the blog is to encourage others to try to cook and bake on their own.  I've spent two years telling people that with a little practice and effort that "anyone can cook."

Of course there are exceptions to this rule.  For closest girlfriends I often offer my services (for free) to help them with the food or cupcakes for birthday parties.  This means for best friend JEL, she always has at her disposal my cupcakes, or macaroni and cheese, or curried chicken salad, ready for either of her children's celebrations.  I always offer to do cupcakes for her and she always says yes.

I assumed that this year's birthday for her daughter would be no different.  After all, her daughter is the one I've chosen to be my future daughter-in-law (to be betrothed to Son at a time when it is deemed appropriate).  JEL and her husband decided to do the birthday at a local mini amusement park and zoo, Happy Hollow.  It meant that the park would take care food and most things (mandatory) and JEL and husband would only have to do cupcakes and decorations.  After discussing the party details with JEL, I made my offer, "So what kind of cupcakes do you want for her birthday?"

JEL responded, "You're not going to make them.  I am."

With confusion and shock on my face, I asked, "What do you mean?"

"I want to make them,"she said. "I want to see if I can make them. You tell your readers all the time that they can do it, why not me?  This is the perfect time for me to try as there isn't much else for me to do."

I didn't have a response so I just said, "Okay."  I helped her come up with table decoration idea, one that I had seen at the park for another friend's birthday party, and she decided that she wanted to do it all.

Two weekends before the party, the two of us sat in her living room and whipped out the following table decorations.  I taught her how to do it, and she went ahead and made most of them (as I was getting all of our kids fed and bathed.) These are easy to make as I just followed the instructions on Martha Stewart's site (here) but added the variation of laying one piece of green paper on the bottom and one yellow on the top and fluffing it up only half way.  (about 7 sheets of tissue were the perfect number.)  I made the one below (the prettiest one because it has pointed petals) and one other, but she made the rest.

I also handed over my mini muffin tin, liners, decorating bags and tips to her and wished her all the best.  I gave a quick demonstration in the air of how to make and ice the cupcakes and encouraged her saying that it wouldn't be any problem and that she could handle it. 

The night before the party, I got a phone call from her asking me and my kids to come over and spend the night so that we could go early to the party the next day and help set up.  I hesitated, because the prospect of getting Son and Daughter to go to sleep in a room that wasn't theirs was kind of unappealing, and it sounded tiring.  She then added the kicker to the request, "I want you to come and supervise the cupcake process."

"You don't need me for that!  You can do it!  I already showed you!"

"I know, but I want you to watch me do it.  Please can you come?" she pleaded.

The next thing I knew, I was packing my things preparing to go sleep at JEL's house so that I could help her with the cupcakes.  She baked them before I had gotten there so I didn't need to supervise the baking.  She decided to do velvet cupcakes which are a great choice because you don't need an electric mixer to make them - simply measure out ingredients and mix them together.  After the kids went to bed, she started working and I supervised.  She made the frosting according to my directions, scraped out the vanilla bean according to my directions and took care of everything herself.  It was only at the part when it came time to actually do the icing that she hesitated.  I still made her start it and do it herself, only to find out that she was going opposite of my standard method.  She started on the outside and ended up in the middle - which looked like this, still very cute. (Method: using 1M tip, hold bag perpendicular to cupcake and start on the outside and swoop towards the middle.)  They were very pretty and I said, "You are doing great!"

She wanted to know how I did mine, so I demonstrated my technique, which is to start on the inside and move out and she tried it that way a couple of times as well.

All in all, she did the entire project by herself even if it did require some supervision from me.  And I was really happy that she added homemade touches to a party that was going to be held at a place that didn't require parents to do anything.  She could have bought the cupcakes (or taken me up on my offer) and bought decorations but instead she took a little time to make them herself. The effect was really lovely and special.  (She bought Hello Kitty cupcake toppers.)

The funny thing was, most people at the party ASSUMED that the cupcakes were my handiwork and to which I could proudly say, "No I didn't make them!  JEL did them all on her own."  JEL always interjected with. "But with Joanne's supervision."  At the end of the party, when cleanup was all done, I said to JEL, "So now you can do the cupcakes yourself!"  

She looked at me and said, "Ummm...no.  I'm not doing them anymore.  I just wanted to SEE if I could, and now that I know I can, I want you to do them."  I started laughing.

Tables with cupcakes and pom poms laid out.  Happy Birthday my future daughter-in-law!