Let Them Eat {Cup}Cakes!

It's hard to take a picture of a three tiered cake plate without it coming out looking wonky, you know.  I assure you it is beautifully straight and level.  This was one of my fun projects before the baptism last weekend.  I planned a little "brunch" of salads and mini-cuppies for family and close friends after the baptism and I really wanted a pretty way to display the food.  Because I'm getting crazy like that in my elder years.  AND I have ALWAYS wanted a cake plate.  Always.  Why have I not just purchased myself one in any of the past fifteen years or so?  Because I wanted just THE PERFECT cake plate.  Yeah, anyhoo . . . I went to Goodwill and purchased three lovely white plates and three candlesticks for about $4 total.  The candlesticks were neither lovely nor white so I sprayed them down with gloss white spray paint when I got home.  Voila!  Then I stacked them all up and, for the safety of my cuppies, secured them together with Plasti-tack (yep, the stuff we all hung posters with in our college apartments).  You could secure them with E6000 adhesive.  I wasn't sure if I wanted it to be a permanent fixture or if I was going to take it apart to store it.  I think it is super lovely and worth every one of my 400 pennies. It's even prettier filled up with Banana Butter Pecan mini-cuppies.  I'll give you the secret recipe so you can see for yourself.  It's pretty fancy though, so consider yourself warned.  Ready?  Are you really ready?  OK:

Buy a Butter Pecan cake mix.  Make it according to the directions on the box, but add a mashed banana along with the oil, eggs and water.  Bake and frost with {store bought} Cream Cheese Frosting with a dash of vanilla extractwhipped in.  Simple, but delicious.  I've discovered the secret to making people think your food is fancy.  It's all in the naming of it.  Fancy foods have very descriptive names.  For example, these are not just banana cupcakes, they're

Banana Butter Pecan Mini-Cuppies with Real Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

  See?  Instant fancy.  It goes with the cake plate.  Enjoy.