Judah has been mommy’s little helper around the house lately. He insists on using the broom, helping feed the dogs and following behind me as I do laundry. He loves making sure his sister has a blanket and always gives her a paci when she’s crying. With all the help he’s been giving me I wanted to figure out something fun we could do together that would also be a treat for being so awesome. I love baking so I decided that we could make cupcakes! I headed out to Walmart and picked up some mix, the new Cool Whip Frosting and some sprinkle decorations to top them off.
Baking with a toddler might seem like it would be stressful, but the key is in the preparation. You have to have everything set up and ready, and make the steps as simple as possible. Our cupcakes weren’t anything fancy, they certainly weren’t gourmet, but they were awesome and Judah loved helping make them.
- Cake mix. Any kind will do, but to keep things toddler friendly I opted for the Shake N pour.
- Cool Whip Frosting. This is available in the freezer section with 3 different flavors. I’ll be using the chocolate and cream cheese.
- Decorations. Sprinkles, powders, candies – whatever you want!
- Cupcake pan and liners
- Mixing bowl, spatula and food coloring for coloring frosting
- Frosting bags with decorating tips (you can also cut the corner out of a regular sandwich bag)
When you have all your ingredients make sure your area is prepared. Set up your cupcake pan with liners, have a bowl and spatula out for mixing frosting and set out whatever decorations you want to use. I have a huge coffee table in the living room that is the perfect height for Judah so that’s where we made our cupcakes.
After everything is set up there are really only three steps. Add water to the cupcake mix, shake and pour into the cupcake pan. That’s it! I let Judah do the shaking and he loved it! Pop your cupcakes into the oven for 15 minutes.
When they’re done take the cupcakes out of the oven and let them cool for ten minutes. While they are cooling you can prepare the frosting. I love using #CoolWhipFrosting, it’s super yummy and feels really light and fluffy! I mixed the cream cheese flavor with a few drops of blue and green coloring. You don’t need much, one drop goes a long way!
Now you get to start decorating! This is where you can get really creative. I gave Judah the chocolate frosting and I used my aqua mixture and we had tons of (messy) fun decorating our cupcakes! He did a really good job and didn’t even try to decorate the furniture.
These cupcakes were fun, simple an delicious! Judah had so much fun helping out, he was proud to be the batter mixer and giggled the whole time he was decorating his cupcake. When it came time to eat he dug right in, only pausing to say “Yummy mommy!” Even though it only took an hour total I’m so happy that I’ll have this awesome memory for a very long time.
To check out my entire cupcake journey head over to my Google+ album. Connect with Cool Whip Frosting now and find awesome Kraft Recipes available at Walmart. You can also check out Cool Whip on Facebook.
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