Cupcakes and Surprise Party

She looks a  little worried here

Very surprised as spots more guests

Fab cardboard stand for cupcakes

Food and posters up and waiting for mum ...

Grandchildren running everywhere

Lovely cupcakes made by Hazel at What Crumbs

ipod love and the cakes have all gone

I was able to buy a new ipod yesterday to replace the one stolen by the evil burglars. It is a thing of such beauty and complexity and perfect design ... and that is just the packaging. I have kept the peel off protector as it will be perfect for scrapping a lo about my love affair with all thing apple. I took the extra cakes into work and I think I surprised some of my cynical male colleagues as they did not see me as the domestic goddess type. They must have liked them as they all went within ten minutes.

Sneaky peek at circle journal

Here's a sneaky peek at the circle journal pages I completed using my Yin and Yang cupcake pictures. I stuck to the colour scheme of green and red - finding a lovely cherry paper and am pleased with the results. As I had taken step by step pics of the baking process I added an extra pull out flap with the these pics to the double page lo.

Cupcake Frenzy for Circle Journal

Spent yesterday afternoon in a totally chaotic Cupcake frenzy. I had to put a cake recipe into the circle journal I am doing with All New Lost Girls over at ukscrappers. I decided I had to photograph the whole process for the journal. It was a very enjoyable afternoon and youngest daughter made peppermint creams and we had friends for tea (dinner actually but I am in a "The Tiger who came to Tea" vibe). I made Neenish cupcakes - but I renamed them Yin and Yang cakes. They are half chocolate sponge and half vanilla and half vanilla and half chocolate icing. I also made Macadamia, honey and carrot cupcakes (much nicer than they sound).

Attempts at being a domestic goddess and cupcakes.

If you think the finished article looks impressive that's okay but don't think I am much good at this stuff - read on and look at pics below to see my chaotic attempts at domesticity. If you have been dipping in and out of this blog you will have come to appreciate that I am not really your domestic goddess type. Life is just too short for all that stuff. I am lucky as Lens Guy is pretty nifty when it comes to domestic engineering - although he has a very scientific and organised approach to this. In fact youngest daughter and I are almost afraid to touch the dishwasher now in case we load it the wrong way. Apparently there is a wrong way and right way to load a dishwasher. Anyway back to almost goddess like moment. Today I was inspired to make chicken stock, homemade soup, tonight's dinner and enough to freeze for another day plus cupcakes. The reason I am blogging this is that it is not my usual mode of operation - usually I am in and out of the kitchen as quickly as possible but today I was in the mood to cook and like all my projects I never quite know when to stop... I know most people are fans of cupcakes but sometimes it all seems a bit time-consuming and fiddly to me. Today I was in the zone and made some apple and raisin cupcakes with yogurt topping. I did make a mess as you can see... and at one point it was just this gloopy mess in the bowl and I was convinced it wouldn't work. They did rise and come out of oven and I even decorated them and put on pretty plates.