Happy birthday Matthew!

Today is my youngest son's birthday.  Even at 9, Matthew remains the "baby" of the family.  Everybody still dotes on him (especially me) and I think, that will forever be the case.

We celebrated Matthew's birthday two days early (on Sunday) and invited a few family friends over.  We gave him his present in advance as well, so he can assemble it and play with it with his friends on the day. 

For the occasion, I prepared a simple mocha chiffon birthday cake with a Super Mario edible icing image.



In the Philippines, mocha cake, along with vanilla and chocolate, are traditional for birthdays.  But while mocha flavour is mostly synonymous to a combination of coffee and chocolate, the Filipino version is just coffee.

My daughter and I made a piñata dedicated to our favourite AFL club (which incidentally won the premiership flag just over a week ago!).  The kids went crazy grabbing the most lollies for themselves.

Today, being a school day, my son went to school bringing a giveaway for his classmates.  I didn't want him handing out the usual lolly treat bags, so I made something different this year.

I found the idea of lollipop cupcakes in this book.  I followed the vanilla cupcake recipe and the resulting mini cupcakes turned out as I like it, soft and moist.  However, because they were soft, the lollipop sticks went right through the top of the cupcake. 

To solve this problem, I had to think of a way to strengthen the cupcake top.  I melted some chocolate (I only had white), then I dipped the tops of the cupcakes into it and next into a bowl of 100s and 1000s.  I let the chocolate set in the fridge for a few minutes.

Before inserting the lollipop sticks into the cupcakes, I also dipped the ends into the melted chocolate.  This process more or less sealed the holes on the cupcake bottom where the sticks were inserted.

I let the lollipop cupcakes chill again for a few more minutes before wrapping each in a piece of cling wrap then finally finishing it off with a ribbon.

What do you think?  Aren't those great?  I am really hoping my son's friends will enjoy this unique treat.  Hopefully, too, I have given you a new idea to use for your kid's next birthday party!

Have a great day!