Two-cupcake Saturday

I was ready for some sugar by the time I finished a challenging Saturday morning workout, and I got it in spades -- a friend at the gym introduced me to some cupcakes by a friend of hers, with a baking business known as Sugar Mama's Cupcakes. Lauren and Sugar Mama's treated me to four flavors -- Lime Margarita, Cherry Limeade, Peanut Butter and Chocolate-Covered Strawberry. Lauren had raved about the Lime Margarita, so I decided to try that one first.

What a great cupcake! The lime cake was moist and flavorful, and the frosting was creamy with a subtle hint of lime. The cherry on top was a delightful touch. I agreed with Lauren's description -- that it was like eating a margarita.

In addition to the Sugar Mama's cupcakes, I picked up four cupcakes I had ordered from Heavenly Delight at the holiday farmers market on the state fairgrounds. The Christmasy HD lineup included Sugar Cookie, Gingerbread, Hot Chocolate and Pistachio. I love pistachios, so I was excited to make that one my first sample from the HD bunch.

The pistachio, with its pistachio cake and vanilla frosting, was tasty, but I thought the frosting was a tad too sweet -- sweeter than it's been on other HD cupcakes. It didn't quite live up to my expectations, but it was still good to taste some HD again and to have three more new HD creations to try on upcoming cupcake days.

Between those and the rest of the Sugar Mama's confections, the freezer is awesomely stocked.

Grandma Ginna's delights

This is a blog about cupcakes, but make no mistake -- there are plenty of other sweets I crave. When Camille and I paid our first visit to Springfield's new Scheels store with his two nieces last night, I discovered two things that are going to make the store's close proximity to our house potentially problematic for my all-good-things-in-moderation lifestyle -- Scheels' snack shop, Grandma Ginna's, and its cinnamon gelato and peanut butter fudge.

Unfortunately, I was unable to take photos of either. The store was closing as we were paying for our purchases, so there was no time to snap a picture of the two scoops of gelato (cinnamon and pistachio, which was also quite tasty and my favorite ice cream flavor in Paris) before we hurried to finish and clear out. I got the fudge to go and brought it home, but I, uh, forgot about the camera in my eagerness to sample. Now it's sort of, um, mostly gone. But hey, I can always go back and get more -- just so I can take a picture for the blog, of course. And then give it away... Right. Heh heh