I've Always Loved Cupcakes...So What?

I love cupcakes.  I always have, always will.  I was so happy when cupcakes became the "in" thing because it became easier to get my hands on the little cakes that I love.  But lately I've noticed a lot of hate on cupcakes.  Some say there's a cupcake bubble and it's about to pop.  That the hype is over and that cupcake love has reached its maximum capacity. That it's time to move on to the next big thing.  I say, go ahead and move on.  Cupcakes hold a special place in my heart.  If you move on to the next big thing, there will be more cupcakes for me.  Hooray!   

What makes me love cupcakes so?  Well, when I was growing up, my mom didn't bake me cupcakes.  That's not a slam on her at all.  I ate lots of other great food -- sweets and otherwise -- that were a part of my Filipino culture.  We had leche flan at almost every party, along with bibingka, puto and other Filipino treats.  Cupcakes?  Not so much.  But whenever there was a bake sale at school (remember those? bake sales?) I saw cupcakes and gravitated toward them.  Little cakes with frosting, sprinkles and a rainbow of pretty colors.  They looked so fancy and special.  And since there weren't any cupcake shops back then, cupcakes really were fancy and special to me.  Today, when I see a cupcake, I remember the bake sales from my childhood.  Eating a cupcake brings me back.

When Sprinkles and other cupcake shops started to open and grow in popularity, I realized that maybe others had this special attachment to cupcakes.  I felt like a community of cupcake lovers were coming together at these establishments.  I'm probably making a bigger deal out of the cupcake craze than most (and maybe people will think I'm a little crazy for writing this post).  But I think that everyone has a food item (or two) that brings them back to some place in their past.  Admit it.

So if the cupcake craze is truly over, so be it.  You go ahead and move on to the next thing.  Just don't hate on me and my love for cupcakes.  I will take it personally.

The Fake House

Anytime we're expecting guests at our house, it takes a full week to "get the house in order."  And by "get the house in order" I mean dust, mop and wipe AND clear the house of any sight of clutter.  And by "clear the house of any sight of clutter" I mean "hide everything behind closed doors and if all else fails store it in my upstairs walk-in closet." 

I call it our "fake house."

Everything appears in order but in actuality, all the mess is hiding in the nooks and crannies of the house.  Nothing actually gets organized.  It just gets put away.  The sad thing is, if you have enough people over throughout the year, things just keep getting more hidden...until they're so hidden you don't even know where to find anything!  Such is my life. 

I love visiting other friends' houses when they are not perfectly in order.  Not at all because I like to see failure.  It's because they become more real to me and I become less critical of myself.  Not everyone can keep a clean house 24/7, 365 days a year and take care of kids and own a business and be a good mom and wife.  I don't think it's even possible to do all of that, is it? 

If you find someone who can do it all, let me know.  I can guarantee there's something "fake" about her.