Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes and a Waddle of Penguins

Fact: I am a very boring person.  Food depends on texture for me, I enjoy recognizing flavors (tried to use the word recognizability… Word says it’s not a word), and I enjoy simple things.  I made yellow buttermilk cupcakes.  THEY WERE DELICIOUS.  And made way too many.  

AND WERE DELICIOUS.  I am a boxed cake lover.  My friend Brenna makes delicious homemade vegan chocolate cupcakes, but when asked what cake I wanted for my birthday, I said Betty Crocker yellow (or butter) cupcake mix with canned frosting.  I have officially beaten Betty Crocker’s cupcakes in my own mind.  Martha, you wonderful woman.  I made it with swiss meringue buttercream frosting.  This is also the first time I’ve ever liked buttercream frosting.  It’s a texture thing.  It’s normally too light and fluffy.  DELISH. 

Now, if you expected me to make a holiday cupcake, you are right.  I did.  I decided to cutesy it up with PENGUINS.  Did you know that a group of penguins is known as a colony, a rookery, or a waddle when on land?  When in the ocean, they are known as a raft! I made penguins mostly because I love adorable little animals in shades of black and white.  Penguins, pandas, Siberian tigers, Peaches (plus orange), and other animals.

Anyway, Martha made them sound so easy, and they weren’t.  But some people realized they were penguins.  They were Jordan almonds dipped in chocolate, with chocolate dotted on for the eyes, and an orange sprinkle held on by buttercream frosting.  It was labor intensive.  It was snowing.  It was sunny.  There was The Santa Clause.  What a wonderful Saturday! A Saturday of happiness! With a vacation the three days after!

So, next Saturday is my “Christmas.”  My father’s coming up to celebrate with us because Katie works Christmas.  He’s building her a bed because he’s a genius.  And perhaps I’ll make some cookies.  Cupcakes are normally very intense.  And he likes cookies.   So, to fix this, I decided to make the birthday cupcakes for the week, which were three! Now I just need to out-do it for the next one.  They were cute, no?  Also, Frank is again allergic to tree nuts again, so he got just a candy cane.