Calorie Free Cupcakes

My kids love cupcakes.  They are a picky bunch, so I will tell you how cupcake eating goes in our house.  "A" and C lick the frosting but don't eat the cupcakes, and B wants me to take off the frosting so she can eat the cake underneath.  Despite these idiosyncrasies, cupcakes never fail to elicit excitement among my bunch.  So I thought why not let my little ones make some cupcakes?  Before you think I am braver than I actually am, I should mention these are non-edible cupcakes.

A while ago, I ordered a giant bag of various sized pom poms from Oriental Trading.  I use them for a lot of fine motor activities and games.  To make our cupcakes I used these pom poms, paper muffin cups and muffin tins (purchased at the dollar store).  

I gave each kid a muffin tin, 6 muffin cups and a container full of pom poms.  Then they got to work filling the tin with muffin cups and pom poms to make their yummy creations.

"A" had fun telling me about her different cupcakes, "strawberry and chocolate with a cherry."

Then I brought out some tongs so the older girls to get some fine motor work in.  I have a collection of tongs.    These are from Cost Plus World Market, but try some you may have at home.  They will probably work just as well.  I encouraged the girls to use their tongs to try and pick up the pom poms from their container and drop them into their muffin cups.  

I love how B always needs to have the book she is reading on the table with her as she works.  As you can see, the book this day was "The Little Mermaid."

I think the next step for me is to actually bake some cupcakes with the girls.  They have helped me make a cake before but never cupcakes.  Maybe we will bake some real Halloween cupcakes that they can decorate themselves. In the meantime, this was a good substitution.  Did I mention they had no calories?

Linking to Beneath the Rowan Tree, ABC and 123, Funky Polka Dot Giraffe, Art for Little Hands