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[tolerantly]

I am a cupcake-baking mom. 

After wondering (again) what I'm going to do for money that involves not throwing my life down a hole, I got up early with the child today, her birthday, to bake mini-cupcakes for the mini-people at her daycare.  Do we use package mixes for the hippie daycare?  Noooooo.  We mix up an actual batter from organic cake flour, butter, organic buttermilk, cocoa, sugar, salt, organic eggs.  We make a real buttercream frosting.  We bake and frost four thousand tiny cupcakes.  (Note to self: Do not feed child chocolate cake batter and then expect her not to jump while cakes are  baking.)  We put cupcakes in those Martha-looking plastic carriers and take them to the daycare, where small children ask if there is any red food coloring or corn syrup in the frosting.  No and no.  Everyone is happy.  Small girl is wearing a feathered tiara with a big plastic 4 on it. 
 
Back to the money part.  Pry, have you considered freelancing for the Motley Fool?  They're looking for obsessive types for market/company reports.  Dunno what they pay.

I feel so dreadfully 80s.  Where is my floppy bow?

[betty_p]

Happy birthday to Little Tolerantly!

[quest]

Oh dear - they didn't make you certify that the cupcakes were made from all materials that have never come into contact with nuts?

[_touchedbyanoodle_]

The thought of little children discriminating against red food coloring and corn syrup brings me absolute joy.

Thank you for that.

[tamiam]

How/why 80's? I'm confused.

[tolerantly]

Happy birthday to Little Tolerantly!

Hee.  That's so cute.

[tolerantly]

The thought of little children discriminating against red food coloring and corn syrup brings me absolute joy.

Thank you for that.

You're quite welcome.  I don't know how many vegan parents I'll have upset, though.  LT refuses anything she knows has corn syrup in and she's self-propagandizing now about fast food.  Also she's become a moderate-portion nazi, hooray.  I can't say I'm delighted about the part where she comes marching out of bed to tell me off if she hears me rummaging in the fridge late at night.  But I'm grateful that she likes going to the gym.  After I'm done working out she wants to play with the exercise stuff and do "yoga" in the yoga room, so we do.  Likes the track, too.

@quest: Unless them cows is eating nuts, the nut-allergy kids are safe.  I did check about chocolate (Dutch cocoa powder) and eggs.

@tamiam:  It's the whole Supermom bit.  You know, dinner party for 14, then dashing off to the train with the briefcase hanging open, maintaining frozen and slightly insane grin for the Christmas photo. 

OK, I have to go find a watch with those evil Disney princesses on it.  Ballerina jewelry box, check.

[_touchedbyanoodle_]

The thought of little children discriminating against red food coloring and corn syrup brings me absolute joy.

Thank you for that.

You're quite welcome.  I don't know how many vegan parents I'll have upset, though.  LT refuses anything she knows has corn syrup in and she's self-propagandizing now about fast food.  Also she's become a moderate-portion nazi, hooray.  I can't say I'm delighted about the part where she comes marching out of bed to tell me off if she hears me rummaging in the fridge late at night.  But I'm grateful that she likes going to the gym.  After I'm done working out she wants to play with the exercise stuff and do "yoga" in the yoga room, so we do.  Likes the track, too.

@quest: Unless them cows is eating nuts, the nut-allergy kids are safe.  I did check about chocolate (Dutch cocoa powder) and eggs.

@tamiam:  It's the whole Supermom bit.  You know, dinner party for 14, then dashing off to the train with the briefcase hanging open, maintaining frozen and slightly insane grin for the Christmas photo. 

OK, I have to go find a watch with those evil Disney princesses on it.  Ballerina jewelry box, check.

You are such a good mom. Truly.

[prof_mom]

I am also a cupcake baking mother. I never thought I would be one. I am a career woman. I do not know how I became one of those mothers. I tried to resist, but resistance is futile.

