My sweet Sophie turned 3-years-old today.
She (physically) came into this world at 8:49 a.m. on November 9, 2007. Sophie was not budging after 24 hours of induced labor. So the doctor went in and grabbed her via C-section (a full story for another day). And from that moment, life hasn’t been the same!
She’s certainly not a baby anymore. Or a toddler. I guess the proper term for her now is preschooler. Whatever you call her, Sophie is growing up so quickly, right before my eyes.
Sophie is a joy. She’s my friend; my sunshine. She makes me laugh and she makes me cry. I’m in awe of her and I can’t wait to hear what her voice will say each day. I love being her mommy and I can only hope she likes being my daughter. I can’t imagine life without her.
I was very lucky to celebrate her birthday in her preschool classroom today, along with five of her little friends and her teachers. I made cupcakes in honor of the celebration. Of course, I couldn’t make (or buy) ordinary cupcakes. I wanted to do something fun and different, and something that symbolized Sophie. So when I came across this amazing rainbow cake on a blog I love, I decided to try it as cupcakes. It seemed perfect for Sophie considering how often we watch The Wizard of Oz.
Let me say this: These cupcakes were not difficult. But they were time-consuming and required a lot of bowls, mixing and dishes to clean up. But if you want to try this at home, here’s what I did.
I prepared one box of plain white cake mix and then divided it (somewhat) evenly into six bowls. And in each bowl, I added the appropriate rainbow food coloring. I then lined a cupcake tin with white liners and put about one tablespoon of each color – starting with purple and ending with red – into the cup. It won’t look like much until you pull them out of the oven.
The next day, I made this amazing frosting (also inspired by the Whatever blog). I creamed together two sticks of room temperature butter with a few tablespoons of milk, vanilla extract, and a pound of powdered sugar. Once that was mixed, I folded in about a half of container of Cool Whip. I know, sounds weird. But it made this frosting truly amazing! I don’t think I’ll ever make frosting without the Whip again. Then I piped the frosting onto the cupcakes with a frosting tip (because it’s easier for me than using a knife). And topped each cake with sprinkles that Sophie herself picked out.
So happy birthday to my Sophie. I hope she always finds happiness over the rainbow!
By the way, isn’t that crown so cute?! Sophie’s teacher makes a crown for each kid’s birthday. Sophie proudly wore her crown the entire school day.