Early Birthday Celebration (thanks to a $5 birthday bundle!)

You guys.....my birthday is rapidly approaching. And it's not just any birthday, it's a biggie. On May 16 I will turn the big 3-0. Yeesh! That doesn't seem right - sometimes I still feel like I should be in high school - how can I already be thirty?

Anyways, my girls and hubby are throwing me a birthday party this year, and Leila (who likes to tell Tony that SHE's in charge of the party) wanted to practice making cake before the big day. (Little does she know we'll actually be ordering one.) Anyways, Safeway, Vons and Pavillion stores are offering an amazing deal from right now to May 21. You can get 2 liters of 7UP brand sodas, a box of Betty Crocker Cake Mix, Betty Crocker frosting + 24 rainbow candles for only $5! You need to use your club card to take advantage of this sweet deal, so if you don't have one, make sure you sign up for one. They're free and save you TONS of money!

So, knowing that this awesome deal was going on I told Leila we could do a "practice cake"

We headed to Safeway, got the $5 birthday bundle and headed home.

Since soda was part of the deal, I decided to teach Leila how to do a super easy "dump" cake!

I grabbed some cherry pie filling I already had on-hand and we got to work.


Look at these cute little helpers!!

A simple cake like this is awesome to do with littles - it's hard to mess up, and they get a sense of pride out of doing it themselves!

We baked it in a normal baking tray, but served them up in little mason jars - everyone got their own, and hello? Way cuter! Just add a dollop of that yummy frosting on top and you are good to go!

Here's a "pin-able" recipe card for you!

For only $5 we got: a two-liter of 7-UP, a Betty Crocker cake mix, a Betty Crocker frosting, and a 24-pack of rainbow candles (had to practice blowing those out too, you know!) but more importantly we got a fun family treat of baking a little goodness up! That, my friends is priceless!

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