Genius!

Last year for the Monkey's at-school birthday celebration, I made Cake Pops.  Actually, I made "Cakesicles"...which are like cake popsicles, see, and NOT like penises on a stick.  Because they're decorated! And colorful!  And...stuff...

Yeah, I know...but marketing is a powerful thing .  So the strategy is that you walk into the school announcing yourself: "See?  I've got CAKESICLES here.  Like cake-popsicles?  Isn't that cool?!" and people almost forget that you've got a giant bowl of candy-sprinkled phallic objects that you're about to ask a group of kids to eat.

Anyway, they were a huge hit and the office ladies all ooh'd and ahh'd over them because they were totally creative and beautiful and all that.  They were also a whole lot of work...and my house smelled like diabetes for a couple of days.  So, despite the successful marketing effort, I decided that I would NOT be recreating the Cake-sicle experience again.

But then what to do?  I mean, now that I've created cakesicles, I've kind of got this legacy to live up to.  Plain ole regular cupcakes seem pretty pale in comparison to candy-coated, double sprinkled, cake-sicles.  Unless...

Unless I rely on marketing again!  So I suggested to the Monkey that THIS year, we re-create a scene from one of his favorite childhood books (that I'm pretty sure we got at the grocery store checkout line somewhere).  In the story, Magnollia and Mondo Monster are throwing a Halloween party...only there's no super-fabulous Crazy Creature Cupcakes to be found in town!  Oh no!!  Their mom, being brilliant, has an idea.  On the night of the party, the guests are surprised to find two of the coveted cupcakes on the table.  But how can that be when the bakery has been out of them for days?  Magnolia and Mondo proudly announce that they *made* them...and the monsterchildren party guests get to make their own too.  And everyone in Monstertown agrees that it's the very best party that there ever was or could be!  Huzzah!

So...the Monkey and I spent the morning carefully doling out various forms of decorations into individual plastic bags.  I baked cupcakes (six at a time in my tiny-pseudo-oven because my real one has this nasty habit of catching on fire every time I turn it on) and iced them with plain, white (homemade -- I don't totally suck) icing.  The Monkey is super excited and is sure his classmates will be too.

And me?  I'm feeling like a genius...maybe only a genius at marketing...and maybe really fundamentally lazy underneath it all...but a genius nonetheless.