Back to School Pencil Cupcakes

Who starts school tomorrow??

Now that I have one in middle school (omg – middle school – how the heck did that happen?!?) and one in elementary, we have different start times!

Elementary started before Labor Day and middle starts after, so I’m on both sides!  Lately I’ve been inundated with school open houses (meet the teacher), back to school potlucks, orientations, and registrations!  This is the first time my kiddoes have been on two different schools, and let me to tell you – it’s intense!  Last week, we had middle school open house and elementary back to school picnic/potluck on consecutive nights.  Being the baker I am, it is expected that I bring cupcakes to the potluck.

I was nine kinds of exhausted, and kinda wanted to phone it in and just bake some cupcakes and squeeze some frosting on top, but I just couldn’t do it!

So I spent open house at one school googling easy back to school cupcakes.  Instead of getting creative with the cupcake flavor, I went with a creative cupcake topper instead!

However, I think my view may be a little skewed in terms of what I consider “easy” – several parents raved over the complexity of the cupcakes when I just thought it was a simple design!

The pencils, while slightly time consuming (I dunno, maybe 30-45 minutes??) were not that difficult (cut one end of a wafer to an angle, dip in white melted chocolate, place a chocolate chip, dip in pink chocolate).

Adding the school colors to the piped frosting was also easy (add a little gel food coloring to the inside of a piping bag before filling) but looks hard.

All in all, the cupcakes were a hit and they were easy when compared to previous years’ creations!

Back to School Pencil Cupcakes

Inspired by Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons

1 batch of cake batter (I used a doctored funfetti cake)

Double batch of buttercream frosting

Gel food coloring

Wafer Cookies, vanilla flavor

White candy melts, melted

Pink candy melts, melted

Mini chocolate chips

Bake the cupcakes and make the frosting according to recipe instructions.

Use a sharp knife to cut one end of each wafer cooking into a triangle shape.

Dip the squared end of the cookie into the pink candy melts, and the pointy end into the white candy melts.  Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and place a mini chocolate chip in the white end of the pencil cookie.  Allow the chocolate to cool/harden.

As an option, use a small paint brush to add gel food coloring to the inside of a piping bag.  Add the frosting and pipe onto the cupcakes.  Add a pencil cookie to the top and serve.