Cupcakes, Again

When Joe an Clara's Great Great Aunt Muriel was over for brunch Thanksgiving weekend, she thoughtfully returned the jar that we had given over the summer her with jam in it.  She had also thoughtfully filled it up with M&Ms.  They were sitting in plain sight nearly the whole week before Joe spied them.  To prevent incessant M&M requests, Julie told him that they were for the cupcakes we were going to make this weekend.  Of course, that meant we were on the hook to make cupcakes this weekend.  (But, as we won't be going to Yum! for a while, we were going to have to take matters into our own hands anyway.)

At lunch on Saturday, Julie told Joe they could make the cupcakes while Clara was napping, but then Julie fell asleep for a little bit, too.  She will admit that the first time when Joe approached her and asked, in a VERY LOUD WHISPER, if she was awake, she played possum.  But the second time, when he asked if she was awake while hugging her, she gave up the act.  He was terribly patient.

He was also a very good sous.  He put the cupcake wrappers in the pan, put all of the ingredients in the bowl, got the mixer out, managed the mixer, and helped count out chocolate squares for the frosting.  He didn't realize at first that we were making frosting, but when he found out, he asked if he could help.  When Julie told him, "You bet," you'd have thought she's just told him that Santa Claus was coming to dinner: "Yes!  Yes!  Yes!  YIPPEE!!!!!  I get to make frosting!"

But the time the cupcakes were cool, and the frosting had set up, Birdie had woken up from her nap and wandered out.  So she assisted with topping the cupcakes with the M&Ms.  Birdie's technique was to ram each M&M she had gotten a hold of down on to the cupcake, lick the frosting off her fingers, then put her paw down in the jar again, and repeat. Julie didn't realize Birdie's modus operadi until it had been repeated several times.  Thus followed a lesson in the benefits of a lighter touch.  And so it all began, and ended, with the M&Ms.