Whoops! I almost forgot to post about cupcakes!

First of all, what is a cupcake?

The all-knowing Wikipedia says:

A cupcake (the common US term) or fairy cake (the common British term), is a small cake designed to serve one person, usually made in a small paper cup container. As with larger cakes, frosting and other cake decorations, such as sprinkles, are defining characteristics of modern cupcakes.

A simple cupcake uses the same fundamental ingredients as most other standard cakes: butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. Nearly any layer cake or loaf cake recipe can be used to make cupcakes.

Yep, I think that’s a pretty straightforward explanation of what cupcakes are. Fairy cake? heehee!

Let’s see if Noah Webster’s 1828 has anything to say on the subject…Nope. Nothing on cupcakes. Maybe fairy cakes? Nothing there either. Darn.

Well, in honor of British terms, I shall link to Airy Fairy Cupcakes.

And now, story time! Late in the afternoon on Wednesday I was at work rolling a perm for like the second hour in a row. It’s not because I’m slow, it’s because the lady was Chinese, and so, of course, was her hair. Meaning it was really super thick (it was also shoulder-length, but that’s not because she was Chinese). We were all talking about politics or some such thing that was doing a good job of putting us in a crabby mood. We unanimously decided that we needed to change the subject. Here was my chance…

“We could talk about cupcakes!”, I offered in my excited-to-talk-about-cupcakes way.

“I don’t like cupcakes”, said Carole, my boss’s client.

“*GASP*! Carole! What is wrong with you?”, I exclaimed. (Carole is a lovely lady who has been coming to the shop longer than I have, and knows I was joking.)

“Well,” she said, “I just think they’re too dry.”

“That is terrible. I am telling your mother.” (Carole’s mother is one of those wonderful little old ladies that comes to the shop every Thursday to get her hair set for the week.)

The next day when Virginia came to the shop (yes, I was done with the perm by that time, thank you), I asked what was wrong with her daughter. She laughed and said “How much time have you got?”

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So as of late I’ve acquired a new addiction. Cupcake blogs*.

It all started quite a while ago when I was on Surly Dave’s site, looking through his blogroll of cooks. I found one that I absolutely love! Its Simply Recipes Food and Cooking Blog, run by a lady named Elise who posts wonderful, user-friendly recipes. If I’m feeling down, instead of turning to food consumption for comfort, I turn to food blogs, complete with pictures! Yay! I even got a notebook and started putting together my own little cookbook with the recipes I find there, and so far all of them have been delicious.

From that site I found another, of course. These things just tend to escalate, don’t they? Anyway, the second site is Vanilla Garlic, run by one Garrett McCord, who has a thing for putting together interesting ingredient combinations and creating original cupcake recipes. So of course in his blogroll he has a category just for cupcake blogs, which of the eight listed I favorited, um…..seven. Actually, I would have favorited all of them, but one isn’t running anymore.

Perusing these cupcake blogs has been so inspiring, but it took me a little while to try my first batch of cupcakes. I finally did on Monday, and the results were so wonderful!! I was so impressed with myself! The recipe comes from How To Eat a Cupcake, which is a super-fun site. Go check it out! I ended up buying a second notebook just for cupcakes. I think I shall post a new cupcake blog site every week! Bwa-ha-ha-haaaaa!

…Sorry.

So! Now you have something exciting to look forward to! Yay for you!

*Yes, there was reason behind the madness that was Benny’s blog background yesterday.

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I know I’ve been quite absent from the ‘sphere as of late, but I have a good reason!! Here it is:

So Princess FlickerFeather had this idea at the end of the summer for a Christmas program, and asked me if I would help make it happen. Of course I agreed, her being my dear friend and all. How hard could it be?

We had our first meeting toward the end of September. We had a hard time even knowing where to start, so I finaly said “OK! What is the one thing that we know for sure?” That one thing happened to be the date we were told the performance was to be. Alright! A lot to do, and enough time to do it if we are diligent.

The creative juices started flowing. We went through the ideas that she had, and have since been working endlessly to get everything together, and practicing two, even three times a week! If one of my parents asks “What are you doing tonight?” or “Hey! Where are you going?”, the answer is always “Practice! What do you think?”

