i think you know that i really, really like cake. however i am not so much of a baker. my electric mixer broke down a few years ago, and it always seems easier to walk past a shop window with a cake inside, and suddenly i am in there too, buying the cake! than to sit in the kitchen for an hour or so creaming butter and sugar with a hand whisk, and even then not getting the mixture soft and fluffy enough.

but in the tradition of libra babies, whose birthdays stretch across a week, and maybe into a month, saturday meant a birthday picnic in the park. and what better to bring to a picnic than cake?

i anticipated the gasps of glee and horror from the gathered grandparents as i wheeled out the enormous cake with a photo of maevis printed onto the thick white fondant icing… however in the end i opted for cupcakes. sensible yet fun! and the one bowl chocolate cake from “martha stewart kids”, which required half a cup of olive oil rather than a block of wrist-spraining butter, made the choice clear.

when it came to the frosting, i again felt a twinge in my wrist (i have small, delicate wrists). but i found a recipe for banana buttercream frosting which actually contains real mashed banana and not so much butter at all. the instructions said to beat until frosting is fluffy, but alas, my hand-whisking was no match for a pink kitchenaid. in the end, it wasn’t a big swirl atop the cupcake like those lickable american ones, but it did the job, and looked vaguely natural and healthy (because you couldn’t see the three cups of icing sugar that went into it)… and well, the kid seemed to like it.

no, really.