Cupcakes That Take A Stand and Have A Message

First an Important Announcement (then more at the end):

I should start the day where I was supposed to leave off yesterday... telling readers about the opportunity to channel your creativity towards helping a member of someone in Sue's (a loyal reader) community.  In the virtual world, we are the spot on the map where creativity meets community.  This, therefore, seems like the perfect location for mustering up support.

The woman for whom this gesture was initially planned passed away two days ago, making it that much more meaningful and important to her husband and her children.  A silent auction is being held in her honor on Thursday, September 25.  Our goal is to create a basket to be included in the auction, reflecting the spirit of our blog and our blog readers.  Albeit short, Highlowaha has a history of using our creativity to enhance/support community.  We did it with Melanie's trip to Belize.  We did it again with our Random Acts of Kindness initiative, and then again with Make Your Mark.  Our holiday service project is looming, and I know through our collective efforts we can squeeze in this important gesture.

Sue, who is coordinating the project, is looking for either craft items (paints, hole punches, fun scissors, cookie cutters, etc...) or handmade creations.  Along with your donation, please include an outline of your hand with your name printed on it.  Sue's address is posted in the comment section.  Donations must be received by Monday, September 22, 2008.

Now to cupcakes that take stand and have a message...

Even cupcakes can make a decorative centerpiece if nicely arranged in a cupcake stand.  My mother purchased mine for me months ago.  I had no idea when I first received the stand how much I would end up using it.  But I have.  

That's the stand.  Now the message.

I love P.F. Changs, but what truly makes it magical (other than the lettuce wraps) is that the whole meal is capped off with the anticipation of opening my fortune.  It is, as Seth Godin would say - author of Free Prize Inside - the "prize inside."  The prize is the "...thing about your service, your product or your organization that's worth remarking on..."  

The fortune cookie is the "prize" to Chinese food in the same way the blue tin foil message is the prize to Promises candies.  I've always thought baking cups should bear fun messages to be found once the cupcake is gone.  While I've never seen one (someone get busy and create it), I've gathered a few thoughts on how we can give the tinker ever so slightly with the beautiful simplicity of a cupcake and give it that added prize inside.

• First. Add -a-Message Fun Pix.  Months ago I saw an article in a magazine suggesting this creative bridal party idea....  The hostess solicits from each guest a piece of advice for bride to be.  Then the hostess takes the words of advice and attaches them to slips of paper on toothpicks. The toothpicks are stuck in cupcakes and served in leu of cake.  I tried this yesterday in a no -frills kind of way.  Fun Pix, colored paper, and a pen.  I leave the possibilities for embellishment up to you and your imagination (fun scissors, stickers, etc...).
  
  
• Second.  Cupcake Fortunes: This is my own little creation (though I am sure it has been done before).  Yesterday was Whacky Wednesday.  So, how to combine Whacky Wednesday with the idea cupcakes?  I wrote twelve fun and whacky notes on slips of paper, rolled them up, and then wrapped them in small pieces of parchment paper.  Once the batter was in the cupcake tins, I sunk the fortunes into the center of the cupcakes.  It worked!  The paper was a little soggy, but the boys found their fortunes and agreed my idea was, in fact, whacky!

So you see, today we celebrate the utility of a cupcake - both as centerpiece and as messenger of fun fortunes.  Consider how you might liven up your next party by arriving with a dozen cupcakes stuffed with surprise messages for each guest.  In fact... let's use that as the springboard for today's giveaway.

To win the cupcake stand, Fun Pix, and baking cups share your ideas about the next group you could present with cupcakes and what the twelve messages might say.  For instance... Maureen, going to a Girl Scout meeting?  What could your fun messages read?  CSPgrad or Kelly from Montana... how about your next staff meeting?  Heather... want to treat your child care providers to a pick-me-up?  What are some creative ideas for messages you might include?  

The beauty of this is we can steal one another's ideas.  I'll get you going.  Some of mine from Wacky Wednesday read...

• Lucky you.  you just won a second cupcake.
  
• Tonight we will read our book from the last page to first
  
• Say the secret word and get 30 minutes of a cartoon, and
  
• Hugs, kisses and one extra book
  

Announcements, then your turn to get creative.

