Oh, The Yumminess

So, one day a few months ago my neighbor, Geri, dropped by to pick her daughter up from a play date and found me right in the middle of some cooking project or other. Geri, who works full-time outside the home, said, "Huh. So is THIS what stay-at-home moms do all day long?" Not every day, certainly (somebody's got to clean the toilets and make sure no one runs out of clean underwear), but on a good day, yes! What I failed to mention to her is that most of the time when I bake, it's for some event or other--for a Young Women event, a ward party, gifts for teachers or friends... I'm always volunteering for the cooking jobs, and especially the baking jobs. I'm not as good as I would like to be, and everything I do is copied from somewhere or other, but I enjoy it. Here are a few things I've done lately that were fun:

Valentine's Day Cupcakes: In February I did something I'd never done before: I bought a Martha Stewart Living magazine at the check-stand, which led to ordering a subscription shortly thereafter. She may be a convicted felon, but that woman has some great ideas! I saw these filigree hearts in the magazine and thought, "I can totally do that." And I did! There were many flops that didn't make the cupcakes, but these turned out okay.

Faux Popcorn: I got this idea from the book Hello Cupcake! Ella thought they were HILARIOUS. We made them for April Fool's Day and gave them to her teacher, our bishop's family, and other friends.

Brynn-cess Cookies: A good friend recently adopted a baby girl and named her Brynn, and some friends and I threw a gala baby shower for her with a princess theme--"Brynn-cess", get it? We made these cookies as party favors. The style of the "B" combined with the pink and green color scheme make me think of Barbie. I'm still learning the "flooding" technique using royal icing--my first efforts were... very strange indeed. Kind of fluffy. I'm getting better, though.

Becoming Butterflies: Our theme for a Young Women leadership training meeting was "On Becoming", so I jumped at the chance to try out these butterfly cupcakes I'd seen, again, in Hello Cupcake! They scored big points for the WOW factor, but they were deceptively easy. I'm looking for an excuse to make them again, so let me know if you need some!