A Spring Cake!

This cake, made from a Bon Appetit recipe from last year, rocked Patty's 65th Birthday party last night! The cupcakes, which are barely visible in this photo, came also turned out marvelously with white chocolate "65"s that I made myself. The lime and chocolate tart was store-bought by a guest! Phooey to it!

The Art of Procrastination

In case you haven't noticed, I've been a little reticent lately, to say the least. Blame it on mismanagement of my procrastination time. Usually, when I'm motivating myself to hit the books, I try to find all the other things that I can possibly do to avoid actually doing the thing that I must most imminently do. From what I can tell, this is a universal phenomenon. As an undergrad, I used to get much better results. If I had a paper on Alexis de Toqueville due in 12 hours, what better thing to do than sit down in front of the computer and write poems. That's what got me into Iowa in the first place!

Lately, however, I've reached another level of "burntoutdom," which forces me to distract in whatever ways possible, even from pleasurably creative endeavors. Yesterday, I drank way too much chai and drove down San Pablo Ave across many cities--Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito, Richmond, San Pablo--looking for containers that hold cupcakes at Smart and Final. Guess what? They didn't have them. (I'm accepting suggestions for online restaurant supply stores that people use . . . ) On the way back, I noticed that the party store, only in El Cerrito and not way the hell over in San Pablo, had already closed. I wandered aimlessly, accomplishing little in the way of writing or cooking with my wasted caffeine high.

Blame it on the notion of cupcakes. Ever since my friend, Laurie Koh, alerted me to the article in the SF Chronicle about cupcakes, I've had non-stop thoughts about making them, storing them, transporting them, and, of course, devouring them. I'm particularly obsessed with Chockylit, who is not only an admirable cupcake-aholic and inspired baker, but also posts gorgeous photographs.

This week, I'll be trying my hand at her Devil's Food with Chocolate Buttercream cupcakes for my mother-in-law's birthday. I'll also be putting together a layer cake with lemon curd filling and whipped cream frosting to celebrate the co-occurring events of spring and Patty's 65th birthday!

And if I don't get too lazy about it, I promise to take a few photos. But I'm still a little technologically deficient in this realm. Any help or donations of good cameras is much appreciated!