Ok, so Eleven Year Old asked for cupcakes for her class of 26(!) to celebrate her bday.  This is the image I saw in my head:

Apparently, however, she saw this:

Now, I know cupcakes have been in vogue lately.  Like so many simple things from my childhood, they’ve been “Martha Stewart-ized.”  Oh no…simple chocolate cupcakes like our moms made are no longer sufficient.  Now a simple cupcake can be a major production with vanilla bean from Madagascar, French rose water and gold dust.  Like this from Dozen …which comes with the following description:

The Emily

Named for a wonderful friend, our buttery yellow cupcake is topped with a Tiffany inspired blue royal icing with a hint of lemon and finished with delicate white non-pareils.

I’m not sure when cupcakes started being named like shoes or described like designer couture. Don’t get me wrong. I cleaned my computer screen with my tongue while viewing their cupcakes. But it just sets the standard so high for normal people like me.

As you can tell, I’m not really thrilled with the whole “designerization” (I just made up that word) of simple home cooking.  (I know…cupcakes that look like dogs aren’t really gourmet….it’s just the idea.)

But anyhoo, said Eleven Year Old hardly ever asks for anything so I really wanted to give her this one thing.  But a cake designer, I’m not.

Nevertheless, we rallied the troops and started decorating.

And like all kids who start out excited about something, they bored of it about 20 minutes in and started backing away slowly and quietly so as to avoid my attention as they made their escape. When I looked up to talk to them, they were long gone.

So I finished them myself.  And like all loving mothers who do things for their beloved children, I thought,

“I HOPE she remembers and appreciates all this when she’s 50!”