It Snowed All Day Long

I was all set to post pictures of the tree lighting ….

After 6 attempts, I gave up. I will blame it on the snow. Snowed all day long and you will just have to take my word for it, but the tree was beautiful. Enhanced from the snow, no doubt.

We had a really small turnout, with everyone assuming that I would call it off because of a little snow! They live here, in the park, so it is not like they had to brave the slippery roads on the interstate to get here. The men had the bobcat running all day keeping our roads more than passable.

I had 48 cupcakes decorated and ready to devour, along with the hot chocolate ready to mix with extra marshmallows. We were a small intimate group of seven. Ornaments had been dropped off all day long and we each grabbed up several and headed out in the snow to secure them to the tree.

Then we all rushed in to get warm again. Kamper Eileen provided inner warmth with some hot mulled wine. Forget the hot chocolate! That stuff was good. HeWho sampled it and then handed it to me. I forced it down. You all know how I hate waste. The wine was red and went well with cupcakes. Especially the chocolate. I am not a chocolate fan, but I find that wine goes with anything I happen to be serving!

After the mad rush to put the store back together in the last two weeks, I decided to give myself a break. I used cake mixes to make the cup cakes. I amused myself by comparing the two brands as I baked them. Chocolate cake mix came from Duncan Hines, as well as the chocolate whipped frosting. Betty Crocker provided the white cupcakes with the white frosting.

Duncan's mix came together nicely and filled all 24 cupcake papers equally. Betty's mix was a little disappointing. I used my stand mixer, leaving me free to take care of other chores while it was beating. Despite that, it was lumpy. It looked like I had mixed it by hand, and not very well. I was running out of batter and had to really scrape that bowl to fill the tins.

Both baked up fine. While they cooled I continued to get the store ready with tablecloths and the like. HeWho did the vacuuming for me. You might recall that the last time he used the vacuum he clogged it up pretty good. I took it apart and cleaned it up. I was thankful the he didn't come home with another. Well, today, the new Dyson arrived! He ordered it. I hope that this is not my Christmas present! It isn't, I have already rejected it!

Back to the frosting. I frosted Betty Crocker first. I can normally get 24 cupcakes done with one container of icing. I have to admit that I was not disappointed when I ran out of icing. I set aside those three naked cupcakes as a special treat for myself. I love the cake, not the icing. On the other hand, I had too much of Duncan's stuff, even though I was piling it on. I was afraid to put too much just in case it started sliding off.

HeWho was happy to take that chocolate icing off my hands and spent a good bit of the day with a ring of chocolate around his mouth. Today I have been pushing cupcakes on everyone that has come in.