DIY Easy & Inexpensive Cupcake Stand

Cupcakes have expanded beyond children’s parties and been gaining in popularity.

Part of the fun in these bite-sized treats is in the presentation. There’s no need to shell out a huge chunk of change for a fancy cupcake stand, just DIY!

This cupcake stand is for a Teacher Appreciation Celebration to mark the end of the school year. The cupcakes, which will look like red apples in a nod to teachers, will be nestled in a 6-tier cupcake stand designed to evoke the feeling of an apple tree.
(Here's a collection of gorgeous DIY Cupcake Stands I found online and used for inspiration!)

Here’s how to make the stand:

1. Purchase cake rounds for the number of tiers you want. I got 2 for each level (and 3 for the bottom) and hot-glued them together to increase stability. Make sure they're evenly lined up!
2. Next, I traced the rounds on green wrapping paper (2 for each size cake round). Cut these out and use rubber cement to glue them to the tops and bottoms of the rounds. (Using rubber cement will prevent the wrapping paper from wrinkling.)

   

   Step 2

3. I purchased green satin bulk ribbon (it’s way cheaper) and then hot-glued it around the circumference of the cake rounds to cover the ugly corrugated cardboard edges (see photo below of Cupcake Tree in Progress).
4. Cupcake tiers should be separated by a solid lift stable enough to hold up the ascending tiers and should be tall enough for a cupcake with frosting and décor to sit on each level (about 4"). I was searching everywhere for the perfect cylindrical tier lifts when a teacher who’ll be at the party offered for her shop class to take on the lifts as a project!

5. Next, I'll wrap the lifts in brown satin ribbon to look like a tree trunk and hot glue them between the tiered cake rounds.

6. Make sure all the glue has dried before you let any cupcakes near your stand!

I've included some photos of the project in progress. Please check back later this week for photos of the final steps and finished project!

Cupcake Tree in Progress  (Cups are placeholders)

Test Batch of Apple Cupcakes

The big End of Year Celebration where these cupcakes and stand will debut is this Friday. I'll be hosting a little Cupcake Camp to mass-produce the cupcakes the night before and I picked up a couple tips to make the process easier during my test batch:

1. I'll be using pretzel sticks instead of tootsie rolls for the apple stems. Tootsie rolls didn't hold up well and required additional work. Plus, the pretzel sticks will hold the box top off of the finished cupcakes to protect them from getting messed up.
2. I'll be dying the fondant green BEFORE making them into leaves. Painting individual leaves was nuts! I'll also use a leaf-shaped cookie cutter instead of the ridiculous mold I used that required leaves to be individually plucked out with a toothpick.
3. Plus, I got red foil cupcake liners so I can bake more than 12 or even 24 at a time and they'll look more apple-like!

The Cadbury Thief

Abby, the Cadbury Creme Egg Thief

Abby, my sweet-natured and sneaky Boston Pug, apparently thinks she's the new Cadbury bunny.

In the dead of the night last spring, Abby crept out of bed and stole the last of the Cadbury creme eggs (that's how I learned how high she could jump).

The forensics gave her away — in a manner wholly unbefitting her namesake, NCIS' world-class forensic scientist Abby Sciuto, my Abby left a trail of melted chocolate, squished creamy insides and torn foil wrapper all over the apartment.

Luckily, she only had an upset tummy and was back to her normal laziness the following day.

But this year, we just had to photograph Abby in her Cadbury bunny glory.

What's in a name?

I get asked about the origins of my name all the time. Seriously. Most people think it's Italian (which I think is great since I ♥ Italy). Actually, the story is even better: it was the creativity of an eight-year-old boy.

Living next door meant that Jeremiah, the son of my mother's best friend, was privy to the endless name discussions... Serena, Sabrina, Gabrielle, Arielle, Ariana, Jacinda... The list went on.

"Why don't you just name her Gabriana?" asked Jeremiah in exasperation, still wishing for a boy.

And, at once, everyone knew that was the name.

As a kid I was called by shorter versions, which I never much liked. (A best friend's grandmother was the only one to call me Gabi, may her memory be a blessing.) But when I turned 13 and had my Bat Mitzvah, I began using the full name.

I've found it's rare to meet another Gabriana (only once actually — her mother sought me out on the name connection and we became friends). I enjoy having a unique name, even if it means people get it wrong all the time. It's also a little too easy for blind dates to find me online.

All things considered, I love my name and am thankful for Jeremiah's early genius (he grew up to work with Jerry Bruckheimer), which allows me to get away with just using one name.



This special birthday (week) post is dedicated to Jeremiah, the baby-namer.

Happiness is a warm puppy

So it shall be written, so it shall be done

True confession: I did not go to a Passover seder last night. In typical Jewish fashion, I felt guilty about skipping this important annual ritual feast. But we did mark the night as different from all other nights.

Instead, my mother and I resurrected an old favorite tradition from when I was a kid. We watched The Ten Commandments, the story of the exodus from Egypt. The old school version, featuring the epic Charlton Heston, used to play on TV each year around this time and we would faithfully watch as part of our Passover observance. For weeks after, I'd often parrot the line made famous by Yul Brynner as Pharoah Ramses: "So it shall be written, so it shall be done." (What can I say? I was a strange kid.)

Since the 1956 version was not readily available on Netflix Instant, Redbox or Blockbuster, we went with the more updated Ten Commandments TV Miniseries. Though I'm not sure this was what G-d had in mind for how we celebrate the redemption of our people, the movie version proved to be excellently executed. The lessons were clear, the actors captured the tumultuous emotions and arguments with G-d and the miracles seemed supernatural yet somehow realistic at once.

When the almost-three-hour-long movie was over, we experienced a similar feeling to the one you get once you're done retelling the exodus story duing the Passover seder. At that moment, we decided to incorporate watching this version as one of the two seder nights going forward (Jews in Israel only have one seder, but in the diaspora we have two).

So it shall be written, so it shall be done.