We’ve worked hard, the cast has worked hard, and everyone else involved has worked hard to bring this thing to fruition. Now its pay-off time!!! And we want you to come and enjoy the results of our toil. There will be singing, dancing, lots of laughs, and even cookies!!! Here’s the D.L. :

What: Eclectica: A Christmas Program
(Directed and emceed by the Princess and yours truly)

Where: The Miracle Centre Church
125 21st Ave. S., S. St. Paul, MN 55075

When: December 16th at 6 p.m.
Cookies and other yummy desserty things to follow!!

This is your official invitation. Be there or be a shape with four corners!! Any questions, leave them in the comments section or shoot me an email. Look! We even have a logo that kicks butt! Thanks Mr. Tommy!

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by the Mall Diva

…just another service he offers.

Ahh, the Crooked Spoon. We were hungry after a long hike. My feet were tired. My mom, sister, and I had left my father at the bar down the street to watch the game end. Sitting at our table, I tried not to fall asleep. We perused our menus and decided what we wanted. There were only a few people in the restaurant.

We didn’t have to wait too long before my father walked in. He seemed to be in a rather jovial mood. We ordered our food and then he shared his story of the man who had “played football before” and the other who was giving himself a pedicure at the bar. *Shudder* Anyway, after a while our appetizer came. It was goat-cheese-and-spinach dip (sounds great, no?) with pita bread. Our pita bread ran out before our dip did. We asked for more pitas, but that took forever, so we were eating the dip with our forks. When our bread finally came, there pretty much wasn’t any dip left…except what my dad had scooped onto his plate earlier. My mom tried to take some, which resulted in my dad getting territorial. Like an animal. Actually, like an ape. “Ooh ooh ooh!” (How do you spell what an ape says, anyways?)

My mom was taken aback, but my sister and I started laughing. She should have told us not to encourage him, because he kept it up all through dinner- playing with his food, beating his chest and scratching his butt like monkeys do. Well, maybe he didn’t really go that far; but whatever. He was scaring the other customers, alright? Because by this time, the restaurant was full. I saw the people behind my dad glance over a couple times, wondering what the heck was going on. I just kept laughing. I was tired, it was funny! We were really starting to wonder just how many beers he’d actually had beforehand.

That is one family vacation memory I will not forget. I’m scarred for life. Darwin would be so proud.

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Hey, peeps! I may have been silent, but I AM alive, and did indeed have a birthday. Many thanks to the people who noticed and even posted: Uncle Ben and Dan Stover (such as it was).

It’s been a big year. I had my first anniversary at the salon on July 8, and things have been going well. When I tell people what I did on my birthday, they tell me that I’m really an adult now. Want to know what I did? I worked.

I went to work at 9 on that icky-looking Saturday morning with three appointments on my book. Within the first hour, the first two had cancelled. So. It was my birthday, I was stuck at work with nothing to do, and I had left my book at home. Arrgh!

My boss came in at 10 and felt so bad for me, she let me foil her first client. Yay! I had something fun to do! She went to Caribou to get a coffee and was gone for longer than normal. When she came back, I was lamenting to my client about the dissolving of my day and she said “Don’t you have faith that you’ll get some clients?” Mostly I thought she was just teasing me about my name. Soon after that, my third client cancelled. Yup, that made my faith real strong.

A while later the two ladies who own the bakery just down from us came in. One needed her hair colored, and they had brought me a cake!
*Sniff sniff* That’s why my boss was taking forever!! She wasn’t just buying coffee, she was pulling clients out of the bakery- cake and all! And it was a good cake. Then a few minutes later, Will from Caribou came in with a big fat cup of some hot, sugary, syrupy, coffee drink! Guess what I had for lunch?

I felt so loved. And after that, I felt like a small neurotic dog on speed.

That night, we had dinner at Olive Garden and then my family came over, bearing gifts. And my loving mother had also baked me a cake. Not a bad birthday at all.

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“In the world it is called tolerance
but in hell it is called despair.
The sin that believes in nothing,
cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing,
enjoys nothing, finds purpose in nothing,
lives for nothing
but remains alive because there is
nothing which it would die for.”

~Dorothy Sayers

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