The Family Crisis Center in my town is holding a summer camp for children who have come to stay with them because of domestic violence situations. Several months ago, I began making birthday cakes for the children, free of charge. I've really enjoyed it, but this week, the Center has asked me if I will participate in their summer camp by holding a few cupcake classes for the kids, and I have no idea what to do. I need some help!

Their are going to be three age groups....5-8, 9-11, and 12 and up. Each class will last for 1 hour and have around 15-20 kids. I just can't think of any way to stretch it out for an hour for each group. Especiallly the little ones. I figured for the youngest group, I would already have the cupcakes iced and just let them decorate with sprinkles and decorations, but an hour is a long time, even if they each have two or three to decorate.

I would really appreciate any suggestions for how to go about doing this....especially how to make it last longer! I would love to see some pics of cupcakes that would be good for these age groups, if any one has any to share.

Thanks

For the younger ones, if they get done ahead of time, why not have colouring pages of cakes and cupcakes available? Or if they have a paper bag or what ever they are taking their cupcakes in, they could decorate that. I would try to have as many things as possible that they could stick on a cupcake. For the older kids, maybe have different cupcakes pictures (like worms & dirt or one that's a little more difficult) and have them try to follow directions to make them (make sense ).
Maybe you could teach the older kids some basic decorating skills? The younger ones, you might be better to let them have at it, and go to town decorating.

hth & good luck

Thank you so much for suggesting bags to put the cupcakes in. Such a simple idea, but I've been trying to figure out what I could put the cupcakes in for them to take with them without spending a fortune. That's perfect!

I love the idea of letting them color cupcake pages and/or decorate the bags.

Any one else have any suggestions? I have to do this Friday morning, so anything that might help would be greatly appreciated!

I know you specifically said cupcakes, but what about cookies? It may be a good "filler". Have fondant or "flood" the cookies prior to the class (so the top is hard), and let them use food-markers. The older ones would be able to roll it out and put it on the cookies/cupcakes (small cutouts).

Also, I probably would not frost the cupcakes for the 5-8 group. Just have bags that they can squeeze frosting on (either a big start tip or just a large-round).

Make sure to put rubber-bands on the ends of the bags to help minimize the mess...

Also, i dont know how much $$ you have, but maybe get large t-shirts and put an image of a cupcake on it (you can draw it with black marker or print some "iorn-on" transfers on a computer). They can then use permanant markes and "color" their shirts (and have it to take home).

TammyH
(can you tell I've done this a few times...??)

For the 5-8 group, you might look for a short storybook that deals with cake decorating, and read that to them to use up some time.

Will the camp be responsible for aprons, clean-up supplies, etc?

Oooh! had to edit the post because I had a thought -- could you bring a digital camera and take the little ones' pictures with their creations? Then they can make a card for their parents to show what they made at camp. (I assume the cupcake itself may be LOOOONG gone!)