Fireworks? What fireworks???

I don't see any fireworks, just this cake that looks like fireworks. I know we're not supposed to set fireworks off at work!

My day job asked my side job for a cake... go figure. :-)

They wanted something 4th-of-July-ish for a little shindig they were throwing at lunch. Nothing big on the menu, just hot dogs, chips, and soda... and of course cake. They didn't have any special requests, no flavors, no designs. They just let me run free with it. Dangerous, I know, but they have to learn sometime!

I saw a cool idea from Cupcakes Take the Cake (see their post about it here) and thought it might do the trick, but I wanted something that resembled fireworks. This is what I brought to work this morning... I baked one box each of red velvet mini cupcakes, white mini cupcakes, and blue-tinted white mini cupcakes. I followed the directions for the marshmallows and frosting the minis, but I omitted the fruit so that I wouldn't have to refrigerate it. I made the inside out of my favorite green Styrofoam, covered it to make it food safe, and stabbed away. There were 85 kebabs in all in this explosion!

Lessons learned here: 1. Definitely don't do this more in advance than the night before. This was served at lunch (11:30 or so) and by the time I brought the remaining 10 kebabs home, the mini cupcakes were getting a little hard. 2. Weight the base. The first couple yards down my driveway and out of our development were a little harrowing as I saw it teetering. I ended up moving it up behind the driver's seat so that I could hold it while I drove. 3. Don't stick the skewers in so far, Erin! We had a difficult time getting some of them out. On the bright side, the holes are "pre-drilled" so it won't be so hard next time.