Cupcakes cupcakes cupcakes

Last weekend I flew to Rochester to spend some time with my niece and nephew. One of our activities was to make cupcakes. I brought my cupcake book with me and they each chose a design. My niece wanted to make banana split cupcakes, while my nephew went for the ghost angle.
Although the cupcakes didn't look quite like the ones in the book, everyone agreed that eating them was fun.

My own personal "Cake Wrecks"

I'm a sucker for cute cupcakes, and last week I saw an adorable book called "What's New Cupcake" which proclaims that making adorable cupcakes is easy for even the average person. I'm heading to Rochester to see my family so I bought the book, thinking it would be the perfect afternoon activity for me and my niece.

After getting home and browsing the adorable pictures, I went to their facebook fan page to look at user submitted photos. While the user photos were all cute, many were far short of the beautifully styled cakes in the book. Could the average person REALLY do this?

Since I manage a Canadian team, and it's Canadian Thanksgiving today, I thought I'd try to make their turkey cupcakes. Armed with about $30 in ingredients, I set to work, melting caramels and rolling them out to make turkey skins and drumsticks, and to make "lettuce" out of corn flakes, food coloring and frosting.


How did it turn out? Let's just say, I'm not a pro and don't have the patience to make 12 cupcakes all by myself. I gave up after the 1st one. My own personal Cake Wrecks.

Santa Fe - Not a bad place to spend the weekend

When Brett and I started dating, he spoke fondly of the 2 years that he had lived in Santa Fe. We've gone a few times over the years, and I have to say it's a great little town.
Lots of nice hikes, galleries, spas, restaurants. I enjoyed browsing the numerous shops, though I'm not sure I want a mirror in my house with "lo feo" on it...

Not sure I need an inflatable fruitcake either :-)

A nature movie in our back yard

One of the things I love about our rental is the waterfront location. Growing up with a mom who was a wildlife rehabilitator and animal lover was bound to leave its mark.

With the tide changes we see a never ending mix of shore birds and wildlife - like the flock of pelicans, or the seagull that poops on our dock, running towards us when he sees us, hoping for a handout. We've also seen seals, sand pipers, and the usual ducks and geese. Every now and then a heron will wander the marsh grasses behind our house. I love watching it all.