Cakes, Cookie Monster and cups
Though I am only a couple years into this mom thing, I feel I can say with confidence that there is nothing more surreal than when your child has another birthday (except for the birth itself).
It’s perhaps a cliché, but time does just seem to fly by when you are a parent – Wasn’t it just yesterday they were a little swaddled ball of love you cooed over in a tiny bassinet, so light and quiet and sweet?
Fast forward two years. That little swaddled ball is now a 35-pound force of nature and personality and cuteness. Life is a constant lesson for both of you, but it’s so fun.
Can you tell my little Gracie just turned 2?
The other thing that comes with birthdays is birthday parties. My husband and I decided that until she is old enough to really understand it’s her birthday, Gracie’s celebrations will be pretty low-key. We had family and a few friends over for pizza, pool time and presents – and, of course, a little help from Pinterest. I wanted to try something fun with the dessert, so I made Sesame Street cupcakes for my Elmo-obsessed girl. In the aftermath of the celebration the next morning, I decided to make a coffee cake in a cup to enjoy with a cup of Joe on the porch, a microwave recipe I had been wondering about for a long time from my Pinterest board “Desserts ... or Why I’m Not a Size 8 Anymore.”
Sesame Street Cupcakes The challenge here wasn’t the baking, as I cheated and just used a Funfetti cake mix and frosting in the can (sacrilegious, I know!). The challenge comes in the decorating, and one thing I am not good at is creative stuff like making faces out of frosting. I was convinced I was going to fail miserably with Elmo, Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch, but surprisingly, they turned out better than I expected. Perhaps because they weren’t elaborate (One pin I found had Bert’s head completely crafted from marzipan delicately placed atop a fluffy cake. Uh, no. I really wasn’t trying to fail or have
my friends ask if Gracie made the cakes herself), or perhaps because I gave myself enough time to actually enjoy the project/redo them if necessary, these came out as a win. Am I going to win “Cupcake Wars?” No. But everyone got a kick out of them, especially Gracie, and I learned how to make an orange nose out of marzipan. I’m sure that skill will come in handy later.
Coffee Cake in a Cup I love coffee cake. The smell, the texture, the taste ... the crunch of the topping ... Yum! When I saw this recipe pin, I was all in. My husband won’t eat sweets (I’m still wondering how we ended up together despite this fact), so if I bake, I’m stuck with an entire dessert to myself. Baking an individual serving in the microwave no less sounded like the perfect solution to my sweet tooth/ desire not to become a Size 200.
The recipe calls to soften a tablespoon of butter in a coffee cup. Then stir in two tablespoons sugar until fluffy. Just a heads up: This will be the last time anything fluffy will be in the cup. Next add “some egg.” The recipe actually calls for this new measurement “some,” but suggests approximately half an egg. I found that ridiculous, but for the sake of science and my need to follow directions at least once, I stuck to half. Stir in 2 tablespoons of sour cream and a few drops of vanilla and mix it together, then add 1/4 cup of flour and 1/8 teaspoon of baking powder. For the topping, in a separate bowl, mix 1 tablespoon butter, 2 tablespoons flour, 1 tablespoon brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Sprinkle it on the top of your cake mix, and “bake” in the microwave for about 1 minute 20 seconds.
It was a rubbery, disgusting mess.
There wasn’t a bite that resembled cake; it was more like eating the stuffing from your couch cushions. I figured that there wasn’t any way you could go wrong with the ingredients, but this left me standing over the sink dumping the remnants into the garbage disposal. I guess I’m just going to have to go back to my gluttonous self and make a whole cake for it to taste OK.
Yet another lesson learned to pass on to Gracie: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Mandy Byrd is a stay-at-home mom originally from Colorado. She is mother to Gracie and wife to her handsome devil-of-a-man, Eric. Send Pinterest ideas and comments to Mandy at mandybyrd@icloud.com.
