A mermaid for a princess

My niece Isabella's first birthday was August 23rd. To celebrate, Nick and I flew to Texas. In true Texas fashion, this little girl needed a whole lotta cake to celebrate her first year on Earth. Enter- the mermaid cake!

My aunt Laura found the inspiration for this cake here. We used cake mix to make the process go a little faster.


She had a strawberry head, vanilla body, and chocolate and vanilla tail.

Avert your eyes, sailors, this mermaid isn't dressed yet!


Getting her hair done- chocolate cupcake style. And check out those luscious fruit roll up lips- so kissable!

We couldn't find any pastel Necco wafers, so cousin Grace was tasked with painting chocolate Neccos with edible glitter. It was time consuming, but the result was lovely!

Finally, she was ready for her close up- ooh la la!


Time to dig in!



Isabella was a true lady- she was so dainty while she ate this cake! She finally got a bit dirty when her daddy smeared some frosting on her face.

Here's to many more frosting-filled days!

Hingham Beer Works

To celebrate my birthday and soak up some sunshine, we wandered down to Hingham Beer Works at the fancy schmancy Hingham Ship Yard. According to Nick, the shipyard used to be quite the pit, but with a little venture capital and a few chain stores, it's a lovely gathering spot now.

It's a microbrew so we started off with some small pours to whet our appetite. 12 oz. pours of World's End IPA for me and Blueberry Ale for Nick. Nick's had real blueberries in it! The IPA was good, too, not too bitter. You can get beer in 12 oz., 16 oz., or 22 oz. pours- I liked this because I have trouble committing to beer, especially new ones.


We had to wait probably 20 minutes for a patio table but it was worth it! Love the outdoor ambiance.



Do I look older? No major wrinkles yet or gray hair. I've already informed Nick that I won't be graying with dignity- bring on the dye!



With dinner, I had a sampler of 4 oz. pours. From left to right: watermelon beer, peach hefeweisen, Back River red, and Buckeye Oatmeal stout. None really rocked my socks and I couldn't even finish the peach one. Microbrews are so hit or miss.

Nick had a white ale- he liked it. I tried a sip- not my bag.

Appetizers included nachos! Yummy and thoroughly coated with the good stuff.

And pretzel bites. These were strangely hard and not really pretzel-y at all. We didn't eat many of them but I brought them home and used them as croutons on my lunch salad. Much better.


Dinner for me was the world's smallest portabella mushroom sandwich. There were two small slices of roasted red pepper, a TON (too much) of herbed goat cheese, and a really sad little mushroom. I was underwhelmed but still cleaned my plate. A girl's gotta eat. I gotta say- being a vegetarian at restaurants is hard sometimes. At home, I can make whatever I want, but at most restaurants I can get a veggie burger or a veggie sandwich. Perhaps I should hit the city for some veg haute cuisine.


Nick had the steak tips. He said they were awesome- I tried a super small bite. Beefy. I did snag several bites of mashed potato- yum!

We skipped dessert- we were stuffed with beer and nachos!

Instead, we took a walk down the shipyard and read all the funny boat names. One was called Payback...interesting...

The sunset was especially gorgeous- I luck out with great weather and a great husband on my birthday!

It is important to that Betty Cupcakes is a serious lightweight and definitely cannot handle 24 oz. of beer. Silliness and a WICKED early bedtime ensued.

A birthday cake

Yellow cake with chocolate frosting. A classic. Kind of like me, but sweeter.

Today is my birthday. Another fun fact about today? It's the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. More time to celebrate my birth, you lucky ducks! Another fun fact? It's also Prince William's birthday. Unfortunately we have not yet been able to exchange presents just yet, but soon. Very soon.

Birthdays are kind of weird. You didn't really do anything to earn and frankly, your parents should be commended for bringing you into the world and letting you stick around. But really, birthdays should be celebrated for one reason and one reason alone.

Cake.

Now, I'm not one to wait around all year for a delicious slice of sugary goodness. That's a regular occurrence in the Cupcake household. But birthdays deserve something a little extra special, dontcha think?

I got this recipe here, but I'm fairly certain it was stolen from Cook's Illustrated. What up, Chris Kimball? Dude knows his food.


Start by oiling and flouring some 9 inch pans. Really get in there with the oil. One of my cakes may have broken and may have been smushed back together. I can neither confirm nor deny these allegations.



Mix your dry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk them up. Combine the wet ingredients and whisk them, too.


Then you should whip up some eggwhites. Set them aside.


Dump your flour and leavening into the empty bowl. Don't wash it out first. That's a waste of time.

Slowly mix your wet ingredients into your dry.


Then gently- I said gently!- fold in those egg whites. The whipped eggwhite is a delicate thing and needs some TLC.


Measure out your batter evenly into your prepared pans. Bake until done. Cool beside an open window if you're like me and don't have air conditioning. Or cable. Or 200 amp electrical service. I'm practically Amish!

While your cakes are cooling, you can wash dishes and clean up the flour bomb you made in your kitchen. Then, you ought to get your frosting on.


I'd never chocolate buttercream frosting before today. It was pretty darn simple. Get some cocoa.

Melt some butter.


Put the cocoa in your KitchenAid and aid the melted butter.

Mix it up.


Add approximately one ton of powdered sugar and drip of milk.

And beat the everloving fudge out of it.


Now comes the fun part. Dig out your cake stand. Mine lives in the basement on a shelf underneath the giant fake spider we use on Halloween. What? You don't keep yours next to arachnids?? Weird.

Put one layer of cake, maybe the "broken" one on the cake stand and slather on some frosting. Really give it a good coating.


Add the 2nd layer and admire.

Pour out the rest of the frosting on top. Wonder quietly to yourself if there is such a thing as too much frosting. Quickly dismiss the ridiculous notion and spread all over with an offset spatula.


I decorated mine with some swirlies and gold sprinkles in honor of the Bruins- go, go Black and Gold!

Then you can take your cake on a field trip. Oh the places this cake has been!

The great state of Texas (or just my Texas flag picnic table).



It lounged in the sun on the adirondack chair.


It even visited Kevin the garden gnome. Check out that kale! Kevin's been whispering sweet nothings to my veggies this year and they are growing like gangbusters!

Once the tour de garden is over, take the cake to your inlaws. Carefully balance it on the front seat of your SMART car, hold with one hand, drive with the other, and try to convince your 90 pound labradoodle not to knock it over as he's wedged in the trunk.


Conduct the ritual singing of "Happy Birthday".




Make a wish.



Eat a large slice and share a few others! 27 is going to be a good year.