THE SWEET SPOT

Saturday, May 16 of this year was going to be one of the best days of the year for my family--my younger daughter's 5th birthday party, a big "Disney-Princess-Ariel-Under-the-Sea" themed bash in our backyard with lots of splish-splashing water fun. I am not joking when I say that we had talked about and planned all aspects of this party for at least nine months, and my daughter absolutely had her heart set on this theme. Well, we got the water part alright. May 16 turned out to be probably the wettest day of the entire month. In under an hour, we watched our carefully laid out backyard 'Under-the-Sea' wonderland torn apart by high winds and sheets of rain. Not dainty little raindrops, but sheets and sheets of rain. So our outdoor party quickly became the "Under-the-Sea-in-my-living-room" party. With a little more than an hour left before a dozen and a half or so pre-schoolers would arrive at our house, I planned an entirely different party. (This is the ...

Cupcakes are just the in thing! Since 2006, the number of cupcakes I've baked up and decorated for customers exceeded the total number of cupcakes I made from 1998 through 2005! While some people request "exotic" flavors (coconut, lime, etc.), many are eager for the standard vanilla cupcake with buttercream frosting. And as for designs, some are interested in special customized decor, but most just want the generous 'bakery swirl' of frosting with a dash of rainbow sprinkles on top! Cupcakes are comfort food that take us back to our earliest days, when a cupcake was quickly devoured in a couple of bites at your best friend's birthday party, leaving you plenty of time to get back to the business of playing. (Or for the picky-eater kids, just the frosting licked off and the cake part left behind!) Kids still love cupcakes; when I deliver both a cake and cupcakes at a party, I've noticed that they won't stand still long enough to wait for the cake to be c...