Cooking With Kids: Sunshine Cupcakes

Here’s a tip for you: these easy cupcakes are a great craft to do with kids! We pulled out a favorite kid’s cookbook, knowing parents are already planning for Spring Break activities. We love this recipe from Barbara Beery’s series of children’s …

Here’s a tip for you: these easy cupcakes are a great craft to do with kids!

We pulled out a favorite kid’s cookbook, knowing parents are already planning for Spring Break activities. We love this recipe from Barbara Beery’s series of children’s cookbooks.

The recipe for “Sunshine Cupcakes” comes from Batter Up: Delicious Desserts, and is based off a simple vanilla cake mix. The recipe advises substituting apple juice for the water, but otherwise following box directions. Add white frosting with a little sunny yellow food coloring (and a drop or two of red) added and you get a sunshine cupcake that is as fun to eat as it is to make.

One of the things we love about Delicious Desserts is that it comes with a child-sized cloth chef’s toque that delights kids who are ready to grow their culinary skills. Kids as young as five can break an egg, stir a pot, and decorate a cupcake, after all. Give it a try–just be sure to have plenty of M&Ms, sprinkles, and pretzel sticks on hand!

The cookbook is getting hard to find, but you can still get another in the series, called Sensational Snacks (Barbara Beery, Barbara Berry. Gibbs Smith Publishers, $19.95 (68pp) ISBN 978-1-58685-365-5).

Batter Up Kids Delicious Desserts

Week 13 Ohio State football rooting interests

What should Ohio State football fans root for this weekend? Let’s break it all down, from the SEC to the Pac 12.

Before we get into our third-to-last Rooting Interests of the season, we have to point out exactly what scenarios we are dealing with. With so few weeks left in the season, we can be more precise about the scenarios we’re pinning down. For example, Ohio State has no reason to care if it loses the Michigan game (unless the Buckeyes also lose a second game). Go 12-1 with a Big Ten title and a loss to Michigan, and the Buckeyes are in. So there’s no need to discuss that. Therefore, when looking an Ohio State’s potential rooting interests this week, recognize that we’re looking at what keeps the Buckeyes in the Playoff if they lose to either Penn State, or against Minnesota or Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game.

So, with that conversation out of the way, let’s look at the games. Miami of Ohio’s win over Akron was awful, and probably hurt Ohio State in some of the fancier SOS metrics. That shouldn’t matter much. Nor should Georgia Tech’s win over N.C. State, though it does make Clemson’s weak resume even worse.

As we get to the weekend, don’t bother looking at the SEC games. This is the penultimate week of the regular season, which is now officially called SEC Cupcake Week (trademark pending). The SEC West teams face opponents like Western Carolina, Samford, Abilene Christian, and Arkansas. Texas A&M beating Georgia won’t hurt the Buckeyes, but it does also help Alabama’s resume a bit. Missouri taking out Tennessee won’t mean much, but it would lock Alabama into beating a maximum of two P5 teams with winning records.

If Ohio State wants to stay ahead of Oklahoma (or Baylor, but I think that’s locked in already), root for the Big 12’s overall profile to look weaker. That means West Virginia upsetting Oklahoma State, and Kansas taking out Iowa State if possible. Kansas State losing to Texas Tech probably helps as well. And, of course, either Oklahoma or Baylor losing would go a long way to making this conversation moot; both losing would end the Big 12’s Playoff hopes.

In the ACC, it’s better if Pitt beats Virginia Tech, because that would strengthen Penn State’s overall profile. Virginia losing to Liberty seems unlikely, but would further weaken Clemson’s resume if Virginia reaches the ACC Championship Game by winning next week. Syracuse beating Louisville and Duke beating Wake Forest would also hurt Clemson’s resume. Any gain that Alabama might get from a Duke win is easily offset by what Clemson loses. Then again, Clemson is very likely going 13-0, so it might be too late to root against its resume.

And, of course, there is the Pac 12 to discuss. Washington and USC losing will wipe at any chance of multiple ranked wins by the Pac 12 champion, but at this point it looks like the Buckeyes might need a loss by either Utah or Oregon (or both) to feel safe about staying in front of a Pac 12 champion.

At night, Cincinnati gets a national spotlight against Temple. The Bearcats have really struggled the past few weeks, and they need to impress if they want their ranking to move back up. Also in the AAC, it’s probably a little better if SMU beats Navy, but that doesn’t matter too much. Lastly, keep an eye on Conference-USA. FAU should have no trouble with UTSA, but if the Buckeyes want three nonconference opponents that win their conferences (or divisions), Marshall has to lose a game. That means either this week at Charlotte or next week at home against FIU. Neither of those upsets is impossible, but they are upsets.

Next… Who to root for in Big Ten games