March of the Penguin Cupcakes

A promise is a promise, even when your kid is only two and a half years old and doesn't even remember said promise. You see, back when I got the Hello, Cupcake! book for my birthday, Cate found the penguin cupcake page and was mesmerized by it. I promised her that I'd make penguin cupcakes for us before summer's end. Well, school started, and I hadn't made them yet. But, Eric was quick to point out that technically summer doesn't end until September 21st. He started buying the ingredients for me last week. As soon as Eric was feeling better last Saturday, we ventured out to Jungle Jim's (a grocery shopping experience in our area like none you've ever experienced). Cate enjoyed watching the fake animals in the water fountain outside.
With the harder-to-find ingredients in hand, we headed home to make penguin cupcakes. It was an almost two-hour labor of love. In the end, these guys really look more like they belong in Chernobyl, not the South Pole. I blame it mostly on inferior donut holes and mini donuts.
The recipe has you make seven penguins, four icebergs, and a bucket of fish treats-- the "catch of the day," which is pulled by the last penguin in line. I used fish-shaped sprinkles, so it's kind of hard to tell that it's fish in his bucket.
The process to make them wasn't hard, just time consuming. And I guess if I were the type of person to make fancy cupcakes like this at least once a week, I'd probably get speedier and my cupcakes would look better. But this little girl didn't care:
Her black-dyed chocolate frosting smile pretty much says it all.
And it was only appropriate that this onesie arrived in the mail the day before. My friend Rachel knows how much Cate loves penguins. So it's only appropriate that Cate's little brother will get to sport some penguin gear as well. Thank you Rachel, Chad, and Maddie!
~Melody :-)

C is For....

Well, the avid Sesame Street fan in our household, whose name also happens to begin with C, would tell you that the monster himself says "C is for cookie."

But today, C is for cupcake...or "pupcake" as Cate calls them.

You see, it started with this book:
I've had my eye on it for awhile and just recently used a Target gift card that I got for my birthday to buy it (only to find out there is a sequel...my GC didn't cover both). The main reason for getting it? Well, this summer (or some weekend) I want to make my penguin-obsessed little peanut some of these:
Naturally, once Cate saw me with the book, she wanted to go home and make "pupcakes." It's a school day, I am tired, so I bought the box mix and canned frosting so we could still make some this afternoon. She helped me line the muffin tin.She helped me hold the hand mixer while it did its job (no pictures of that since I had to keep a hand on the mixer too). She watched while I spooned the mix in and said "that's enough Mommy" when she thought each liner looked full. Then she watched.
She also had fun playing with the box.
The cupcakes are yummy and thankfully we've got plenty of friends and neighbors to share them with.

The decorating instructions look pretty simple, so I'm hoping to make some of these quite often this summer. Obviously the penguins will be first.

~Melody :-)

And yes, I know I haven't been blogging as often as I normally do. But I'm a big believer in not being on the computer for more than a couple of minutes if Cate's awake. I'm selfish with my time with her. My computer time once she's asleep has lately been consumed by trying to figure out more with Photoshop Elements (which also explains why today's pictures are unedited and straight-out-of-camera).