Invitation to Play with a Cupcake Tin

E loves cupcakes. She doesn’t get real ones a lot, so she usually settles for the pretend kind. Cupcake liners are also super cool, so I set up a fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin, cupcake liners and a few loose parts. {It might or might not have been the first thing I used my brand new mini cupcake tin for 😉 }

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 (E was 3 years old.)

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This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.



 

For our invitation to play with a cupcake tin, we used

 

This is the original set up but E was busy with other things when I first set up this activity. {Note the upcycled bowl from our Pour Painting Pumpkins activity – I thought it looked nice enough to keep around and use for random toddler storage 😉 }

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

I kept the items semi handy, and a couple of days later, E asked to play with them.

The first attraction was the tongs. It was the first time she used sugar tongs.

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

After she’d tried them out for a bit, she separated most of the cupcake liners and set them out on the table

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

before putting them in the cavities. {Don’t be alarmed, she’d had blueberries before this and after washing her hands with medium success, she wasn’t in the mood for getting cleaned up further 😉 }

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

She noticed that there were a lot more cupcake liners than cavities and decided to stack the rest of the liners.

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

The scorpions were on top in the bowl, and when she remembered that I’d mentioned spiders earlier, E decided to dig them out.

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

She placed the glass gems into the cupcake liners one by one

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

and when she noticed there were plenty to go around, several at a time.

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

And when she finally ran out of glass gems, she asked for more. I didn’t have very many clear ones left, so I threw in some blue ones. E forgot about the clear ones immediately 😉

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

When the cupcakes were prepared to her liking, she decided that they needed to go in the oven.

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

After a suitable baking time, she started serving the cupcakes.

My delicious scorpion cupcake was lovingly served in a patch of sunlight. <3

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

I thought E’s doll looked a bit alarmed about her spider cupcake 😉

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

But they sure were yummy!

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

Even clean up was fun and gave more of a fine motor workout. I loved how pleased she was with the BIG stack of cupcake liners 🙂

 

Fun fine motor invitation to play with a cupcake tin (and a few creepy crawlies ;) ).

 

Does your child love pretend cupcakes? How have you played with a cupcake tin? Tell me about it in the comments!

 

 

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3 Comments

  1. This is great! My 4 year old loves cupcakes! And, lately she’s been asking for tongs? I’ll be sure to get them and give her some learning time with this activity!
    OH, also, we made “Snow Cupcakes” with the shaving cream paint recipe from here! Soooo much fun! We set them aside to dry over night and I’ll be sharing on my blog shortly some of the photos. I have been too busy playing with the kids to write in my own blog for three months becuase I’ve been hanging around stalking fun kids activity blogs, like yours!!! 😀 😉 So thanks so much for all the ideas, inspiration, and Invitations To Play for my LO (& ME! 😉 Count me in as a new happy subscriber! Happy Holidays!
    Jeanine
    Canada!

    1. Sounds like your daughter is going to love an activity like this one! And your Snow Cupcakes sound great – would be right up E’s alley as well 🙂 Looking forward to reading your post – I know what you mean about getting around to it, though 😉

      Thank you for the kind words, so glad you’re enjoying our activities!

      Happy Holidays, Tina