Winter Olympic Cupcakes

It’s cold, like really cold. The last time I experienced a winter this long I was living in the great white north of Rochester. But at least we do have bright sunny days here in the big city, Rochester was cold, snowy, and dismally gray from October 1^st through Mother’s Day. Yet still I am totally over building time into my morning schedule for sufficient “bundling”,changing from boots to shoes and back again, and dry hair and pasty skin, ick. However there are two good things that come with the February winter white out of 2010, the Vancouver Olympics and CUPCAKES

In December I dove head first into the deep dark pool of baking and surfaced victorious with my lovely miniature gingerbread houses. After that foray into the land of milk, eggs, and sugar T-bone and Bookie suggested that we proclaim February, “Cupcake Month”. Fantastic idea however at the time I did not foresee lurking in the distance ‘fridge fright-fest’ which unfortunately put the kibosh on all kitchen stadium antics. Thankfully last Friday with the hope that a new refrigerator would be awaiting my return from Mi7, T-Bone gently reminded me that we were halfway through the month and she had yet to taste a freshly backed morsel of cupcake goodness. True that homes, true that.

Now with a new, yet slightly diminutive refrigerator, installed I dialed up the ol’ Fresh Direct on the interweb, stocked up on all things yummy, and set to work on my first batch of cupcakes. I discovered immediately that baking cupcakes is a hell of a lot easier than gingerbread cookies and as an extra bonus they possess a quicker gratification factor. Yeah for cupcakes! The inaugural batch consisted of Spiced Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Molasses frosting, very seasonal. I thought the molasses was a bit too sugary so on my second tasting I covered the cupcake with whipped cream then gingerly drizzled the molasses topping over the creamy nooks and crannies…perfection! T-bone and Bookie loved the batch (however we all felt that the cupcakes were a bit more on the muffin side of the cupcake continuum) and they were totally into the sweet molasses topping.

Next up, Mens Finals Figure Skating and Pumpkin Cupcakes. GO USA!!!!