Cupcake Time

The other day I was meeting with a friend and her two wee ones. I decided to make cupcakes, figuring that the three year old would have fun decorating them and when the kids were all hopped up on sugar I could quietly take my leave. I tried to think of what could be kid and adult friendly and found this heavenly recipe for chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese and orange frosting. Chocolate and orange are always a delightful pair and a cream cheese frosting never disappoints. You can smear cream cheese frosting on an old shoe and it will be delicious. The super wee one was smeared with cupcake and kept screaming for "upcakes", while the three year old spent a lot of time digging holes in the icing before sticking a giant spoonful of it in his mouth. I later witnessed his mom doing the exact same thing (not the digging part, the spooning the icing into her mouth part). Kid and mom approved. Success!

Because I am a bit of a pom pom addict, I decorated a few cupcakes with coloured toothpicks topped with mini pompoms but not necessarily the best adornment with young children around...

Backhanded Compliment cupcakes

I've been trying to be more healthy lately but every now and then a girl needs to indulge. I found a recipe here and felt my resolve slip away. How can I resist? A cupcake involving Nutella and only 3 other ingredients, topped with cream cheese frosting? It is perfect and goes with my theory that you can top just about anything with cream cheese frosting and it'll be delicious. I was off to a friend's place for dinner with her boyfriend and decided to whip up a batch for dessert.

When it was time to eat the cupcakes my friend's boyfriend commented that they were better than he had expected.

Hmmm.

Is that kind of like when you see someone and they exclaim,"Wow! You look really good! Did you lose weight?" Umm, did I need to lose weight? Did I look really bad before? He quickly backtracked and said, "I mean they are really good. They looked like cupcakes so I expected them to be all cakey but they are really dense, like a brownie."

This is true. I accept his backtracking excuse. They are dense like a brownie but in the form of a cute little cupcake. I see how they could be confusing. Confusing and oh so delicious.

Last Minute Bunny Cupcake Toppers

I saw these adorable lovelies on papersnitch and was completely enamored. What could be more fitting for topping Easter cupcakes? So adorable and festive. Alas, I didn't get my act together in time to order them for Easter so I decided to improvise and make my own. I printed a clip art rabbit, stuck it on a toothpick and made my own bunny topper. It isn't half as cute, but I figure that the sight of carrot cupcakes will distract any critics before they start analyzing my less than perfect toppers.