I do not see how one can avoid the cupcakes. All the other mothers bring the cupcakes. No one buys them. They bake them. The cupcakes cannot have nuts. In fact, the ingredients cannot have ever been in a room that might possibly ever have had nuts in it. This makes things difficult. I still make the cupcakes. I almost bought them one time, but the bought ones have a note that says some ingredients might once have been in a room that could possibly have contained nuts. I resisted the purchase.

I am such a cupcake making mother that I once made ladybug and frog cupcakes that my son saw in a picture in Parenting magazine. They did not look like they looked in the magazine, but my son does not know that. He still gets excited about the frog cupcakes I made. The strange thing is that I find I enjoy making cupcakes and other silly things like that with and for my children. I think something happened to my hormones when I became a parent.

[_touchedbyanoodle_]

I am also a cupcake baking mother. I never thought I would be one. I am a career woman. I do not know how I became one of those mothers. I tried to resist, but resistance is futile.

I do not see how one can avoid the cupcakes. All the other mothers bring the cupcakes. No one buys them. They bake them. The cupcakes cannot have nuts. In fact, the ingredients cannot have ever been in a room that might possibly ever have had nuts in it. This makes things difficult. I still make the cupcakes. I almost bought them one time, but the bought ones have a note that says some ingredients might once have been in a room that could possibly have contained nuts. I resisted the purchase.

I am such a cupcake making mother that I once made ladybug and frog cupcakes that my son saw in a picture in Parenting magazine. They did not look like they looked in the magazine, but my son does not know that. He still gets excited about the frog cupcakes I made. The strange thing is that I find I enjoy making cupcakes and other silly things like that with and for my children. I think something happened to my hormones when I became a parent.

I do fear it happens to all of us. My sister is a hard-core career woman who works many, many hours a week, yet she found time to make a cake shaped like the Little Einstein caterpillar for her son's fourth birthday. And, get this, that son is allergic to wheat, eggs, and milk so she had to practice with a variety of recipes for weeks in advance to find one that A) tasted OK and B) could hold its shape. I'm not sure what was in the cake, nor do I want to know, but I admire her commitment.

[betty_p]

I am such a cupcake making mother that I once made ladybug and frog cupcakes that my son saw in a picture in Parenting magazine.

This is why I stopped subscribing to Parenting magazine.

[edwidge]

My oldest had a birthday yesterday (Leos unite!). Every year I make a layer cake, from scratch, with buttercream frosting. The birthday kid gets to choose the type of cake and the type of buttercream, and the cake toppers; this year, my newly-nine year old chose a golden cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. Then we added some dragon cake toppers, bought some Breyers natural vanilla, and voila! Yum City. I never feel any pressure from any other parents, and we don't have any dietary restrictions to worry about, so I guess I'm lucky!

I love to bake, especially these birthday layer cakes. I only make them on birthdays, so they are special, and they always taste so much better than something store-bought, or something from a mix. I don't really feel any inner conflict (Mom Who is a Baker of Goods vs. Academic Superwoman), but I can see how others might.

[tamiam]

I am also a cupcake baking mother. I never thought I would be one. I am a career woman. I do not know how I became one of those mothers. I tried to resist, but resistance is futile.

.....

I am such a cupcake making mother that I once made ladybug and frog cupcakes that my son saw in a picture in Parenting magazine. They did not look like they looked in the magazine, but my son does not know that. He still gets excited about the frog cupcakes I made.

See now, I do that kind of stuff very deliberately. I choose the PTA activities that the kids will remember. Last year the ONLY PTA thing I did was to stand in my son's classroom flipping flapjacks on Colonial day. They all think I'm the coolest Mom. I also make sure to let them know that they'd better remember it when I make cookies. Gingerbread houses at Christmas. Oh yeah. Selective supermom, here.

[tenured_feminist]

Ah, but how many of you have decorated a cake with hand-crafted icing pictures of "things that bite and sting and itch" at the request of a just-turned four year old?

I'm not sure if the other overachiever moms were appalled or impressed.

[_touchedbyanoodle_]

I do hope you went with bees and not wasps.