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When I was a kid, we celebrated every Easter with my entire family.  We'd go to church for Easter service, we'd have a giant Easter egg hunt at my aunt's house, and then we'd have a huge Easter meal.  The holidays with my family were always joyous events.  Growing up in a close-knit family, we really enjoyed spending lots of time together.  My cousins were all like siblings to me, and my aunts, uncles and extended family were like second parents to me.  Of course, my grandparents were the patriarch and matriarch of the family and they were the glue that held us all together.

Now my cousins, brothers and I are all scattered all over Quebec and Ontario.  We live hours away from each other and I have since had to form my own traditions for my own little family.  It truly breaks my heart to know that Little One won't experience the wonderful childhood I experienced.  I know hers will be a great one and she won't know what she's missing.  It's just that family is so very important to me and having her cousins 11 hours away is just really heartbreaking.  I get homesick during the holidays.

Thank goodness she has her grandparents here! She also has a few members of Hubby's family here, but life is so busy and we seldom see them.

I want to create some new traditions for Little One to look back on and remember with fondness.  Today, Little One's babysitter and friend came over and baked "Easter Cupcakes" with her.  They're basically "rainbow cupcakes" and they are so pretty!
{EASTER CUPCAKES}
Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:
2.5 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 c milk
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c butter
1 c sugar (we used Dememera)
3 eggs
Food colouring (red, blue, yellow, green)

Instructions:

• Line two 12 cup muffin tins with paper baking cups (so you have two dozen). Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Stir dry ingredients in a large bowl. 
• Whisk together wet ingredients in another bowl (except for the butter and sugar - beat those ingredients together in a large bowl until fluffy). Add together and add eggs, one at a time.
• Pour dry mixture into wet mixture. Mix until evenly blended.
• Take four bowls and evenly distribute batter into each. Add a few drops of food colouring to create the shades you desire. We did blue, pink, green and purple. Make sure to mix well.
• With a different spoon for each different colour of batter, take a spoonful of batter and spoon it into each cupcake liner. Keep adding a colour at a time, making sure not to mix/blend the batter. It should look like layers of different colours. 
• Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. We found that 16 minutes was just about right.

Aren't those the coolest cupcakes ever? I'm going to have to tweak the recipe so that it doesn't call for that much sugar or fat. I'm not too keen on the amount of oil, butter, sugar, and eggs in them. Basically, use whatever white/vanilla cupcake batter you normally use (I suppose if you're not a baker, you could use boxed cupcake mix).  Then divide into different bowls for different colours of batter.

Little One was so impressed with how pretty the cupcakes were, but the funny thing is that she didn't eat them!  For some reason, she's not much of a cake person. Oh, well! More cupcakes for Dad, then!

"Mama, what are you doin'? Are you rollin' the dough for meeeeee?"

"Yes, I am. We're making cookies for you to decorate for our friends and family."

"Wow, Mama! You're strong!"

I was trying to get the dough just perfect, when Little One noticed my arms were tired from all the mixing and rolling I was doing. Yes. We made a lot of cookies! Somewhere in the neighbourhood of eight dozen cookies! Yes, I am an insane Mama!

"Oh, Mama! You're strugglin'!"

She makes me laugh.

I am so in love with my sweet little girl. Even when she doesn't listen to me and when she yells "Stranger Danger! Stranger Danger! Don't touch me!" in a busy supermarket parking lot when I try to get her in the van. *sigh* She is so lucky she's cute. Just sayin'!

We had our cast party for the Burns Wharf Theatre Players the other week and it was so much fun. Great company, great food, great location, and great times. It was a potluck dinner and since we *did* perform in Gilbert and Sullivan's musical operetta, Iolanthe, I decided I'd make Peers and Fairies cupcakes.

With a toddler running around and destroying the house, and me having to work in the morning, I was a bit too ambitious in my thoughts of making exquisite cupcakes for the party. I ended up just making Private Willis and Iolanthe. For a rush job, they turned out okay.

Not bad, considering I did this all in less than two hours (including baking time). Oh, and there was a *tiny* situation too. Little One discovered that she could push the dining chairs to the table so she could climb on top of them and then hoist herself up onto the dining room table. She then proceeded to sit on the table and help herself to cupcakes. Luckily, I managed to save all but one poor cupcake.

When I said, "[insert toddler's real name here]! Did you eat a cupcake?!" she looked at me (with icing all over her face) and furiously shook her head "No"! What a kid!

I also baked a cheesecake for my Grandmother's 90th birthday on August 11th. Though she celebrated her birthday in the Philippines, I baked a cheesecake in her honour. We ate her birthday cheesecake while talking to her on the telephone.

Little One thinks the idea of "Cheesecake eating & telephone sessions" is pretty odd. I think she was also confused because we were yelling on the phone. Great-Grandma was having a difficult time hearing us, and the long distance connection was terrible.

Happy 90th Birthday, Mommy! We love you!

