National Chocolate Cupcake Day

Today is National Chocolate Cupcake Day, and it was impossible for me to let this occasion go by without baking chocolate cupcakes. As always, I used the "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake recipe from Hersheys. I usually make a 9"x13" cake from this recipe, and this is actually the first time I've used it for cupcakes. There aren't any baking directions for the mini-cupcakes (about 1" across) pictured here, so I baked them for 9 minutes and they turned out just fine. For the frosting I used the "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting that follows the cake recipe. This frosting is very soft and creamy, so I usually don't do anything decorative with it. However, I couldn't possibly photograph my cupcakes without something fancy on them, so I pulled out the decorating tips and got busy.

Today also happens to be our 5th wedding anniversary. And our friends, Dottie and Joe, are celebrating their 22nd (wow!) anniversary today. My brother is down from Georgia for a visit as well, so I'd say it's a pretty good day. It's just too bad Dottie can't be here to share these cupcakes with us!

Class of 2007

Here’s my niece, Amanda, a proud graduate of the College of Art and Design at Louisiana State University. She’s pictured here with her roommates, Anne and Kim. I drove over to Baton Rouge with family members last Thursday night, and we returned on Friday evening after graduation and a late lunch. This is the year for family graduations. Amanda’s sister, Sylvia, graduated from high school yesterday in Huntsville, and her youngest sister, Tara, will graduate from 5th grade tomorrow in Mobile (yes, they’ll have a ceremony!).

And speaking of ceremonies – my friend Joey earned his black belt in Tae Kwon Do on May 12th, in West Chester, PA. And he’s not even 11 yet! The photos were provided by his very proud mom and my dear friend, Dottie. In the second photo, Joey is 4th from the left in front. Congratulations, Joey!

Although my schedule has been pretty tight, I did find some time last night to work on a tiny fused quilt. I’ll post a photo of that later. For now, I’ll just share a stack of hand-dyed fabric that’s been waiting patiently since last spring to be used in projects. Most of these were dyed with the recipes from Ann Johnston’s book, Color By Accident. Others were my own recipes, based on experimentation and pure luck.