Cooking & Conversation: Mom's 84th Birthday! Orangesicle Flower Cupcakes

Mom, Happy 84th Birthday to you!

On June 9th, my family got together to celebrate Mom's 84th birthday. She is a wonderful Mom, and one of the nicest people you could ever have the good fortune to know. I am very proud to call her Mom and wish her many, many more joyous and Happy Birthdays. We didn't go out to restaurants when we were growing up, so today when we get together to celebrate, it is still a treat. We met at a local pizza place, Pizza Ranch, to herald another year. I made a dessert, just because. The array of food at this restaurant is impressive. We missed the buffet part, but still had more than enough to eat. Regardless, I had to make Mom something to enjoy for the rest of the week. When I saw these cupcakes on line, I knew I wanted to make them. They are tasty and like giving an edible bouquet of flowers.

Prepare cake mix according to directions on box.

This mix is a new Pillsbury Orangesicle cake mix.

Combine cake mix, water, oil, and eggs in a large bowl until moistened.
Then, beat with a mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes, or whisk by hand for 2 minutes.

Scoop cake batter into cupcake pans. The mix makes 24 cupcakes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center
comes out clean.

The flowers are made by cutting 12 Oreo cookies in half.
Scoop frosting into a plastic bag with a leaf tip or star tip, whichever you prefer
to make the petals on the flowers.

I added the halved Oreo cookies onto the cupcakes when they were cooling,
so the frosting would help them stick. You could also use a dab of frosting to adhere them.
Just press them down slightly into the warm cupcake.

Pipe the petals onto the edge of the Oreo cookie by layering 2 rows on top of each other.

Ready for a party!

Happy Birthday To You!

Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday Dear (Mom)
Happy Birthday to You.

This amazingly sturdy four-line ditty began its life in 1893. Written by two sisters from Kentucky, Mildred and Patty Hill, it was originally entitled “Good Morning to All,” and intended as a classroom greeting from teachers to students:

Good morning to you
Good morning to you
Good morning, dear children
Good morning to all.

Patty Hill was a nursery school and kindergarten teacher (she would later develop “Patty Hill blocks,” a popular toy for children). Her older sister Mildred, who was also a teacher for a time, went on to become a noted composer, organist and music scholar, with a specialty in Negro spirituals. Mildred came up with the melody for “Good Morning to All.” Patty added the words.

The Hills’ modest tune (a range of six notes, repetitive lyric and an average running time of about 12 seconds) was first published in 1893 as part of a songbook, Song Stories for the Kindergarten. Over the next 30 years it spread, evolving first into a greeting for students to sing to their teachers, rather than vice-versa. Then it became the more generic “Good Morning to You,” with the name of whomever the song was being sung to inserted in the third line. This minor but significant change brought it a little closer to its final version.

But here’s where the mystery is: To this day, no one knows for sure who wrote the new words to Mildred Hill’s melody, or exactly when it happened. “Happy Birthday to You” first appeared in a songbook in 1924, edited by Robert H. Coleman. The words were presented as an alternate second stanza to “Good Morning to You” (perhaps Coleman was the uncredited lyricist?). Aided by the advent of radio and sound movies, this new stanza became hugely popular and soon overshadowed the original lyric. By the mid-’30s, the celebratory tune had appeared in several films and a Broadway musical, and had been used for Western Union’s first singing telegram. It was so widely heard and sung that many assumed it was public domain.

When the melody showed up in the Irving Berlin musical As Thousands Cheer, uncredited and uncompensated, a third Hill sister, Jessica, filed suit. In court she demonstrated the obvious link between “Happy Birthday to You” and “Good Morning to All,” securing a copyright for her sisters. Unfortunately Mildred was too late to benefit, having died in 1916.
Jessica Hill took her sisters’ tune to a Chicago-based publisher, Clayton F. Summy Co., who officially published and copyrighted it in 1935.
The song celebrates its 118th birthday.

(from performingsongwriter.com)