Already the requests are coming in: Can you bake for the Valentine’s Day class party? For the Valentine’s Day Family Fair? For the Valentine’s Day fundraising bake sale? For the class parties of your other three school-aged children? For the bake sales of their other two schools?
Why, YES. Yes, I can. I’m not going to make roll-and-cut cookies (I would rather volunteer to be in the fundraising dunk tank, in my bathing suit in front of everyone, YES I REALLY DO HATE MAKING ROLL/CUT COOKIES THAT MUCH), but I can still bake things in heart shapes. (Or, alternately, I can go to the grocery store bakery department and purchase them, then transfer them to baggies so it looks like I made them. But I am not going to get a post out of THAT.)
Wilton heart-shaped cake pan, about $10 (photo from Amazon.com). This is the classic. You can frost the cake in any pastel color, and if you can write with frosting you can write “LUV U” or any conversation-heart message. Or don’t write on it, it’s still pretty. Or frost it white and use red sugar around the edges. If you don’t want to buy a heart-shaped pan, use a round pan and modify the easy bake-sale Christmas tree cake: put it on a red or pink or white paper plate; and instead of a tree, rough out a heart-shape in red sugar. One cake mix makes two bake sale cakes.
Norpro heart-shaped mini-muffin pan, about $14 (photo from Amazon.com). My kids’ schools are cutting down on sweets at holiday parties, so I like to be able to send heart-shaped muffins to fake that I am totally on-board with this policy. You can put three of these mini ones in a cute little row in a snack-sized zip-top baggie, and if you want to get fancy you can put a heart-shaped sticker on the baggie too. The main reason I don’t do this one regularly is that with only one pan, I can only make four baggies’ worth at a time—so even with a quick muffin mix, it can take a long time to make as many as you need. BUT, if you make muffins regularly, and you know you’ll be called on for Valentine’s day baking, you can do one sheet of mini-hearts every time you bake muffins, and pile them up in the freezer. (BTW, I use the OXO cookie scoop in size small for mini muffins. SO much easier/faster.)
Wilton silicone muffin pan, about $9 (photo from Amazon.com). Possibly a full-size muffin is a better idea. And in theory, with silicone you could also make finger Jell-o, cupcakes, even molded chocolates. But I haven’t had much luck with silicone pans, have you? Same with silicone liners: I bought a bunch to replace muffin papers, but about half of them were almost useless and I got rid of them, while the other half work great. So now I’m silicone-shy.
Wilton 6-heart pan, about $13 (photo from Amazon.com). I’d probably get this pan instead, even though it’s more expensive. I’m not likely to do Jell-o or molded chocolates anyway, and this kind can do muffins or cupcakes or brownies.
Wilton heart cookie pan, about $10 (photo from Amazon.com). I wonder if a giant cookie could equally well be made in the heart-shaped cake pan, or if that would be too difficult to remove from the pan? A giant cookie makes a good higher-ticket bake sale item, though if you spend the time to make it and then it breaks, you might feel like finding another way to raise money for the school, like pushing drugs writing a check, not that I know how this feels from experience or anything.
Wilton cookie treat pan, about $10 (photo from Amazon.com). These are FUSSY (the cookie dough, the lollipop sticks, wrapping in plastic and tying with ribbon OMG) but very POPULAR, so I like to make them as bake-sale treats (where I feel like I’m Doing Good) as opposed to as classroom treats (where by the end I’m mentally referring to dear small children as Little Ingrates Who Will Never Appreciate This).
My kid’s school is very anti-sugar, which is LAME since I am very pro-baking. I thought I got lucky when they were so laid back about nuts, but they never have parties with treats. For Christmas they all got cheapie mittens that don’t fit (I see younger siblings wearing them). So disappointing (for me). I am still waiting to see what happens with Valentine’s Day–will there be a card exchange? –are treats allowed? I always wanted to be that mom that brought goodies in for holidays and now I am being denied. I WANT JUSTICE!
Sahara | January 26th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
I’m on Valentine party duty this year. I always sign up or this one because it’s easier and less religious than the other holiday parties. We have some big bad allergies in our class though which is awesome for me because it means NO BAKING! Last year, one parent squished rice krispy treats into giant hershey kiss shapes, covered them with foil and put a little paper strip in the top. So I’m thinking this year I will use a heart shaped cookie cutter on the packaged rice krispy treats. Easy, no messy melted marshmallow AND I get to eat the scraps!
vegas710 | January 26th, 2011 at 5:25 pm
‘cutting down on sweets at holiday parties’ TRAVESTY, I SAY! Seriously? They’re doing this? I’m surprised that my progressive state hasn’t started something like this.
Me? I love to roll and cut butter cookies. Bake and frost (oh, the best part!) and then pig out. In fact, I’m doing this for 30-odd second graders in a couple of weeks and I can hardly wait!
Melissa | January 26th, 2011 at 11:30 pm
I think you’re LUCKY!
We have three kids in one elementary school, but they aren’t ALLOWED home made anything unless it’s in their own personal lunch. I can’t bake. It’s depressing.
Alicia C | January 27th, 2011 at 7:07 pm
I always feel sentimental about Valentine’s Day, but then end up seeing the holiday come and go with very little hoopla. We get the kids a little token, maybe a little something for each other, and might send Valentine’s pencils to school to share with the class. I did buy a bunch of fun paper this year in the target dollar aisle, hoping to sit down with the kids and make a few things to send off to grandparents. We’ll see if that actually happens!
I so wish I was the heart-shaped cake-making kind of mom. C’est la vie.
Melanie | January 31st, 2011 at 3:29 pm