Tea and Cupcakes

Last Friday was Mother's Day Tea at Monkey Boy's preschool. Here he is having "tea". And here we are together, me sporting the Mother's Day bonnet that he made for me. Awww!

Wow, maybe I should have worn a little makeup last Friday! Who am I kidding? I'm gorgeous!

Chase and I had a lovely party with his classmates and their mommies. I have to say, we were a stylish bunch, all decked out in Texas-sized coffee filter bonnets! The mommies were all good sports and donned their chapeaus with grace and style. We even kept them from falling off and into the bowl of spinach dip...or "slime" as one little charmer put it. (Nope, not mine...all I got from him was a wrinkled nose and I big ole Ewwwwwww)

On Saturday, we were invited to a good old-fashioned low-country boil at a my hub's childhood friend's house to celebrate the passing of the bar. Yay! Congrats Rod!! Of course, this provides me with an ample audience and sounding board for baked goods! Cupcakes, to be specific, were on the brain! We'll get to my cupcake obsession some other time...that's a lengthy subject!!

I decided to bake Friday night, get my frostings prepped and then I could assemble and frost before we departed for the shin-dig on Saturday. Two flavors sprang to mind: Red Velvet (classic southern fave, especially for a southern-themed soiree) and my all-time favorite combo of lemon and raspberry. Specifically, lemon cake, filled with lemon curd and topped with fresh raspberry buttercream. I just gained another 4 pounds. Well worth it.

Here are just a couple pictures of my baking-in-progress. I might do further step-by-steps with recipes and great photos once I get myself wrapped around this whole blogging thing...need more time to channel my inner Pioneer Woman. Please forgive my 1975 formica countertops. Ktichen remodel is on the "To-do" list for sometime in the next decade.

Big globs of deliciousness, right? Right. The standard butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, sour cream. Well, sour cream isn't really the standard for red velvet, but I thought I'd give it a whirl...didn't have time to swing out to the store for buttermilk.

I thought this photo would turn out really pretty with the vibrant splash of red. I got more "crime scene" than I had hoped for. Also, if you see my husband, will you please remind him that a Kitchen Aid 5-qt mixer doesn't really take up all that much room, and even if it did, the benefits greatly outweigh the loss of counter space.

Please??

He doesn't believe me, and my buttercream is suffering needlessly. Thanks.

Here are the lovely Red(?) Velvets and Lemon Cream cupcakes prior to being frosted and embellished the next day. The RV was delicious and yummy right out of the oven, with no frosting whatsoever. (I had to taste almost a DOZEN minis to make myself believe it was true). I have always found scratch cake to be a little on the dry side, but the baking gods were on my side that Friday, yay! The lemon creams were good too, and I used Ina Garten's recipe for Lemon Curd...oh my heaven, it's amazing!!! I had a healthy dose of it straight from the spoon. Once or twice...or twentysomething. Who's counting?

This is where the gorgeous, well-composed shot of the frosted and decorated cupcakes goes, but...

There isn't one. In the flurry of departure, I forgot. I'm sawwy. I told ya, I'm new at this.

To paint you a visual, the red velvet cupcakes were topped with cream cheese frosting, some with chopped pecans, some without. On top of the raspberry (and a beautful pink shade it was)buttercream for the lemon cakes, I sprinkled "Raspberry" disco dust (Thanks BG!!) which made them oooh, sparkly. I can happily report, that even though I lack photographical proof, both versions of my cuppies found happy homes in the tummies of good friends and folks that I love!