In case you're wondering who that girl is beside Little One, that's our summer student! :)

One thing you should know about me is that I LOVE throwing showers. Love it! Baby showers, bridal showers...whatever kind of shower. I just love hosting parties. I'm one of those weird people who loves coming up with a menu, trying out new and creative ways to decorate and dress up a table, organize games, get neat prizes for the games, and make homemade thank you presents for guests to take home.My good friend, Maddy's Mom is expecting baby #2 in four weeks. I jumped at the opportunity to throw her a shower.
The very first THREE LAYER cake I have ever made! It's actually a diaper cake. So much fun to make!
I quickly learned that there's a reason I'm not a cake decorator by profession. I'm just not good at decorating cakes! The above photo is the baby shower cake I made for the event. Below are the cupcakes I made.

One of MM's friends helped me with the party. It was so much fun! She made a stunning money tree (where guests could pin money to the tree to contribute to getting a stroller for MM). She also helped me with putting together the guest giveaways and made a fruit tray and veggie platter.

The baby shower spread also included pumpernickel bread with spinach dip, fruit punch, bite sized cream cheese rolls (three flavours: smoked salmon, roasted red pepper, and garlic-herb), cake (lemon with vanilla icing), cupcakes (chocolate and vanilla with cream cheese frosting), and Chinese wontons (wontons courtesy of my Mom and Dad). One of our friends brought a layered dip and tortilla chips too. We were certainly not lacking in the food department.
We played some fun baby shower games. This morning, I made homemade baby food (strawberry and blueberry) for my "Feed the baby" game. All the guests were paired into Mommies and babies. The Mommies had to feed the babies, and the first team to finish the baby food won a prize.

Another game we played was the "Change the baby" game. Each Mom was given a Cabbage Patch Kid to strip, diaper, and change. The person who finished the fastest was the winner.

Throughout the afternoon, we played the clothes peg game. Each guest had a clothes peg to wear and if anyone said the word "Baby", their clothes peg was taken from them. The person with the most clothes pegs at the end won a prize.

I also had a station where guests could decorate onesies for the baby and sign the pages I made for the baby's scrapbook.
I got Maddy and the baby matching big sister and little sister summer dresses. I thought it would be nice to get Maddy a big sister present.
We had some good laughs, good talks, good food, and good fun. What a great afternoon it was!

Okay, perhaps I should say "Silly things I do as a new parent".
1. I take special care in washing my dear daughter's special toys and hanging them to dry. Have you ever seen a bee on a line before?

2. On Easter weekend, I took her to the egg hunt in our township. Yeah, she's 16 months old and doesn't know what an Easter egg hunt is. She doesn't even know what an Easter egg is! Why did I take her? I don't know. Just to get her used to the idea, perhaps? Maybe just so she could get out there with all of the other kids? I thought she'd have fun...and she did. She only found one egg since all the big kids were faster and got them all. She didn't care though. She was tickled pink by her lone egg.

3. We had an Easter egg hunt just for her. Ha! She's still too young to hunt for eggs. She didn't know what to do, but when Grampy showed her that there were toys and chocolate to be found, she quickly caught on! FYI: Hubby and I don't let Little One eat sugar and we were hoping that she wouldn't have her first taste of chocolate until after she turned 2 or 3. Ummm...Too late. Apparently, she's had chocolate without us knowing! We were told that she had no adverse reactions. Note to self: Grandparents are so different with grandkids than they are with their own kids.

4. Silly of me to dress Little One in her "Sunday Best" and think that she won't get dirty when she eats. You've all seen the kid eat lasagna! You know she's all about getting as much food on herself as possible.

5. Bunny ears! Need I say more? My poor kid is going to be mortified years from now when she sees photos of her wearing fluffy bunny ears. I admit, I thought it would be cute. Now I think it's kind of silly ridiculous stupid lame.
6. It's foolish of us to get all in a huff when Little One gets her hands on EVERYTHING she's not supposed to touch...especially when it's our own fault for having so many "do not touch!" items within perfect reach/height for her busy little hands to grab. This was not my house. :) Lola and Grampy have lots of lovely nick knacks from all over the world...and they're all conveniently located for babies and toddlers. Actually, Little One's family doctor once told me to get on my knees and crawl around the house as a baby would. That way we could see the world from their perspective and know how and what to baby-proof! Smart man.

7. Another silly thing I find myself doing as a new Mom is baking and decorating cupcakes at 2AM for my daughter's friends! Silly because her friends are also toddlers and probably shouldn't be eating cupcakes and icing! I don't let Little One eat sugar, so perhaps Little One's friends don't either.
Okay, perhaps what's sillier is that I was up at 2AM!

Can't.

Stop.

Baking.

Cupcakes!!!

I have no idea what this crazy cupcake craze is all about, but I cannot stop baking cupcakes! I don't even like eating cupcakes! Weird! People get a kick out of the fact that I do so much baking, but don't eat baked goods!

Hubby, my family and my friends don't mind being my taste testers though.

