Dinner Party, Avec Cupcakes (Ceci N'est Pas un Cupcake Blog)

I promise... PROMISE... those who were worried, this is not becoming a cupcake blog. It's just that cupcakes are so damned photogenic (which must indeed be part of their appeal). This is the "actual" batch toward which the test batch pointed. I decided to use the Magnolia recipes for Vanilla Cupcakes and Vanilla Buttercream for my friend Sarah's belated birthday party, and they were a hit. Suprisingly, they also were dead ringers for actual cupcakes bought at Magnolia, maybe even slightly better because the icing may have contained a tad less sugar. And the cake was nicely done this time. Check 'em:

These little beauties were a mere piece of a larger dinner party menu that C. and I put together, including Martha's empanadas (um, don't use wax paper instead of parchment), corn off the cob with chili and lime, greens with avocado dressing, and a peach crisp with vanilla ice cream. And of course not a few Negra Modelos.

Good stuff. Trouble was, we lost our A/C a couple of days ago to an electrical mishap (a mishap in which we almost lost C., too!). Not that it would have helped, because the late A/C was in our bedroom, but still it was not a great day to be baking or cooking. We're talking sticky to the max, peeps. Our dinner party guests were, let's admit it, sweaty. Just like I was, while baking cupcakes.

That blotch on my shirt was water, not sweat, but still, you get the idea. I tried not to sweat in the cupcakes, guests... promise!

Finally we found refuge on the roof, where we ate dessert until we all became groggy with food.

On Wednesday, it's back to school. Probably safe to say all the culinary festivities will end then, and I will return to slow but steady subway knitting progress and hours toting incredibly heavy books and dreaming up How to Build a Better Backpack instead of thinking about the permanent spine damage law school is doing all of us.

Posted by jess at August 30, 2005 1:10 AM