• Attending Taste of USA?  Click on the link in the top right hand corner to make sure you have everything packed.
  
• Yesterday's Winner:  My husband has a background in marketing and works in logistics.  I figured he was the best judge of the many ideas that streamed in during yesterday's challenge.  In the end he wouldn't pick a winner, but identified the people he believed most thought "outside the box."  They were Stacie, Heather, Nicole, Kat, and Katie.  I put all your names in a bucket and pulled out one.  And the winner is...  KAT!  Congratulations, Kat.  I will put it in the mail Friday, along with prizes for all the other winners.

O.k., let's see whatcha got.

Signing off until tomorrow...

Whack on the Side of the Head Wednesday: < .22 Cents

Our lives can be shaped by the simplest interaction with someone.  Maybe it's because, at the precise moment when two paths cross, what one has to say is precisely what the other needs to hear. Or maybe it is that, while living completely separate lives, our journeys feel amazingly similar.  Whatever the reason, it can be both memorable and affirming.

Such is the case with Wes, owner of Hey Cupcake, in Austin, Texas.  I think CSPgrad, my side kick for this trip, would agree.  I arranged to meet Wes for an interview, after participating in Leadershape at St. Edwards University.  The students proudly informed me that Wes was not only an alumnae of St. Edwards, but that he was a young entrepeuneur in the cupcake business.  I knew I wanted to feature a week of cupcake fun on Highlowaha and Wes seemed like as good an insider on the subject as any.  That's answers, why Wes.  That and the fact that the R.V., out of which he sells cupcakes, is located smack in the middle of town.  It is strung with Christmas lights and has a massive spinning cupcake on top!  The guy knows how to make a statement and I wanted to know more.

We spent about an hour with Wes, but within the first five minutes it was clear we were talking to a passionate guy, motivated by the thrill of thinking big and taking risks.  Cupcakes, by the way, are not his passion.  He fell into cupcakes while on a trip to New York (on business about bottled water).  He smiled explaining, "Most people think I love cupcakes.  It's not the cupcakes, it's the process of creating something."  Wes explained, that more than the cupcakes, he liked creating an experience - a place for people to go get away from what's going on in the world.  He got his whole operation up and running, by the way, in less than three months.

I guess it was at that point I felt like I could relate to Wes and what he was trying to do.  Create something that helped restore some sense of nostalgia or memory of when life was simpler.  He described the process of starting his business as amazing, insofar as each and every obstacle presented to him somehow worked itself out.  I tend to believe it was the "...universe conspiring", but Wes hadn't read the book, The Alchemist, so he didn't understand my insistence that cupcakes might actually be his Personal Legend.  

I think the icing on the cupcake came when Wes talked about how, he at times felt under siege (my words, not his) of his ideas.  He explained that frequently he calls a friend or family member to release the ideas running through his head.  Their job?  Take notes.  Katie and I couldn't help but look at one another and laugh.  We had just spent a three hour car ride - me spouting off ideas for Highlowaha and Katie generously taking notes.  Wes and I were connected by our enthusiasm for what we were creating - he cupcakes and me highlowaha.

It didn't hurt that Wes was inspiring.  He is truly visionary.  He took us on a tour of his expansion - a cupcake compound - and immediately rushed us over to a tree.  To me and Katie... just a tree with a few knots in the trunk.  But to Wes so much more.  To Wes it was Mr. Bubble Tree.  The knots were eyes and a nose.  Anchor an industrial sized bubble maker in the tree tops and immediately you've created the ultimate kid attraction, making Hey Cupcake way more fun than any old ice cream store.  I could go on about how Wes kept using the word "we" even though, when asked, he confessed there was no "we."  He said it seemed presumptive to say, "I" when there was no way he would be where he was without the help of others.   Wes is an all around good guy, a successful businessman, and a skilled leader.

But all is not peaches and cream - or icing and sprinkles - for Wes.  At one point during our meeting Wes talked about business expenses and lamented over the fact that every box they use to package their cupcakes costs .22 cents.  There's only so much profit margin you can eek out of a cupcake to begin with, so Wes is feeling the effects of costly packaging.  I began to think this was the perfect challenge for our creative highlowaha readers.

