Improvising

I often say that I may not be good at a lot of things, but I can improvise with the best of them!  Sometimes you just have to think outside the box for solutions.

The other evening, while in the midst of working on homework, my husband tells me that a beloved employee at his work was coming back after being off for a bit.  And could I bake something?  Cupcakes are easy to send to work as you don't need silverware and plates to eat them.  

I needed to get them done quickly if I was going to get them iced at a decent time.  I only had one cupcake pan.  Time to improvise...

Instead of using the cupcake pan, I used a sheet pan, canning jar rings and cupcake liners to get this:

This really does work!

Before baking:

After baking:

I was able to make 23 cupcakes (who really gets 24 out of a batch anyway?) in one round in the oven. 

Here's another quick hint to improvise...Those pricey cake mixes that are "Funfetti"...make your own!  I just add some cookie sprinkles to the cake batter.  Make sure you're going to bake them pretty quickly afterwards or the cookie sprinkles will start to "bleed" their color through the batter.  I usually just add them in immediately before putting the batter in the liners.

Make a quick powder sugar frosting with some strawberry flavoring and you're good to go!

These were the ones that the hubby took to work.  I kept a few out and iced 4 for the kids.  We don't eat a lot of cake type things.  The cupcakes that were left, I did not ice.  I put them into a Ziploc and froze them.  Then in the future when someone has a craving for a cupcake, you just pop them out of the freezer and being cupcakes, they thaw pretty quickly.  Just ice and you impress the kids (or hubby) and you didn't even have to bake!  LOL

Enjoy!