March 29: Dirt Cups

My daughter's birthday is fast approaching. And, of course, with birthdays come school celebrations. This will be the first year my daughter's birthday will be a "formal" event in her classroom. Her actual birthday is next week, however due to Spring Break, the classroom celebration will occur tomorrow. As a result, tonight's post-dinner activities consisted of my wife and I preparing the traditional birthday treat while trying to continually assign tasks for the kids in an effort to keep their hands out of the snack as we were making it. We gave my daughter the reins to choose the treat she wanted to take in and share with her classmates...anything she wanted! My wife lobbied for fresh fruit cups - something healthy for the kids, as was originally suggested by the Teacher. Of course, my response was "what kid wants a fruit cup for a birthday snack?". I could just see my daughter carrying that label all the way through graduation. Thus, fruit cups didn't make the cut. I guess the classroom has been witness to a lot of cakes and cookies over the past few months, as I could feel my daughter wanting to push the limits and go down a different road with her selection. And that she did: Dirt Cups. You know, pudding in the bottom, crumbled Oreos on top and gummy worms buried within the confectionery "earth". It was a surprising choice, but an attainable one. We were just relieved she didn't ask for "The Princess and the Frog" cake. Now, my "baking" experience consists of helping my wife whip up the Christmas sweets each holiday; with my specialty being hard candy. Until tonight, I've never made Dirt Cups of any sort (although I have eaten them before). Under my wife's guidance (and a lot of assistance) I found the recipe to be relatively easy - mix the Jell-O pudding packets with a little milk, stir in the Cool Whip, pour into individual cups, top with crumbled Oreo cookies and insert the gummy worms. They turned out pretty well in my humble opinion. Who knows, maybe I have a new career ahead of me - "Sweet Tooth Scott's Cakes, Candies, Cookies and Dirt Cups". Has a nice ring to it doesn't it?