Edible Basketballs are terrific--not just during the month of March--but for any sporting event!

Basketball Cupcakes


Ingredients:

Baked cupcakes
1 can of white frosting
Red and yellow food coloring
Thin licorice strips or  1 small red tube frosting/gel

Directions:
1.  Have cupcakes baked and cooled (If you want the basketball to look like it is going through the hoop, bake the cake batter in cake ice cream cones--the cone looks like the hoop).
2. Open the can of frosting, add a few drops of red and yellow food coloring.
3. Stir the frosting until the food coloring is mixed in.  If the color is not dark enough, add a few more drops of food coloring.
4.  Spread orange frosting on cupcakes.
5.  Decorate cupcakes to look like basketballs by adding strips of licorice or piping on red or black tube/gel frosting.


Basketball Open-faced Sandwich with Veggie Basket

Ingriedients:


Slice of bread
Jelly (spooned into a snack ziplock bag)
Peanut butter
Matchbox strips of carrots and celery or green pepper or snow peas

Directions:

1.  Wash and dry hands.
2.  Use a round cookie cutter or the rim of a glass to cut a circle out of the bread.
3.  Spread circle of bread with peanut butter.
4.  Knead jelly in closed ziplock snack bag to soften.  Snip off corner of bag and squeeze out jelly onto peanut butter like the lines on a basketball.
5. Criss cross veggie strips next to ball to look like the basketball hoop.

Remember that cooking in the classroom can be related to math skills.  You can count how many of each item you need to complete the dish (like 3 pieces of licorice to decorate the cupcake, or 10 sticks of veggies for the basket).  These particular recipes address spreading skills, which normally develop around the age of 5, so it really hits the 3-7 range for "introduction and practice" of spreading skills.