Just Baking

This morning my six-year-old woke up and was moping around before school, claiming “my tummy hurts.” He wasn’t running a fever, he ate a good breakfast, and was feeling good enough to torment his sisters. We walked up to school, I kissed him good-bye, and all was well. All was well except for the small nagging in the back of my head about his tummy hurting. His actions told me that he was feeling okay, but my instinct told me that maybe I should have listened to him.

Fast forward to 10:30 a.m., I am just getting ready to go and pick up the middle munchkin from preschool, and the phone rings. Sure enough, it was the school nurse. “I have Jacob in my office . . . he just got sick in class.” Ugh . . . “No, he didn’t make it to the bathroom, but he seems to be okay at the moment. How soon can you pick him up?” I was up there within minutes, feeling horrible that he had to be embarrassed in class simply because I didn’t listen to my instinct and keep him home. Bring on the mom of the year award, again!

Over the past week I have been tormented by the Epicurious widget on my blog. A photo of some gorgeous Lemon-Raspberry cupcakes kept tempting me, and I knew they would be in my future soon. For some reason, the urge to bake overwhelmed me this afternoon, so I decided to give the Lemon-Raspberry cupcakes a try. I love raspberry anything . . . my kids, however, haven’t developed the taste for raspberries yet. They prefer things on the mainstream line . . . strawberries, bananas, grapes . . . kid fruit. As you know, I am usually a “follow the recipe” kind of gal, and I rarely get creative in the kitchen doing my own thing. Unlike some of you, I have yet to develop that great kitchen instinct. Well, today, with these cupcakes, I made a minor change. Nothing major, because you know, that would be a bit of a stretch for me. I don’t want to get out of hand or anything . . . can’t be getting all crazy like that in the kitchen just like that!

I trusted my instinct and decided to change the raspberry to strawberry and then topped them with a banana slice. Strawberry combined with banana is one of my favorite flavor combinations, and trusting my instinct with these cupcakes resulted in a dessert that was not only tasty, but a hit with my kids (or at least the two who weren’t losing their lunch).

I may have not had my instinct mojo going this morning when I sent my son to school, but I got it back this afternoon with these yummy cupcakes! This recipe is so versatile, you can trust your own instincts and use your own fruity flavor combinations. Now, go get crazy!

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes from Epicurious.com