Dad-Inspired Cupcakes

I need to go ahead and brag about how awesome Ty's teacher is. We've been going to FCC Co-op preschool in Royal Oak for 3 years now. Because the boys both have late birthdays, Eric and I decided to give them 2 years of 3's preschool to start them off on the right foot. Now at a co-operative preschool, each family normally has to volunteer in the classroom 1-2x a month. We love this! I love being able to see how the child is progressing and interacting with others. It's also crazy exhausting. For 2 1/2 hours, we play hard with 16 kids. I have no idea how Mrs. Frentz does this with 2 classes. She is the warmest person who might be the most natural teacher I've ever seen-especially for this age group. She is inviting, calming and somehow manages not to take s*** from anyone. I wish I had that skill! So not only is she an incredible teacher but she also is a great planner. Every year, she arranges a "Dad's Day!" where the kids all get to bring in their dad to school on a saturday to play and show off. It's so cute! Some dads volunteer in the classroom but it's mostly for moms so this is a nice way for the kids to have their dad at school. I wanted to lighten her load a little bit and made some treats for this event.

I needed some theme ideas so I asked my boys what they like to do with their dad and Charlie said play golf. Michigan had been playing in the NCAA basketball tournament so Ty said watching basketball. I thought I needed some non-sports ones so I remembered how cute some grill theme cupcakes were that I saw on pinterest and decided to go with those and cheeseburger cupcakes since it's the boys favorite dinner made by their dad.

I started off by making 4 dozen cupcakes-2 dozen chocolate and 2 dozen vanilla.

Then I made 3 extra large batches of Buttercream-one chocolate and 2 vanilla.

Now time to decorate! Basketball cupcakes: We had a metallic orange liner with chocolate cake. I then simply piped orange-dyed vanilla buttercream and smoothed out the surface.

Then Ty helped me dip each cupcake into a bowl of sprinkles-lightly pressing down to ensure even coverage. He did a great job!!!

Next, each cupcake got some lines with black candy melts to give it a basketball shape. I melted the candy melts in 30 second intervals in the microwave then used a pastry bag to pipe the lines.

I then took some red-dyed and white vanilla buttercream to create a net and voila! All done!

Now onto the next one-the grill! I used the rest of the chocolate cupcakes for these. I had a black and white polka-dot liner. First, I made little circle "grill grates" with the rest of the black candy-melts and let them harden. Then I took the rest of the orange buttercream I dyed, added some red and not completely mix so it had a flame like look. I piped it with my 1m piping tip and added the hardened grill grate on top. I added a few of the left over orange sprinkes to give it some "embers."

Then I cut up some gummy bears I bought and put them on a plastic skewer for the "kabob." And added it on top. How cute and fun!

The third one I did was the golf one. I had done these before for a 30th birthday party so it was pretty easy for me to do. I did the same technique for these that I did for the basketball with piping the frosting on (this time green) and smoothing it out. Then I dipped them each in green sanding sugar. I took the left over green buttercream and using my Wilton #233 tip, piped on some grass in different places.

Next, I piped a chocolate dot to create the "holes." Using a large pearl sprinkle for the ball, I placed them in each of the holes for the golf balls. I added some cute toothpick flags and these were all finished!

Last but not least are the CHEESEBURGER cupcakes. To start, I flattened out some white cupcake liners to look like food wrappers. Then I cut the rest of my vanilla cupcakes in half. I piped on some chocolate frosting to create a "hamburger patty" look. These don't have to look perfect because you will be adding some frosting on top.

I then dyed some frosting yellowy/orange for cheese and piped it on in a square so it hung off some the sides. On top of that I dyed some of the vanilla buttercream red and piped it in a circle to give the effect of a tomato slice and on top of that I used the rest of the green vanilla buttercream for lettuce and piped it in a ruffly effect.

I re-added the other half as the top bun and used some large white sprinkles as "sesame seeds" and then was complete!

All together these were really cute and really fun to make. They would be great for Father's Day or for a special someone's birthday. Eric had lots of fun at "Dad's Day!" at preschool with Ty while Charlie and I were downtown for the March for our Lives. All together, it was a great day with our kids. We both really try to have special time with each of our kids seperately sometimes to re-enforce that bond. I hope if you make these, you have some great memories with them.