Pumpkin and Spice

I'm pretty sure it's a scientific fact that a pina colada is the most summery drink ever created. Icy and frozen, creamy, coconutty with a hint of pineapple, it practically begs to be sipped with your toes in the sand and the sound of crashing waves and rustling palm trees in the background. It's so perfectly tropical, so fantasically summery that it would be next to impossible to beat a freshly blended pina colada...

... Unless you drank your pina colada while eating a pina colada cupcake. For my birthday party, I knew I wanted my birthday cupcakes to be a flavor that would perfectly sum up the Hawaiian Tiki theme- And I knew nothing would fit the bill better than a cupcake that encompassed all the deliciousness of my favorite tropical drink.

I hope that you all had a great Mother's Day weekend- I hope you all treated your moms well, showered them with love and gifts and let them know how fab they are. I gave my mom a call, but since she's coming to visit this coming weekend (Yay!) we're postponing our Mother's Day celebrating until then. I'm super-excited about the present I got her, because I know she'll love it, but she reads my blog (hi, Mom!) so I can't say what it is yet!

Kyle's mother lives about three miles away from us, so we did celebrate with her. Of course, I baked her a cake. I decided that I wanted to decorate her cake in an orange color scheme, because I think that Kyle's mom looks beautiful when she wears oranges. (Not many people do, but it's a great color on her.) Since the outside was going to be orange, it made sense to make the cake orange flavored as well.

I always think I don't have much of a sweet tooth... But I think I may be deluding myself. Really, what is a "sweet tooth"? It's just a label, isn't it? I do know that I'm impulsive and impatient, and I want what I want now- regardless whether it's candy or pizza or that cute dress at Betsey Johnson. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it) when the sweet tooth starts screaming, there's plenty of ways to quiet it here in Park City. Aside from work (which is where I get my cookie dough/lemon bar fix) two of my favorite sugar emporiums here in PC are Dolcetti's Gelato and Sugar Buzz Candy Boutique.

Dolcetti's Gelato

As I mentioned, last week was my last week of school. (Yay!) If I may brag a little (and it's my blog, so I will), I finished with a 4.0, to boot!

Anyway, what that means is that I have evenings free for the next couple weeks. After a year of night school, I hardly know what to do with the free time! Since I'm totally excited about Halloween coming up, I decided to decorate some spooky cupcakes.

It's that time again! This month's Iron Cupcake challenge was basil. It was a little tricky, I'll be honest. I don't usually think of basil as a cake ingredient. I like it in desserts, but I usually use it in a sorbet or sauce. (Blueberry basil sauce is like heaven on lemon sorbet!)

After some thought, I decided to use the flavors of basil and lemon. To me, basil is a light, summery herb, and lemon is like sunshine in fruit form! Of course, with such light flavors, I thought the cake should be equally light, so I did an angelfood cupcake!