January = Birthday Month

... or so it seems.

On Friday, Tom, John, and I celebrated Mozart's birthday with tea and cupcakes. I didn't have time/inspiration to make some Austrian specialty, so I made a special cupcake dessert. I made brownie mix with no oil but extra swirl chocolate chips, then baked them in white (!) baking cups that I had found when I was in Canada, then frosted them with home-made buttercream frosting, and froze chocolate treble-clefs that I placed on top. Er, the treble clef in the picture below was put on a still-warm cupcake, and melted flat. At one point, it was standing. ;)



The recipe I used for the buttercream frosting turned out to be quite delicious. Here it is:

-------------------------------------------
(compliments of cooks.com)

1 lb. powdered sugar *(I just add this 'til I get the right consistency)
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract *(and/or a bunch of vanilla powder, I used both)
3 Tbsp. milk

In a large bowl, beat together sugar, butter, vanilla, and milk until smooth. If necessary, add more milk until frosting is spreading consistency.
-------------------------------------------

On Saturday, it was John and Tom's mom's birthday. She lives in Pasadena, so we didn't do anything with her, but Tom and John called her to wish her a happy birthday.

Today is also Gwen's birthday. She is a friend I met many many years ago. Her family had moved up to the area, temporarily moving in with her grandma, who lived next door to me. :o) I love the idea of meeting somebody over a back fence, which is exactly what happened. We trained our feet by running in the gravel on her grandma's driveway, ate red currants, did some archaeological digs, jumped in leaf piles, and generally had a fun time of it. She now lives in the area with her husband, and continues to be awesome. I don't see her very often, and all of the pictures I have of her are from a long time ago and certainly not digital, so there will be no visual aid for this celebration. Happy Birthday Gwen!