I couldn't find true baby-themed sugar decorations so I went with hearts. (The other choice was soccer balls, which, I think it's a little early to predict what sports she may be interested in). This is just that old "simply chocolate" cake recipe that was on the tins of Hershey's cocoa a few years back - it's a fairly simple recipe, it turns out well, it's not super high in fat OR sugar. And it has no eggs, which is good if someone you are baking for is egg-allergic, or you like to lick the spoon after making the cupcakes without risking salmonella. (Though these days, it seems like "natural" peanut butter poses a greater salmonella risk than the occasional raw egg bit does....)
I have sixteen. If I count correctly, with the faculty, administrative assistant, custodian, and TAs, that makes fifteen of us. So everyone should get one if they want one. (I actually had 17 cupcakes, but saved one back for my dinner tonight. So if a Person Who Shall Remain Nameless happens to take two - which is not outside the realm of possibility - I can forgo mine tomorrow.)
The frosting is a new-to-me recipe from the Farm Journal County Fair cookbook. I forget what it's called - "fluffy butter frosting" or somesuch - but it has evaporated milk in it and it's actually a lot easier to work with than the standard butter-and-powdered-sugar icing recipe. I have a bunch of it left; I suppose I'll use it up over the next week on graham crackers or something. (A favorite treat, when I was a child, was a graham cracker spread with leftover frosting. My mom baked a lot, so there was frequently leftover frosting....)
That was pretty much the only "tangible" thing I got done this weekend. (I find more and more, I NEED stuff I can actually point to and say, "I did that this weekend"). I read about half of one of my big thick books on the Hymenoptera (I am considering setting up a spring study of pollinators), and while I know a lot more about them now (and in some cases, perhaps more than I needed to know), still, it's not like I finished anything. I did knit on an all-garter-stitch scarf and a simple sock while I read. It makes me kind of sad that that's the bulk of my knitting these days - super-simple stuff done while doing something else. And I don't see that changing any time soon. I don't know how it happened but I wound up just really overscheduled of late.
No, wait. I also took a break midafternoon yesterday and went down to the quilt/yarn shop for a while (I just needed to get out of the house for a few minutes). I did buy a little fabric, but I also got a skein of worsted-weight Ultra Alpaca with half a thought of doing the "Temeraire Mitts" from the Geek Knitting (or is that Nerdy Knitting?) book. And I had been flipping through my copy of "My Grandmother's Knitting" (and FINALLY. Finally someone gets that "grandma's knitting" is NOT something to be rejected out-of-hand as unhip, out of date, and not worth considering) and saw the simple slippers (those plain, garter-stitch-and-ribbed slippers that were so common in the late 60s and 1970s) and realized I really wanted a pair. (I have a pair of scuffs but they get kind of manky when I put lotion on my feet and they're a pain to wash, and I have my sheep slippers, but they're awfully warm....so I need something sort of intermediate and easily-washable). I found some really pretty orange-bordering-on-peach Berroco Vintage (which is washable!) and bought a couple skeins of it. It turns out I will need just a bit over one skein, but.....it's almost Scootaloo color.....and I'm thinking that knitted pony pattern would turn out a pony in the scale of a filly-pony relative to the other ponies I have. And while I know some adult fans are heartily tired of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, I admit I have a bit of a soft spot for Scootaloo. Maybe not so much the others, but I do like Scootaloo.
But of course, it's always a case of way more projects than time....the slippers WILL be my new invigilating-knitting project, though.
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