The school year is over, and in our house it ended rather sweetly, literally. It's all thanks to an idea my wife found on Pinterest, that my kids enjoyed, and I think yours will too.

When it comes to Pinterest, I really have no clue. Honestly, I've never used the app. However, my wife has religiously, and in our house, she finds the idea and I'm normally in charge of the creative execution. This series will explore some of the creative ideas we have executed to the delight of our kids. This first one deals with a creative way to celebrate the end of the school year.

It was the day before school got out, at about 9pm, that my wife reveals to me she found a great idea on Pinterest that we need to do that night, to present to the kids in the morning. As we all know, there's usually creativity involved in Pinterest ideas, so I knew we were in for a long night, but I couldn't wait to see the plans. The idea was for Graduation Cupcakes (as my son was graduating Kindergarten). But instead of one idea, she had 2 different ones, and couldn't decide between the 2. Of course I say "Why not both." Honestly it was too late at night to make a decision, now 10:30ish as the kids were finally in bed, asleep.

First thing we had to do was make the cupcakes. While those were baking, it was time to put the rest of the pieces together.  These are so simple, I didn't mind how late it was getting. For design #1, you simply needed frosting, chocolate covered grahams, and pull and peel strawberry licorice.  When the cupcakes were done and slightly cooled, remove the wrapper, and flip them upside down. Put a good amount of frosting on the bottom of the cupcake, then place a chocolate graham on top of it, creating a graduation cap.  The frosting will hold it nicely in place.  Now comes the tricky part. The licorice will be the tassle on the cap. Take a piece and cut it to a good length. Then make 2 snips on one end so you can create 3 tassel frays. (This was the most time consuming part of the process, and a little tedious). I found scissors to work best. Also, I chilled the licorice slightly first so it wasn't so sticky. Take your tassel and attach it to the cap with a touch of frosting, and you are done. They look so cute.

Graduation Cupcakes Design #1
Chris Carson
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Design #2 took a little more work.  Once the cupcakes are done, frost them with a bright yellow frosting to make the standard "smiley face". Use black decorator icing/piping to make the actual face on the cupcake.  Now for the cap. We had planned on using the chocolate covered grahams, but they were too heavy, as you need to angle them. We instead used regular graham crackers and covered them with frosting, then black sugar crystals. Thinking on it now, chocolate graham crackers would probably work nicely. The trick however, is keeping the cap in place at just the right angle. Working with a thicker frosting will help. What we did, however, was to turn an angled bowl upside down on a plate, and place the cupcakes against that, so that the caps would technically be sitting flat prior being placed in the fridge to firm up the frosting and help secure it in place. It takes some work to balance them however, and I lost one in the transfer from table to fridge, as it rolled off the plate. Oops.  Final thing is to attach the tassel in the same way you did to design #1.  A little trickier, but still very cute.

Graduation Cupcake Design #2
Chris Carson
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And of course, the final step is to present them to the kids, then get ready to devour your hard work and enjoy. If you still have a graduation party coming up, this can make a great idea for you as an alternative to cake (or in addition to).

Kids and their cupcakes
Chris Carson
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