Move over Martha Stewart…or maybe not just yet…

So we had an ice cream birthday party for my daughter. This was the invitation…

The Kale Stone Creamery will churn out a special flavor of ice cream – Anikella Rainbowella Caramella,  to celebrate its favorite patron, Anika’s ninth birthday! This one of a kind ice-cream flavor will be created for all the sweetness that Anika is!  Here’s the recipe and you’ll see why we need your help to churn out this special magical flavor!

Ingredients:
One birthday girl
Bunch of very wonderful friends
50 cups of smiles
40 tubs of fun
100 scoops of laughter
2 hours of a Saturday morning
One sunny park
10 gallons of ice-cream
Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together on the chosen Saturday morning. Add some dollops of games, pizza and cake, and a bucketful of fun!
RSVP quickly - so this party doesn’t melt away…

A friend’s rsvp read, “...and thank you Martha Stewart (ahem...Ruta) for showing up us "boring" moms with your party ideas!!”

I laughed and I suddenly realized I was officially one of those moms. Yes - the kind that bake and quilt. How the heck did that ever happen??!! A decade ago, I would have probably laughed in your face if you had suggested this. And yet, just yesterday I baked over a 100 cupcakes for my daughter’s birthday.

Sure there is joy in doing so. Yet, I have a strange sense of not recognizing this person, a strange sense of bewilderment, a strange sense of trying to fit into the shoes of those talented precise and perfect moms. But with or without talent, I am still doing those things…

Interestingly enough, this birthday, I kept questioning why I was doing this. I am no Martha Stewart. Heck, I don’t want to be her either. Sure I enjoy the creativity involved, but I have no dreams of turning into any domestic diva. Yes Martha Stewart – you can have your throne, bake it in red velvet 
batter, cover it with fondant and eat it too…

But then again, I thought of my daughter telling people that her favorite thing to do with her mom is to bake. And then I thought of Sucre’ – our adventures in cupcaking a few summers ago.

About three summers ago, I checked into a nature cure center in India for a few weeks and my weight went down to 73 lbs. Weak as I was, I had no idea what I was going to do with an energetic child all summer and that’s how Sucre’ was born. The plan was simple and this first email from Sucre’ will tell you more…

The cupcake queens (Anika and I) have a sweet summer venture.  We love to bake and would love to share our treats with you. The idea is simple - we decide on the treat of the week and send out an email. If you would like to sweeten your week, just send us an email or call us.
All our goodies are made with quality and mostly organic products and proceeds will benefit
charity.  
Sucre' (which in French means sweetened or sweet) is exactly how your summer days will be, we 
hope!

Sucre' week 1: 
In the spirit of summer, we'll kick off with ice-cream cones.  Delicious chocolate and vanilla cupcakes cased in ice-cream cones and topped with yummy frosting. A sweet substitute for real ice-cream cones till the weather warms up!

Week 2

The first week at Sucre’ turned out to be a sweet affair. Excitement was high, cute ice-cream cone cupcakes were made, sticky little fingers travelled the kitchen counter,  and that night, sprinkles were found in a sweet baker’s head! Thank you all for making our summer so sweet!

The test kitchen (ahem) at Sucre churned out a delectable orange pastry last week. We named it Orange Cream Dream. This is sweet little layered vanilla-orange sponge pastry. Light as a cloud and filled with the goodness of fresh cream frosting and fresh orange segments.

And for cupcake fans, we have Orange Cream Dream cupcakes. Yummy and fluffy, these vanilla-orange cupcakes are topped with fresh cream frosting and zesty fresh oranges.

And of course, we could never use artificial orange flavoring or canned oranges for these delectable desserts.  Small in size, but big in flavor, these are perfect for your summer.

A friend commented that this was a classic case of turning life’s lemons into lemonade – or lemon 
cupcakes, as we would prefer. Sucre’ truly made what would have been a really difficult summer so much sweeter and is a fond memory. (I am keen on keeping it a memory, while my daughter talks about reviving it each summer!)

But of late, I don’t seem to want to bake as much as before. I wonder if I may be relating it to a time when I was so weak and tired, that there was little else I could do and associate it with life’s lemons – whether or not being turned into lemonade.  

And I wonder if I feel the same about other such “domestic” projects I have attempted over the years of being sick. Do I perceive these projects as pathetic compromises resulting largely from being homebound with low energy reserves?

These are projects I can work on as and when I have time and energy, give me creative satisfaction, and are fun to look at, or better yet, eat. Not that I execute them elegantly or with any particular 
finesse – there is a quilt made up of embroidery pieces my daughter made at school when she was five, and it has been in the works since... Hopefully, I will hand it to my daughter when she leaves for college.

But yet, there is a certain peace, satisfaction and joy in doing so. The same peace I felt as I frosted over a hundred cupcakes yesterday. The same joy I felt as I saw my daughter’s face light up this morning as she saw the 9 inside the cake as she cut it. The same delight I felt, as I saw some small eyes shine as they saw the cupcakes. Why in the world would I ever relate this joy to a time of extreme weakness?

And perhaps I won’t continue with as much zeal as before, but when I do, I hope I will remember the fun, and the creativity, and the laughter and the chaos, and not perceive it all as something I had to do only because I was not able to do anything better or more meaningful...