I bought these Smoothie flavoured Jelly Bellies for decorations on my cupcakes. I haven't figured what I'm going to use them for, but they are so yummy! They really do taste like smoothies!Aren't they pretty?
The Smoothies Blend flavours consist of Strawberry Banana, Mandarin Orange-Mango, Mixed Berry, Pineapple-Pear, and Cherry-Passion fruit. My favourite was the Mixed Berry. It tastes just like mixed berry yogourt. Yum! Second in line would have to be the Strawberry-Banana. It was the perfect mixture of flavours. I like anything cherry (except Cherry Cordials! Gross!). The Cherry-Passion fruit gourmet jelly beans were delectable. I have to say that I wasn't a fan of the Mandarin Orange-Mango or the Pineapple-Pear! Odd, because I LOVE Mandarin orange, mango, pear and pineapple! The pineapple and pear together just tasted really weird. I thought I was eating wax. Not that I'd know what wax tastes like or anything! It just tasted really artificial and "off".
Now, if you've been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I'm not one for following instructions. Well, not when cooking! Other than that, I assure you that I am a law abiding citizen!! Really. I am!

Most of my recipes don't have exact measurements. It's mostly "a little bit of this and a little bit of that" or "a pinch of this" or "whatever you like". Easy. It's not rocket science.

Baking is an all-together different story though. Everything has to be exact or else sometimes the recipe fails. It is a science with baking. I like to think of it as the perfect marriage of science and art.

I was pleased with my first attempt at cupcake decorating, so I decided to try a different design.

I baked some chocolate cupcakes (pretty standard recipe. I can post it if anyone wants it).
I saw a segment on Steven and Chris on how to make perfect and easy decorative cupcakes. C'mon, you've gotta love two guys showing you how to make beautiful meals, decorate your house, and wear the latest fashions! I love Steven and Chris!

Oh, right. Cupcakes. It looked pretty fool-proof on TV. Boy, was I a fool! This is why I DO NOT follow recipes! The instructions totally did not work out!!!

You're supposed to let your cupcakes cool and then ice them. Fine. Done. Then you're supposed to take marshmallows and lay them horizontally and cut them into five segments. Cut close to the end without cutting through completely. Gently fan the segments out to look like flower petals. Overlap the first and last petals and it should stick together. The marshmallows are really sticky and are supposed to "glue" themselves together.

Lay your opened flower on top of the cupcake and add a colourful jujube in the middle. Et voila! You should have a gorgeous flower cupcake.

Ummm...It totally didn't work for me. The marshmallows DID NOT stick together. They kept lifting off of the cupcake. FRUSTRATING!! Did I mention that I'm not the most patient person in the world? The jujube wouldn't stay glued in the middle of the flower either. I tried applying a dab of icing to act as "cement" and it still didn't stick!
Really frustrated, I went against the instructions and completely cut through the stupid marshmallow. Did I mention that I hate marshmallows? Well, maybe I like them in S'mores...but in nothing else! Okay, maybe roasted over a campfire. That's it.

I placed i-n-d-i-v-d-u-a-l petals on each cupcake and plunked a jujube in the middle of each flower. Done!

Not as pretty as the cupcakes I made the other day. Oh well. It's all part of the learning experience.

I have discovered since today's cupcake decorating session that marshmallows are the bane of my existence.


Today was Little One's 1 year corrected birthday. She was supposed to be born a year ago today, but arrived three months early. We had a little luncheon with her grandma, Lola, Grampy, and some of her little friends (whom she will be going to school with in a few years). I made grilled chicken, red onion, honey Dijon mustard and avocado paninis and spinach salad. I saved the top of Little One's birthday cake (and froze it) so we could eat it on her corrected birthday. I must say that Hello Kitty's head preserved very well! Thanks, Maria (for baking the birthday cake)!

Why must I be completely insane, you ask? This is what I did at 4 o'clock in the morning!

I couldn't sleep because I've been plagued by an over-active mind. I ended up cleaning my kitchen at 3AM and then once I was done, I decided it would be a good idea to BAKE! That's what I do when I can't sleep. I clean and bake.
I really don't know why I bake. I don't even like eating baked goods. Perhaps it's the sheer fascination with creating beautiful things for others to enjoy. Maybe that's what I love about baking. I always end up giving my baked goods away or bringing them to dinner parties or community events.

I've decided that I want to learn how to decorate cupcakes. Why? I have no idea. I came up with this design. I piped petals out of icing and used chocolate chips for the centre of the flowers. Making the leaves was the fun part. I fashioned each leaf individually and even drew the veins in with a knife.

Along with teaching myself how to decorate cupcakes, I'd like to teach Little One sign language. It's something I thought was interesting and even good for Little One's development. I'll let you know how that goes!

My piping skills leave a lot to be desired. The petals looked better before the photos were taken. Oh, well. Not bad for my first attempt. Hubby was impressed.
If I ever give you a basket full of decorative cupcakes, a Red Currant-Rhubarb torte or a Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake, you'll know I had insomnia or a lot on my mind!

**Updated to add:**

While I was cooking supper, Little One decided to be helpful and Swiffer the kitchen floor for me. Sweet, isn't she?

Meanwhile, if I weren't crazy enough to bake cupcakes at 4AM, I decided to make homemade whole wheat lasagna noodles for our lasagna tonight.
Mmmmm! Homemade spinach and ricotta cheese lasagna!

Little One thoroughly enjoyed it!