It started out as a basic Wednesday afternoon play date.  Our kids have early dismissal every Wednesday after noon (P is out at 12:45, Miss R at 1:19).  Most Wednesdays we either run an errand, have an appointment or don’t do much of anything.  But everyone is better when we have something fun to do so we planned to go swimming with some friends who have kids the same age as ours. 

Then it escalated to awesome proportions!  I thought we’d invite another little guy to join us.  What’s one more?  Then a dad called and invited P for a play date so instead we had his little guy join us.  Then P suggested chocolate cupcakes – of course!

I have to be honest, my immediate thought regarding the making of said cupcakes was to pop over to the store and pick up a cake mix and some ready-made frosting.  Then I gave my head a shake.  First off, I was pretty sure I had everything on hand to make cupcakes and frosting from scratch.  I also referred myself to my own new year’s resolution #1 about eating healthier foods.  Finally, did I really want to buy a mix and frosting that broke Michael Pollan’s food rules 1 – 7, 10 – 16, 18 and 19? *

So I broke out my trusty Amy Vanderbilt cookbook ** and made chocolate cupcakes and frosting from scratch.  Sure, they are full of organic sugar, unsweetened chocolate, butter and eggs from happy chickens, but – if that is the worst thing my kids are eating today I can live with that. 

It was fun.  For everyone.

* if you don’t have Michael Pollan’s Food Rules, what the heck are you waiting for?  Okay, this book and my thoughts on this, deserve their own post – just warning you.

** This cookbook has a story of it’s own and I’ll post about that another day.