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This evening we will have ten pre-teen girls descend upon our house for approximately 16 hours.

My twins turn 12 next week so this weekend was chosen for the festivities. And being almost-12-year-olds who love loud music, gobs of makeup, stinky nail polish and friends friends FRIENDS, that means a sleepover party is pretty much mandatory.

So this has been my morning. Between bouts of cleaning (though I’m not doing all of it — the girls aren’t getting off that easily) I’ve been making cupcakes.

These food colorings are the best things ever. I saw Giada use them a few months ago and immediately ordered some. They’re pretty amazing.

I kind of miss the little-girl days of pastel pinks and yellows and greens. Everything now has to be bright and intense and edgy (is purple edgy?).

The only drawback to playing with cupcakes is the clean up. I hate cleaning up.

I debated piping on the frosting but let’s be real. These things will be unwrapped and inhaled so quickly I doubt they’ll even be tasted.

I’m not doing anything fancy for dinner. Everyone likes pizza, right? Especially pizza eaten outside, with paper plates and plastic utensils and not a caffeinated beverage in sight.

Will somebody swing by with the hard liquor? Thank you.

I’ve had a hell of a time trying to get this post together, since I made this cake yesterday while the girls were in school so it would be a surprise for today. But today I’m editing pictures and every time I pull the program up, one of them has something urgent to tell me or needs to walk by and see what I’m doing. It’s maddening.

Anyway, I made this as a St. Patrick’s Day surprise for the girls. We actually don’t do much for St. Patrick’s Day but I really wanted to play with food coloring, so yesterday I got to baking.

I was originally going to do Martha Stewart’s rainbow layer cake, but I lazied out at the last minute since I’ve only got two cake pans and I’d have to wash them between bakings. I just didn’t wanna.

So I went with the much easier tie-dye affect. I made a basic white cake batter from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, and separated it out into six bowls, and each bowl got its own color.

I wanted the colors to go in rainbow order once the cake was assembled, so I worked from the “bottom” up, pouring in all the purple first, then the blue on top of that, and the green on top of that. In the second pan I did yellow first, then the orange and then the red on top.

After they were out of the oven and cooled I decided to just go with white cream cheese frosting.

I thought about coloring it too, but I want the inside to be a surprise.

May was a weird month. I’ve mentioned already how busy it was, which caused me to neglect my updating, but there was also a random element that kept popping up, again and again. What was this, you ask? Red velvet cupcakes. How weird is that?

From the very first day of May, when my husband and I went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary, until the last weekend when we were out of town to visit family, red velvet cupcakes were a continuing theme throughout the month. It included everything from samples, to a freebie on our anniversary dinner, to mentions on tv and even in books. So, I took it upon myself to find a recipe and give them a try. Obviously something was trying to tell me something, right?

I decided to try Paula Deen’s recipe, because hers was one of the above-mentioned TV shows that aired during the month. In the review section it’s suggested to use less oil, which I did, and I also added in a full tablespoon of cocoa since a teaspoon just seemed useless to me.

The cupcakes were good, not too oily thanks to cutting the amount of oil in half, but I’m still not sure what the appeal of red velvet is other than the cool color. They tasted like plain cupcakes, despite the cocoa, though the cream cheese frosting is delicious. I also used chopped walnuts instead of pecans because that’s what I had on-hand.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
adapted from Paula Deen

2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 Tb cocoa powder
3/4 c vegetable oil
1 c buttermilk, room temperature (or use one cup of milk with a tablespoon of vinegar added, stir)
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 Tbs liquid red food coloring (one entire small bottle)
1 tsp white distilled vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 lb cream cheese, softened
2 sticks butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 c sifted confectioners’ sugar
Chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with cupcake papers.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.

Garnish with chopped pecans and a fresh raspberry or strawberry.