Cupcakes and lost teeth, sounds like a celebration!

All those cute little teeth are falling out!

I had just fallen back to sleep at 6 o’clock this morning when a bony little finger poked me on my shoulder.

“Mommy! Mommy! I LOTHT MY TOOTH!    AND I DIDN’T THWALLOW IT!” 

YAY!

Now leave Mommy alone so she can snooze for another 30 minutes.

No dice.

How could I resist that lispy, squeaky voice telling me all about his toothy adventures whilst I was deep in slumber?

“I woke up and my tongue was feeling my mouth and I thought it was a peeth of food (Eeew!  Note to self: monitor child’s tooth-brushing more closely.)  Then I pulled it out and thaw it was my tooth!”

I’m thrilled Thomas has FINALLY lost this tooth.     He was working on that thing all night, twisting, turning, bending, pulling… It’s a damn good thing that we lose our teeth as kids when we’re not so skeeved by the gross factor.  As an adult, the very THOUGHT of yanking out one of my teeth gives me the heeby jeebies.

I’m almost GLAD The Boy lost the last tooth at school so I wouldn’t have to see it happen.  He came home with the cutest little plastic tooth necklace – the real tooth was safely hidden inside –  and was beaming with pride for hours.  I’ve been calling him Snaggletooth for a month now — in the sweetest possible voice, of course 😉

Things are starting to heat up around here on the farm and work is being done slowly but surely.  Every spring is the same ‘let’s get into the swing of things’ process.  Dad’s planted lots of early, cold-hardy crops already (spinach, carrots, peas, etc) and the veggies that wintered over (spinach, garlic, leeks) are looking and tasting great!

The greenhouses are full of seedlings and potted herbs and the strawberries and new rhubarb crop are sprouting up nicely.  Rhubarb isn’t typically something you plant often as it’s a very hardy perennial.  In our case, however, our rhubarb was literally under water for about 3 weeks straight last September.

Aquaculture is not our area of expertise.

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Thomas’ birthday is coming up this weekend.  I did a practice run of cupcakes and frosting, mostly because I just wanted cupcakes and needed an excuse.  Please don’t tell anyone.

Both the frosting and cake were new recipes to me, and I decided that this may be the most incredible frosting I’ve ever eaten.  Thank you, Stella at BraveTart for sharing  your German Buttercream recipe with us.  I am deeply indebted and practically bursting at the seams with gratitude.  Sadly, that includes my jeans.

I didn’t have quite enough frosting for all the cupcakes after I tasted it and started eating it with a spoon.  I actually made 2/3 straight vanilla and 1/3

 chocolate (beat in 4 oz 60% bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled).  The chocolate tasted like soft-serve ice cream (so close to my heart…) and the vanilla like a buttery custard.

As for the cupcakes, Stef at CupcakeProject has dubbed this the ‘ultimate vanilla cupcake’. While I’m not sure it’s quite the ultimate, it certainly is very good, especially if you like a very light-textured cake.

The cupcakes are reminiscent of Twinkies. Not in the yuck, they can last a decade in the package kind of way. Actually, I had them for nearly a week and they were still the lightest, most tender cake I’ve made.  They were similar to a box mix in texture but had the unmistakable flavor of real butter, sugar, and vanilla.

I will be making a double batch of German buttercream tomorrow to get ready for Thomas’ birthday and I hope there will be some left by Saturday when I decorate the cake. Cross your fingers and send me strength. For The Boy’s sake!