Mark surprised me with a two super Valentine's Day gifts - a cupcake carrier and Martha Stewart's Cupcakes recipe book. The least I could do to repay him was to make some cupcakes, right?
I've discovered that, unlike cookies, cupcakes can't really be made on the fly because they require ingredients such as cake flour and buttermilk that I normally don't have in the pantry. In fact, I went out and bought a box of cake flour expressly for the purpose of making cupcakes, and what did I do? I unconsciously grabbed the all purpose flour and used it instead. Unbelievable. As a result, the cupcakes came out tasty, but dense. These are white cupcakes with Fluffy Vanilla frosting. I went with Fluffy Vanilla instead of the Swiss Meringue Buttercream (which I prefer) because the Buttercream called for five egg whites, and I already used five egg whites in the cupcakes themselves. That's almost a dozen eggs!
In spite of all this, I am undaunted because there are so many different varieties to try. Plus, I can spread the joy of baking far and wide with my handy cupcake carrier!
How I miss the days when Lauren wasn't so self aware. Now, every time I try to take a photo of her, she sticks her tongue out at me. And it's not just a little "Bronx cheer" tongue, this is full blown Gene Simmons tongue.
I tried very hard to get a nice photo of Lauren modeling the cute top that Cousin Noreen sent to her, but it wasn't meant to be (Thanks, Noreen! Lauren looks adorable - you'll have to take my word for it!). Aside from the tongue sticking out, this is the other option. I call it, "The School Photo Smile."
Lauren says, "Valentine's Day is boring. Nothing exciting happens on Valentine's Day."
Oh, you say that now little one, but if you only knew...
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