Kids Cuisine

It’s that time of the year again - time to recognize the star of the week in preschool.  Also known as my daughter.

Here she is.

Tomorrow, we visit her class and help her celebrate. We’ll bring in a favorite story, talk about her pictures that are pasted on the classroom star board, and share a special treat.

My son had his star week in December, and I was hoping to do a repeat performance of the strawberry mice I made for him since strawberries are everywhere these days… nice and healthy, quick to put together.

“No.” She said.

“Mommy, I want pink. Pink cake. No really - pink.”

Pink cake. Like pepto-bismol pink? Like boxed mix called “strawberry?” with pink frosting kinda cake? Like Barbie pink?  I mentally shuddered.

And then I thought to myself - there’s only so many years where I’ll have a chance to make her so happy, with something so simple.

Pink it is.

After consulting various sources, I finally decided to settle on this recipe. I could use that for the cake.  Or in our case, cupcakes.  I played around with frosting ideas, and decided to settle on a modified glaze, with a sprinkle star and a raspberry. There - now it’s healthy. Ha ha.

Behold! Let there be pink!

With stars!

I realize the frosting isn’t the same on each cake.  There’s some variations in shades of pink depending on the batch of frosting I used.  It’s ok.  In the immortal words of John Bender:

Screws fall out all the time, Sir.  The world is an imperfect place.

Or something like that.

Lessons learned:

1.  I can’t believe I’ve lived my whole life until today without an offset spatula.

2.  I’m too old for certain desserts.  Pink strawberry cupcakes with pink frosting, rainbow sprinkles and a raspberry is something I’ve outgrown.  I took two bites and had to put it down.  The sugar made me swoon.  Just send the cheese plate over my way, and I’ll be perfectly content.  I was sort of pleased with myself that I didn’t devour the cupcake just because it was there.  Of course, that’s sad and pathetic too, but let me enjoy my minor victories.

3.  Less is more.  I need to remember that.  Why can’t I learn that?  I always feel like there has to be just one more thing I could add to something to make it better.