Ornament Countdown Day 8 or Ode To The Cupcake

So, when I was out food shopping I came across Coffee-mate Peppermint Mocha sweetener.   I have certainly seen it in previous years and have been tempted to buy it but I was excited to see this year that it came in a sugar free version, so I purchased it.  It was such a let down, it was just not up to the taste that I had anticipated and honestly I am not so sure why I was so concerned about sugar free because with my coffee and sugar free Peppermint Mocha sweetener I was sucking down a big over iced cupcake.

Oh the cupcake, the one thing in my life that rarely lets me down.  Some of course are much better then others but even the not so good ones are one of my favorite treats.  My love affair with cupcakes started when I was just a little girl.  My mom, the best baker in the world (or so I thought as a child) would make these yummy vanilla cupcakes from scratch.  The best part was that she would flavor the icing using the juice from a maraschino cherry jar and then would top it off with a maraschino cherry.  YUM!!!!  I can still hear my mom screaming at my sister and I as we tried to steal more cherries from the jar. I think later on maraschino cherries were one of the worst products containing red dye 2 which was taken off the market in 1976 for causing all kinds of bad things in people.  Between my sister and I, we sure did consume our fair share of Red Dye #2. YIKES, those were the days.  Fun times.

Today, cupcakes are beyond popular.  There are cupcake shops open everywhere.  There is even a show on TV called Cupcake Wars.  A local bakery in Albany, NY competed on the show.  In the first round she added salt to her batter instead of sugar.  Hmmmm, not such an enjoyable treat.  Needless to say she was the first one to get the boot. 

Believe it or not my favorite cupcake (other then my moms, red dye laden ones from my youth) are not from one of the million bakery shops around the world, but from a baking company called Entenmmans.   Entenmanns,  mass produces, sells and ships their baked goods in the Northeast.  Their regular items are OK but for me their cupcakes are awesome.  They are only produced for holidays like, Halloween, Valentine Day, Easter or Christmas.  I anticipate them for months before each holiday and when they arrive at my local grocery store I can spot them from two aisles over.

Well I guess its time for another cupcake and coffee with no sugar sweetener.

 To celebrate the cupcake,  I have made a cupcake ornament.