Birthday Celebration #1

Yesterday we were planning on going to the zoo to celebrate our middle ones 4th birthday (we didn't actually make it, more on that later).  My mom was planning on going with us but when I was little she had a horrible car accident, she is lucky to be alive, and ever since her knee (she has had numerous major surgeries on it) and feet bother her, especially when walking around a lot or up a lot of hills.  He feet and knee had been acting up so she wasn't going to be able to go, so we decided that on Friday night, she would come over for dinner and cupcakes to celebrate our girls special day.  I made my yummy pizza's and some regular pepperoni because that's what the birthday girl wanted (even though her birthday isn't for a couple of more days, she still gets her special meals of course).  Her royal highness also declared that she would like strawberry cupcakes with pink icing and a cherry on top.  I didn't want to do box cake for the cupcakes so I thought I would venture out and make my own from scratch.  I looked online for recipes and found the recipe for Sprinkles Strawberry Cupcakes.  I also had a lot of "help" making them....or I guess cleaning up after.

The cupcakes were pretty good.  I think I was expecting more of a strawberry flavor and was in the mood for strawberries so I was a little let down that it was only a hint.  I think though, that if you don't process the berries so much and leave them somewhat chunky as well, it might taste better.  But they turned out good non the less.

The recipe I had been using for icing recently wasn't exactly what I wanted so I thought I would try a new recipe for that as well.  So, after watching Georgetown Cupcakes on TLC, I thought I would give their icing a try.  It was good too and made my cupcakes pretty.  Of course I didn't get the perfect swirl they use in their shop but I am ok with that.  And just a caution, the icing is super super sweet.  Like whoa holy moly sweet.  But, I guess since the cake isn't so sweet, it balances it out.

The color ended up getting even more pink, almost like a deep hot pink when it sat in the fridge for a bit.  And my girl was super excited to blow out her candles (days before her birthday) and have a cherry on top, just like she asked  demanded.  And she was even more excited when grandma gave her this.....

It has been in the house ever since.  Which of course means that Hayley needed her car inside too, which meant Cass needed hers inside too.  I think the day could also be called, give mom a heart attack and freak out clean mode day :)  Stay tuned for our lovely adventures on our non-zoo Saturday.....