Random Cupcake Driveby

So evidently, cupcakes are in style again. Who knew?

Not me, certainly. I had to go read up about it through SaraDru's blog.

Anyway, I left her a cupcake-related comment, and then I got to thinking- it's definitely worth a blog post. And obviously if I am feeling well enough to ramble about cupcakes, I am feeling a hell of a lot better. Hooray for antibiotics!

My mom is a kindergarten teacher. A lot of the creativity and quirkier bits of my personality come directly from her. Yes, I am getting to the part about the cupcakes.

So. My fifth birthday, waaay back in 1980. Mom enters my kindergarten class, bearing a huge tray of birthday cupcakes for my class to enjoy. She'd stayed up all night, creating and frosting them, and the whole class was already all keyed up, because they knew from experience that Jenna's Mom Makes the Coolest Snacks EVER!

My birthday is in November. So mom made (drumroll, please......) "Indian" cupcakes!
Or, as we've said since the nineties, "Native American" cupcakes.

By the way, if you google "Native American cupcake" you'll find a whole lot of slutty MySpace profiles, but no actual pictures of baked goods.

I'll try to describe the cupcakes for you. They had caramel icing, a red licorice smile, a head band made out of colored M&Ms, black gel-icing hair, and the crowning touch- multi-colored lollipops with fringed cellophane sticking up like a feather in each and every one. The kids in my class were overjoyed, and promptly gorged themselves into little individual sugar comas.

It must have taken my mom FOREVER to make those things. And now, I have to laugh because obviously, "Indian" cupcakes are no longer a kindergarten staple, because they're not exactly considered politically correct.

Anyway- fast-forward to my senior year of high school. Sober Grad. This guy who I had secretly had a crush on (probably since kindergarten) approached me.

"I can't believe we're graduating!" I said.

"I know!" he said. "It seems like just a few weeks ago that we were in kindergarten."

He paused, and then added, "You know, your mom always made the BEST cupcakes."