It's Wednesday, so why not jump in and whack Wes's packaging dilemma.  For those of you new to our community.  Each Wednesday we work with our friend von Oech to creatively problem solve.  He provides us with a creative principle and we work at applying it to whatever happens to be the week's challenge.  This week... less expensive cupcake packaging ideas.  Now for a little nudge from Roger von Oech.

Deck is in hand.  Fanning them out.  Feel the karma... reach for the left hand side of the deck.  Select a cluster of four or five cards.  Take hold of just one and pull.  

This was an uncanny choice of cards this week...

Substitute.  When you don't have a certain resource available (or want to change from ones you do), you substitute.  Indeed, much of human progress is the result of substituting one idea or thing for another: words for grunts, tools for fingers, money for goods.  If you've ever used a potato for a radio antenna, or created a knife out of a broken light bulb, you have this ability.  What can you substitute?  

I will, by the way, send Wes a compilation of all our ideas.

Oh, and what are you vying for?  A great looking, size large, Hey Cupcake t-shirt.  It's brown with pink writing.  On the front it says, "Hey Cupcake" and on the back it says, "Who you callin' cupcake?"  Trust me.  You want one.

Below is a picture I received from a fellow highlowaha reader.  Confirmation, that while I can bake a yummy cake in my Big Cupcake Mold, I have not even approached novice status in the decorating department.  This picture shows the true potential...  Thanks, Jessica!

Signing off until tomorrow...

Think Big Cupcakes!

Wake up!  Summer is over.  Labor Day weekend is over and Highlowaha is back in full swing.  It's September 2 and we are raring to go for the school year.  Good luck to my niece - who is an north easterner and who begins fifth grade today.  

If you took Labor Day literally and didn't do much of anything yesterday, including checking in with Highlowaha, take a second and at least read yesterday's announcements.  This is a big week of fun giveaways and you won't want to miss out.

Also, there's excitement in the air.  Cheryl and I are shoving out of Texas on Friday evening, arriving in Philly late Friday night.  Taste of USA is this weekend (a trip to visit some of our most loyal readers) and we expect to have ten people joining us.  We have lots of fun in store for those attending.  But if you can't join us, have no fear.  We'll give you a chance to get in on the action.  Check in on Saturday morning to find out how.

Now onto today's topic.  Cupcakes.  BIG cupcakes.  

I collect big things.  

It started when I was in college and my sister sent me an oversized converse sneaker to use as a door stop.  Somehow the idea stuck.  Think Big. Be bold.  Take risks.  After the sneaker it was a pencil, then a ruler, then a coffee cup, a salt shaker, and on and on.  So big was my collection of big things that I was actually featured in the Dallas Morning News in the late 90's as having one of the most fun offices in the city.  One could say, I hit it BIG time!

So you can imagine my reaction when a year ago I spotted an oversized cupcake cake mold in the Sur La Table catalog.  I told my husband right there and then that the only thing I wanted for my birthday was that cake - requiring, of course, the purchase of the cake mold!  It was the perfect combination of two passions - oversized items symbolizing the importance of thinking big - and baked goods.  Happy birthday to me!

Now my small reality check.  I love to bake, but I am no baker.  Or maybe I'm a baker, but I'm no cake decorator.  So, while I LOVE this cupcake mold, I am still learning the fine art of decorating it.   I tell you all of this, so you won't confuse my feeble attempt with its true potential.  You should remain interested and excited about the prospect of owing one of your own.  One of you, after all, will join me in owning your very own BIG Cupcake Mold.  

One more note before I tell you how.  I mentioned yesterday that this week is dedicated to my good friend - and constant source of inspiration - Amy.  Whether it be coincidence, great minds thinking alike, or kindered spirits finding one another, it just so happens that Amy has her own healthy collection of big things.  I've already sent her the big cupcake mold, but we're always in search of the next great item we just "have to have."  The winner of this cupcake mold will go to the person who sends us a link to a website displaying the next best big item we mutually agree is a must-have.

You can post your link in the comment section.  O.k.  that's it.  Happy Cup Cake Tuesday.  I'm off to enjoy a BIG cup of Starbucks coffee and a slice of my BIG cupcake.  Here's hoping my cupcake tastes better than it looks!

