Dulce De Leche

How is it that I have made it this far in my life (I mean it's been thirty-four years for heaven's sake!) without a taste of this yummy stuff? I made some from scratch tonight (well, scratch is stretching it when the only ingredients are milk, sugar, baking soda and vanilla, but still) that I plan on incorporating into a new cupcake tomorrow...mmmm...I eat cupcakes every day and I can still hardly wait to try this new one. So far I've had to sate myself with the stuff slathered on Hawaiian bread...but on a cupcake....I think I've finally met a cupcake that I'll put my OWN name on! Any suggestions for a name? How about, "The Cupcake That Pushed Brooke out of single digit clothes sizes"? Unfortunately, it will probably be appropriate.

PS...in the interest of Internet goodwill...this is not my own photo...just one I pulled off a google search. I was too busy eating the stuff to take pictures of it.

Do I complain about my kids enough?

I guess that's not really the question I should be asking, but rather, do I complain about my kids too much? Do I use this blog to lament about what terrible, awful, unruly, and disobedient children I have?

Well maybe I do, maybe I don't, but right now on this evening, I have the strongest desire to shout it out on the rooftops about what great,wonderful, smart, happy, funny, and lovely children I have.

Maybe it was the two parent teacher conferences I had today. I only had to have two because if your 4-6th graders are doing well, you don't even have to meet with their teachers. So, on this rainy morning when all I really wanted to do was to stay in bed, I had to pull myself out of bed to go and open up the cupcake shoppe.And then I had to head on over to the school to hear about how my kids are doing in school. And as I was driving over there, I thought to myself that for some parents, parent teacher conferences are something to worry about, or to not look forward to. It's exactly the opposite for me, and I know how lucky I am to feel that way.

When I arrived at the school, my older children immediately took charge of the youngers so I could hit the classrooms in peace. Nothing better than seeing your two year old son run into the arms of your ten year old daughter. He sure loves that girl. And in between conferences, I peaked into the book fair to see her sitting and reading books to the four year old. Pure parental bliss. Not to mention all the wonderful things the teachers said about my kids.

So, I'm taking this evening to revel in my children...in the good and the bad. I know they're not perfect, not even close, just like everyone. But tonight I want them to know how wonderful they are, and how blessed I feel to be their mother.

Don't Get Pinched

You could carry one of these around all day tomorrow to avoid being pinched. But, you might want to have a back up plan for about ten minutes into the day when you decide you simply MUST eat that cupcake!
Happy St. Patricks Day!

Gimme a Break...A Cupcake Break That Is

Yesterday, I found myself in need of a cupcake break. I think it's a pretty well deserved one. This tutorial has been at the top of my to-do list since my super-cool sister-in-law posted it around the first of the year, so I finally decided to turn that part of my to-do list into a to-done! It's amazing how accomplished a bit of sewing has made me feel....and it surprised me how much I've missed my little sewing machine.


Not wanting to stray too far from the inspiration bag, I pulled out my yellow-striped Ikea fabric and got to work. The only change I made was to make it a cross-body bag (since my mom introduced me to this style at Christmas I've never looked back...nothing is better for a busy mom). I also decided that this bag was the perfect place to use my stash of orange and yellow goose fabric that I'd been saving. If you look closely, you can see the bag has a pocket inside that is perfectly sized for my favorite new piece of technology.



From to-do into Ta-DA!

Are You Getting Bored Yet?

So, not much going on around here...it's still pretty much cupcakes all the time for me. So not so much time for the funny stories or cute pictures of the kiddos. Last week, Tiny Tigers had the theme, "Healthy Living" and they focused on eating right and exercising. John came home one day and insisted that he needed to go running to get some exercise. He proceeded to borrow his brother's sweat band, donned his crocs (the only shoes this little boys knows he owns) and set out around the block. He didn't make it very far before he tired. He came home a bit defeated, so I told him, "you can ride your bike around the block, that's exercise too." He was so excited to know that bike riding qualified as exercise! I was a little saddened that my four year old has had no steady example from either of his parents as to what exercise is. Oh well...he knows all about ice cream and cupcakes and candy galore. He also knows quite a bid about soda. He has certain preferences when it comes to soda. For example, sometime my husband will mix diet Cherry Pepsi into his Diet Coke. John can instantly detect the difference. He personally has a love of Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper. We get it sometimes as a special treat....nobody else in the house likes it, so it takes a while for little Johnny to make his way through a two liter. So, funny story or terrible story, depending on your take on kids drinking soda...On Thursday, I picked John up from Tiny Tigers. While he was there, I had opened up the Cupcake Shoppe, and gone to do some supply shopping at Costco. While there, I {paid for} and filled up my Copco cup with Costco Diet Coke. So, first thing into the car, (after asking for my iphone), he requests my diet coke. He takes a sip, makes a face, and then says to me, "MOM, WHY DID YOU FILL UP YOUR CUP WITH COSTCO DIET COKE?". I just laughed and asked him how he knew it was from Costco. He said that of course he could tell the difference..."Costco Diet Coke just tastes like Costco Diet Coke, Mom". So here's to my little diet soda connoisseur..at least he know what exercise is now!



And, if you haven't grown too terribly tired of my cupcake escapades, enjoy these pictures. I did a little mock up for a wedding I'm doing this weekend, (slightly terrified to do this) and took some photos to send the bride. The toppers are hers, but the giant cupcake was all my own creation. I made the "liner" out of white chocolate, and then filled it with chocolate cake. It was pretty fun, and turned out pretty well. I took it down to the store to display for the weekend, and got some nice comments on it. I'm hoping it will help to let people know that On A Lark also does weddings. So far, I have three weddings booked and ready to go...I'm hoping it will only grow from there. This was also my first foray into fondant. The pretty little flowers are sweet and oh so easy to make...the perfect combination!





Oh...one more thing...remember in my last post when I said the next thing I needed for my business was a commercial mixer? Well, turns out I was wrong. The next thing my business really needed was an iPad2. Yeah...that was a better choice.