Okay my youngest is in pre-k and I live to bake. The teacher asked me if I wanted to bring in cupcakes for the kids to decorate. What should I bring in for them to use? I was thinking of making my own buttercream and bring it in instead of the store bought stuff. I am so excited to do this with the kids but just don't know how to go about finding the right stuff as well what would be a good recipe for them (cake and buttercream) I would really greatful. Thanks!

I am just a sometime hobby baker but I am a mom of four so feel pretty confident in that part. This is one of the most popular things you can do with kids. I always made sure I had several colors of icing as well as lots of different sprinkles, etc. Tons of plastic knives and plates. I also covered the tables with those cheap, colorful tablecloths. That way, nice you're done you can just wad all the mess up and throw it away. I use doctored cake mixes and buttercream made with butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Like I said, not a pro baker, but a pro mom! Have fun!!!

I did this before with young children, it is great fun! And messy! First, buy some of those disposable icing bags. Since you have to wash your real bags by hand, I just don't feel I can get mine clean enough after all those little germy preschool hands have touched them....lol! Disposable are much easier when it comes to clean up.

Also, make sure you have clothes pins or twist ties or some way of holding the icing bags closed because little ones don't know how to keep them twisted so the icing doesn't squirt out the other end.

Have two or three bags of each color of icing so they don't have to wait for a color and stick to 3 or 4 colors. Just use star or round tips on them and demonstrate the difference in the way the icing comes out to the kids.

Then, have different kinds of sprinkles available, multi-colored, single-colored, chocolate...etc. After they decorate with buttercream, they love to add sprinkles.

As far as recipes, I'd just go with a white or yellow cake and plain buttercream.

Have fun!

Hi Mommyjones, I'm a preschool teacher myself. I can tell you first hand that the preschoolers don't particularily care for the gourmet or extravagant flavors that parents put their hearts and souls into. Plain old Chocolate or Vanilla cake recipe is your best bet if you want the preschoolers to actually eat them. (although if they decorate the cupcakes themselves . . . their more likely to eat them anyway). Most children lick the icing off and throw out the rest. I've had bubblegum and strawberry flavored cupcakes bomb in my classroom because they were too different. The teachers like the flavors . . .

Because the icing goes over so well, you could focus mainly on that recipe if you're wanting to do that "something special" for the children. They would definately appreciate it. Hope you find this info. helpful. (if you want to really impress the teacher you could find a cupcake recipe that doesn't leave crumbs all over the place . . .)

I did the same thing for my daughters K class last year. I did snowman cookies but you can do the same thing. I premade cut outs of the hat, nose, buttons, eyes and things and then gave them a bucket per table full of different colored icing bags and different sprinkles they could use, each their own a plate to do their work on and then gave them a little tutorial. A few of them dumped the whole bottle of sprinkles on their cookie so I would say to do little shakers instead of the type that can open up and dump!! But it was lots of fun and the teacher thanked me, she had fun as well! And at the kindergarten graduation I was surprised to see pictures of it on the movie they made of the things the kids did threw the entire year!