Signing off until tomorrow...

Cupcakes Make The World Go Round!

Happy Labor Day!  Hopefully you have a day off and you are celebrating by doing absolutely NO labor.  That's what I intend to do.  An important announcement at the end!  You won't want to miss it.

First an announcement for which many of you have been waiting.  Who will the lucky recipient of the First Day of School Table Cloth.  If I make you wait until the bottom of the post, you won't be fully focused and we don't want that on a day when we are kicking off such a fun and exciting week.  

So with no further ado... The winner of the beautifully sewn First Day of School Table Cloth goes to Katie M.  from Bedford, Kentucky.  Katie I hope you enjoy yours as much as my kids and I have enjoyed ours.  I will put it in the mail tomorrow.

Have no fear rest of you highlowaha readers!  This is going to be a week chock full of  opportunities to win great prizes. 

This week we celebrate cupcakes... the perfect treat.  I will dedicate this entire week of posts to my good friend - and the source of so much of my inspiration - Amy.  All I can say is... may you be lucky enough to know someone like her in your lifetime.  Thing of it is, she really is one of a kind.  Hmmm... I'm sorry.  You'll have to settle for knowing her through me (unless you're going to Philly for Taste of USA, in which case you'll get to meet her in person!!!!!).

I'll do my best.

Amy's family lives in Connecticut, so when I travel home to visit my family in New York, we try to connect.  Last winter we agreed to meet at the infamous Magnolia's Cafe, in Greenwich Village, for a cupcake picnic.  Amy's idea.

So we did.  We met at the famous, but unassuming Magnolia's Cafe, to eat cupcakes on Thursday December 27, 2007.  Everything about our picnic date was perfect.  Standing in line and soaking in the atmosphere; craning our necks to get a peak at our cupcake selections; and finally making it to the front of the line where we each ordered our personal box of cupcakes.  The experience was topped off when, with cupcakes in hand, we walked across the street to a quaint park and sat - jus

t the two of us - on an old wrought iron park bench.  We savored every bite, as appreciative for the delicious cupcakes as we are for our friendship.  I might add, the skies were blue, the air was still, and the sun was shining.  It was Amy's idea and it was meant to be. 

Amy is shy.  So, while we had a picture of the two of us, she conveniently neglected to email it along with the others.  Consider Amy like the Charlie of Charlie's Angels (dating myself, I know).  She's always around.  Always supportive.  But prefers to remain behind the scenes.

So to kick off our week of cupcake celebration, consider inviting someone you know to a cupcake picnic this week.  You can either meet at a local bakery or bake your own.  The point will be to take thirty minutes from you busy week and to celebrate the beauty and simplicity of a cupcake... and of a special friendship.  I already know who I intend to invite.  How about you?

This is a perfect example of the spirit of #218.  That is... making time for the small things in life, that without the gentle press of this supportive community, might get lost in the monotony of life's obligations.  ...The spirit of Highlowaha.  Catch it!

Announcements:

• AMNESTY DAY:  This day only!  O.k., it pains me that so many of our viewers don't have postcards in the Highlowaha Random Acts of Kindness Box (RAK Box).  Typically...  Send me a postcard with your name and address and it goes into the RAK box.  When I do a giveaway, or am just feeling generous), I pull a name from the box and whosever postcard I pull is the lucky recipient of the my gesture.  I am a stickler about the rules of the RAK box.  No POSTCARD, no entry into my RAK box.  Apparently putting a postcard and a .27 cent stamp on top serves as enough of a deterrent to keep the vast majority of you out.  Today.  This ONE DAY, I am granting amnesty.  Post your name and address and I will put it on a postcard FOR YOU.  Miss this offer and you'll have to mail it - snail mail - to Claudia K. Beeny, 4012 Harvestwood Court, Grapevine, TX, 76051.  Take me up on this, because you won't want to miss this week's giveaways.   
  
• Taste of USA Participants: Cheryl and I are descending on Philly on Friday night.  We are so excited and hope you are too.  You won't regret it, as we have some fun up our sleeves.  Continue checking the Taste of USA site this week, as we will continue posting updated information. 
  

Signing off until tomorrow...