Kindess Lion Cupcakes

Every year, my girls' preschool does a Little Entrepreneurship Project carnival, run by the K2 class. As a part of the "Start Small Dream Big" President's Challenge initiative, which encourages the kids to creatively do their part to give back to society, the event teaches the kids how to run a food/drink or activity stall, including giving the correct change for payment received, with proceeds going towards charity.

Lion Cupcake decorating fun

Last year, in partnership with the WRS (Wildlife Reserves Singapore) "I Love Otters" project, the proceeds went towards conservation efforts of Singapore's endangered native wildlife. I contributed fun PYO (paint-your-own) otter cookies for last year's carnival. 

Singa, the Courtesy Lion

This year, the theme was centred around the "Singapore Kindness Movement", with the proceeds going to Lions Befrienders, a social service organization that provides friendship and care to senior citizens. 

A couple of months ago, the children paid a visit to a local nursing home and interacted with the senior citizens living there, putting on a performance and engaging in arts & crafts and games. My daughter really enjoyed the experience. She doesn't really get to hang out with the older generation, other than her grandparents. 

residents enjoying the kids' performance

happy little kindness promoter

Anyway, for this year's Little Entrepreneurship Project, I contributed a cupcake decorating station. When I think of something to represent kindness, my mind immediately goes to the official mascot of the Singapore Kindness Movement: Singa, the Courtesy Lion. So, lion cupcakes it was!

Singa, the Courtesy Lion

cupcakes station, ready for business

sample lion cupcake

I baked up vanilla, chocolate and red velvet cupcakes for the event, and prepared bags of yellow and black vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream frosting. To decorate the cupcakes, there were Callebaut Crispearls for the eyes, a black m&m for the nose (yep, made another run to Candylicious specifically for black m&m's.), two white chocolate buttons for the cheeks, and caramel popcorn all around for the mane. 

cupcake decorations

business partners!

My daughter was in charge of running the cupcake station. Being the Little Miss Bossy that she is, she initially wanted to decorate the cupcakes for her customers, instead of letting them decorate the cupcakes on their own! 

so many customers!

little monster with the lovely principal

Kids learn pretty quickly and most of them successfully decorated the lion cupcakes without any assistance. 

cheeky smile!

little ones' turn to decorate

Other items for sale in the F&B section included sushi, tea eggs, corn, fish balls, chicken nuggets, orange juice and even papadums. Good selection! The most expensive item for sale were teddy bears, going for $15! But hey, it's for charity. 

The dance studio housed the game stations. My younger monster had fun at the bowling and basketball stations, and at the ring the hula hoop on the giant pin station! 

piping on those whiskers

adding the popcorn mane

Eventually, my little K2er abandoned her post to join her little sister in the games room, as did most of her friends!. Haha oops, I guess these little entrepreneurs have a lot to learn! The teachers were commenting that in real life, people would clean out their stores if nobody was manning them! Haha. 

action shot!

lots of fun at the games booths

Glad that the kids had a great time playing "shopping and shop keeper" and did their part in helping to give back to the community. "No one can do everything, but everyone can do something!" 

start small, dream big!

#SSDB2018