Happy Birthday to me! (Part I)

Saturday is my birthday. That's good and bad, I think. Why is it bad? I'll be closer to 40 than 30. Why is it good? I'll be closer to 40 than 20. I'm not saying I'm all put together now or that I'm completely comfortable in my own skin yet, but I most certainly wasn't either of those things in my 20s.

In celebration of our birthdays at work, it is customary for each person to bring in a treat to celebrate their own birthday. I know it seems odd, but I guess it's easier than someone else remembering every person's birthday because what happens when someone gets forgotten?

Some people bring cookies, cake, donuts, bagels, etc etc etc. I opted for cupcakes because they are easy to make and, since I was working with a limited time frame, because you don't have to wait for them to completely cool before you frost them.

The problem with not letting them cool completely before you frost them is that you can't use the traditional knife or spatula method of getting the frosting onto the top of the cupcake. My mom is a skilled cake decorator, but she has some amazing cake decorating supplies, loads of practice and several classes under belt. I have had neither the practice nor the instruction that she has had and I certainly don't have any fancy supplies, so I decided to make do with what I had available at my house. My tools of choice were some plastic sandwich bags and a set of 4 PLASTIC icing tips available in any grocery store baking aisle for about $1.

Despite my lack of skill, time and proper tools, I think they turned out to be pretty cute. At any rate, they couldn't have been to bad since most of them currently reside in the bellies of my coworkers.

Martha Stewart should be quaking in her cake decorating boots!