Birthday Swag

Of course I baked my own birthday cupcakes, and I think they turned out delicious. I meant to document the process, but forgot. Silly me! I decided to go with Chocolate Cherry Cordial cupcakes, and made the cherry cordials by hand with the help of my lovely assistant, Kate. It was an experiment, and I incorrectly gauged the volume of the cordials, which resulted in over-filled cupcake liners, but they ended up not being too difficult to remove from the pan.

Deliciously baking cupcakes.

I opted for a low-key gathering at my favorite local watering hole, O'Doherty's Irish Pub. Most of my anthropology buddies and several of the old Renn Faire gang attended, along with childhood pal Desi(who taught me to spin).

Chaz and Mike.

Kate iced the cupcakes for me, and made extra icing when it ran out. Such a lifesaver! Her frosting is much better than mine.

Emily, Alice, and Jamie.

Tiffany, her friend whose name I can't remember, and a bit of Sarah's cheek. She kept moving and all other images of her turned out blurry.

After a few hours my hair began to wilt.

Chaz after I told him not to move because he kept coming out blurry.

Having not had alcohol for three months(minus the Valentine's Day white liquor incident, see the China blog for details), my tolerance has gone down considerably, and after three rum and cokes and two shots, I was feeling pretty good. I managed to unload the rest of the cupcakes on the good staff at the pub and a couple lucky patrons unaffiliated with my birthday, and had a lovely rest of the evening.

Wednesday was mostly spend in recovery, with much napping. In the evening my mother came over to see my China loot and have some cake:

Courtesy of Just American Desserts, continuing the chocolate cherry theme.

Kate brought these over when she came to help with the cupcakes because "everyone should get flowers on their birthday." I agree wholeheartedly.

Lovely hairpin and earrings from Kate as well. When in doubt, always choose pearls.

And an angry chocolate bunny, because it's funny.

Homemade apple butter from Sarah.

And a wonderful pendant from Carmen in keeping with the socialist theme of evening.

All in all, a very good birthday, a wonderful time had by all, to be repeated this weekend when Mr. and Mrs. Knight come to call.