Smack in the middle of the Olympics - we had to have a backyard Olympics birthday and cake

Arrgh...this pirate party cake may be the piece de resistance - we actually poured blue Jello over part of the cake for water!

Wow - this is the longest blog post ever – largely because of all the stuff I’m copy pasting. So here’s some more of our Sucre’ emails…

Week 3
Apart from getting her fingers stuck in sweet dough, a sweet baker at Sucre got her first lessons in 
Economics. “The Lego City set costs 112 dollars. I think that’s a lot of money,” she grimaced as she counted her seven dollars. “I think it’s going to take a looong time for me to get it.”

And if you use the money in your tiny palm to buy something, that money is gone forever. Well, “that’s just not nice”, was her indignant verdict. “All this gathering ‘moneys’ is quite hard,” she finally decided with a sigh.

But the grim reality of economics was soon forgotten as she tucked into the pastry. Contentment spread over the faces of this young business partner and the financier of Sucre’ who remains oblivious to his poor investment choice :) But who’s complaining, for this dubious investment venture 
is bringing us so much joy!

Sucre Week 3:
This week Sucre’ will make cookies on a stick – Cookie-pops. These Supercalifragilitiexpialidocous Cookie-pops (we did just see the Mary Poppins broadway) are sweet little things that are hugely satisfying!
Made with Organic Whole Wheat flour (no refined or bleached flour), these are actually healthy and oh so scrumptiously delicious! They will be available Friday morning onwards.

Week 5
Giving something away can be so very hard. At Sucre’, a sweet baker’s little hands clutched tightly the money earmarked for charity. “But I really need this money. I have to get my Lego set. Why do I have to give to charity -- and what is this charity business anyways? Hrmmph…”, she grumbled. 

As always her outburst was followed by the usual spiel about helping and giving, and about being privileged and giving to the underprivileged. She fidgeted and squirmed and finally handed over the 
money reluctantly. Later, in a low tone she said, “I want to choose a food charity. Everybody should get food to eat”. So true my sweet little chef.

So in light of that, we’ll donate to a Girls Scout project that plans to make meals for the needy and to the Oregon Food Bank. Also, we plan to buy food cans, keep them in the car and give them to homeless folks we see on the street. 

Sucre' Week 5
Sweetness reigns in the cupcake queendom in the form of a moist Chocolate Cake topped with a layer of Vanilla Panna Cotta. And at the risk of offending the Italian empire, we’ve attempted to keep it low fat. Low in calories, but high in satisfaction, this luscious chocolate cake topped with the smoothness of a lite Panna Cotta, assures a sweet ending to any kind of day.

Week 6

Our sweet little baker moonlighted as a construction worker and as a lion keeper this week! With our backyard being landscaped, there was plenty of excitement with dirt, gravel, and of course power tools and machinery.

The picture shows you the littlest construction worker we had in our yard! And this little worker decided that Sucre’ needed to make cupcakes for all her worker friends. So we made mini banana cupcakes to add a sweet touch to the yard work.

Then it was time to celebrate the lion camp at the zoo. I finally convinced her lions really do not care for cupcakes – else we would have made them a batch by now! So instead, we celebrated the zoo camp with lion cupcakes. And those were certainly fit for a king, or rather... queen of the sugar jungle at Sucre’.

Sucre’ Week 6
Tales of lions and dirt aside, what can we offer you this week?
Strawberries are a sweet reminder of summer (which has not been so forthcoming this year). So at Sucre’ we decided to focus on the positive by creating delicious strawberry treats -- Strawberry Smooches.
This is a moist strawberry sponge cake topped with a creamy strawberry cheesecake-like pudding. One bite into this dessert is like being kissed by summer itself. 
These will be available Friday evening (today)onwards. So come bite into these kisses of summer sweetness from Sucre’.

When our French macarons, didn't turn out quite right, we made them Sucre' offerings for the week - chocolate cupcakes with vanilla cream and a crunchy macaron or a vanilla cupcake with lemon curd and a macaron topper!

Final week…
This morning a brisk fall wind struck my face and with it struck the realization… it was time to bid adieu to summer and that meant adieu to Sucre’ as well. It’s been such a sweet journey and sharing it with all you folks, has made it sweeter.

Our summer has been all about really sticky counters, and huffs and puffs of flour clouds (one sweet baker has a certain way of pouring flour). Foamed-up egg whites took flight in our kitchen (one must talk to their mother while whipping egg whites) and spatulas, and mixing devices all got licked clean beyond belief! And whoever said sprinkles are only for cupcakes? We’ve pulled them out of our hair, clothes, books and toys! Oh it’s been one oooey goooey sweet mess!

But before we bid adieu, we have one last treat to offer. A soft fluffy vanilla cake topped with a layer of creamy pineapple cheesecake-like pudding. Similar to our strawberry smooches (see picture), these "tropical bursts" will leave you with a burst of sunshine in your mouth. 

Who’d have thought that flour, butter, eggs and sugar would make our summer days so much fun! Thanks again for sharing our summer sweetness and we hope we added a little Sucre’ to your summers.