Darned Festive: A Cupcake Stand

Laura's class celebrates birthdays once a month, and L's birthday is coming up soon, so today another mom of a birthday girl and I brought treats up to school in the afternoon. I volunteered to bring cupcakes, and the other mom brought drinks, plates, and napkins. The problem is that this school has a rule that no homemade treats can be brought in, if the whole class is going to eat them. I guess this is an anti-allergy measure. But it results in so-so storebought cakes and cookies being served. I'm unthrilled about this, not just because I think we could make them better at home, but because the presentation is not that nice, you know? I guess I tend to harp on the presentation thing, but those plastic store boxes, with the sticky barcode labels, are a buzzkill to me. Yes, I should probably just relax and yes, second graders probably don't notice, but I ask you, couldn't our stars shine just a little bit brighter? Yes they could.

So I've done different things with the whole school-party situation, but this week I found these Wilton cupcake stands at Michael's.

This is the small stand, it holds 13 cupcakes. There's a medium one (23 cupcakes) and a large stand (38 cupcakes, good Lord). The little one was on sale for $7.99. I thought this was a good, flexible size, because you could use it to serve muffins on for your family or a small group--you don't have to make two dozen of something to use it, or to have forlorn, empty tiers like you might with the big stand. It would make a cute centerpiece too.

I got two of the small stands and loaded them with cupcakes for the class. It was very cheery-looking, and the kids seemed to like choosing their cupcakes off the stands. The Target cupcakes had a little more zing, this way. I'm sure the other mom was cursing her Capri Suns and wishing she'd properly decanted them, perhaps into cut glass punch cups. I kid!

I'm trying to think of more things I could put on those tiers, besides baked goods. Votive candles? Mini cheeseburgers? Hey, I could go get a bunch at Krystal and fancy 'em up. Cocktails and mini burgers at my house!