Pavlina: Life is Not For the Living

I was at work, kinda. I was at work, and I got some work done, but I spent most of the day listening to NPR with my new phone and watching the large, flat-panel screen in our reception area. I remember while President Obama was giving his first speech as president, I was collecting data in my lab. I was up in the front as everyone began arriving to the swearing in, we were shocked at how many people turned up to see it “live”, and how cold and happy they all looked. It was pretty cool, and it had a real festive atmosphere that made the day go by a bit easier than most. Then I had to leave a bit early so I could run to the shops and buy Emma a birthday gift and Martin a non-birthday gift. Then I went home. To make The Cupcakes. I won’t get into great detail on why I decided to make such ambitious cupcakes for Emma, but I did and it was very ambitious. They turned out quite nice. So, I set my laptop up in the kitchen and tuned to ABC and watched the parade (mostly listened to it) whilst I made The Cupcakes. Emma set up an obstacle course for me to navigate…

The I made quite the mess getting all the frosting colors made…

This was the frosting to ice the top of the cupcakes (blue) and make the leaves (green)

Then I had to make way too many flowers…

Tinted royal icing. I made one third batch, then split it three ways (two larger, one small portion), tinted the two large portions violet and rose, but added too much rose and got hot pink instead. The tinted the smaller portion a light peach shade for the dots. I let those dry for several hours.

I then took the cupcakes, iced the tops with the blue buttercream frosting, placed the drop flowers on the edges, added the leaves, added the hand made fondant butterflies and got these…The Cupcakes…

Emma loved them but they were very, very sweet.

So that will always be my one great memory of Inauguration Day 2009, making cupcakes.

Tags:   Baking3 Comments